Suspension work is an interesting beast. I would say it’s up there with tires in terms of cost-benefit ratio, and it’s not (usually) all that complicated.
Usually.
In some cases though, you wind up with situations like the photo to the left. Where all it takes is one thing to go wrong, and then you’re no longer just replacing springs and struts with a coilover solution, and instead you change a bunch of stuff you didn’t intend to change before.
The other factor of suspension, and one that I’ve done my best to drill into others, is that it’s all about kinetic energy. And kinetic energy is just waiting to fuck you up.
Automotive springs are under a lot of tension. There are smart and not smart ways to address this, and sometimes you wind up doing something not-smart because the resources do not exist to resolve the current situation in the smart way.
With that said, my GTI is now equipped with matched front and rear sway bars, subframe locking collars, and coilovers with adjustment to ride height/preload and damping/rebound. All to maximize the ability of the car to put the power to the ground effectively.
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