Hulty's Sonic

[Hulty]

As promised, here are some photos from burning the midnight oil last night installing the Eibach Pro Kit.

Here is the before(I didn't even think to pic the rear end like this, I guess it's because the front squat is what I was most concerned with):

After:

Supporting pics with crappy lighting due to overcast...:

 

[Hulty]

FYI - To those looking to do their springs I should mention that I was able to do this having NEVER done any sort of suspension work in the past so don't let it intimidate you.

Also, I was able to show every monster bolt/nut who's the boss thanks to my 18V DeWalt hammer drill, impact sockets and the spring compressor that O'Reilly loaned me for a $58 deposit. Honestly, for as hard as the DeWalt had to work on some, I don't think I'd recommend that it be done with just hand tools, but if you have large enough breaker bars and have a curious affinity for knuckle-busters and cursing then knock yourself out.....

 

[Hulty]

Here are a couple other pics, better to show the new low....I'm pleased with the new look and drivability.

 

[AdorableKaren]

Nice pictures Did you take them laying on the ground? Because if I was your neighbor I would be thinking wtf is he doing lol

 

[Hulty]

Yup, on the ground alright. Yup, I'm ***y.

That would be bad a$$ if we were neighbors, regularly park our cars in the driveways and raise property values!!

 

[AdorableKaren]

It would be Indy 500 if we were neighbors :banana:

 

[94383Z71]

Man, your car looks killer with those springs! Really brings things together. I know I enjoyed the lower center of gravity as well; made a larger difference than I anticipated.

 

[krakenredbeard]

Awesome!


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[mgale1911]

Your making me really impatient about buying those

 

[Hulty]

Thanks all!

I will say that my Sonic got a lot of looks before, but after taking it out on the town yesterday, ALMOST EVERYONE looks now!!

 

[Hulty]

Your making me really impatient about buying those

If you do, I got mine off AutoAnything.com for $231/shipped. That's the best pricing I have seen on them in six months.

 

[mgale1911]

If you do, I got mine off AutoAnything.com for $231/shipped. That's the best pricing I have seen on them in six months.

I'll have to check it out. I was originally gonna wait and get them with the kyb shocks because I know as soon as I do springs the shocks will be done with shortly after. But now I just might get the springs and just buy the shocks once they go out.

 

[krakenredbeard]

I road on a severe 2" drop on my fusion and never replace the shocks and struts after a year riding low.

I know this is a different car but I'd say they will last awhile before needing to be replaced.

In fact my cobalt ran on a 2" drop for almost 3 years no issues.

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[Hulty]

I road on a severe 2" drop on my fusion and never replace the shocks and struts after a year riding low.

I know this is a different car but I'd say they will last awhile before needing to be replaced.

In fact my cobalt ran on a 2" drop for almost 3 years no issues.

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I totally agree with Kraken, and the cool side effect of doing the springs is that you immediately become proficient enough that you could now swap springs and/or shocks in two hours or less providing you have the right tools.

 

[94383Z71]

oh yeah. It wouldn't take nearly as long to do them now.

I'm also on stock struts and springs. I've noticed a lot of people got to RS struts and shocks with their springs. Is due to different dampening and rebound properties or what? never bothered to look much since only a few people seemed to do it, and the eibach's are a relatively mild drop.

I will be waiting until the stocks go bad to swap mine, unless there's a major advantage I'm unaware of.

 

[Hulty]

I just got done bypassing the bypass valve solenoid and it couldn't have been easier. I was fortunate that the vacuum line going to the solenoid was already long enough to make it to the manifold so that I didn't need to extend anything. Cap the solenoid and plug the existing manifold line and DONE.

Every once in a while things just work out....but rarely.

 

[94383Z71]

When things work out, I usually get uneasy because it means the next thing will be twice as hard! lol

Feeling any improvements with the bypassing?

 

[Hulty]

The difference is very noticeable, especially the changes shown on the ultra-gauge. The boost/vac numbers always had a consistent inconsistency about them, this is why, and now you see the numbers act as you would expect since now the wastegate is fully in control of what's bled off and rightfully so.

 

[Hulty]

I decided this morning to book another dyno session at another shop next week just for fun. I'm looking for the ideal shop that has a good bedside manner for those of us that don't have 500hp but still like to get as much fun out of our cars as we can.

Updates to follow....

 

[94383Z71]

Not a bad call. This will prove out some of those natural variances, and the dyno calibration here may be closer to those we were looking at from other threads.