Standard Insight rear springs allow bottoming-out on roughish roads.
Daewoo Matiz rear springs are a direct drop-in replacement. Same free
length, slightly stiffer.
If changing to them, make sure you also swap over the rubbery plastic
sleeves that slip over the bottom few Honda spring coils. (Otherwise
there's lots of boooiiiinnnng noises!)
Rear of car rides a little higher (perhaps 20mm or so) but bottoming-
out is substantially reduced. Here in Australia, springs were AUD$30 a pair
from a local wrecking yard.
The improvement in handling from the slightly stiffer rear springs is
quite pronounced. As expected, less understeer. There's a smidgin of
throttle-off oversteer but it's small.
The trade-off in ride comfort
is zero - the stiffer rear springs might be expected to give a worse
ride but without the rear bottoming-out, in fact the ride is far
better than standard. The rear dampers could now be a touch stiffer
(the car feels a little under-damped)but the standrad dampers are
quite acceptable.
Julian Edgar
Daewoo Matiz rear springs are a direct drop-in replacement. Same free
length, slightly stiffer.
If changing to them, make sure you also swap over the rubbery plastic
sleeves that slip over the bottom few Honda spring coils. (Otherwise
there's lots of boooiiiinnnng noises!)
Rear of car rides a little higher (perhaps 20mm or so) but bottoming-
out is substantially reduced. Here in Australia, springs were AUD$30 a pair
from a local wrecking yard.
The improvement in handling from the slightly stiffer rear springs is
quite pronounced. As expected, less understeer. There's a smidgin of
throttle-off oversteer but it's small.
The trade-off in ride comfort
is zero - the stiffer rear springs might be expected to give a worse
ride but without the rear bottoming-out, in fact the ride is far
better than standard. The rear dampers could now be a touch stiffer
(the car feels a little under-damped)but the standrad dampers are
quite acceptable.
Julian Edgar