well in the spring im planning on replacing my shocks,struts, and springs. i will be buying them from rock auto but im having some issues about what springs i should buy, iv found the springs i want for the front and rear and here they are

MOOG: front springs with AC, heavy duty replacment constant rate springs

MOOG: rear variable rate springs

Moog: coil spring insulature 2 front

Monroe matic-plus struts and shocks


my question is, will this be okay and a good pretty much stock replacement parts? since its only for my v6 i dont really want the ride height to change too much so will those springs be okay? before anyone says anything im still running all stock original springs and shocks and struts so the monroes will be an improvment for me

 

Why do you want to replace the springs? If the stock springs aren't broken, or visibly sagging, I'd leave them alone. Are the springs in question intended for a V6? A stiffer spring requires a better shock/strut to control the ride. If you match a stiff spring with a cheap shock/strut, it can feel like the car is trying to shake the fillings out of your teeth.

The trouble is there's a huge gap between parts store, stock replacement shocks/struts, and high end replacements. KYB is about the only option somewhere in the middle and they aren't that great either.

 

well i atleast wanna replace the rear springs because they are mix-matched, one looks like the original( rusty) and the other is bright blue. and i just figured they were almost 30 years old and it would be nice to replace them, maybe increase the ride alittle bit. and i dont want stronger springs, i want a pretty much stock replacement spring. just like the shocks, struts

 

Idk, the way I look at it, from the factory the springs are matched to the car. Aftermarket springs are going to be more generic. Coil springs don't wear out like leaf springs. I'd be more inclined to get the spring codes from the SPID, and just go find a set of OEM springs with the right codes from the junkyard. $5 each is a lot better price, and you get the spring rates intended for your car.

 

I personally like the Monroe Sensa-Trac shocks and struts. I ran these on my old firebird and they were great. I'll be going with them for the camaro next spring and I'm probably going to replace all the bushings with Hyper Flex bushings and add sub frame connectors.

 

are the matic plus's like the sensa tracks? my buddy has the sensa tracks on his camaro and i like the ride so thats why i went with the monroes instead of the kybs( and price lol) but rockauto didnt have the sensa tracks

 

We had those on our family van and they are OK but they didn't last too long before they got weak. Either way anything is better than the old worn out shock's/strut's. My car looks like a boat when going over 55

 

hope mine last awhile

 

The sensa tracs are decent, I have had to replace them twice in the past year. I currently have them on my Camaro. But personally I would get higher end shocks/struts.

 

Leave the front coil springs and ALL of the spring insulators alone unless one insulator is missing in the rear (no need to replace them unless broken). You can check eBay for shocks and struts. Check the ride height first front and rear before you do anything. I believe it should be either 7.5 or 8.5" front and back measured about a foot behind the front wheels and in front of the rears. Keep in mind that new struts and shocks may help the most before the springs are replaced (I literally had NO shocks in the back, well they were there but useless, and am hoping that's why the rear was sagging that half inch). However, with mismatched springs in the rear, I'd find out why that is first.

 

Its preventative maintenance, if this was a 10 year old car, or maybe even a 15 year old car, I would agree with you guys, but would you really trust a spring that is 2 and a half decades old? That's older than I am, also, my maro broke a spring while just sitting, I can't imagine it would've held up under driving. Moogs are pretty good for suspension replacement parts, as for the shocks, if you don't really care about carving corners just get the monroes imo.

 

There is no such thing as replacing coil springs as PM, unless you drive a Ford or some other car where they commonly break (I believe there is/was a TSB for rear coil spring replacement on the Focus and some others as I've personally seen one that wasn't all that old with the rear springs broken in at least 2 places each). The springs should only be replaced if broken or sagging.

Even with as much rust on the undercarriage and suspension as my car had, the springs still looked pretty much new (still had the yellow stickers that are on the fronts from factory and the rears had the marks from the same stickers even though the stickers were gone). Only replacing them because of weight removal on the front (about 150-200 pounds lost on the front between the manual trans swap, A/C delete, and the aluminum heads and other unnecessary parts removal) leaving the front high and the rears are staying.

 

Mine looked/look(still have originals on the front) like absolute crap, and as I said, one of the rears broke before I even got the car running.

 

I think I'm going to atleast do the rears just so I have matching springs and since I'm doing the shocks they will be right there in my lap pretty much

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Cars DO NOT like to sit around doing nothing. I've witnessed this first hand with another car we used to have that always had to have a minimum of $2000 worth of work every spring between something or other and some A/C problem (steering first, then the gas tank and fuel lines, steering rack again, then the brakes/brake lines and she ALWAYS has to have working A/C!). That sitting is probably why the springs went to crap. My car had over 248K on the original springs (and probably the shocks/struts, but they were too rusted to tell) and they seemed to still be just fine.

Be warned that if the original parts are still in place, the hardware may not want to come out without either heat or a seriously powerful impact driver. I would definitely use never-seize on the bolts upon reinstallation to make it easier to remove them if the rear has to be dropped to replace a fuel pump or tank.

:edit: BTW, since I've been looking for red suspension pieces, I went with Gabriel shocks and struts. The shocks are red, the struts aren't, but I wanted a matching set on all 4 corners, so I'll find a way to paint the struts. I've heard mixed things about them, but I wasn't crazy about the price of Konis, Eibach, and KYB. I'll deal with them until it's time to replace them again, when I should have more money available. The car just needed some decent shocks and struts, all of which were shot (and have probably been melted down by now as I finally got rid of them a couple months ago).