Nova_Dust

I know that change spring but continue to use stock shocks will damage the shocks eventually, but why is that? Is it because the car is lowered which create more pressure on the stock shocks that weren’t designed for such compression? If so, how long will the shocks last? A year or two? And what happens to a broken shocks, does the ride become very uncomfortable and the car won’t even bounce no more?

bbarbulo

iTrader: (2)

The type of spring you have determines the ride quality (harsh/soft). The shocks/struts determine how the car behaves AFTER the impact (with a fault in the road). There are two types of road imperfections... undulations and broken pavement (whether it's a huge pot hole or a series of little crack). If your shocks are blown, the undulations will cause a bounce, and the car will continue to bounce after, meaning you'll get sea-sick If you hit broken pavement with a dead shock, the tire will continue to bounce like a basketball, losing grip with the road.

Shock life depends on type of service and how many bumps it's encountered. It is designed for a certain range of travel under certain pressure. The pressure is calculated based on the spring rate the Civic comes with. If you increase your spring rate with a lowering spring, the shock now has to deal with greater pressures. Also, the range of motion has now changed... the upper part of travel is no longer used since the spring is now shorter, but the wheel travel necessary is still relatively the same to a half an inch or so. So, now, say you lower the car 2 inches... you've taken 2 inches out of the designed wheel travel, which means you go from an original 4 inches of travel to 2 inches of travel... however, the shock still NEEDS to provide about 3.5 inches of travel (1/2 inch less cuz of stiffer springs) so... that's 3.5-2" of available travel... you are in a deficit for 1.5". So the shock is now operating 1.5" outside the normal designed range. This will wear out the shock quicker. Furthermore, heavier, larger wheels and tires also put added stress, since now the shock has to control a more forceful bounce of a heavier "basketball". This is also stressful. Another consideration is the offset of the wheel, the further out you push the wheel, the more leverage it has available to push back on the susp, so now the force is multiplied further. This causes wear not just on the shock, but bushings and wheel bearings as well as steering components like tie rods and the rack. Well, that's a quick explanation in layman's terms anyways. Hope that helps.

SilverCRXSi

OMG!
Thats a great rundown!

Nice one bbarbulo!

Nova_Dust

Nice explaination Bbarbulo, very nice in deed.

Thanks