Hi all, bought H&R springs and Bilstein sport shocks front and back on my 3.0 AWD Estate 2004 a while ago with intention of fitting. Finally getting round to it but found out I have the wrong H&R springs and rethinking whether I want to lower the car or not. So the question is can I keep the sports shocks and install them with my standard springs without a detrimental effect on the car and hopefully still have some improvement on the ride i.e. on cornering and acceleration.?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

 

lilmountain, will that combination work. Yes. You will not bottom out the shocks and the suspension is just going to sit a little lower. Now, you say "detrimental effects". Like I said, you are not going to be hurting the suspension parts, but you will also note that the car ride is going to be a lot stiffer. You are going to feel more of the bumps. Why is this? 2 fold in this case. The springs. Instead of being able to compress say 5 inches, they are only going to compress 4 (they lower the car by 1 inch, hence the loss of travel). So, at max travel, both springs are going to be trying to support the same weight. Therefore, your lowering springs are going to need more weight to travel the same distance your other springs would. This gets fed back to the body in the way of vibration. Now, the god side will be that the car is not going to lean quite as much going into a corner the same way. The same effect happens in the shocks. the sports are designed to not rebound as fast. So, they are "stiffer" (ie, resist movement more). So, as the body starts to lean or the suspension wants to move, the shock is going to slow the rate of travel, transferring more force/weight through the shock, straight to the body, giving you more road feel. This is where shock design is so key and no one shock design is the best.

So, in short, cornering, things are going to be better. The car is going to feel more planted. As for acceleration, these components have no effect on the X-Type acceleration. As for ride, you are going to feel more of the road and it may or may not be tolerable (to each their own). In an extreme case, you have heard of people having the fillings jarred out of their heads? Not going to be that bad, but you will not have a glassy smooth ride either.

 

@ Thermo, there is nothing more to add. Everything is perfectly described and explained. A very excellent answer.