aspire with rio strut swap

[whatle]

gonna need tires soon so i may have to switch to the 185/60-14s then

[Safety Guy]

You may want to check out Tires-easy.com and look at all the odd sizes they have, like:

185/55-14 (+ 12mm)

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco=135&sowigan=&Breite=185&Quer=55&Felge=14&Speed=&kategorie=6&LoadRange=&Marke=&ranzahl=4&suchen=View+tires

165/60-14 (+ 9mm)

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco=135&sowigan=&Breite=165&Quer=60&Felge=14&Speed=&kategorie=6&LoadRange=&Marke=&ranzahl=4&suchen=View+tires

165/65-14 (+ 16mm)

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco=135&sowigan=&Breite=165&Quer=65&Felge=14&Speed=&kategorie=6&LoadRange=&Marke=&ranzahl=4&suchen=View+tires

And one choice in 175/60-14 (+ 14mm)

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco=135&sowigan=&Breite=175&Quer=60&Felge=14&Speed=&kategorie=6&LoadRange=&Marke=&ranzahl=4&suchen=View+tires

If you do get a "weird" tire size, you may want to order one or two extra in case one of your first four gets destroyed. This happened to me with my Nokian all season snows. Had a nail too far to one side and they no longer made my size in that tire.

So it's nice we can get some odd sizes, but there are downsides to it.

I've had really good service from Tires-easy, in case you were wondering.

Karl

[Bert]

There is a difference in overall spring diameter from front to back both on Festys and Aspires. It's not much (1/8 inch) but enough to make the correct rubber seats/boots and useful stuff hard to keep in place while you're working with them.
I would really enjoy hearing from someone that has had the time and patience to experiment with Aspire/Festy/Rio/Civic/VW what-have-you spring swaps. And accompanying photos would be really nice.
The brand new Aspire FMS sport springs I have on a Festy at the moment might emote lust from some 'lo-rider wanna-be' or race fans but to me they more emulate an 'end of life vehicle' with 'bagged' springs.
There are pickup truck owners, for instance (who can't possibly be "real" pickup truck nuts) out there that drop their vehicles to within a hair off the ground and then think they look cool. Practical? No. Useful? No. Make me admire them? No. Increase the value of their ride? No. No, no no.

[Safety Guy]

Bert wrote:

"There are pickup truck owners, for instance (who can't possibly be "real" pickup truck nuts) out there that drop their vehicles to within a hair off the ground and then think they look cool. Practical? No. Useful? No. Make me admire them? No. Increase the value of their ride? No. No, no no."

People like that are saying, "look at my truck, designed for work, which I have the money to modify into a useless piece of eye candy that only those who can afford my levels of disposable luxury will truly appreciate."

Kind of like rich Chinese men in the past who could afford wives who had the smallest bound feet and who thus could do no real work. Poorer men's wives had more loosely bound feet because they had to do chores around the house.

Turning a car into a low riding work of art is one thing, buying a whole work truck to do the same with is the next level of uselessness.

Karl

[cidalfus]

Would a pair of Rio lowering springs work in place of cut stock for the front of the festy? ( Megan Racing MR-LS-HYA00, drop supposed to be about 1.5 in for the front )

[timmay89]

Keep in mind Waddle is showing a ford aspire not a festiva. I did the Rio swap and cut 1.5 coils and it sits perfect. If you have the time, cut 1/5 coil at a time.

[whatle]

what do you guys like to run camber and toe at for handling(dont wanna eat tires too much but do like to drive spirited!)? right now im sitting .4 degrees positive camber and stock toe-in of bout .30 degrees. its so nice to have a brand new hunter alignment rack to play with at work

[FeistyFesti]

Just got my 2001 Kia Rio struts and springs assembly for $45 each. Can't wait to put them in the car.

[FestYboy]

i run -2.5 camber per side and no more than .15* toe-in. makes the car feel planted an turn in is still sharp with out being twitchy.

[whatle]

-2.5?? doesnt that scrub the inside of the tires terrible tho? factory is like +.84 ... may have the grind the struts to get some more adjustment and while im at it i should add the extra sway bar from 5/8 threaded rod in the rear

[FestYboy]

no scrub at all with that toe in, tires wear straight and true (i run 185/60/14). just lower the car to gain the camber (FMS springs with one short coil off each corner and helper springs in the rear to stiffen that up for more rotation). you'll likely have to use a camber bolt per side, as i get that camber from the XR2 swap up front (requires use of aspire control arms).

[whatle]

I tried a cam bolt in one side but didnt get much adjustment so i can just grind the strut where it bolts to the spindle and maybe get like 1.5-2 * neg camber. The roads around here are bad so i dont wanna lower it too much, besides i need ground clearance for the winter time(snow sucks!) What kind of "helper" springs are u talking about in the rear?

[FestYboy]

not sure if it's still in here somewhere but i had posted how i added springs to the rear to stiffen it and add load capacity.

[rbrown]

That sits purdy!