It has been a long time since I have slapped my TIEN S Tech springs on my car. I have always heard that you should, when modifying your car's height, swap out your shocks. I am usually of the opinion "if it ain't broke don't fix it" but was wondering if I would gain anything from swapping to a new set of shocks?? Also what is the average life span of shocks? Many thanks in advance for all info provided.
thats not the correct philosophy. when you lower a car you should ALWAYS upgrade the shocks. stock shocks are not meant to have that little travel. it puts more pressure on the cylinder than was originally intended. that being said, my old car has been whiteline flatout springs and stock shocks for ~100,000miles. but to answer your question, yes you should get some better shocks
lol, its my old car. i don't own it anymore. and if i hadn't bought it that way i would've bought coilovers at the time. the shocks are in desperate need of replacement on that car tho....
Ok, that being said, what should I look for when looking for new shocks? How will I know that the next set is built with lowering springs considered??
All of them can handle a (at least a little) bit of lowering. The problem is that springs like the S-Techs lower too much and 1) severely reduce shock travel (which reduces the life span of any shock) and 2) put the suspension geometry in a less than ideal place. There are many springs that fit into this category, I'm not just picking on you, but the s-techs are some of the most popular. As far as better shocks go, there are a few options out there, but I cannot say if they will work well with the s-techs or not. KYB AGX, Koni, Tokico are some that I can think of. Tokico D-specs have been very popular lately, they are a full strut replacement and will work with any stocks style (non-coilover) spring. I have the koni strut inserts myself and would recommend them to anyone - they take a bit more work to install, but they are great shocks for the money. If you are going to get new shocks, look at some different springs as well. The s-techs are low and have soft spring rates, this combo means that it will put extra stress on ANY shock - forcing it to operate with little travel and potentially hitting the bump-stops frequently.
KONI YELLOWS!!! I have the tech s and koni yellow set up...I love it. I did and Auto X and the pass Mountain Run with them and it handled pretty well. It rides nice as a DD. I got a pretty good deal on them when I bought it a few months ago i think I got the Konis for 650 shipped.