Heya,

I am looking at getting some new springs and shocks, but am unsure of what to get to suit my particular situation. I have read numerous other threads regarding springs and shocks, but differ, as i do not want to reduce the cars ride comfort at all.

I am therefore after some suggestions on suitable springs and shocks which will improve the cars handling, but will not compromise ride comfort at all, (if this is even possible). I am leaning towards lovell lows and kyb shocks... would these be a good choice?? or is there a better option out there, considering i have a budget of about $900 for the lot (excluding installation).

Also, would kyb shocks make much difference to my current stock 2000 TJ VR-X
shocks i.e. is it worth upgrading them or not??

Thanks In Advance :)

I find the subject shocking and should be left till spring :bowrofl:

dont forget to take a good look at the condition suspension bushes at the back and the front and also the ball joints:D

I find the subject shocking and should be left till spring :bowrofl:

dont forget to take a good look at the condition suspension bushes at the back and the front and also the ball joints:D


bad pun, bad bad bad pun. go home. lol

to OP, mate, if you keep the standard shocks and use king lows or equivalent, your ride comfort shouldn't change a great deal. I have superlows on mine with stock shocks, and you will find that the ride is only a little bit harsher due to stiffer springs. But you still get that little bit of boat like feel to the ride.

Yeah its not possible to lower a car and not change the ride quality at all but that doesnt mean that its a bad thing.

As will said, try keeping your standard shocks with new springs. Obviously the lower you go the firmer you go because the spring is stiffer but as will also said, maybe try a kings low, not super low but just the lows with the standard shock.

I have recently done this to my KJ AWD which i didnt want to kill the nice comfy ride. Honestly, you cant notice a huge difference but where you can notice it is when you hit a pot hole or a fairly savage bump, then you know about it but other than those extremes, it will still be pretty much the same.
Lowering your car alone will improve the handeling greatly due to the lower centre of gravity.

Good luck. Oh yeah, lowering the KJ with kings lows and through a member with contacts here on the club cost me i think was round the $350 mark.

Have pics of before and after if you are after a guide on how King Lows will look.

my brothers TJ has lovells and KYB's down 2 inches and the ride is very good. i would recommend that combo for anyone. it would fit in your budget as well.

Hmm. See here is where I throw a spanner in the works and beg to differ with you all :badgrin: . I am on Koni adjsutable yellows and Kings lows. The ride quality is OK but is leagues harsher then the standard Sports setup was. This doesn't fuss me because my last two cars were a very hot 635CSi BMW (God I miss that car!) and a warm 535i BMW. So I like that taughtly controlled German feel to my Magna setup.

However.....on my last Magna (which was the second car I owned whilst also owning the 635) I ran standard springs and Koni reds, set with 3/4 of a turn on the front and half a turn on the rear. Along with tyre pressures set at 36psi front and 32 rear what you ended up with was very slightly firmer ride, much better body roll control in cornering and a nicely chuckable chassis. So my tip is if you want handling with no real loss in ride comfort spend big on really nice dampers like Konis, stay the standard springs and then fine tune the handling with tyre pressures. Good luck with it.

thanks for all your suggestions.

I think i will get new springs, as opposed to keeping the standard ones, so the question lies as to whether i should go for lovell lows or king lows? or... what are these sports springs that i have been reading about, like??

i have heard that the king springs are slightly firmer than the lovell springs, therefore i believe the lovells may be more suited to my situation, given that i want to maintain the ride comfort as much as possible, but am open to suggestions.

i think i will also invest in some koni reds, still undecided, has anyone else had any experience with these??? also, how much, are a set of four koni reds, likely to set me back?

thanks again for your help

I've got kings and no one has ever commented on the harsh ride and its been on family holidays and driven by old folk. Apparently the lovells are a bit softer but it's probably negligible difference. Basically comes down to whether you want yellow or blue springs lol

I too have heard that King are stiffer than Lovells. However, the guy who I bought my suspension off said that Lovells have a tendency to start sagging after 12+ months. For that reason he no longer recommends them. I haven't heard of anyone off AMC having this problem, but he's a trustworthy guy (dad's gone to him for the last 15 years or so without a single problem) so I don't doubt what he's saying.

I was in your predicament, and was going to go for Lovells (due to their less firmer ride) until the suspension guy told me that. I ended up going King Lows (as well as KYB shocks, which are firmer than stock). Ride is noticably firmer (unsuprisingly), but it definitely isn't uncomfortable. I really like it - the car feels like it's glued to the road, and it handles so so much better (both at grandma speeds and when pushed hard). Even my dad doesn't mind it, and he's paranoid about ride. As a comparison, it's only slightly rougher than my dad's VE SS Commodore w/ 18" mags, and it's wouldn't be that different to than my mate's stock-as-a-rock VZ SVZ Ute w/ 18" mags and the factory sports suspension.

BTW I wouldn't go for Lovell Lows. I believe they're only about a 30mm drop. Since the VR-X is ~10mm lower than the stock Magnas, you'd essentially only be lowering the car 20mm or so. If you're going to go Lovells, go for the Superlows, which are approximately a 50mm drop. For comparison, King Lows are 45mm, King Superlows are 60mm (front only), and King Low SP (Sports?) are 30mm.

thanks for all your suggestions.

I think i will get new springs, as opposed to keeping the standard ones, so the question lies as to whether i should go for lovell lows or king lows? or... what are these sports springs that i have been reading about, like??

i have heard that the king springs are slightly firmer than the lovell springs, therefore i believe the lovells may be more suited to my situation, given that i want to maintain the ride comfort as much as possible, but am open to suggestions.

i think i will also invest in some koni reds, still undecided, has anyone else had any experience with these??? also, how much, are a set of four koni reds, likely to set me back?

thanks again for your help
I have used Koni reds twice on two previous cars (one Magna, one not). If you don't want the adjustability that the yellows offer (through a bearing-top adjustment knob) then the reds are a fine choice. What I really like about the reds is three things.

One, you can adjust them prior to putting them on the car (and with some difficutly when they are on the car) to dial up your handling preference. On my last Magna I had 3/4 of a turn set on the fronts and half a turn on the rears. This made the car neutral with throttle off oversteer tendencies.

Two, they are rebuildable. So even thopugh they cost more than cheaper brands to start with, they are made to be rebuildable.

Three, as the dampers wear you can just add minute turns to them to compensate.

And finally, (damn that nmakes four things I like!) they are unbreakable. The last set I had on a TP did 230,000kms with no leaks or obvious wear.

thanks for the replies.

another question though:
do shocks such as koni reds make the car lower, becuase i was reading a thread on here the other night, and someone had installed superlows into their ralliart, with koni shocks and the car was nearly touching the ground, whilst other people on superlows with kyb or stock shocks arn't anywhere near as low?

yeah im pretty much set on the koni reds now, but still unsure of whether to go lows or superlows or lovells or kings, for the above reason.

cheers
hlll3

thanks for the replies.

another question though:
do shocks such as koni reds make the car lower, becuase i was reading a thread on here the other night, and someone had installed superlows into their ralliart, with koni shocks and the car was nearly touching the ground, whilst other people on superlows with kyb or stock shocks arn't anywhere near as low?

cheers
hlll3
Ride height is a function of springs only. Swapping to Konis (or any other damper) will not drop the ride height. If it does then there is something wrong with the damper or it has been valved for a different car. I have changed dampers on a Lancer, 4 Brocks, 3 Magnas and two BMW's and never once had the ride height go down until I changed the springs.

you can get shorter shocks like the pedders sport rider stuff that are better suited for cars with lowered springs.

Ride height is a function of springs only. Swapping to Konis (or any other damper) will not drop the ride height. If it does then there is something wrong with the damper or it has been valved for a different car. I have changed dampers on a Lancer, 4 Brocks, 3 Magnas and two BMW's and never once had the ride height go down until I changed the springs.
Hmm, maybe there was something wrong with his shocks :badgrin: , but here is the thread anyway
http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46084&page=2&highlight=superlows+lows+60mm, look at the red ralliart on lows.

And here are some quotes from the thread.
Post #19
Originally Posted by gremlin
why do ralliarts seem to sit lower with the same springs when compared to other magnas?? is it the koni's doing that???

i got my standard ralliart springs compressed 1.5" but my car now sits around 1" lower than my bros vrx which has lovell superlows in it (there a 2" drop)..

so by compressing my springs 1.5" i got a 3" drop from standard..same thing happened with tzaboys ralliart...and by the looks of it the red one in this thread is very low with only king lows...
Post #24
I reckon it may be. Mine sits pretty low(koni yellows) and it has lows at the front. Lower than a friends TJ with superlows. I'm almost considering going back to sports/vrx/ralliart springs in the front.

Cheers
hlll3

Hmm, maybe there was something wrong with his shocks :badgrin: , but here is the thread anyway
http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46084&page=2&highlight=superlows+lows+60mm, look at the red ralliart on lows.

And here are some quotes from the thread.
Post #19
Post #24

Cheers
hlll3


The ralliart shocks are adjustable aren't they?

they are adjustable for ride comfort/handling, not ride height i believe.

Uwwhh - shocks/dampers do not adjust ride height, as correctly stated before. Well - unless u bolt a shock (to std high springs) which is so short that it actually compresses the spring shorter, and that would be reeealy stupid. :nuts:
Also, springs affect the comfort more than shocks. Shocks go to work with fast and swaying movements, like dodging a pot hole etc. In other (simple) words, the faster the input to the shock the more it resists. Try depressing a damper when it's in your hands and u'll see what I mean.