Hi. My '96 GLE recently had its right front strut go bad , 67k of Boston city driving. I'm about to order KYB AGX's or GR2's, however, I've been cautioned about the spring(s) (more likely the one on the strut that went??)possibly being bad, and that I should replace them. My mechanic says that the springs are good for a fixed number of compressions, and that the best test is to check the vehicle ride height. Does anyone have that spec from the factory manual handy??

As I am a laid-off engineer, I don't want the added expense of the springs if I can help it. I'm not terribly interested in aftermarket lowering springs either, so if they are bad, I'd get oem replacements.

Thanks,

---Bummed in Boston

 

If your going to get OEM spring, your going to pay more than for aftermarket springs. I live in the Boston area also and I just bought AGX's and H&R Springs. I've ridden in a Max with the H&R's and it wasn't a bad, jarring ride at all. Even with my stock suspension I need to slow down over most of the roads in and around the 3rd Tunnel Project.
As for the comment by your mechanic, springs should last a hell of a lot longer that struts will. I have over 100000 miles on my Max and its still running on stock struts with no problems yet. I think I would take his analysis with a grain of salt.

 

well if your getting new agx struts then lowering isn't a bad idea, i mean i am sure your OEM springs are fine and if they arent they shouldn't be hard to find for less than $20 or even free, if i had them with me or you lived close to my i would gladly give you mine.

 

Springs generally last the life time of the vehicle. Unless there subjected to overloading which can cause them to sag slightly. This was more of a problem with older leaf spring designs, not so much coils.

 

MaximaRider, thank you for pointing out the important fact that 99% of the people in this forum are die-hard racing/performance enthusiasts, many who may have replaced their stock springs early in the car's mileage to go with lowered springs and who probably have the stock ones collecting dust in their garage.

As you can guess, I don't want to do the job replacing the struts, and then find my springs going bad 20k miles later so I have to do it all over again, so I'm hoping someone has some ideas on the ride height issue. The other factor might be measuring the springs when I take the strut apart (of course I'd want to have the replacements handy just in case).

Thanks again to everyone giving me input,

Charlestek

 

uhm
Springs don't go bad, unless they are like leaf springs or something. Anyway, they may lose their vigor, but certainly not after only a few years. The struts and shocks they surround may go bad. This is easy enough to tell by feeling a horrible ride quality (very very bouncy), hearing clanking noises from the wheels....