01 Cavy Z24
cavypower05
01-19-2005, 09:50 PM
What purpose do struts serve
Classicrocjunkie
01-19-2005, 10:07 PM
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=276008
STRUTS
Now that you have a base on what choices to choose from, start thinking and prepping to spend extra money on some struts if need be applies. Air struts are specially made with either bags on them or an air cylinder inside. So you don’t need lowering struts for those. However, on springs and coilovers, struts should be your first buy. Once you have struts, you can put almost anything on them and not have to worry about the struts failing. Once the struts fail, so has the stability of your car. The struts are the mainstay of mechanical suspension. They control the motion of the spring. The spring is there to help the car stay suspended, while the strut is to control the smoothness. Remember the POGO stick from childhood. It was fun cause you kept bouncing, but imagine how hard it would have been if pressurized oil was inside and controlled motion. It would have sucked then, but now with a car its what you look for. CONTROL…
Strut choices for the cavalier are LIMITED. And since there isn’t that big of a market, they will stay high in price. With the j-body platform, you might as well get used to it.
Out of the choices available:
OEM REPLACEMENT struts, are just as that. OEM STYLE replacement struts. Sure some say, valved stiffer etc, but when it boils down to it, they are not valved for lowering. Many have argued that KYB are not oem replacement struts, but if you take a few minutes out of your day and contact KYB AMERICA by phone, they themselves, will tell you that they WILL NOT honor the warranty these struts if on a lowered vehicle. So much for the ability of them to be lowered. Granted some do and have lowered on them for a while, don’t be shocked if yours don’t last long. Generally a strut should last well up to 5 years or more if not abused. But choosing a strut from this category and lowering past 1.5 inches or so, and you are definitely chancing it. If it does blow before time, then that’s more money to spend on new struts, alignment (you will need an alignment after every major suspension component change), and time wasted changing them, or time and money wasted for a shop to do so. These however have proved to be good for springs like the 1.2 inch lowering springs by progressive technologies and stracing. Anything more than that and you are chancing it.
A list of all the OEM style replacement are:
-KYB Gr2’s
-Gabriel VST’s
-Monroe (Sensatracs included)
-GM stock or upgraded suspension packages.
LOWERING STRUTS
These struts are valved stiffer to handle stiffer springs and increase the stability of a lowered car. They aren’t cheap. Our struts on the J platform generally cost around 500$ besides the mantapart sport struts, most all of them are adjustable. The only self adjusting struts alone are the billsteins, converted for our cars by mantapart. The most popular strut choice for these cars are without a doubt Koni. They are two selections, the Reds and the Yellows. Both are pretty much good for whatever you plan to do, the yellow just go to stiffer damping rate than the Reds and are adjustable while they are on the car. With the Reds, you have to take them off the car to adjust them and guess what…another alignment as well. Granted once most people find a good setting for them, they usually stick with it. Now you can use other struts. ANY strut when its new and freshly installed will work good for a while. Hell a 10 matchsticks can hold up 50-100lbs, but after a while they fatigue and wear. Obviously, 10 sticks of the same size in metal would be better, or even of a better wood, would be better, but once again the fact prevails, quality you pay more for. You get what you pay for in this area. You get cheap struts, the don’t last as long. Some have been for 2 weeks, some 2 years. But most don’t have that warranty like koni and other warrantied struts. Learn from others experience and losses, get the right thing upfront and don’t wast time changing cheaper struts, and spending more money replacing things and more alignments. Although some will not listen.
Lowering Struts are as listed:
Koni (Red and Yellow)
Mantapart Sport struts
Mantapart Billstein
KYB AGX—these are not out at the time. There have been many who said they have em, but usually turn out to be liars. The company states they are not released yet for the j-body
Tokico- still not out yet
***SLAMMED CARS with struts. Most companies…EVEN KONI will not warranty a strut if you ABUSE it. Riding around on a strut with the car slammed is abuse. Your car is a 2600+ lb vehicle. The equivalent of that would closely, be related to a large person on your back and you have to walk around all day in a squatted position. Your legs wouldn’t like it and neither does your struts. They have ways of testing to find out if you have done this or not. Simply put, you know how you can tell which part of a metal bar as been used by where the wear marks are concentrated. Well they can do the same with your strut shaft…***
Now hopefully we have struts down. Now since you should have by this time made the decision on your own from reading above what you want to put on the struts/shocks….springs or coilovers kits. Generally speaking, “how low should I lower my car” are to be decided by YOU not us… YOU. If you have a body kit, you need to go outside, measure how much clearance you have and how much you can get rid of safely. This can be done by anyone on any car. Find the lowest point on your car and then simply measure from the bottom of it to the ground. Lets say you get 5 inches, and you want to take off 2 inches, then look at the chart below and make the decision.
STRUTS
Now that you have a base on what choices to choose from, start thinking and prepping to spend extra money on some struts if need be applies. Air struts are specially made with either bags on them or an air cylinder inside. So you don’t need lowering struts for those. However, on springs and coilovers, struts should be your first buy. Once you have struts, you can put almost anything on them and not have to worry about the struts failing. Once the struts fail, so has the stability of your car. The struts are the mainstay of mechanical suspension. They control the motion of the spring. The spring is there to help the car stay suspended, while the strut is to control the smoothness. Remember the POGO stick from childhood. It was fun cause you kept bouncing, but imagine how hard it would have been if pressurized oil was inside and controlled motion. It would have sucked then, but now with a car its what you look for. CONTROL…
Strut choices for the cavalier are LIMITED. And since there isn’t that big of a market, they will stay high in price. With the j-body platform, you might as well get used to it.
Out of the choices available:
OEM REPLACEMENT struts, are just as that. OEM STYLE replacement struts. Sure some say, valved stiffer etc, but when it boils down to it, they are not valved for lowering. Many have argued that KYB are not oem replacement struts, but if you take a few minutes out of your day and contact KYB AMERICA by phone, they themselves, will tell you that they WILL NOT honor the warranty these struts if on a lowered vehicle. So much for the ability of them to be lowered. Granted some do and have lowered on them for a while, don’t be shocked if yours don’t last long. Generally a strut should last well up to 5 years or more if not abused. But choosing a strut from this category and lowering past 1.5 inches or so, and you are definitely chancing it. If it does blow before time, then that’s more money to spend on new struts, alignment (you will need an alignment after every major suspension component change), and time wasted changing them, or time and money wasted for a shop to do so. These however have proved to be good for springs like the 1.2 inch lowering springs by progressive technologies and stracing. Anything more than that and you are chancing it.
A list of all the OEM style replacement are:
-KYB Gr2’s
-Gabriel VST’s
-Monroe (Sensatracs included)
-GM stock or upgraded suspension packages.
LOWERING STRUTS
These struts are valved stiffer to handle stiffer springs and increase the stability of a lowered car. They aren’t cheap. Our struts on the J platform generally cost around 500$ besides the mantapart sport struts, most all of them are adjustable. The only self adjusting struts alone are the billsteins, converted for our cars by mantapart. The most popular strut choice for these cars are without a doubt Koni. They are two selections, the Reds and the Yellows. Both are pretty much good for whatever you plan to do, the yellow just go to stiffer damping rate than the Reds and are adjustable while they are on the car. With the Reds, you have to take them off the car to adjust them and guess what…another alignment as well. Granted once most people find a good setting for them, they usually stick with it. Now you can use other struts. ANY strut when its new and freshly installed will work good for a while. Hell a 10 matchsticks can hold up 50-100lbs, but after a while they fatigue and wear. Obviously, 10 sticks of the same size in metal would be better, or even of a better wood, would be better, but once again the fact prevails, quality you pay more for. You get what you pay for in this area. You get cheap struts, the don’t last as long. Some have been for 2 weeks, some 2 years. But most don’t have that warranty like koni and other warrantied struts. Learn from others experience and losses, get the right thing upfront and don’t wast time changing cheaper struts, and spending more money replacing things and more alignments. Although some will not listen.
Lowering Struts are as listed:
Koni (Red and Yellow)
Mantapart Sport struts
Mantapart Billstein
KYB AGX—these are not out at the time. There have been many who said they have em, but usually turn out to be liars. The company states they are not released yet for the j-body
Tokico- still not out yet
***SLAMMED CARS with struts. Most companies…EVEN KONI will not warranty a strut if you ABUSE it. Riding around on a strut with the car slammed is abuse. Your car is a 2600+ lb vehicle. The equivalent of that would closely, be related to a large person on your back and you have to walk around all day in a squatted position. Your legs wouldn’t like it and neither does your struts. They have ways of testing to find out if you have done this or not. Simply put, you know how you can tell which part of a metal bar as been used by where the wear marks are concentrated. Well they can do the same with your strut shaft…***
Now hopefully we have struts down. Now since you should have by this time made the decision on your own from reading above what you want to put on the struts/shocks….springs or coilovers kits. Generally speaking, “how low should I lower my car” are to be decided by YOU not us… YOU. If you have a body kit, you need to go outside, measure how much clearance you have and how much you can get rid of safely. This can be done by anyone on any car. Find the lowest point on your car and then simply measure from the bottom of it to the ground. Lets say you get 5 inches, and you want to take off 2 inches, then look at the chart below and make the decision.
noshun
01-21-2005, 10:53 PM
What purpose do struts serve
It distinguishes you from everyone else walking normally.
Seriously though! They are the equivalent of Shocks, they are dampers. What they do is DAMP the springs movement. when they are shot or if they weren't there, there would be nothing to stop the spring doing what it wants to do naturally bounce uncontrollably! instead of reaing thet excerpt CRJ left!
It distinguishes you from everyone else walking normally.
Seriously though! They are the equivalent of Shocks, they are dampers. What they do is DAMP the springs movement. when they are shot or if they weren't there, there would be nothing to stop the spring doing what it wants to do naturally bounce uncontrollably! instead of reaing thet excerpt CRJ left!
Classicrocjunkie
01-22-2005, 01:41 AM
Now you know how i feel somtimes when you post.... kid should have read that atleast once anyways.
noshun
01-22-2005, 01:23 PM
Now you know how i feel somtimes when you post.... kid should have read that atleast once anyways.
That was a bit of a long winded reply though!
That was a bit of a long winded reply though!
Classicrocjunkie
01-22-2005, 02:45 PM
Not my words... copied and pasted from the sticky for how to lower your car right...
noshun
01-22-2005, 02:54 PM
Not my words... copied and pasted from the sticky for how to lower your car right...
I knew that because I read it and then made comments!
I knew that because I read it and then made comments!
dreambeast
02-02-2006, 07:41 PM
how the hell do you change time on the stock cd player?????
dreambeast
02-02-2006, 07:46 PM
I need to know how to change the display time in my 01 cavalier, its a factory cd!!!?!?!?!? Anyone know how and could tell me???????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????
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