Should I buy this Escort GT?

[TominMO]

sweet I'll definitely go with the VW struts in the rear with 120# springs. I'm kinda skeptical on using front rio struts because I want my car to sit lower and of the festivas I've seen with rio struts they seem to sit the same/higher for bigger wheels. is this a silly thing to think? with the rio front struts and 150# springs will my car sit lower? I don't want it to be slammed but I want to be a lil lower and pass the shoe test haha. here is a pic of how my car sits that I took when I got home today.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]20107[/ATTACH]
If it's not too much to ask could you post a pic of how your festiva sits? you don't have to if you don't wanna. I'm excited to do all this soon!

The springs are the main determinant on how low your car sits. I cut my stock front Festy springs 1 coil, and should have done 1.25. I would not go more than 1.5 just to be safe, because of the length of the Rio strut shaft. I think the VW strut's shaft is shorter, so you can use shorter springs. Whatever springs you put on, I would cut 1 coil then see if you like them that way, and decide how much more to cut if any. Others may chime in with better ideas than cutting springs, like going with a front coilover setup. I did it because it was cheap and basically worked, though not ideal.

Yeah, you have to match your spring height with the tire height, more or less, to avoid issues.

I don't think I have a pic of the car with the current suspension. I'll look around. If not, I will take a pic.

[fudge]

good to know, I will look into the rio struts.
Well I just looked into it and I found this on ebay for the low! Says 2002 kia rio so they should work right? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=A3KASLLE3QKSY
if I can get those for that cheap I might just use the rest of the setup from the ultimate street suspension thread.

too hype!!!

[TominMO]

Yeah, 2001 - 02 Rio. Not as good as Charlie's setup, but plenty good enough for me. The Rio top hats will make the car steer really light, like you have power steering, because of the ball bearings. The stock Festy springs will eventually be replaced with front gen1 Miatas.

At the JY I grabbed a set of Rio springs and the top hats, and planned to buy new struts. They charged me $10 each for the springs, and threw in the top hats for free! Ironically I ended up not using the springs. This was a couple years ago.

If you cut your spring a little too short, so that the strut shaft is bottoming, that is not good. You can sorta fix this by having sufficient bump stops on the shaft that prevent it from bottoming. That will also act as a sort of progressive rising-rate spring. (Charlie, do a sanity check on this paragraph.)

Here's a pic of my car from the side, with one coil cut in front. I think I will cut another 1/2 coil.

[TominMO]

good to know, I will look into the rio struts.
Well I just looked into it and I found this on ebay for the low! Says 2002 kia rio so they should work right? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=A3KASLLE3QKSY
if I can get those for that cheap I might just use the rest of the setup from the ultimate street suspension thread.

too hype!!!

I'm not sure these are the right struts. I am on Rock Auto now, and they list two different sets of KYB front struts for the 2002 Rios, depending on build date, I don't know what the difference is. I would suggest that you get ones specified for 2001, just to be safe.

Edit: the first pair (L and R) says from 2001 - 02, the second pair says from 2002 - 05. Same with other brands there too. You click on the part # to get this info. The later ones use the three-stud upper strut mount, so maybe they don't fit into the two-stud one.

Also, note that the Amazon listing is for one strut, not two as in the pic. Better off buying from Rock Auto. Shipping was ~$8 for the two rear struts I just got today.

[fudge]

Just saw this! Thanks for sharing the pic and all of the info man, it helps a lot. I was going to do my suspension sooner but I am going to wait until after christmas and save up to the ultimate street suspension kit after all. Too excited, but my brakes basically went out the other day so I gotta fix that first, sigh...

[TominMO]

Just saw this! Thanks for sharing the pic and all of the info man, it helps a lot. I was going to do my suspension sooner but I am going to wait until after christmas and save up to the ultimate street suspension kit after all. Too excited, but my brakes basically went out the other day so I gotta fix that first, sigh...

Where's your sense of adventure? :-)

[fudge]

haha just swamped with school/work/gf and I'm not good at self diagnosing

[TominMO]

haha just swamped with school/work/gf and I'm not good at self diagnosing

School = necessary to get ahead
Work = necessary to make money to pay for school
gf = time and money waster

Dump gf = have more time to wrench on Festy + $$$ to buy parts
Winning! ;-)

You will probably not follow this advice because you are young and have testosterone raging through your bloodstream. Sad really..... :-)

[fudge]

School = necessary to get ahead
Work = necessary to make money to pay for school
gf = time and money waster

Dump gf = have more time to wrench on Festy + $$$ to buy parts
Winning! ;-)

You will probably not follow this advice because you are young and have testosterone raging through your bloodstream. Sad really..... :-)

LOL

[firebush357]

Just think about how many GF's you will be able to get once you have a sweet Festiva. Then you just have to learn how to manage multiple ones at once! just think of it as an investment lol

[Advancedynamix]

^this is true.
The good ones wrench on your car with you.

[TominMO]

Yes because Festivas are known far and wide as total chick magnets......and did we mention the rear seat trick?

[firebush357]

Fold the Rear Seat Down, open up the back hatch and use the rear seat brackets for leverage...

[william]

^ lol I just about died eating my lunch. Thanks for that

[TominMO]

Fold the Rear Seat Down, open up the back hatch and use the rear seat brackets for leverage...

Ah, the voice of experience. Heartfelt congratulations to all for a very successfully hijacked thread. :-) :-)