I recently put an eibach pro-kit on my 1998 cavy z24. I love it , but i have noticed when i hit a nice size bump in the road, the rear feels soo stiff and it make for an uncomfortable ride. I did replace my shocks/struts a few years ago too, but i did not get anything great, cuz at that point i was not looking at lowering the car. But the car rode perfect with my stock springs. I was just wondering if anyone else had this problem and if so how did you fix it???
get struts designed to have lowering springs
EVOFire (DesertTuners) wrote:get struts designed to have lowering springs
PRND321 Till I DIE
Old Motor: 160whp & 152ft/lbs, 1/4 Mile 15.4 @88.2
M45 + LD9 + 4T40-E, GO GO GO
TRD Cav Fire wrote:-MD- LD9 wrote:EVOFire (DesertTuners) wrote:get struts designed to have lowering springs
x3
X quatro
when you half ass your @!#$ you can't be surprised it didn't work out
Shadowfire wrote:Try KYB AGXs.
nice struts at a reasonable price
eibach pro kits are suppose to work "ok" with stock shocks and struts. but rears are way stiffer then the stock springs. it doesnt float up and down like the shocks are to weak, and they do not bottom out. does anyone know what the stock spring rates are and what the eibachs are. they ride like a specific rate spring and they are not.
Technically no, Eibach pro kit is not ok with stock struts, tbh no lowering springs are. Lowering springs are made at a stiffer spring rate (i believe) which stock struts cannot handle therefore they blow. Whether they blow within 6 weeks or 6 months is just luck and age of stock struts i guess. But the point is eventually they will blow due to no being made to handle any kind of drop.
And lowering springs are stiffer then stock springs, your generally not going to get a factory feeling ride with lowering springs.
(99 - Sunfire - Red - 2200)(95 - Cavalier z24 - Purple - 2.3 quad four)
steven esparza wrote:Get some dropzone struts
what a piece of @!#$ strut and spring
Sweet Cavy98 wrote:eibach pro kits are suppose to work "ok" with stock shocks and struts. but rears are way stiffer then the stock springs. it doesnt float up and down like the shocks are to weak, and they do not bottom out. does anyone know what the stock spring rates are and what the eibachs are. they ride like a specific rate spring and they are not.
no their not suppose to work "ok" with stock struts. it works "ok" with kyb agx struts.
Eibach springs are NOT ANY certain spring rate, they are a progressive rate spring. they handle and grip the road well. they are also not as comfort friendly as stock springs. I had to ride around for a few days on the stock rear struts for a couple of days while having the my Koni struts repaired, all I can say is "bone jarring". I don't know how anyone could ride on that way.
save your money, get some struts made to be used with lowering springs, let the harsh ride be your motivation, and pat your self on the back when you get the new struts in. like a said before the KYB AGX are a good match for thos springs, and they are adjustable for your ride comfort or a more sporty ride.
im not going to argue that better shocks will help but like i said before they are actually designed to work ok with OEM shocks......told by one of there techs and it is right on there web site. and progressive rate springs do have 2 rates. the way to find out the rates is controversial between spring companies, but there is a lower rate for the spaced apart coils and the stiffer rate for the closer coils. also told this by eibach tech! right now i have 3 vehicles sitting in my garage with eibachs. a cavi, camaro, and tc. eibach does not give out rates all they say is pro kits are 25% stiffer then stock and sportlines are 35%. and four sets of eibach springs, pro kits and sportlines i have rates for all but the cavi.
While this may be true the fact is that your
oem struts and shocks are
not made to be ok with any kind of drop. Plain and simple. So eibach may say the springs are ok on stock struts but the manafacturer and anybody else will tell you that your struts can't handle it and will blow. THis may vary from car to car, your tc may be able to handle the drop on stocks but as far as the j-body goes it's a no.
(99 - Sunfire - Red - 2200)(95 - Cavalier z24 - Purple - 2.3 quad four)
steven esparza wrote:Get some dropzone struts
Go fall off the face of the earth...
AGX's are killer. I love my combo.
as already mentioned, the oem struts are not designed to handle a stiffer and shorter spring.
they are designed to dampen a certain spring rate at a certain height. you're taking the stock struts out of their "functional" range and pushing them into their extreme operating range.
regardless of what the eibach tech told you, look around this forum and i guarantee you'll see more experience with the eibach springs than eibach has... at least with the j-body platform.
Sweet Cavy98 wrote:im not going to argue that better shocks will help but like i said before they are actually designed to work ok with OEM shocks......told by one of there techs and it is right on there web site. and progressive rate springs do have 2 rates. the way to find out the rates is controversial between spring companies, but there is a lower rate for the spaced apart coils and the stiffer rate for the closer coils. also told this by eibach tech! right now i have 3 vehicles sitting in my garage with eibachs. a cavi, camaro, and tc. eibach does not give out rates all they say is pro kits are 25% stiffer then stock and sportlines are 35%. and four sets of eibach springs, pro kits and sportlines i have rates for all but the cavi.
your right they are designed for the oem struts meaning they will fit on them but that doesnt mean it works properly
The ProKits are an actual stiffer spring than the Sportlines. The difference being that the ProKits are progressive so the last bit of travel for the ProKit spring will bring you into the 'stiff' zone.
The Sportlines are a linear rate so that even though they lower your car while being shorter, they have to be softer in overall spring rate as compared to a progressive type setup.
And I do love my ProKit/ KYB setup. Best ride ever and with as stiff of a chassis as I have, the ride is most excellent.
I describe it as the best handling car I've ever driven. Even after driving a Solstice GXP, my Cavy handled much flatter, and more at poise with the twisties.
Misnblu.com
Newbie member since 1999
Thank you Dave and JBO! 
I know this is nothing to brag about , but this sept will be 6 years my car has had eibach prokits with oem struts, no probelms yet(knocks on wood) , but i am looking to lower my car more and get new struts...
98 j-body sedan
^^^^you think your car rides fine because you havent drove one with good struts
Well thanks for the info. but i am not looking to replace my shocks and struts anytime soon. I only drive the car in the summer anyways. So any other ideas, what about the bump stops should i or could i cut them down would that help? I just wondered if anyone else had this problem with the rear being stiff and what they did besides shocks and struts, cuz i am not replacing them until i have too. I put enough money into the cavy this year new paint job, new wheels & tires, and now lowering springs so i am not putting anymore money into it this year.
Is it the impact that is harsh? Or is it the rebound that is harsh? I am going to guess that you bottoming out and hitting the bumpstops. When I put my Pro-Kits on with the OEM struts, it made me sick to my stomach driving around since it was bouncing around constantly and bottoming out tossing the rear-end up in the air. That lasted for about 5 days before I put some Koni's on. I ran on the front OEM struts for another 2 years with no real issues....I thought. Once I did replace them with the Koni's, it was night and day.
Sweet Cavy98 wrote:the rear feels soo stiff and it make for an uncomfortable ride.
Meaning what? It doesn't compress, or it rebounds too quickly, or what? I've seen a bunch of ragging on you for using stock dampers, but no one besides Jackass has actually tried to address your concern here. Tell us what exactly its doing, and then you'll get some good answers besides the typical ORG "Do what everyone else does because everyone says it works" answer. And yes, I think in some cases that a good thing, but I tend to think outside the typical answer and actually come up with a good solution, and this is one of those times, since this might be something as simple as a bumpstop like mentioned.
thank you for the reply with out the "new shocks and struts" comment...lol. when the rear hits any kind of dip in the road it feels like it compresses some but springs back up pretty hard. when i put the springs in i figured since the rear springs were way stiffer then the stocks not cutting the bump stops down wouldnt be a problem. could the stops need to be cut down. the front end feels basically the way stock did. but the rear sucks!
Does it "bounce" after it comes back up? If it compresses, then comes up and settles, throwing in different struts isn't going to do much for you. Contrary to most peoples understanding of suspensions, the only thing dampers do is slow down spring oscillation. They have no effect on spring rate or ride height. If its bouncing, then, yes, higher valved struts will keep it from doing that, but they won't do anything for making it less "stiff". Thats all in the springs. If its not actually hitting the bumpstops (which I doubt), then cutting them won't do anything for you either.
I'll also throw this out there- When Eibach says they'll work with stock dampers, they mean new ones. Not ones with 100k miles on them. It doesn't matter what springs you're using with dampers that old, they're already badly worn, even if they don't feel like it. So, if you are running new dampers (less than 40k miles), I don't see any issues. I seriously doubt anyone here has actually bottomed out a factory strut by lowering their car (unless they had 300 lbs of audio crap in their trunk). More likely, they threw new lowering springs on old dampers and simply wore out the valves quicker. Which technically isn't a "blown" strut, just worn. Blown is when all the fluid is gone, either from a bad seal, or bent shaft, or the shaft actually went through the bottom.
