Poll: Your fix for uneasy suspension?

What's Your Suspension Fix?

  • Eibach Lowering Springs

    Votes: 4 17.4%
  • MAZDASPEED Lowering Springs

    Votes: 3 13.0%
  • COBB Lowering Springs

    Votes: 1 4.3%
  • H&R Lowering Springs

    Votes: 4 17.4%
  • Koni Shocks

    Votes: 5 21.7%
  • KYB Shocks

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The suspension is fine! Besides, i'm too old to drive a lowered car anymore!!

    Votes: 8 34.8%

  • Total voters
    23
:
11 MS3 Sport
You know the feeling! That feeling when you're cruising down the highway in spirited fashion, and you taking a long sweeping turn when the road suddenly dips down, and your steering wheel gets all light and loose while the car bounces up and down trying to handle it?

Or what about when you're heading in a completely straight line and you hit some imperfections in the road, and all your car can do is bounce up and down?

The Speed3 is a fantastic piece of machinery but I still cannot believe how they tried so hard to make this thing a "wild child" but softened it's insides so much that the compromise between comfort and performance becomes too much. I don't think a rock hard ride is necessary, nor is it necessary to lower the car for "performance". But, i've taken these same roads for years in many different cars and I've really grown to despise the "lack of confidence" feeling as you're wrestling the car to track nice and smooth. Almost feels somewhat amature, as if you're pushing the car to do something it wasn't meant to do. Maybe you can relate, maybe not.

1) Fix 1: Lowering Springs. There's a ton of options for lowering springs. Some have said it completely fixes the bounce, only to be compromised by a slightly harder initial shock of hitting that imperfection or rut.

2) Fix 2: Dampers. It's been said that this is ultimately the weak point in our cars. COBB tends to think otherwise, saying the dampers are perfectly fine and the springs are ultimately much too soft for the car. Dampers would seem to be culprit in this situation, yet there are many people who have also used lowering springs on stock dampers with very satisfying results and long use.

Post up what you were aiming to improve, and what the conclusion was? I'm expecting a lot of these posts to be "lowering" related. It seems as that will be another cost to pay no matter what.
 
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Going to be watching this thread with interest, as I am pondering how to stiffen up the suspension without greatly compromising ride quality, myself. Slightly leaning towards shocks & springs, as they're slightly cheaper & won't necessarily lower the car as much as coilovers. (Age has nothing to do with it- I just prefer minimal lowering) Of course, sway bars will be suspension upgrade #1 for me.
 
I like the stock setup. I have had some cars with varying degrees of modified suspensions and none of them really compare to the speed3 stock as far as handling vs ride quality. I like how neutral the car behaves and don't want to ruin it since in the past I have spent many dollars trying to get the same handling characteristics.

If I ever did anything....springs would be it.
 
Well since coilovers weren't an option (number 1 choice for me) I voted Eibach/Koni set up. The Eibachs are a good choice if your looking for a mild drop and still maintaining a good ride quality...
 
no coilover option(confused)

Well since coilovers weren't an option (number 1 choice for me) I voted Eibach/Koni set up. The Eibachs are a good choice if your looking for a mild drop and still maintaining a good ride quality...

Coilovers FTW

Let's be honest with ourselves. Coilovers are a bit extreme... The investment is better made for track-use and i'm simply talking daily to spirited driving.

Now granted, matching up springs and shocks may cost just as much as coilovers but not everyone will have the experience to know how to dial that in, nor will a local service center want to touch that setup.
 
The car bounces as it is. Stock dampers aren't good enough. Do a set of Koni's alone will improve the car. And refering to the Koni thread...your not sopposed to use lowered springs with Koni's.

Ultimately, you want to have the dampers matched to the springs so you don't bounce all over the place and or too much damper strength will prevent the suspension from drooping down (yields full travel). I would give a call to Eibach and see if they could do a matched Strut/Spring setup for the car. I know they do it with other cars.
 
Let's be honest with ourselves. Coilovers are a bit extreme... The investment is better made for track-use and i'm simply talking daily to spirited driving.

Now granted, matching up springs and shocks may cost just as much as coilovers but not everyone will have the experience to know how to dial that in, nor will a local service center want to touch that setup.

coilovers are a viable option though. they should be up there. i'd rather spend the few extra bucks and get coilovers than springs and shocks.
 
I like the stock setup. I have had some cars with varying degrees of modified suspensions and none of them really compare to the speed3 stock as far as handling vs ride quality. I like how neutral the car behaves and don't want to ruin it since in the past I have spent many dollars trying to get the same handling characteristics.

If I ever did anything....springs would be it.

+1 Exactly. I dumped a several thousands into a WRX suspension to find that ultimate balance between daily confort with neutral handling, to competent track use, and ultimately I ended up spending top dollar on high quality dampers, springs and tops, AND tires (which most forget to factor in). I could have/should have went straight to an outfit like RCE and purchased their $2700 coilovers that are tuned just for the Subaru.

With the MS3, it's not going to be a spring or damper only fix. Honestly, the car has awesome handling stock and to take it to a "plus 1" or +2, would require a good balance of quality suspension upgrades. A perfect example would be the Mazdaspeed Coilovers (KW V3) and Hotchkis sways, and even then, coilovers really need to be tuned/balanced. Other options would be to simply upgrade tires to a high quality max performance like an Advan, Direza or RE11. Tires can be the biggest upgrade to handling. Ask any decent autoxer. It kills me to see folks spend money on super light weight Volks or Advans, only to wrap them in horrible tires and drop the car on super low springs.
 
I to was very pleased with the stock ride performance. As time went by the modding bug kept in my ear and I ended up getting a Cobb RSB. Wow, immediate improvement. One of my most satisfying mods. I never really thought about springs but love the way CWPspeed3's car sits with the Eibachs and for the money... $212 shipped. Can not go wrong. So, there it is. Every day I grow to like the springs more and more and am getting comfortable with them (only been on a week). There is no more bounce and the car is snappy. Has a little more rear rotation but it is becoming advantageous.
 
Whatever you do, DO NOT change to lower or stiffer springs without upgrading to proper dampers.

The stock dampers are ridiculously poorly valved for use with even the OEM springs, IMO.
 
You are too kind to the stock dampers. They are utter crap, worse than what came on japanese motorcycles in the 60s.

My fix for the suspension was a set of Mazdaspeed coilovers. The car handles so much better now. I can take corners 10 mph faster and instead of feeling like the car is on the edge, it is clear that I am nowhere near any limits other than my own.

But the ride is too rough on bumpy back roads like the one I live on. I am still diddling the damping settings so I may be able to tune some of that out.
 
Coilovers clearly have an advantage over most off the shelf spring & shock combination. In a spring & shock combo, you're combining 2 parts and forcing them to work together which is fine for a lot of people but it should be obvious that they're not maximized and/or tuned for one another. I'm not even going to mention how poorly most stock dampers work when paired with lowering springs - these are simply not a good solution for pretty much anything other than looks. This is fine so long as you're only interested in cosmetics.
 

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