Bouncy Suspension

[moersfelng08]

End of the summer I put KYB-GR2 struts+Eibach 1.5" lowering springs onto my 96 200sx. I thought that this setup would be just fine because I've seen it used on other cars. However the car tends to seesaw up and down on more bumpy roads. Both my front tierods are in need of replacment, and I'm hoping that replacing those will go a long way towards fixing the problem. Any insight would extremely welcome on other things that I can do to help ride conditions and settle this setup down a little. Thanks.

[i ride 35]

your mistake was by getting GR-2's, i used to have those shocks on my eclipse and they sucked ***, i had a gr2 with tein s-tech setup. you never want to go cheap on your suspension, AGX's was the way to go

[moersfelng08]

See I didn't think that the GR2's were crappy, most people really enjoy them. In fact Street Turner Magazine just put that exact setup I am using on a Celica. Granted two totally different cars, think that makes all the difference?

[IanS]

The GR2s are a decent damper when matched with stock spring rates. I have GR2s on my S13 (with stock springs).

The problem you are experience is call under dampening. The valving of the damper is not aggressive enough to control the amount of energy being bounced around by the stiff springs. It only gets worse once things get bouncing, the oil in the twin tube damper over heats, and cavitates, mixing with the nitrogen gas also in the cylinder. Once this has happens, the damper becomes even less able to slow the motions of the springs.

There is a rather simple solution to your problem, though you aren't going to like it. You need new struts. Something with a more aggressive valving.

My suggestions are custom Koni's. They are relatively inexpensive, and you can have them custom valved to perfectly suit your needs.

[moersfelng08]

While I don't like it, your explination makes a lot of sense thanks.

But if I got another B14 as a winter car I could use the GR2's with the stock springs and it would be fine? I assume you have no problems with them on your 240?

[IanS]

While I don't like it, your explination makes a lot of sense thanks.

But if I got another B14 as a winter car I could use the GR2's with the stock springs and it would be fine? I assume you have no problems with them on your 240?

As long as prolonged over heating has not caused the dampers to leak, you should be fine switching them to something with stock springs.

They are great on my S13, just slightly stiff than stock. Its nice to have a daily driver that is comfortable, compared to my uber stiff S14.

[moersfelng08]

Fair enough. Thanks for the help I couldn't come up with any reasoning behind my problem on my own.