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Hi!<P>I'm gonna need a new suspension soon and I need your advice. At first I wanted to drop my mx-3 but since I moved 3h from my place to study, I'm doing about 90% of my km on highway so dropping my car would be a waste of money and confort. So what I'm looking for is the best shocks that I could use on the stock springs for a confort ride and a sporty handling for my 10% city milage.<P>Thanks!

emmm....ok. Since nobody understood my question, I'm gonna change it. Are performances shocks (like tokico for example) good w/ the stock spring? or are they worth it only on dropped car?

I've got the zx2's with stock springs. It's a little rougher, but not too bad (my wife doesn't even complain much). I don't think you could get struts alone that would make your ride seem as harsh as if it were droped with good springs.<P>Coilovers might be a good option if you don't mind the stiffness & just need clearance for the highways.<P>Mazdaspeed also makes adjustable struts though ther a bit pricey.<P>For improved handeling you might look at other mods like: good tires, strut bars, sway bars, etc.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by tk1138:<BR><STRONG> I don't think you could get struts alone that would make your ride seem as harsh as if it were droped with good springs.<P></STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>That I'll disagree with. Take a ride in a car with STIFF shocks and its very stiff. My friend Jason Minehart's protege with custom valved Bilsteins was stiffer than my protege with springs and tokico blues, and the big sway bars. My MR2 with Konis to full stiff is the same.

OK, so JUST struts vs. good springs? WOW, it seems like you'd run into handeling problems with too stiff a set up (other than drag). Just how much stiffer do people try to go for racing?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by tk1138:<BR><STRONG>OK, so JUST struts vs. good springs? WOW, it seems like you'd run into handeling problems with too stiff a set up (other than drag). Just how much stiffer do people try to go for racing?</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Jason's struts are valved stiffer than the World Speedvision Touring Proteges...which are full RACE cars.<P>And there are tradeoffs. On any sort of irregular/bumpy/gravelly surface, his car will skate around if you push it.<P>REALLY STIFF Springs will do the same thing for most transitional movements.<P>When using stiff struts, it basically acts as if the car has really stiff springs, for a while, until they compress, and then youre on the bumpstops....not exactly the BEST way to do it, but it works.

Ok now what should I do? I wanna keep the stock spring for economic reasons.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Brainless:<BR><STRONG>Ok now what should I do? I wanna keep the stock spring for economic reasons.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Get a set of mazdaspeeds if you can afford them...if not, the ZX2s are a great deal for the price.

ZX2? I don't know that model....are you talking about struts from a ford escort zx2?

Yes, do a search in this forum. There's a website that has all the info on it. Here's what youll need:<BR>1. ZX2 struts <BR>2. ZX2 thrust bearings<BR>3. You can dremel your MX-3 upper spring pearches, or get ZX2 spring pearches<BR>4. Camber bolts (those who've done this mod on the MX-3 have noticed a lot of negative camber afterword.<BR>5. Dust boots & nuts for those that need to be replaced.<P>It's quite aqward to get the front stock springs compressed, so be warned. Other than that and the dremeling it's a pretty good mod at an amazing price.<P>Protege: About stiff setups, that's what I was thinking, thanks. Do you know of any BG chassis cars that have the automatic ride height adjusters?

All that custom work doesn't sound good to me. Why souldn't I get performance shock instead?

Cost. the ZX2s are less than 250$ with all that stuff for all four wheels. You indicated money was an issue, and these are the best for the money.<P>Get the mazdaspeeds if you can afford them by all means. They're adjustable, so it'll probably fit your needs for performance.

A really good value option are the KYB GR-2 struts. I have heard really good things about them from friends who have them installed in other (non-MX3) vehicles.<P>They're priced at $69.00 U.S. each from Corksport, so they will be slightly more expensive than the ZX-2 struts, but should not require any "customizing" to make them fit. Having ridden in a couple of ZX-2's, I would think that the handling would be comparable, and the ride should be the same, if not better.