Husni08

Okay so I'm thinking of treating myself to a real mod with my income tax check coming in soon for my IS350 but I am torn between doing some soon to be needed regular maintenance (Brake pads and leaking strut) or splurging a little. My first question is that if I were to pull the trigger on coilovers, would that eliminate the need of replacing my leaking strut? Because I eventually will upgrade my coilovers but I just got the car a few months back and want to do things the right way with this car. I hate how much body roll it has, especially coming from an BMW with the sports package equipped. But if it will not eliminate the leaking strut issue, coils will definitely be put on the back burner. My second alternative is maybe a GFX front lip and an intake or a f-sport sway bar. Let me know what you think..

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

Well, first, your car doesn't have struts, it has shocks. Guessing you're out of warranty to fix the leak?

Coilovers is short for coil over shock.... which is actually what you have now, but most people really mean ADJUSTABLE coil-over-shock when they use the phrase...

But to answer the question, it replaces both the coilspring and shock, so it would "fix" your leaking shock because you're replacing the shocks as part of the coilover.


that said- if you need brake pads, do that first. It'll cost a lot more in the long run if you don't replace pads when they need to be replaced. Just be sure you do, as lots of dealers love to sell you new brakes a lot earlier than you really need em.

Second- if you dislike the body roll the F-sport sways will be, by far, the most effective way to address that issue.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

Brakes are more important than reducing body roll as safety comes first. I would go with that before playing around with aftermarket suspension parts.

Husni08

Thanks for the clear response. I didn't know this ride didn't have struts, and I'm guessing the Sewell rep and my personal mechanic didn't either because they both said struts but anyways, I have some life on them but that will be an upcoming issue.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

Well, a lot of folks use strut and shock interchangeably, not understanding there's a real difference between the two. (for one, a strut is a locating part of a suspension, a shock is not)... and it's actually not that easy to find a good easy explanation of the difference... here's a pretty decent basic rundown though-

http://www.g20.net/forum/showpost.ph...73&postcount=1

Husni08

Gotcha.. So does the sway bar really make a difference or should I just put that money towards some coilovers? If so, should I just cop the rear sway or would the set be worth it. From what I've read the front sway is somewhat useless.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

Personally I think the sways make the single biggest improvement of any handling mod for the car.

As to the front/rear question- there's a lot of debate on this. All I can tell you is the one guy on here I've seen who has actually tried both said that the rear only was a large improvement over stock... and that adding the front bar later was also a noticeable improvement, though a smaller one than going from stock to rear F-sport was.

Personally I run both.

CircuitMS

iTrader: (51)

Front sway will improve turn-in and steering feel.

Rear will improve the car "neutrality" and allow some more oversteer/rear-end movement. It will feel like the rear "follows" the front better through turn.

The Swaybars will really help in the corners but will not affect stright line driving or pitch/dive.

Swaybars and coilovers are both good choices, but do your brakes FIRST.

PM us if you'd like some more help or info