I do believe I may end up replacing my struts/springs, so my question is to everyone here. What would you recommend? I have looked at coilovers, air ride, and OEM replacement. Any ideas, and what brand, plus where to buy. Let me know what you guys think I should do. I figured since I have to replace the rear, might as well get the whole system done. Later!!

- J.D.

The BAT kit is very good for a sporty OEM ride and handling. You may have a few different options over in Germany.

I was thinking of going with the coilovers from D2 Racing, but I am unsure on any of this. I like the idea of adjusting the firmness, as well as the ride height, especially before shows here, but my understanding is that I would have to take the tires off and measure the threads to adjust everytime. This seems to be to in depth, but I guess that is the tradeoff. I am not a mechanic, so I am lost when it comes to stuff like this. Anyway, there are several options here in Germany with High Performance European parts (made for Autobahn driving), but they tend to get quite pricey, and with the dollar doing so horrible against the Euro, not really sure if that would be the route I want to go (even though my Tour sees a lot of high speed driving). The only option I have here is that fact that I can do some shopping around, get the cheapest price, and use a Tax-Free paper from the Army to deduct the 19% sales tax. That's right, 19% sales tax. I had the same look on my face too when I first heard it, but at least it is better than some other countries around here. Austria = 24%, Switzerland = 25%, Italy = 22%, etc. Anyway, let me know what your thoughts are on Air Ride as well. Later!!

have you looked at the bat catalogue? it's in pdf, which is lame, but it has allot of options in it. I was personally looking at the bat kit and the spax. there was a third contender, but I dont remember.

I would recommend the BAT catalog as well. I would say BAT springs (becuase they they don't drop the car so much that you need to worry about the rest of the suspension setup), and Koni struts. Of course I am a Koni bigot, I have put them on every car I have had, and they are by far the most durable and reliable. I just changed from SPAX to Koni's on my 69 GT6, and it handles much better. ...at least that's what I tell myself and my wife to justify the purchase.
The Koni's are relatively easy to change as far as dampering as well. The only drawback is that the plastic adjustment knob needs to be modified a bit to allow it to engage the top of the back struts.
To be honest, I don't know that much about the SPAX struts but I am sure you would see a big inprovement with them as well....just not as much as the Koni's(LOL) ..kidding!

I like the spax for a few reasons

their much less than the koni's

koni lays back on their name allot

the spax are made in england, which only seems appropriate for a ford of europe product.

if you take a look at the spax web site you'll see that they specialize in complete race suspension

I'm shopping around as well for a coil over set up as well. I'm leaning t'werds the BAT set up as it is "put it in and feerget'bout it," type thing. I'm doing the glow gages, rear overhead light, hood, trunk, skirts, body work, on and on. not to mention work and the yard and the house, so I wanna look at it once and be done... that could be a biased opinion. then again a stiff ride might be nice up north with the Mrs. one might think that Germany has some sort of stipulation on the product that can be used on the Autobahn, maybe not spaxx and koni are euro, they could be less $ in germany than state side. I'd like to know....mmmm?

Well, i just checked into your idea, and it is just as I expected. The average price is around 160 - 170 Euros, which at today's exchange rate is between $250 - $270. That is of course for each one. I am thinking that it may be better to go with BAT. If the exchange rate wasn't so bad then we would be good, but that is the main problem with purchasing anything from Germany or overseas for that matter right now. The only problem I have is not the purchasing from stateside, but I have to pay for the shipping overseas, so sometimes it works out, sometimes it is almost as expensive as buying from the Germans.

just my two cents, I am also in the market and am going to go with the BAT struts and H&R sport springs. There have been A LOT of recent failures with the Koni Yellows and the BAT struts are close in handling, better in ride, and better on the wallet!! As for the H&Rs, they are a QUALITY piece. The Eibach's are nice, but after about 10-15k, the rear starts to sag a little. The BAT springs are good quality but they only lower the car about a 1/2 inch whereas the H&Rs are 1.2, not too drastic to make driving it everyday a PITA, but enough to give the car an agressive stance and considerable handling improvement

Two websites that I found have the H&Rs for a decent price brand new, don't know if you can order and ship to Europe or not.
Good Luck

$232.50 USD ------ http://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/shopca..._HANDRS_pg8.htm

$232.36 USD ------ http://store.allsprings.com/shared/StoreFr...Count2=45310616

OK....


first off, I agree with statements about koni's failing (not specifically on 'tours, but... ya know)

the price exchange sucks bollocks, WTF would german parts cost MORE in germany???? WTF ?????

I do really like the BAT stuff, it's pretty well made, havn't used it myself, but.... from the parts I've handeled, it its pretty good stuff.

in my low budget situation, I'm looking into bat struts with a half link cut from the SVT springs that came stock on my SE-Sport.


mind you now, not just any morron can cut springs right, so I dont recommend this, I'd say.....

if your money is short, just buy the friggin bat kit, it does a pretty good job.

I like the H&R springs they are great and recently we have had a couple of Konis failing on SVTs. I have H&R springs on the SVT with KYB GR-2 struts and the car handles very well. I like the eibachs a lot and if you look at Doms Black SVT has the eibachs on it and it is insane how low the car sits and the handling is amazing. Looking at getting BAT struts for the mistake but havent decided on springs yet leaning towards Eibachs and INtrex. Just my .02

Billy

Does anybody know if there is an air ride system for the 1995-1997 Contours? And if so any one know how it rides?

Adam

So I'm getting the BAT coil over kit, I also think ( since there is 85,000 on the clock) that new sway bushings the mounts and bearings should be done at that time as well. But I'm not sure about the camber kit. Has anyone installed the BAT kit with or without the camber kit, the savings up front is $300, but if I purchase it will they save my tires in the long run? I've seen a few tables in other threads that state it stays within specs. I'm not triing to leave anything out, but if I can save $300 on this it can go else where. Any thoughts?

I was just wondering what this will do for the overall specs, seeing as BAT is recpommending to be careful in dropping the car too far causing more tire wear. Would this be the way to go, to just go after the BAT struts, and other springs? The way I see it, BAT only really offers the BAT struts, SPAX struts, and Bilstein. I personally wouldn't go with Koni either since here in Europe, they are breaking down left and right. It seems here the name to roll with is KW Racing, but they are way overpriced if you ask me. I have written off the coilover idea due to something a few German friends here told me. They basically said that at first it is nice to be able to adjust, but after awhile, it gets to be a PITA due to having to remove the tire to adjust, and then measuring to get the right height on both sides, everytime you want to adjust. So what ended up happening is that they just left it at one setting and never adjusted again.

I am just trying to find out which setup would be the best plug-and-play type setup. I am looking for better handling, but overall aesthetics must be up there as well. I want the drop, but not too much to cause problems in the tire department. I like the BAT setup, but I am also worried that it will not drop it enough. Keep in mind I also have a lot of stereo equipment in the trunk which weighs a good amount as well (see my gallery). Which direction do you think I should be going?

- J.D.

The BAT kit gets my vote. It's truly plug and play. It's the best of both worlds, firm and sporty, but comfortable on long trips. It's also rather affordable. The drop is .75-1" lower than stock SVT. It may look a little higher than you want at first, but it will settle. The parts are as reliable as OEM, so you can easily expect 70,000 miles from the struts. My setup is nearing that and beginning to show it's age, but it's been great the entire time I've had them.

Let me explain this to you. The Germans pay a lot of money to live in Germany. For example, they pay for medical care that is government driven, which means that they can go to any doctor anytime they want and just show their card and it is covered. With only a few exceptions, they can get treatment anywhere, nationwide. They also pay for their cars to be inspected once per year, at a minimum, and I only say miminum due to whenever they change their car in any way that is not true to manufacturer specs from the dealership, they have to go back to the inspection point and have their car reinspected. If it fails or is decided that the parts installed are not up to standards, or doesn't not meet safety requirements they have to remove the item and then return to have another inspection to ensure they completed the task correctly. So. One of the last things that drives the German machine is that they are taxed out the ying-yang. They pay a tax on their cars (every year), dog tax (if you own a dog), church tax (for the church otherwise you can't get married in the church), GEZ tax (which is tax on your TV's and radios, also known as radio tax, which also includes the radio or TV in your car, yup), and along with all the many other taxes they have to pay (too many to mention here, besides I am sure Terry and Dom would rather this be in another topic than this one), but they have the infamous Sales tax, which is now up to 19%, and will probably, whithin this year head up to 24%. So, to top it all off, your income tax on take home pay is around 52%, so whatever you make at work, cut in half and give to the government.

This all occurs on a normal basis, without the Germans getting any raise in pay. Any many of there prices went from Marks directly to Euros. So what use to cost 5 Marks, now costs 5 Euros, and the Mark to Euro rate was 2 Marks for every Euro.

Yeah, I know, Scarry!!

Now, when you buy, say for example a new BMW 1 series, the cheapest price for the standard 135i is about 38,950 Euros, which is $60,698. The same exact BMW in USA is starting at $34,900.

Understand? It doesn't matter if it was made here or not. The exchange rate is way too high to purchase almost anything here compared to the states. If the Dollar-Euro rate