Recomended Sport Suspension

[fran_lfc]

I'm looking for a sports suspension kit (springs and Shoks). Any one coud recomend a spescific brand? I searched but found that Koni and Eibach dont sell any kits. They sell springs separeted.

[Ralf S.]

If you want to lower the beast then you'll have to first find someone who sells lowered springs (Eibach?) and then source the dampers separately. Eibach have more compliant springs by reputation.. the cheaper brands tend to be firmer.

The biggest issue with the '45 is the dampers' rebound damping. AR fits hard springs to assist the marginal (cheap) OE dampers... so aim to spend relatively more on the dampers than the springs, if that makes sense.

Bilstein make the bext aftermarket dampers as far as I'm concerned.. but these will cost more than your car is worth.. which might nudge you into the well-trodden Eibach springs and more-or-less pattern dampers route.

At the moment I'm looking for Eibach springs to fit onto Kayaba dampers. Even the-same-but-new dampers will be better than my old ones, I guess... but they're not anything to set the handling alight.. the "lowering" effect will make the biggest difference.


Ralf S.

[fran_lfc]

Thanks. At the moment I have lower springs installed, progesive type with stock dampers. These are RM, wich is a pretty good brand here in Argentina. But the hight was reduced by 4cm, to much for the dampers to deal with, ride is quite bad for an Alfa, the nose feels lije you're riding a boat! And on a track the tyres make a lot of noice in every corner, even low speed ones. I was looking for harder dampers to solve this.
On the Back, its all stock (or almost, because dampers are after market, brazilian alternative, not bilstein couldnt find them, not even Bosch!)

[Ralf S.]

If your front end is wallowing (contunuing to bounce up and down on the dampers after a bump) then it may be worth just trying new dampers since they're supposed to control that. The tyres squealing at any speed also suggests that the damping is weak.

If the whole car is getting launched off the ground by a bump, then the springs are too hard.

If you have the budget for it, I'd look for a slightly less lowered spring (say 30mm) and then use new but regular pattern parts dampers. That should be more or less like a standard car but you'll have the benefit of being slightly lowered (which helps with cornering just on its own).


Ralf S.

[fran_lfc]

Bumpers are Ok, it doesn't bounce up and down a lot, but it feels very soft... I'll probably end up having theese bumpers modified for ower springs if I don't get any Kony or Eibach...

[Ralf S.]

Hmmm..... I'm a bit

McPherson suspension doesn't give a lot of wheel travel to start with.. then lowering by 4cm reduces that even more... so it's a tricky one to get right. You could say even Alfa didn't get it perfect yet..

The temptation for lowering spring manufacturers is to make the springs a lot harder, so that the car doesn't run out of suspension movement and hit its bump stops. Too-hard springs can make the car "jump" over bumps and is generally more uncomfortable the rest of the time.

Progressive springs are good... but if the intial part of the spring is too soft and/or the later part of the spring is too hard, then you end up with just the "progressive" part of the spring doing most of the work.

I'd guess too that the springs are designed to work with a modified (re-valved) damper.. since a normal damper compressed by 4cm thinks the springs are under compression, even when they're not. It will behave differently to a fully extended damper, even with the same load (since dampers act differently at different levels of compression).

I'd guess the damper is trying to damp what it thinks is quite a big shock, while the springs are progressive and are dealing with small compressions... so there's a mismatch between what the spring is doing (trying to extend the damper) and the damper (trying to damp what it thinks is a big shock).

If you want to keep a standard damper (easiest to find?) then a <30cm lowering spring would be better.. If you can find an Eibach set then that might be the cheapest way to go (since dampers are always more expensive).


Ralf S.

[fran_lfc]

Thanks Ralf! I'll see what I can find...

news soon!