Everytime I take a curve and theres a bump my car usually act like the shocks are out(body roll). I'm just wondering whats the best way to solve this? My struts are new AGX w/stock springs. FORSURE my bad tires play a big role here. Besides getting new Tires what should I upgrade too to get good Handling? swaybars, strut bars, stiffer springs, etc ? and yes I've read a few post about similar situations.
springs would be your best bet, i'm not sure what's availble for the bug eye being i research more on the GCs stuff. strut bars won't do much as the strut towers are connected to the firewall. It doesnt' hurt to add any though, just won't gain much. bigger sway bars will help stablilty and turn in. try 20-22 front and 22-24 rear. Definitly tires too. all these suspension mods will go to waste if you have crappy tires. An alignment will help with cornering as well but it'll eat away your tires when everyday driving.
So this isn't really clear.... Body roll and shocks are not typically related. I don't understand the cars behavior when it hits a bump. First, what type of bump, is it on one side of the car or is it affecting both sides? Next, does it 'bounce'? If so, is it a quick bounce and then recovers or does it go on, like an oscillation? Is it erratic, requiring steering input? They are indicative of a different issue. This may indeed be something that springs can address, but with the info provided, it is a crap shoot... Also, bad struts don't necessarily bounce like an oscillation (or have an issue stopping) until they are real bad . Sometimes they don't even have that behavior at all (think of the STi strut issue).
My understanding of the sti strut issue (which is probably sketchy at best) is that it was more a mounting issue than a dampening issue per se (we're talking about the sti clunk right?). Bouncing is typically associated with an underdampened situation. I would say that a stut may be losing it's ability to dampen but could still possibly dampen enough to prevent crazy oscillation, but it would probably only be a matter of time before a bad strut goes. OP, you have to give a better description of whats going on. Body roll is usually what happens as you turn in, once you're in your turn and the springs are loaded, the amount of roll should level off. Body roll is usually addressed by stiffer springs, thicker sways, or a combination of the two. Bounce is usually associated with under dampened springs, and from the sound of it you have new shocks on stock springs so that really shouldn't be an issue. Here, this is from the nasioc faq. See how the bar kind of "pulls" against the frame to reduce roll. Conversely, a spring acts in a similar way in that a stiffer spring will "push" against the motion of the frame as you turn in. Keep in mind that wrx's are kind of roll happy to begin with. <<--Look at my stock car in my avatar, it's roll city over there. But the car handles pretty damn good out of the box... roll and all. Maybe you just have a perception of bad handling?
Yes, the theory I have heard is related to mounting, but nobody has shown me concerete evidence (that is irrelevant here, anyway). I do not disagree with your assessment, but I was using it as just an example that not all "bad" struts have the signature of underdamping. In my experience, I never had the tell-tale signs of a blown strut (I have gone through several STi struts). The last one was quite bad, but it was all related to the strut sticking, not being blown. It acted like there was no suspension travel (a bit of an exaggeration) in the RR corner causing some very nasty behavior (like massive oversteer in low traction situations, i.e. snow). Anyway, springs and roll bars do not do the same thing, but they are pretty close. The roll bar actually uses the force of the bar to 'lift' the other side of the suspension causing the car to flatten out...springs are independent of each other. In the end, I asked if it was behaving bad over a bump on a single side of the car (roll bar or possibly a strut) or if the bump affected both sides of the car (likely springs or both struts). One thing to note is that a roll bar acts on "differential" properties, not "common mode" (in english: for roll bars, it only "affects" the suspension when one side is in motion while springs come into play when both sides of the suspension move together [assuming that something isn't straight up broken]) Whew....hope people can follow that, it is a bit confusing and my writing didn't help!
yup, machanical failure comes in many different flavors. the point I was trying to get at is that it's really hard to narrow down whats going on with the description given. ie bodyroll in a turn =! bad shocks necessarily. could just be plain old body roll associated with stock springs and sways. if the body is janking around all over the place after hitting a bump in the middle of a turn, that might indicate a little more. I'm still a little unclear as to why the shocks are suspect if they're supposed to be brand new??:dunno:
