Aspire vs Festiva rear struts, with pics

[BigElCat]

What are you looking at hauling in the hatch area or are you going to use a trailer?

Just in the hatch area. I have it stripped to the sheetmetal, no rear seat. I have a full-size battery mounted near the rear hatch, and carry about 80 lbs of tools. I frequently put in about 120 lbs more, delivering packages for work.

[BigElCat]

Hey Safety Guy.

I researched your prior stuff on this topic. Did you ever try the Aspire lowering springs with the Aspire struts on the front of your Festiva?

I know the topic is "rear struts" only, but I'm thinking about buying a set of 4 new Monroe's (Aspire) while they're on special (forth one free). I'd run the original Festiva springs for now, maybe upgrade the fronts later.

[Pu241]

FWIW, I ran FMS lowering springs on GR2's on the front of Big Blue and stock rear struts on the rear to maintain my load capacity.
Handled reasonably well using 323 alloys and 175/60/13 tires
An up grade to Aspire rear struts would help with load capacity and give the option of larger wheels/tires, for the rear anyway.
The driver side rear is where the perch causes rubbing issues.

[Safety Guy]

I never tried the FMS Aspire lowering springs. I did buy a set of used FMS Festiva lowering springs, but have never installed them.

For AquaMutt, I'm trying my old cut Aspire front springs on '02 Rio front struts, which bolt right in.

Not sure what I'll do in the back yet. My old rear Aspire cut springs still look good, but the struts don't. If I don't run the same old parts, I may get new Monroe struts in back, but I may also investigate running a VW Mk2 set of coilovers so I can pick my spring rate with quality springs. The question is, how do I just get rear coilovers?? I don't want the front, since I'll be running Rio struts.

Karl

[drddan]

Thanks for the input, Safety Guy.

Does anybody have any suggestions of a heavier spring that will fit on the stock Aspire/Festiva rear strut? KIA Rio?

You can use Festiva FRONT springs on the Aspire or Festy REAR struts and will stiffen it up considerably. To stiffen everything up, I would suggest Kia Rio struts front, and Aspire rear struts, with or without the Festy front springs added to the rear struts.
Just so ya know, I bought my front Rio's from a JY $15 each, and they looked and handle like new.

[Safety Guy]

Drddan wrote:

"Just so ya know, I bought my front Rio's from a JY $15 each, and they looked and handle like new."

Yes! A great reason to go with Rio struts is that they are so "new." The strut bearing is factory "fresh" (like) and turns so sweetly compared with my old Aspire units! It was the difference between oiled ice and half-dried mud!

To repeat, '01 and '02 Rio front struts should have two bolts at the top, while the late '02 and later Rio struts appear to be the same but use a new top hat with three bolts. That version lasted until the new models in '06, which are probably totally different since they "cross breed" with the Hyundai Accents from that year on.

Karl

[yelo festiva]

alignment after aspire swap

Hey while we're on aspire brake swap issues, has any body had the rear beam aligned after the swap? I took mine to dealer and asked for an alignment, long story short they could not get the camber in with the correct amount of toe in on rear beam. I came away after three hours and all they could do was set toe in on the front. Just wondered if others had same problem.




90 LX 372 k miles w/97 aspire brake/rack swap

[Safety Guy]

On my first swap they put in plastic spacers between the drum backings and axle pads to correct for this.

When you put on the axle, you're actually supposed to measure across to make sure the axle beam is centered. I didn't do that.

Karl

[yelo festiva]

I did not do that either. I'll check for that. That might explain why dealer guy had so much trouble. He put in the plastic spacers every way he could think of to satisfy the alignment machine but to know avail. Finally just took em out to at least get proper toe which we decided was more important than the camber setting. I'm not too concerned though as the rear beam has been on over a year with about 8k miles on the tires with no appriciable odd wear pattern. I will keep an eye on em and rotate mayby every other oil change to even any wear out.

I may have to swap in the rear struts from the aspire as I noticed a slight rub, ever so slightly, on the left side rear inside of the tire. As I learned from this thread the perch is 5/8 higher than the aspire struts.


Thanks for your reply, Steve

[Safety Guy]

If you don't have one already, get the Ford shop manual. It tells you how to center the rear axle beam when reinstalling the Festiva unit. Should work for the Aspire unit as well.

Karl