Without lowering, what in everyone's opinion would be a better stock replacement shock for my 09 Sport?
Question #2 What is a coil over?
Question#3 Why do some people want to lower they're cars?, (please don't flame, just asking)

 

What is wrong with your stock shocks?

Coilover is a full replacement of both the springs and the shocks. Most of them are fully adjustable including adjustments for height, and ride (hard or soft settings).

Some people want to lower their cars to reduce the gap between the tire and the fender...or to lower their center of gravity.

The reasoning is for better aesthetics or to improve handling.

 

The coilovers are adjustable and are used if you want a better suspension ride on your car especially if you are going to use it on a track or just for better handling and preformance. The lowering springs are just going to lower your vehicle and that is all that they do. Most people lower their Fits due to better handling and lets face it - the Fit just looks nice and agressive slammed to the ground. If you live in an area where the roads are dippy I would think twice about lowering the car unless you are willing to accept damage to your front end -

Cat :x

 

#2 Coil Over (strut) = front springs (on a Fit) When you look at the springs the shock is in the middle. Shrug. I always thought of them as macpherson struts or just "struts." Maybe I'm showing my age. The rear suspension on Fits does not use macpherson struts, but conventional springs, shocks, with a torsion beam joining the left and right wheels, so "coil over" wouldn't be correct in this case. Some cars have struts all around.

Checking the "coil over" packages online they seem to include a full set of struts (cartridges and springs) and rear springs and shocks and start at about $1,000.

In the non-tuner world, when you replace your shocks, you replace the cartridge only and keep the springs (front) and replace the shocks (rear). But these things are gas filled and last over 100k miles without replacement.

I think the most bang for your buck would be from a rear anti-roll bar, sometimes called a stabilizer bar (incorrectly called sway bars). They make a sorta anti-roll bar for Fits. There's a thread on it here.

 

why would you replace the shocks?
coil-over can be a variety of things
because it looks better, and my car handles wayyy better lowered than stock

 

That would depend on what you mean by better. The stock shocks are a nice balance of comfort / performance if the majority of your driving is commuting. If you're planning on tracking your car then race-oriented shocks give you more aggressive (although less comfortable) compression/rebound damping. Even most fully adjustable race shocks won't give you the comfort of commuting-oriented shocks but they can come close.

Lowering your car lowers its center of gravity (makes it less top heavy feeling) which helps reduce body roll which in turn helps handling by keeping your wheels planted on the ground and helps with driver confidence because the car feels less tippy in turns. Lowering your car also makes the car look nicer. Nothing looks worse than a stock height car with 17"+ rims. My friends and I call it the horse drawn carriage look.

 

I'll take "horse drawn" over rubbing tires and bottoming out. The latter seems to be an exercise in form over function. Good engineering never goes out of style.

 

hahahahahaha well let's see i'm lowered, and i've NEVER bottomed out, and the only reason i rub is because my offset is too high and my tires too wide.........and my car will drive circles around a stock galant

oooh yeah and it looks better too

 

i bottom out on command.

 

Slam that ish

 

Some of my previous cars (integra/240sx) were both lowered with coil overs and I never had any issues with rubbing or bottoming out even when pushing the car in autocross. Most cases of bad rub and bottoming that I've seen and heard of were with people that lowered their cars to extremes, used rims/tires that were too wide, used the wrong offset, didn't compensate for the lowering with more aggressive springs/compression damping, or just destroyed their stock shocks because all they did was replace the springs . However, I do agree that the majority of the people on the street lower their cars for style more than handling.

 

1. I'm unaware of any aftermarket companies that currently sell OEM replacement shocks for the GE8.

2. Coilovers are shocks and springs together as one body. But in the Fit's case, the shocks and springs are located next to each other, as opposed to the conventional one-body type coilover.

3. People lower their cars to improve cornering performance, braking, and lowered cars just look like damn sexy time.

 

Agreed, but I have a slightly different perspective.

I take my GD1 to the track, so I should appreciate the benefits of lowering my ride height. However, because my car is also a daily driver, I still haven't seen the practical sense in lowering at all. My village's streets have pretty tall humps, some of which I already scrape on stock ride height.

If I do lower the car, I'd probably keep it very, very conservative - 1" at most.

 

Thanks for all the opinions, answer's and education.
I think I'll leave everything as it is and concentrate on window tinting, fog light protection,condenser shield and frilly car cosmetics.

 

You and I both know there is a big difference between lowering (to lessen wheel gap) and slamming (which refers to your "rubbing tires and bottoming out")

I'm lowered 1.25" and never had these issues. I personally can't stand cars stock suspension. Unless its this.. http://nfs.scorpions.cz/12/data/carl...1-1024x768.jpg
90% of the cars on the road have too soft of suspension for me. Too much nose dive during braking and too much sway around turns. I contribute this too most of the public population wanting a soft ride. I in turn would rather have a more controlled ride.
My Acura CL-S was infamous for these characteristics. I then lowered it 1" all around helped handling tremendously will little effect on ride quality.
When it comes down to it every body has their own ride preference.
Just wanted to let you know there is a happy median.

 

Lowering a car can also help with fuel economy, every car i have ever lowered usually gained between 1 and 2 mpg on the road, oh and it looks and handles w w w a a a y y y better than stock
i usually end up with sprint blue springs and love them !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I had sprints on my integra ls back in the day...I loved those springs.

 

for now, i'll take horse drawn carriage too. =)

 

I think I may not have been clear in my explanation of horse drawn. I personally think stock height cars can and often do look great with stock sized rims. It's when you get a car that comes with smaller rims such as 14" or 15" stock rims and slap on 18" rims with low profile tires. That is what I mean by horse drawn.

 

Oh, I gotcha. I missed the non-stock tires and rims. You mean something like this: