Just springtime

I've been using the Saturn as my daily commuting car for the last month or so now. I've put on over 600 miles and the car seems to be holding up fine. Because it is the car I use most days I've been hesitating to do the rear spring and shock upgrade. I was not sure how long it would take and wanted to make sure I had plenty of time. So I waited for a weekend when I wasn't too busy.

Yesterday was that weekend. Removing and replacing the springs and shocks was relatively easy. It took about 3 hours to do one side and half that time to do the other side.



One thing I've come to realize is that 99% of the work is relatively straight forward and easy. Of course that other 1% is always that one odd sized, rusted, stripped bolt in the least accessible location possible. Sort of a metaphor for life :-)

Below is a picture of the new and old shocks. These appear to be the original factory shocks. I imagine that replacing them after 100K+ miles should result in a significant improvement.



The reason for replacing the springs is that even though the rear suspension is rated for the extra 1000lb+ of batteries the car is riding about 2-3" lower in the rear than prior to the conversion. The new springs were made by Coilsprings.com. Based on the factory spring data and the added weight they were able to fabricate springs to raise the rear back to the original height.

You can see in the pictures below that the new springs are longer and have a larger diameter wire gauge.


Here is a picture with the old spring removed. The old shock is hanging in the top middle of the picture. The lower control arm is the middle of the picture, behind the wheel.



Here' what it looks like after replacing the spring and shock.



I haven't had the opportunity to drive with the suspension upgrades yet. The rear is 3" higher and definitely looks better. Next up 20" wheels and spinners :-)

A final note. I've finally answered the age old question of whether cars are male or female. You know, "she's a beautiful car" vs "he gets me there and back". If you look closely at the picture above and the picture of the disassembled rear end you'll see an "unusual" looking part of the rear suspension.

I think the part is called a jounce bumper. It has something to do with preventing the spring from compressing too much on a big bump. Whatever it is called it answers the male/female question thing. Just scroll down to the picture below for the answer.