My Game Plan
Thread Starter
Intermediate
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 492
Likes: 12
From: ALberta
My Game Plan
Hi
Been reading a lot on the boards and have been thinking of the game plan for my 2000 GS4.
First, my driving conditions:
Daily driver,
4-5 months snow and ice,
potholes and pressure ridges up to 5 inches high
Much road construction where they scrape the top 3-inches and leave ridges and grooves.
Here's my game plan. Your experiences would help.
Performance:
Tanabe Touring Medalion cat-back
shocks and springs:
stay stock, or upgrade to whatever gives the smoothest ride.
Chassis:
Daizen steering rack and stabilizer bushings,
Stock control arm bushings.
Upper strut brace,
F&R lower chassis braces (Toms?)
Larger anti-roll bars
Tubular six-link rear kit.
Rationale;
Tighten the chassis to let the shocks and springs do the work. Keep everything soft to retain comfort and longevity. Tighten roll stiffness for better cornering.
I plan to drive this car for 10 more years and want the interior to stay rattle-free but get a little more cornering response , with my driving environment in mind.
Question: do the chassis braces tend to put more shock into the body, or less?
Thanks for your consideration
Been reading a lot on the boards and have been thinking of the game plan for my 2000 GS4.
First, my driving conditions:
Daily driver,
4-5 months snow and ice,
potholes and pressure ridges up to 5 inches high
Much road construction where they scrape the top 3-inches and leave ridges and grooves.
Here's my game plan. Your experiences would help.
Performance:
Tanabe Touring Medalion cat-back
shocks and springs:
stay stock, or upgrade to whatever gives the smoothest ride.
Chassis:
Daizen steering rack and stabilizer bushings,
Stock control arm bushings.
Upper strut brace,
F&R lower chassis braces (Toms?)
Larger anti-roll bars
Tubular six-link rear kit.
Rationale;
Tighten the chassis to let the shocks and springs do the work. Keep everything soft to retain comfort and longevity. Tighten roll stiffness for better cornering.
I plan to drive this car for 10 more years and want the interior to stay rattle-free but get a little more cornering response , with my driving environment in mind.
Question: do the chassis braces tend to put more shock into the body, or less?
Thanks for your consideration
I would advise you to ask people in the suspension forum. But also... if you want a comfortable ride, do not upgrade your suspension. The stock suspension is made for comfort. Upgrading it would make it handle better but less comfortable. Also having your springs and shocks take all the load would mean they'd go out a lot. Any suspension upgrade will put more shock on the body. If you think about it race cars have the stiffest suspension upgrades, and they're made for handling and tightening everything up, but the ride quality suffers the most. I have the TRD sways and a spring/shock combo and it got rid of the floaty feeling, but on bumpy roads... I feel every imperfection in the pavement.
Driver
Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 135
Likes: 0
From: MN
People who ride in my GS4 think it rides pretty decent for being lowered. I chose the Tanabe NF210 ( NormalFeeling ) over the DF210's ( DropFeeling ) because I wanted the lowered stance, but wanted to retain decent ride quality.
Thread Starter
Intermediate
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 492
Likes: 12
From: ALberta
Game plan
Thanks for the input everybody, most appreciated.
The car has 137,000KM (85,000Mi) and has the original shocks.
I ordered Lexus OEM shocks and we'll see if that smoothes things out any.
Next I'll get the Daizen steering rack and stabilzer bushings to sharpen the steering.
Will consider the upper strut brace after that.
I'll take it one step at a time, thanks to the advice here.
Man, I wish we had smooth roads like you guys way south.
The car has 137,000KM (85,000Mi) and has the original shocks.
I ordered Lexus OEM shocks and we'll see if that smoothes things out any.
Next I'll get the Daizen steering rack and stabilzer bushings to sharpen the steering.
Will consider the upper strut brace after that.
I'll take it one step at a time, thanks to the advice here.
Man, I wish we had smooth roads like you guys way south.
Holla from Wisconsin, yo! No? OK, I apologize for that. You get my point though...crappy roads, too.
I have Daizen sways, OEM shocks (125k miles), and Eibach springs. On my stock 16's, the Eibachs barely made a difference in ride, but a little in cornering. The sways did more with cornering -- this was a good mod. Then I switched from OEM 16" wheels to G35 18" wheels -- holy hell. Cornering really sharpened up, and I feel a lot more bumps in the road. Like rolling to a stop sign and feeling the stones on the pavement. Now tire model is a big contributor to the differences, too, but I think the lower profile tires made the biggest difference by far for me.
I'd love 19s or 20s, but on our roads with potholes...not thinking that's a possibility.
I have Daizen sways, OEM shocks (125k miles), and Eibach springs. On my stock 16's, the Eibachs barely made a difference in ride, but a little in cornering. The sways did more with cornering -- this was a good mod. Then I switched from OEM 16" wheels to G35 18" wheels -- holy hell. Cornering really sharpened up, and I feel a lot more bumps in the road. Like rolling to a stop sign and feeling the stones on the pavement. Now tire model is a big contributor to the differences, too, but I think the lower profile tires made the biggest difference by far for me.
I'd love 19s or 20s, but on our roads with potholes...not thinking that's a possibility.
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