ady2glude707

Will Ground Control coilovers at stock height (w/future purchase of KYB AGX shocks) give me better performance/ride quality compared to stock springs (w/ stock shocks) or would the ride quality be the same? My car is a daily driver 5th gen, no auto x or anything. I have a trade on the table for my GCs in exchange for stock springs/shocks, and this trade will save me the money from buying AGX shocks. Reason my car is at stock height right now with the GCs is because I dont want to ride low anymore and I cant find my stock springs.

Rycon

Exactly what do you mean by performance/ride quality..

The springs adjusted to the stock height does not make them softer or less bouncy (Possibly slightly, but they are not progressive and just don't have the travel) . The KYB AGX (Which I just put on) is still stiffer than stock even on the softest setting, however I find it very tolerable (and I am pretty critical).

You sacrifice 'ride quality' for performance no matter what, the more you spend the less you have to compromise. Honestly if you don't want to ride low at all anymore and money is an issue, just go stock. The stock prelude suspension is very decent compared to most in its class.

However the only issue with that is the condition of those stock shocks you want to trade for, pretty much anything past 75k miles can be considered waste of time.

ady2glude707

^
Thanks for the reply. By performance/ride quality, I meant sport performance but smooth ride quality.
Yes the shocks I might trade for have around 65k miles on them already. I was thinking they might be good for another 75k miles? Reason being because I havent changed my stock shocks since I purchased the car at the dealership, has went through 2 inches of lowering for about 6 years and im now at 150k miles and just started to hear the clunking and feel the wheel jumps when I hit a bump or dip.

Rycon

You might get more mileage out of them. Look at this way, I got my SH with 125k or so, and the shocks were just starting to knock (And once they just start, its a very short period of time until they knock ALL the time).

Now keep in mind that the shock was probably gone well BEFORE the knocking started. So don't think its the only indicator.

Also know that I said 'waste of time' because if your going through all the trouble to switch it out, it's best to put in something that isn't approaching End Of Life, because your just gonna be frustrated down the road again.

I would inspect each shock carefully before installing, compress them and make sure all the rods extend the same. If one rod is slow or doesn't seem to want to decompress, that shock is BLOWN. I am not 100% sure about this, but if there is play at the END of the decompression, that means it is knocking.

It is a tough call you have to make, if it were me, I would put stock springs back on with KYB AGX (Best mix of both worlds you want), but that's still gonna cost some fliff.

dblair

My understanding of how you purchase Ground Controls is that while they have a recommended spring rate you can also specify a rate and they will build it.

As far as ride goes if you increase the spring rate you get a stiffer ride. Simple as that. How they affect the handling of your car isn't quite that simple. Aside from the increase (or decrease) in spring rate, a lot depends on the ratio of front to rear spring rate. Most of the aftermarket springs you can buy (including, I believe the GC's at the recommended rate) increase the rate at the rear relative to the front. That results in less under steer or if you change the ratio enough you'll end up over steering. Most of the folks who like to drive a car in a "sporting" manner prefer neutral handling or even a bit of over steer. Auto Cross drivers often prefer even more over steer.

Changing the spring rate ratio front to rear isn't the only way to affect how your car acts, you can accomplish it by varying the swaybar size front to rear. Increase the bar diameter in the rear relative to the front you move toward more over steer, increase the front relative to the rear you get more under steer.

That's why you'll see guys who love the Progress rear sway bar (including me.). At it's lightest setting you get just a bit of over steer. If you want to Auto X you move to one of the stiffer settings. The problem comes in when you add springs that stiffen up the rear relative to the front and use a fatter rear bar. You might end up with more over steer than you want.

So I went with a Progress bar and some springs that increased the spring rate at both ends about 15%. The result is a bit stiffer ride and a small bit of over steer. Exactly what I was looking for.