what makes them dangerous? people say they can pop out the top of the strut tower. ive read that alot in the searches ive done. no one has ever said why, OTHER THAN the strut towers are weak. heres my beef with that. the stock struts and springs bolt into the SAME place in the SAME style. only difference is that one is adjustable and one isnt. also, 4th gens run them with success and ive never heard of any precautions even tho they use a similar front end setup. WHAT MAKES THEM MORE DANGEROUS THAN A STRUT AND SPRING COMBO???

 

the spring , which is what actualy supports the weight of our cars. Actualy mounts between the a-arm and frame, not the strut tower. it supports almost no weight. when you conver to coil over, all the wieght of the front end of the car, is supported by a point which was never meant to support weight.

 

what he means is in stock form the strut towers on a thirdgen don't hold the weight of the front end...the sheet metal wasn't typically meant to support the weight. look at a 4thgen and not only in theory you'll see the metal as a continuous peice unlike the thirdgen where it has almost a small beaded weld across the top.

wether or not the thirdgen can support the weight has been tried and questioned many times. few have had problems as more are doing the conversion. there are different things you can do to help yourself feel better by using such things as art morrison type upper spring mounts or going as far as to reweld the towers and possibly add metal to it.

i ran mine for quite a few miles with no trouble but i didn't road race and i was careful to avoid severe bumps. i now have air ride which is very similar in theory and puts even more stress as i raise the car up and down alot making heavy use of the supposed thin towers. anything is possible however, but there are ways to prevent supposed problems too.

unfortunately no one to my knowledge has put an extended amount of mileage on a front coilover conversion...50,000 mile plus to see what the wear would be.