Could anyone tell me what kinda Shocks and springs the 1989 GTA has? Im about to start work on my car and was wondering if i should change my 1989 firebird shocks and spings with a GTA's.



Thanks.

 

I'm not sure, but if you don't have the "aero wing" the back of your car is probably 100#s lighter than a GTA. I don't know if that would affect the spring rate or not. I am going to find out shortly because I'm replacing the stock T/A hatch with a really badly detierorated aerowing with a plain hatch and a much lighter fiberglass wing. Since Bret changed his stock aerowing for a fiberglass "repop", he might be able to tell you how much difference it made to the rear suspension of his car.

 

Yea my 1989 firebird has a aero wing stock.

 

Is your car a base Firebird? If it is it shouldn't have the "Aero Wing" it should have the regular spoiler.

 

Oh my bad i forgot i took the wing off the 1989 GTA also...

 

If you have the aerowing, your good to go on the GTA springs and shocks.

 

the areo wing is heavy, but for gods sake it isnt made out of plutonium or lead. i would not think that the aero wing would affect the height of the car by more than 1/8'' to 1/4'' at the very extremes. i took mine off and the only thing i saw it effect is how fast the rear hatch would open.

 

I wasn't even considering ride height in my response. I was thinking in terms of handling. The suspension is tuned to handle the stock weight of the car. If you add extra weight, or take away weight at either end, you can affect how well the car behaves on the limit in a corner. Any handling problems can be tuned out, but it may require a change of springs, shocks, or sway bars. Ride height is as important as stickers.

 

The factory Aero Wing is heavy, but it is no where near 100lbs. I'd say more like 40 to 50lbs.

The fiberglass wing on my car may have made a slight difference in the ride height, but I've noticed no difference in the handling characteristics.

As far as the shocks/struts go, I doubt there's much difference between the GTA and a standard TA or Firebird. Besides, 15 year old factory GTA shocks won't have much life left in them anyway.

There IS definitely a difference in the springs. I'd swap the springs and then go pick up some KYB GR2 struts and KYB Gas-a-Just shocks. The KYB's are a good bang for the buck upgrade and will run about $170 for all four corners.