15. Ride and Ride Height: Springs and Shocks.

There is a specified height for each end of your car. The ride height and the method for determining the ride height are both specified in the factory service manual.

As our cars begin to age, the strength and resilience of the suspension springs will fade, and the car will gradually settle lower and lower. This affects both handling and comfort and changes your suspension geometry. "It's a bad thing" as some rich magazine publishing lady told me.

The only cure for sagging ride height is to replace the suspension springs. There are short-term bodges such as stuffing spring blocks into the coils, but they are really an inappropriate solution and can lead to rapid spring failure.

This is a dangerous job, even for professionals, since it requires compressing the suspension springs with a tool so that they may be installed. One slip, or a broken tool, and the spring tension is explosively released, removing whatever body part happens to be in its way. For this reason, we recommend that you take your new suspension springs and rear shocks to an insured professional to have them installed. You can replace your front shocks without too much trouble, but the rear shocks are coil-overs and require the spring compressor.

Note:  Shocks have NO affect on ride height whatsoever, only handling and comfort. If your car is sitting low, changing the shocks won't make it any higher. We do recommend replacing rear shocks when you replace the rear springs. You'll nearly recoup the price of the shocks just in labor savings.

If you have any questions, just email us.

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