fendervg 32 Posted June 13, 2011 Can anyone help to explain the implications of fitting new shocks and new springs at the same time vs old springs with new shocks ? How will it affect height and ride - will the car be higher or lower, obviously it's best to do both, but can't get it straight in my head how the two interact ? Cheers, Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
krishen 2 Posted June 13, 2011 When i did mine i replaced the shocks only. Can't see what difference it makes unless the springs are knackered. Maybe if your planning on fitting lowering springs then worth doing at the same time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
andy 0 Posted June 13, 2011 It won't make the world of difference in my opinion. Yes springs will sag slightly with age/use but not by a great deal. New springs will cause the car to ride slightly higher than old springs will. New shocks with old springs are fine if the springs look ok (not much rust) and you have no reason to think they are defective. As for how the two interact, the firmness of the spring will determine how far the strut compresses/extends as a result of a given force applied to it. A firm spring will not change its length much for a given force. A weak spring will bottom out too easily. The type of shock will determine how much that compression/extension is resisted (damped), i.e. weak dampers will tend to allow the spring to do what it wants to do, firm dampers will resist that movement much more and damp any oscillations in the springs movements much more effectively. In a car ideally you want critical damping, ie no more or less than one bounce after a given deformation. (ideal world). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fendervg 32 Posted June 16, 2011 cheers for the info - reckon I might go for a new set of Bilstein B3 springs then to even out the damping and complement the B6 shocks. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
