I’m kinda surprised I can’t find a thread already dedicated to this topic.
Obviously as a general rule, softer is better (safer) in the snow/on icy highways. But hypotheticals aside, I’m curious to hear from people who have non-stock suspension setups and do a fair amount of driving in snow and ice. All types of driving. I’m not asking for advice, I just want to hear your actual personal experience. Not “well I was thinking of trying this setup” or “this should work…”.
What are your spring rates? Do you have thicker sway bars? How low is your car? Do you feel you have a good balance of year- round handling? Does your car scare the shit outta you coming down Wolf Creek Pass? Etcetera.
Surely I’m not the only snowboarder here who semi-regularly drives 6 hours in an Integra through some of the worst weather conditions on the planet to find great powder.
Well I replaced every single piece and bolt on my suspension, live in mn can not say weather it’s solid in winter, don’t drive it then, but I’m using skunk 2 struts and tein springs has a perfect drop feels great, upgraded ST sway bars can DEFINITELY notice that!, rear and front tie bar and the asr rear subframe, full race traction bar I mean the list goes on…
After getting my alignment my car is extremely fun to corner and handle I’m not pushing a lot of hp running a Na pmr and it is a solid set up someone else has the skunk 2 with tein I posted my thoughts on there thread
Maybe someone else can more clarify the upgrades for your purposes of the weather condition, but my input is start with what needs work what suspension needs attention and what is your budget,
I read your bushing post, best way cheapest way to do that is find a garage run heat, tear it all out make sure ya have some kind of tool to grind off rusted bolts a long painful job but when you get your old front control arms out buy new Oem spec ones, for other bushings and ball joints that is cheaply done by pulling the part and finding a shop to press them in call around I always find the Deals, Otherwise it gets expensive takes a while too get the job done,make sure ya have spare parts
(When I brought mine in they lost a spindle ring that holds the other side of the ball joint had to go to scrap yard and buy a whole new fucking spindle,
might even help to buy used spindles and install the new ball joints on there, then swap them for getting back on the road quicker
But any questions about my set up or upgrades I would start cheap bolt ons strut bars tie bars traction bars help suspension requires hard long dirty work lol
I live down in the Springs and I work 6 days, then off for 3. I am also considered mission essential, so I have to go into work no matter what. Here is my experience driving in the snow with my 91 LS:
I have B20B w/ YS1, my suspension setup: godspeed coilovers (not by choice came with the car, idk the rates), dropped (can’t recall the #s what it was before, it had 1 finger gap between fender and tire) with XXR’s 551 (16’s with 205/45 tires w/ ~3k miles on them) and besides that everything is pretty much stock. I bought the car in Aug/Sept as a daily and it was ok handling, the car needed an alignment, but I waited on that ( I was going to do it in Oct) but, I didn’t have the time to get it done. When we got the first set of snow it was horrid to drive, I had to get towed home in the snow the car did not want to hook up, and it was too low for the snow build ups in the side streets and found out that the previous owner did not correct the toe and that tore up the tires as well as destroyed the upper & lower ball joint (they came out in pieces), and inner & outer tie rods (had to park the car up until I got all the parts to fix it). In Jan I had to take time off from work to fix the car, here is what I did: I traded the XXRs for fat fives with meatier tires, replaced those parts and raised the car up an inch (now has 2 finger gap. After all that, the car a lot better to drive in the snow, I am waiting for my poly bushings to come in so I can replace all those.
Bushings make the world of dif in feel but time consuming, your making the right steps, keep up the good work when winter is over be a hell of a lot easier to work on
It’s been about 10 years since I drove my DB2 in the winter (about 9 years since I drove it period, shelved project that I’m just getting back to) but I was running tokico blues in the rear and illuminas in the front on 3 with 2.25" (IIRC) drop springs stock front sway and no rear sway. Don’t know spring rates but fairly mild with a ride comparable to H&R race. It handled fine but a bit rough on frost heaves. The biggest effect was always the winter tires I was running I had tried a couple different ones but my preference were the Nokian Hakkapeliitta 2’s with studs for running to the ski hills and severe winter conditions.