The old shock/strut question again

TBirdJKC

Registered User
I'm getting ready to order some lowering springs from Bill, but I'm holding off until I can pick some suitable shocks. I've been searching here quite a bit and about the only thing I can confirm now, is that the kyb's are too soft. I don't have functioning arc, so I'm looking at conventional stuff. I want something stiff but I daily drive the car in the summer, so I don't want something that's going to break my back driving over a crack in the road. What do you guys think about running 03/04 cobra convert bilstein shocks and tokico hp blue's up front? Can I mix and match like that or will it throw off the balance of the car? I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about non arc tokico's on our cars, but it seems to be slim pickings lately. Can anyone make a suggestion that worked well for them?

Thanks,
Jim
 
If you can get them, run tokico blues all around. They are pretty much the perfect shock for a daily driver, good dampening without being overly harsh. I ran the 03/04 Cobra Bilsteins on the back of my MarkVIII for a couple weeks, and I pulled them off because they were way too stiff for a daily driver.
 
Shox.com have the ARC Tokico's - I just got a set with new springs and LOVE the ride. They were pricey but IMO well worth it.
 
Shox.com have the ARC Tokico's - I just got a set with new springs and LOVE the ride. They were pricey but IMO well worth it.

I plan to order Illumina II's just to have when I need them. Currently riding orginals with just 55k miles. When did you feel the need to replace yours and why?
 
I have close to 100,000 on the clock now. Bouncy ride combined with a saggy stance (rear is sitting about an inch lower than the front, looks like i'm driving around without an engine:p) were my deciding factors. I do not have a single functioning electronic component for the ARC, aside from the wiring.....maybe. PO gutted the system for some reason. So Illumina II's are not something I plan on using. My current plans are to lower it an inch and a half with springs from Bill at SCP or a good set of used ones and run Tokico HP Blue's all around.
 
I'm surprised to hear everyone loves the Illumina IIs. I'm on my second set, and both have sucked (I replaced the first/used set because I thought maybe they were just a problem.) Too floaty in auto, too hard in firm. Firm is OK for me, but why have the ARC if you leave it on auto all the time.
 
What currently available shocks? Bilstein?

What are the currently available options for shocks?
I would like Bilsteins but I don't find any for the front. The rears seem to be available (at Summit), but what to do about the fronts? Are there any that will work?
 
Firm is OK for me, but why have the ARC if you leave it on auto all the time.

AUTO does the best of both worlds when the shock is properly tuned.

Soft for floaty-boaty (not really!) over the road. If tuned properly, soft springs and shocks can soak up the expansion joints and minor road imperfections better as opposed to the "So firm I can read the mint code on the dime I just ran over!".

Firm for hard cornering and sudden braking.

RwP
 
What are the currently available options for shocks?
I would like Bilsteins but I don't find any for the front. The rears seem to be available (at Summit), but what to do about the fronts? Are there any that will work?

You may need to 'slum' over at TCCoA; there's some work on possible usable inserts going on.

Right now, there's not really any good choices for the front until you ratchet up to the SCP CoilOvers.

Start at https://forums.tccoa.com/44-suspens...sion-options-summary-bilstein-insert-diy.html - and Google "3000GT site:tccoa.com" for a few other threads that tie back into this one.

RwP
 
tccoa

Yeah, well, that's some heavy stuff...
I'm not sure I'm up to that and I'm not building a race car, so...
Interesting nontheless but rather experimental still it seems.
Thanks for the.link.
 
What are the currently available options for shocks?

As noted, the options are non-trivial. My advice is to keep what you've got* unless you're really into making changes, and...be sure the ARC system is doing it's job.

Search here on how to run codes for it, etc. There are some cases where the ARC module was offline, letting the system default to one mode. The ARC light flashes when there is an issue with one or more of the four control modules on top of each shock, but it's not that hard to pull codes and see if the system has anything else it wants to bring to your attention.

*If someone does remove stock shocks, don't throw them out...instead, put them up for sale.
 
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