what are struts?
what do they do?
how much do they cost?

 

Struts = shocks. Your car has a stock set. You can buy a set of Koni struts (Koni yellows are what several board members use) for around $500-600. They would be a little firmer (or a lot firmer.. they're adjustable) and would help the car handle better. If you replace struts, you should replace the stock springs as well. Comptech, H&R, and Eibach all make sport springs for our car that will slightly lower the car and also give it better handling.

Doing springs and struts at the same time will save you a lot of installation (labor) money since both have to come out to replace either one. (Springs are sort of wrapped around struts.)

 

A Strut does not equal a shock! Your car does however have one stock that is just as good as any other one you can buy out there... i.e. Neuspeed, etc.... If you look towards the back of your engine bay, you will see a bar going from one side of the car to the other...that is a strut. A strut essentially is designed to tie the two opposing strut towers together as a single solid unit.

The purpose of this device is to reduce flex that these towers experience during hard cornering. When taking a turn a car’s strut towers normally flex, resulting bodyflex and losing some traction. As strut tower bars are designed to keep your strut towers from flexing, they distribute the pressure applied to one strut tower when taking a turn to both towers instead of just one. This keeps the wheels in position. Keeping the wheels in position helps keeping the tires in the desired position on the road, and this will help to improve traction on the turns.

They run around $200.

There you go! Hope that answers all your questions......good luck!

-Shane

 

NOW THAT'S A STRUT! LOL

 

What Shane=AcuraCr is referring to is a strut bar. Jrock explained what a strut is and AcuraCr just explained what a strut bar is. Just clarifying.

 

think of your struts as shock absorbers. They soak up the bumps of the road and make the ride more comfortable for you. Softer shocks equal a better more comfortable ride but the ride will not be as sporty because the car will exhibit too much body lean during cornering. A stiffer shock will not be as comfortable because they are stiffer but they will handle better because they will be tighter. This is a very oversimplified explanation of a often times complicated part, but I think it will give you the gist of what a strut does.

There are different types of aftermarket struts that you may purchase. There are the nonadjustable type which are usually stiffer than stock and respond to spirited driving better than your stocks and there are adjustables (which I prefer) which you can adjust the amount of stiffness (dampening) that the strut has. You can set it stiff for racing or spirited driving or soft if you'd like more of a comfortable ride.

 

that is a strut bar, and what it does is tie the struts together to do what you just described

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but, in a MacPherson application you have STRUT and a spring. In a dual wishbone suspension setup you have a SHOCK and a spring. Once again...there is a good chance I may be wrong, that's just what I always though.

 

All along, I thought STRUT==SHOCK

Then I read 4pumpedCL's note, which got me into research mode. After a little digging around, I found this really nice article:
http://autozine.kyul.net/technical_s...uspension2.htm

Happy reading!

 

ACURACR - that's a strut tower BRACE. To keep things simple a shock = a strut. Yes, there's more to it than that, but in general shock = strut. Shock towers = strut towers. etc.

Most people consider the terms interchangeable.

 

http://autorepair.about.com/library/faqs/bl690a.htm

Strut usually refers to the assembly, shock is the actual dampener. But yeah, they are usually used as one in the same.