festiva/aspire strut differences

[aithanmier]

ok ok now can someone tell me the difference between the festiva and aspire front struts? i know the rears are identical, and that people have used the front aspire struts on festivas when they complete the brake swap. so why can't I use the festiva gr-2 struts on my aspire?

[ericsmith32]

Isn't the aspire's taller, maybe a little heavier duty??

[PaulLehr]

The rear struts are not identical. If you look at them side by side you will see that the spring perch on the Aspire strut is about an inch higher than the Festivas

[aithanmier]

if i wasn't so lazy i guess i could pull one off my festiva and compare it to the spare aspire front strut i have layin around. i'll have to see if i have time for it. i'd really like to just go with high performance struts and lowering springs rather than spending the moola for the teins right now. but who knows.

[25Horseplay]

I believe it is the height of the spring perches as well on the front struts. I remember the parts store not having 2 for a Festiva but said they could use another strut (probably Aspire). And the difference was the spring perch height.

[jeffdjeffd]

As far as I know, the front struts are identical. The springs are slightly harder for the stock Aspire replacements, maybe a wee bit longer. Spring perches are identical in the fronts. Rears about 3/4-1" higher.

KYB front replacements for both Festiva and Aspire 232021 (RH) and 232022 (LH) and rear 340009 (ALL).

Edit: I was unclear in my original post - I put the struts side by side and compared - they ARE the same (OEM). Springs I'm not sure, as I don't have them to compare. I will add that when I had OEM Aspire struts and springs on my Festiva the whole car was about 1" higher, front and rear, than with OEM Festiva struts and springs

jeff

[Safety Guy]

I'll confirm what Jeff wrote. Aspire front struts are identical, though in the past they may have had stiffer internals for the heavier car. Now they all probably are the same since that simplifies SKUs and stocking them.

Rear Aspire shocks have slightly higher spring perches. I think it's 3/4".

When I did my first suspension swap, I had both my Aspire springs and Festiva springs measured for stiffness.

The Aspire fronts were about 10 pounds stiffer each side. The rears were only one pound stiffer, which leads me to believe that Aspire and Festiva rear springs are essentially the same strength. Some of the differences could also be attributed to spring fatigue.

For stock ride height using Aspire springs, I recommend cutting them one coil, which is what I did on my first swap.

I just got a cutoff wheel and I cut my first spring yesterday. I'm doing the one coil deal for Luxstiva as well.

Karl

[festivagt]

...

Don't forget the difference in the lower bushings and bolts sizes between the two.