shock questions

If a car is lowered...say 2" on some pretty decent springs - how long will the OEM shocks last?

How much do aftermarket shocks cost?

And finally - the dumbest question in this thread:
What's the difference between a shock and a strut?

thanx!

a friend of mine dropped his accord 2 inches and his lasted about 4 months then blew out. right before they went, they sounded like an ice chest with ice swishing around inside.

I had my stock struts for 1.5 years with 2.25" drop...never had a problem. The only reason that I bought the Tokicos was to have adjustability.

If you are not doing the labor yourself...save yourself some $$$ and go with a performance shock. Otherwise, you are paying labor twice.

hell no! I'm not gonna be paying somebody to put coilovers on my car! hahaha - I'm only 14 and I've already put springs on a car LOL.

Thanks guys...it's wierd - most of my Civic friends have had their cars lowered for a while - actually almost all of my friends have had their cars lowered w/ stock shocks......

The problem with stock shocks and lowering springs is twofold.

One, a lowering spring is almost always stiffer than a stock spring (it has to be to prevent bottoming with less suspension travel). Stock shocks were not meant to work with stiffer springs (a stiffer spring will rebound with more force than a stock spring), so the shock wears out faster.

Two, with lowering springs, the shock is now operating in a range of travel it was not desigened to operate in. In other words, with stock springs, the stock shock sits at rest an inch or so into its travel. This is where it spends a lot of its time. With lowering springs, it now sits one to two inches past the stock position, and must now operate there most of the time. Again, this leads to the stock shock wearing out faster.

How fast? Totally depends on many, many variables. How low? How stiff? How bumpy are the roads? How agressive is your driving? Thus, some people's stock shocks last weeks, some last months or even years.

Bottom line is that the stock shocks will never perform well with a stiffer spring. Without extra damping (especially rebound), the stock shocks will be bouncy with stiffer/lower springs. Again, how bouncy is dependant...

My $0.02, CDN... :D

I have a set of tokiko blues along with my tokiko springs and I love the setup. I actually got the whole package for $400 (local shop was going out of business). If you're looking for adjustibility, I'd go with Koni yellows or Tokiko adjustables. You're looking at about 450-600. Shop around first to get the best prices. Good luck. :)