My journey of installing new suspension

Kinja'd!!! "FrankenBlaster" (FrankenBlaster)
09/19/2014 at 21:45 • Filed to: None

Kinja'd!!!0 Kinja'd!!! 16

I found myself with a week off of work and two options - buy coilovers and install them with my time off, or go to Jamaica on a groupon. I went with the coilovers.

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I've done all the work to my car myself (exhaust work, some light electrical stuff, replaced cam driven fuel pump internals, all that type of stuff) but haven't had the chance to dive in to anything deeper than that. This one proved to be just about at the limit of my automotive knowledge.

So, about 7 hours ago today, I went to the newly opened Indy DIY garage. If any of you guys are around the Indy area I can't recommend it highly enough. They had every tool I needed and then some. The install took 4.5 hours of the car on the lift. I've read anything between 2 hours and all day for coilover installs, so I'll take what I can get. Here are my takeaways from the experience:

PB Blaster is great

The car handles much stiffer now and I am extremely pleased with the results

My car has a setup where in the rear, the shock and spring are separate, which makes the lowering mechanism for the front and rear different, making it really hard to dial in the fitment

Due to this, the front sits at about stock height whereas the back is lowered about an inch and a quarter, which I will be fixing tomorrow

I DIDNT STANCE IT OUT SO CALM DOWN

I'm really happy with how it turned out, it did have a few hang ups like an issue with one of the nuts on the strut tower and the bolts for the struts on the rear not being long enough for the aftermarket ones. The biggest part that I'm almost surprised worked out was the wheel and tire size fitting with the new suspension. I run a 235/40/18 tire on a 18x8.5 et 48 wheel. I don't have any rubbing being lowered an inch and a quarter, and even though the inner tire is extremely close to the struts in the rear, it hasn't touched at all.

I hope this info can be helpful to someone, and am open to any questions.


DISCUSSION (16)


Kinja'd!!! gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > FrankenBlaster
09/19/2014 at 22:09

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Cool photo.


Kinja'd!!! Ravey Mayvey Slurpee Surprise > FrankenBlaster
09/19/2014 at 22:14

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Most Jalop choice ever. We need a t-shirt saying, "I could have gone on vacation, but instead I bought parts." On the back? "I made the right choice."


Kinja'd!!! Turk > FrankenBlaster
09/19/2014 at 22:16

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Yeah 7 hours if the cars got some miles and a few bolts have frozen up slightly is not that bad. I would suggest a good alignment afterwards as depending on the particulars of the your struts, and of course the degree of lowering, it can be pretty far out of whack when you're done. If you occasionally track or autocross it poke around on the interwebs for a good compromise camber for the fronts. And, depending on your local road conditions and age, tell me how you feel about your coilovers in a few years - I've had em on my daily-driven GTO for, what, 3.5 yrs now, and while they were a blast at the track they're a bit too harsh over bumps for me at this point, though admittedly my big concern is less comfort and more leaving pieces of the car behind on some of the massive potholes that pop up where I live.

Is 235 section stock on those things? When you go for alignment, I would leave at least a few mm of clearance so you don't blow a tire when you've got the car fully loaded etc. It may not look bad but rub when the suspension is negative-cambered up extra due to more compressed springs.

Oh and pics or it didn't happen, go autocross / track it and pics or it didn't happen for that part too. Enjoy.


Kinja'd!!! AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC > Ravey Mayvey Slurpee Surprise
09/19/2014 at 22:33

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Sounds like a good idea for a Blipshift shirt.


Kinja'd!!! FrankenBlaster > Turk
09/20/2014 at 00:55

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Thanks for the input, yeah I was going to make sure to get an alignment after I get everything settled in. It's almost due for one anyway. I plan on autocrossing at least once before the season is over so I'll be sure to look into the camber settings. They're pretty firm now so I'm sure I"ll feel the same way in a few years, haha.

235 isn't stock, 225 is, but the 225 is mounted on a 7.5 inch wheel. Before I made the change, the struts were still really close for about 6 months. The new struts were just a tad wider. The part that had me worried the most was the adjustable collar on the bottom part of the fronts. That was almost too close to even fit a credit card between. Luckily that part stays out of the way when it's all down on the ground.

As far as pics, I can't bring myself to post a picture of the front monster trucking vs the good looking fit of the rear haha. I'll post tomorrow after I get it dialed in.


Kinja'd!!! FrankenBlaster > Ravey Mayvey Slurpee Surprise
09/20/2014 at 00:56

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Hahah, no one understood. "You could have gone to Jamaica, but you got fucking car parts?" "yeah import alliance is coming up and I want my car to be different from last year" then they just shake their heads


Kinja'd!!! PG; the scalpel wielder > FrankenBlaster
09/20/2014 at 05:42

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I did the same thing earlier this year. Driven them now for almost 10,000 km and used to the stiffness. I lowered mine about 2.5 inch all round, but it's still looks stock (the OEM was wayy to high). I only had problems once when I had to get out of an awkward driveway and the angle of approach I took made the wheel smash the front guard I. ( I ghetto fixed it with plyers, but still not nice haha).

The install took me about 7 hours too, and the most useful tool for me was the breaker bar. The car is luckily only 9 years old so no rusty bolts like yours I imagine.

Good work!

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Kinja'd!!! SVTyler > FrankenBlaster
10/07/2014 at 23:37

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No way, that's Holliday Rd in Zionsville, is it? I'd recognize that semi-sketchy bridge anywhere!


Kinja'd!!! FrankenBlaster > SVTyler
10/07/2014 at 23:39

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Hah, yeah it is! My buddy told me about it one day and I'd never heard of it so we went out to snag some pics.


Kinja'd!!! SVTyler > FrankenBlaster
10/07/2014 at 23:46

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Awesome little road, right? Me and my dumbass friends had way too much fun sliding around it in high school, coincidentally also in a Mazda3 (not a Speed though, beautiful car btw). Do you live in town? That's like six or seven Opponauts now in the central Indiana/Purdue area.


Kinja'd!!! FrankenBlaster > SVTyler
10/07/2014 at 23:49

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Thanks! And yeah it's a fun road for sure. Had to keep it down a bit, there were some guys fishing there and didn't want to mess them up. Yeah I live and work in the Indianapolis area. I've met YSI a few times at Cars and Coffee, I know Bandit's at Purdue now, and you're there also if I'm not mistaken right?


Kinja'd!!! SVTyler > FrankenBlaster
10/08/2014 at 00:01

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Yep, junior in Mechanical Engineering Technology, I think there's a few other Opponauts besides YSI and Bandit that go here as well. Speaking of which, Bandit was throwing around the idea of a meetup sometime in the spring so we'll definitely have to drop you a line if it happens. It's actually really cool how many Indy-area Opponauts there are.


Kinja'd!!! FrankenBlaster > SVTyler
10/08/2014 at 00:04

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Nice, I majored in Computer Graphics Technology while I was there, but ended up working for an IndyCar team doing their on the road I.T. stuff. One of our engineers actually majored in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue if I remember right. But yeah, keep me posted! We usually get a group together and go to the Purdue car show during Grand Prix weekend also, but missed it this year.


Kinja'd!!! SVTyler > FrankenBlaster
10/08/2014 at 00:15

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Yeah, you work for Chip Ganassi Racing, right? You have my dream job, man, I'd love to work for a racing team, though with the cars instead of the computers haha. Grand Prix weekend seems like the best time to set something up, we'll definitely let you know when we get something going.


Kinja'd!!! FrankenBlaster > SVTyler
10/08/2014 at 00:24

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Yup, that's the one! I'll keep an ear out and if I hear of any of the teams hiring next year I'll let you know. And that sounds good.


Kinja'd!!! SVTyler > FrankenBlaster
10/08/2014 at 00:29

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Appreciate it!