major suspension and wheel upgrade

It's time I make the plunge and get this upgrade. A couple things about my driving habits: I drive long distance between Greenville SC and Raleigh NC (about 300 miles). I actually live past Greenville and into the last Co. in SC in a place that nobody had heard of.... I keep my speed at 75 to 80 MPH (indicated, the GPS says something different). Occasionally I will gun it and drive very aggressively and corner hard. Curvy on ramps will have me accelerating and trying to hold the corner. On some curvy roads, I am trying to hang on and push my car. On the highway I hit the cruise and kick back.
The Car: I have the Light Blue Hatchback Special Value manual transmission with add on AC. I put on aftermarket cruise control. Currently I have Falken crappy tires with a crappy suspension.
I want to get a good gas millage with occasional hell raising. Not acceleration (Hey it is a Chevy Aveo) but more action on the curves.
So I am thinking new suspension, front strut bar and a under the car rear anti-sway bar, new alloy wheels and new tires.
Front Strut Bar:
I found this on ebay, this is what I am going to buy first for the strut bar. Any experience with this product? Can you feel a difference?
ULTRA RACING 2-Point Front Strut Bar: Chevrolet Aveo [UR-TW2-531]
Suspension:
I have been looking around and I have not really found anything I have liked. I did look on KYBs website for the KB GR-2 struts and I could not find anything. I am considering lowering the car. Just how much I don’t know. On the highway I expect that will improve gas millage. So recommendations on how much to lower and whose products would be appreciated.
Wheels:
Everything I have read here leans towards 15 and 16 inch wheels for a balance of millage and performance. When I do switch wheels, I plan on painting the rear drums black. I am leaning towards a 16 inch wheel chrome (it goes with everything!) and 7 inch width.
http://www.discounttiredirect.com/produ ... grm.xl.jpg
Any experience with Konig Wheels? Is this a good size?

Now that I have discussed everything, I find buying tires to be a very frustrating experience. Tires wear out faster than is stated. Even with getting Alignments done regularly once the suspension goes your tires soon follow. I have noticed mechanics will not say anything until they are bald even while with regular alignments. So I would to get something that is popular (meaning a lot in stock and a lower price). Any suggestions there?

Gr2 shocks are you only bolt on choice for struts but there are other options out there.

The strut bars are nice, but wait. Just lowering and switching from the crappy oem tires will tremendously improve handling. If you need more after that then correct based on how the handling reacted. If you just stick everything on the car it might not be as comfortable on long highway trips.

The best tire for the money I have found is falken 502. Probably @ $50-60 in whatever size you pick for the aveo with a 15-17. It handles beyond the cars ability is cheap and lasts about double what most cheap tires do with aggressive driving.

I never did any suspension upgrades. All I did was go from the 185 OEM tires to a 195 BF Goodrich Traction T/A and I felt that my car handled better.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NYChevoo

I never did any suspension upgrades. All I did was go from the 185 OEM tires to a 195 BF Goodrich Traction T/A and I felt that my car handled better.

---

Same here except I bought the uniroyal tiger paw.

I found some lowering spring:
http://www.ilovebodykits.com/category/1 ... rings.html

B&G 04-09 Chevorlet Aveo S2 Sport Spring
Front:1.5 Rear:1.5
Chasis:

Eibach Pro-Kit Springs -06 to 08 Chevrolet Aveo 5 & Sedan 1.6L 4 Cyl.
Front: 1.3 in Rear: 1.0 in
High Performance Handling and Aggressive Good Looks
Lower Center of Gravity -- Lowers Vehicle 1.0" - 1.5"

H&R Sport Springs For Chevrolet / GMC Aveo 2004-2008 (50701)
Stage:Sport Spring
Front:1.5
Rear:1.4


Anybody with any experience with these products? My next question, do I just go buy a standard shock/strut or does that to change as well?

Have you seen this thread?

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=27834

for the cost of the springs AND struts, you could buy and install basic coil overs. for a few hundred more, you can get fully adjustable dampening and then fine tune your car beyond just springs with stock replacement struts.

I had H&R springs, i bought them before i even took delivery of my car from the dealership. i knew i wanted more after the test drive, and finding them on the dealership computer helped me decide to buy the car. They we installed for a day, and then i cut one coil off each spring because it still looked stock height, but it did handle better, after the 2nd set of oem tires went bald at 6k miles, i upgraded to 16" wheels and falken 502s, the setup was awesome to say the least. But i am much happier with my 15" wheels and coil overs. Plus i am running the cheap coil overs. Havent switched to dampening yet.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by petrified.rabbit

Have you seen this thread?

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=27834

for the cost of the springs AND struts, you could buy and install basic coil overs. for a few hundred more, you can get fully adjustable dampening and then fine tune your car beyond just springs with stock replacement struts.
.

---

Yes I have seen the thread and it did not mean much as I did not understand coilovers. Now I do! THANK you for posting and doing research on this. This might be a really great way to go. I have a few clarifications on the post.
1) Buy the rakkor coilovers.
http://www.rokkortuning.com/p-27-rokkor ... i-iii.aspx
2) Contact you for the end link kit?

At the price you are correct. It's very competitive with MacPherson Struts/Shocks. Now as they wear out, I can buy the "cartridge" or do I have to buy a new kit each time? This stuff is new to me.

Yes. But in your case I would personally spend the money that would have gone to the bars and buy dampening adjustable coilovers.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by petrified.rabbit

Yes. But in your case I would personally spend the money that would have gone to the bars and buy dampening adjustable coilovers.

---

Yes, I am bringing up my thread again. Ride Height Coilovers are about 300 bucks without any damping adjustment. In regards to the ultra racing bar that sits on top of the struts, I don't see the correlation between damping adjustment to body stiffness. If it's a anti-roll bar that sits on the bottom and ties the moving parts together, then I can see how a better coil-over would work. For example if a car is a right hand turn, then the car will roll to the left. That means the passenger side suspension component will prevent any body rise. (correct?). (BTW, I am not trying to be difficult, just trying to understand through questioning).

Now back to wheels: I have a choice between a 15x6.5 or a 16x7. The 15 gives more sidewall and it's slightly narrow compared to the 16x7. Granted the 16 look sharper and will have a "stiffer" performance and they typically cost about 100 bucks more.

Rabbit knows I am committed to coilovers, will I have a problem with the 16x7 when I lower my vehicle? My rear tires are getting "thin" so it's time I replace them. I might as well apply the 150 bucks of replacement and replace all my wheels.

basically, you can look at it in two aspects.

if you lower the center of gravity, then you have less to topple over.. ie less body roll. that goes for springs, and coil overs. benefit of the coil overs is this aspect is adjustable height.

The dampening adjustment is "Sort of" like a deflection range. How much you want to let the suspension move when it moves.
if the inside corner on a turn, you can have it adjusted to it "how much" it will allow that corner of the car to drop (more specifically how fast, for the duration or to outlast the turn). the opposite side will raise in correlation to the drop of the other side.. So the less it drops the less it will raise the other side= less body roll. plus, if you can adjust how fas the other side will raise up. you get more control.

wheels sizes don't matter as much as tires, if you run a 195/50 whether r15 or r16, it will have the same side wall but more/less rolling diameter. but if you were doing a 195/50r15 versus a 205/40r16, then yes sidewall is very different.