Winter Changeover on my '06 - Tires, Suspension Rise, Sway Bar Disconnect, Air Intake

[northguest47]

Winter is upon us, I'm now in Southern Ontario for winter and have decided to try out a unique setup for winter including the following:

-general altimax typical whateva all season cheapos all around, but 185/70/R14's on front 185/60/R14's on rear
-retire CAI until spring and re-connect the SRI from way back when so I don't freeze my throttle body (have it somewhere tbf)
-disconnect the front sway bar (keeping the rear tho') and remove endlinks (to be replaced with new ones next spring)
-raise the front coil-overs to level the car (my setup has some rake, i think even the bigger tires won't raise enough)
-re-alignment after its all done

I think this will be a really fun winter setup - theres no need for the sway bar, smaller front tires, the better acceleration, braking, etc. in winter. All that is bounded by lack of traction, last time I had 185/70's I found second and third gear just more useable, so it will be interesting to try it out again.

Btw my car again pulls to the right upon acceleration, pulls to the left upon braking - last time this was caused by the drivers side control arm bushing working its way out of its spot causing movement in the control arm triangulation. I haven't looked at it up on the hoist yet, but I wonder if its that same bushing again. The car was run pretty tough on the west coast twisties this year, so I wouldn't be surprised.

Hoping to get most of this done within a week, the alignment session is at another shop, hopefully within two weeks. I'll post back to document how the change feels.

[northguest47]

Got the car back from the shop today - first off handling issue fixed!! It was just the drivers side outer tie rod causing the issue (and the worn out tires too prob), the control arm is holding up fine, so good to know.

Fronts have Grand Prix Tour RS 185/70/R14 88T M&S
Rears have General Altimax RT43 185/60/R14 82H M&S

With the sway bar disconnected the car is much plusher of a drive lol and it still corners fine on account of the rear sway bar still being connected. Independent front suspension soaks up crappy pavement really well! The endlinks I have are still the same ones rabbit sold me years back so they will be replaced next summer with new hardware.

I just went from 185/55 series tires on the front that were very worn out, so pretty much the smallest tire any Aveo could have on the drives, to 185/70 series - a huge step up in size giving a 1.1" higher sidewall (and lift), and 10% larger circumference (less torque). Its noticeable in many aspects - from roll-ons to the speedometer now being accurate (lol its been off by 10% for years), to even the clutch friction zone being worked a bit more when starting off from a stop, and dumping the clutch between shifts.

Didn't get a chance to go for a good test drive on account of too much traffic, but I will take it out on the highway later on tonight. So the coil-overs were raised a bit too even with the 1.1" lift from the tires and now the car is level which will get some taking used to as I'm used to the rake. My lights are always aimed low so they don't need adjusting. All in all super stoked on the setup. Its not winter tires, which I've run for the past many years so I am anxious to take a run out after the next snow storm and do some lock ups and under-steer tests.

Next up is to convert from CAI to SRI, oil and filter change, and then off to another shop for the alignment check. I'll do a follow up post after that
Took a few pics when arriving home: (geez time for some body work and new paint job me-thinks)

[northguest47]

Okay I just switched the setup from winter to summer (swapping the fronts and the rears), so the 185/60's are now on the front, and the 185/70's are on the rear. Its pretty amazing the difference, totally not needed in winter, but when you jump from 70 series to 60 series the torque effect is absolutely noticeable. I don't even the think the motor likes the 70 series, it just seems tuned to run the 60 series tires as far as the flat spot in the 4000 rpms which is noticeably smaller.
I know that most folks were doing 195 or even 205 tires, I never seemed to need it but maybe next I try 195/50/R14's except that I don't think can find them easily. Only thing I've found is summer 185/55/R14's which look pretty awesome too.
These DAI alloy rims are excellent at surviving winters I run them year round clean them twice a year.
Oh I forgot to mention the car has rake again, definitely the front suspension likes the rake more, and it brakes better and clutch engagement is noticeably stronger.

[northguest47]

Okay I just dbl posted by accident and don't know how to 'undo' it, so there you go.

As a followup I finally purchased an aluminum speed jack that fits underneath the front of the lowered car, (its not very low but it is lower than stock still). I should post a picture and forgot to do that audio test of the exhaust running the first few gears and whatnot. Then theres the body rust now new, and how about how to remove that exhaust manifold without damaging anything.

The first time I tried out the hydraulic jack I got lucky. Again. The jack wasn't rolling forwards, and I didn't know thats 'not good' so I kept on raising and swoop she slipped backwards off the pan and dang the car fell back down and low and behold that jack didn't wreck anything. Makes me wonder if thats why the exhaust is designed the way it is, because if there was a hose or anything in that area .. just glad nothing happened.

[northguest47]

These are the summer setup pics to show the fender clearances.. the body is showing its age .. still if I can replace the shifter with a good one instead of the sloppy one that shop put in, this car would be really awesome again. Some rear bushings on the axles and shocks may need to be replaced, but thats all in the story.. I was squacking the tires on a few corners, but couldn't get any chirping.