Technical Question about Rear Springs...

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Technical Question about Rear Springs...

wody21

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Dear Stilo gurus!

The current situation:
- my rear left spring is broken (still in it's place, but makes horrible noises), so I need a new pair, but...

The previous owner changed the front springs to Eibach 11-30-001-01 type lowered springs... Right now I am unsure what should I do. I am experiencing very annoying "rocking" on uneven, slightly bumpy roads when I'm traveling at between ~75-120km/h.

I'm hesitating, because if I buy two new original one, then I guess this rocking / wobbling will be still present. Should I try to find a proper lowered one for the rear suspension? What would you do in this case?

Thanks for your help in advance.

Mod: I forgot to mention, that when I bought the car with the old, unsafe dampers, the rocking was a bit even more serious, but in February 2017 I changed ALL shock absorbers... Those things are still working fine, it's not their fault.
 
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As yellow peril said really....

I looked at this thread earlier and couldn't decide what you mean by rocking; although if you've got OEM springs at the rear and lowering springs at the front it could create so odd motions across the chassis.

Essentially the springs will have different spring rates. Lowering springs have to be stiffer and the range of motion they can travel through is reduced, because the spring is shorter.

I did initially think it sounded like shocks until I read that you'd replaced them. If the car continues to bounce after hitting a bump then there is still a problem. Obviously there shouldnt be any real bouncing from the springs, as the shocks absorb that energy - which is how I'm struggling to interpret the term rocking.

In any case, as Phil says, you must have a full matching set of springs otherwise the handling will become somewhat wayward.
 
I presume by rocking you mean a side to side motion (roll) rather than a front to back motion (pitching).

If so, just change the rear springs for new springs and your woes should be ended. Stilo has torsion beam suspension so whatever happens on one side of the rear, also affects the other side... and if you have a broken spring on the left then there will be an imbalance compared to the spring resistance on the right.

The question of OE vs Eibach is less important than not having a broken spring. The OE springs will just be longer and have a lower spring rate ("softer") than an Eibach spring would be.

If you fit OE rear springs the car will be slightly higher at the back relative to the front and the rear end will move more (vertically) than the front end over the same bump. It would feel as if the back end is going up and down but the front isn't. A 5-door Stilo (softer OE springs than the 3-door, according to legend) would feel this more.

It's better for handling if the spring rates are matched - a softer rear end makes the car tend to oversteer more - so if you can find some Eibach rear springs (they seem to only come in kits of four springs though) then it's worth fitting those.. but it's not essential for the time-being.

Rear springs are easy to change so you could fit some pattern rear springs for aroud £70 a pair.. to see what they're like and then decide whether to keep them, buy new OE springs for the front too so they match.... or buy a whole new Eibach spring kit front and rear.

Ralf S.
 
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