Please advise advantages & disadvantages of coilover suspension. Thanks.

 

Pro, you can individually set the ride height on each corner in comparison to stock style springs. Con, price and I think you have to relocate the sway bar mountings. I wish I had them.

 

You do have to relocate the sway bar in front. In general the coilovers are a bit of a pain to install, but they are nice when they're done. The advantage to the stock springs is that they are lighter, will last forever, and kind of act in the same manner as a sway bar.

 

Stock springs will not last forever. In fact, they often weaken and sag long before a coil spring would. This is caused by heat, caustic fluids, debris, and bubba lowering methods.


When is the last time you had to buy new springs for your mother's station wagon?

 

It's his command of the language.I think he means the advantage( of the coilovers) compared to the stock springs-DAH DAH.

 

Can't say for certain. That car ended at a local demo derby......

 

Disadvantages:

Coilovers cost time and money. The transverse composite springs are free, they're already on the car.

More weight.

 

Ok, I didn't literally mean FOREVER, but my intent was to point out that they will significantly outlast coils. If you'd like I can cite the GM press release from the introduction of the 84 where they talk about longevity.

 

What year is your car? If it is has the narrow towers like my 85, your options are limited to Exotic Muscle Coilovers (might be others?) that are designed for the narrow tower.

If you have the wider shock tower, then you have more options in terms of shock adjustability and brand choice.

I have only had mine for a couple of months but I like them, if you get the QA1 shock, you get 12 or 24 way adjustability which is probably overkill unless you auto-x, you can adjust the ride height as mentioned, above and you can choose springs based on your driving style and swap them out if necessary.

I have set my ride height to 26-3/4 front and 27-3/4 rear

I have had it as low as 26.00 front, but its your call on ride height

IMO> If you have the narrow tower and want the QA1's I would buy shock towers from a 96 from a junk yard ($100) and cut the narrow towers off and weld the wider towers on. OR just go with the Exotic Muscle package and its a bolt on.

 

The only functional downside to the coilovers (besides added unsprung weight) is that they place loads on mounting points that were not designed to support the vehicle's weight.
The fact that so many people get away with this is cause to give thanks.


Larry
code5coupe

___________
not easily impressed....

 

The shocks have to resist the spring movement, and see plenty of the car's weight.

 

I know how long GM thinks they'll last based on their lab testing.

Problem is we don't drive in a laboratory. Very often they do not outlast coils in the real world.

 

Did it win?

 

And better yet, did she drive it?

 

I believe they simply tested flexing it a billion times. I suspect what wears out the springs in real life is the stuff CC mentioned. Time and heat and fluids dripping from the engine and a million other things.

Another pro of coilovers would have to be the availability of springs of various lengths and strengths.

 

thats a really good point

 

Have those with coil overs noticed any benefit when drag racing? Have you changed other parts to hook up better? I noticed EM sells modified Trailing Arm barckets, modified Camber Brackets, etc..?

 

No it isn't. People have been claiming the later cars can not support the weight at the top of the shock perches, but DRM tested these in harsh driving circumstances, Callaway uses them, and several on the forum use them on their daily drivers and have no issues. yet a few people claim that the upper perch will crack bend etc.

Just BS.

 

Sorry, pal, you are wrong on this one.
Take off your shocks. Drive the car. Does it crash to the ground? Does the car drop?
The shocks support virtually zero of the car's weight (pressurized shocks do support about 15lb apiece, which is hardly enough to consider.)

The shock mounts see plenty of stress, but not anywhere near what the car weighs.
Springs support the car, not the shocks. That's just a fact.

Several statements you've made on this forum indicate that you don't know as much about vehicle suspensions/dynamics as you might think you know. Read some good books on the subject before you start calling



EDIT:
I believe the weak point in the C4 shock mounts is the lower/rear, not the front upper. There's a cantalever load, and a lot of leverage, on that one bolt that attaches to the end of an aluminum "arm". Risky business there, even though (as I said earlier) most folks have been getting away with it so far.
I have seen one picture of this mounting point that had broken after mounting a coilover, but this was several years ago and I don't have a link to it.

I'm standing by my statement: coilovers place loads on the shock mounts that the mounts were not designed to withstand. Thats just a fact and can't be disputed.

What CAN be disputed is this: will they stand up under those additional stresses? Probably. For how long? Who knows, certainly not indefinitely.

Larry
code5coupe

___________
not easily impressed....

 

100%true about the shocks and springs