Aspire struts on Festy

[js_og]

I am slowly gathering parts for the B8 swap and since I will need new coils, I thought about getting new struts too. I bought Aspire struts thinking it would do it but I believe I did a boo-boo.

Can anyone confirm?

[perucho]

Do you mean shocks? I believe they are the same. When I replaced mine with KYB GR2's, I think the part numbers were the same for Festy and Aspire.

[william]

Aspires had a higher rear spring perch helps with clearing bigger tires, I also got aspire struts when I changed mine, put the old festiva springs back on it rides ok but really helped the handling ( my old struts had 200,000+ on them) others than that I cant really tell the difference

I don't think the handling was helped because they were aspire but more so because they needed to be changed

[perucho]

That's very true. The Aspire rear strut spring perch is higher. What's interesting is that the KYB GR2 part number is the same for Festiva and Aspire (Manufacturer Part #: 340009). Maybe they have the higher perch. And that would explain why my rear tires (175/70/13 on 13x5.5 +38) cleared the KYB's easily.

[htchbck]

Yep, they do have a higher perch... same thing on my car when I was running 185/60R14s on the Aspire brake swap, they barely touched the perches in the turns on the festiva stock struts, but when I went to KYBs no more touching there. Back to festiva brakes now, and the 175/70R13s still clear the KYBs no problem.

[navdoc101]

To answer your original question, You did good! They fit with no problems.

[nitrofarm]

That's very true. The Aspire rear strut spring perch is higher. What's interesting is that the KYB GR2 part number is the same for Festiva and Aspire (Manufacturer Part #: 340009). Maybe they have the higher perch. And that would explain why my rear tires (175/70/13 on 13x5.5 +38) cleared the KYB's easily.

Yep, they do have a higher perch... same thing on my car when I was running 185/60R14s on the Aspire brake swap, they barely touched the perches in the turns on the festiva stock struts, but when I went to KYBs no more touching there. Back to festiva brakes now, and the 175/70R13s still clear the KYBs no problem.

Maybe the original GR2 was didderent for the rear? We picked some up that a friend had sitting around for a long time in the box. Or maybe the backspace on our metro rims was the problem. But we put the GR2's on my sons festy & they rubbed worse than the old stockers. When we put on new aspire units problem solved. So maybe you guys can can tell me what the cause was. It had to be back space or the perch. Either way Chobobulous got a deal on some new GR2's & my son got to drive back to college.After we cut a coil out of the stock spring. (we are running 175/70R13 Generals)

[TominMO]

The GR2s are Festy-spec for the height of the rear spring perch. I had to reluctantly switch to Aspire Monroe rear struts, which don't give as good ride and handling as the GR2s IMO, when I went to taller and wider tires (185/60x14) on my Festy. You can of course get away with GR2s on the rear of an Aspire if you are using the stock tires, 165/70x13, which is why they can list them for Aspires as well as Festys.

[js_og]

Sorry guys, I meant SHOCKS in the first place. All this discussion on Gr2s was interesting though...

Monroe part #s are different.

[navdoc101]

Struts/ shocks all same on Festys. They are struts!

[Bert]

I compared new Monroe-brand struts and shocks for Festys and Aspires last year and Aspire perches were about 3/8 inch higher up. Not a big deal but nice to know when you start to play with rims (and tires) beyond 155/80x12 inch and there ain't a lot of room at the tread end of the tires.

[js_og]

Thanks Bert! Glad to know my investment didn't go to waste