Are rising-rate springs offered for older chod?

[forddeliveryboy]

As title says - although I should have said 'coil springs'. Modern cars ride a lot better than they used to, partly because of this. Citroën realised back in the 1940s that ride could be improved no end if the first inch or two of travel was softer than the next, most offered it from the 90s onwards unless you had the luxury* of leaf springs or torsion bars.

 

What is the possibility of buying coils for 70s and 80s cars which aren't the old fixed rate? The other question is, how are rising-rate coils measured?

[Junkman]

Modern cars ride like shit. Don't go this way.

[twosmoke300]

Pedant mode - all coil springs are , by there nature rising rate.

ie the more you load them the stiffer the rate gets.

 

On the other hand , not being a pedantic Dick , I know what you are after but think you may struggle and it may require hours of fun * looking through parts catalogs trying to match some up. Also be aware that modern springs are heat treated differently due to environmental reasons so tend to break more often.

[Asimo]

Can't agree that modern cars ride better than older cars. The market now seems only to care about test track lap times and giant wheels.

[forddeliveryboy]

Ok, should have made it clear I wasn't saying newer cars ride better than the better old ones - I find spring rates are usually a good bit stiffer than they need be as well (as the usual band of rubber around too-big rims) giving an awful ride which prevents decent cross-country speeds as a body bucks about.

 

But 10 or 15 years ago, I think modern stiff-springed cars had their coils changed to those which give a relatively softer ride for the first inch or so of deflection either side of ride height?

 

These have the potential for both a better-controlled and softer ride and was just wondering aloud. I once drove a couple of Mk3 Golfs back to back, one with the newer type spring - the car felt altogether more composed.

[dollywobbler]

Anyone who reckons modern springs are rubbish has clearly never driven a Citroen C5 Mk2. Left me wondering why they bothered with that hydrowotsit gubbins. (almost)

[derskine]

My 18 rides like a magic carpet, much better than any modern car I've been a passenger in.

[chaseracer]

The Blingo and the 205 ride nicely, but 2Smoke's right - front coils are pretty much an extended service item.

[forddeliveryboy]

Anyone who reckons modern springs are rubbish has clearly never driven a Citroen C5 Mk2. Left me wondering why they bothered with that hydrowotsit gubbins. (almost)

 

Sort of see what you're saying - many later gas sprung PSA cars weren't really engineered by men who understood the system properly (even though it worked well, the Hydractive system was a clumsily executed system) - plus it was grafted around a cheapo chassis and otherwise left unaltered, except for massive increases in spring rates to compensate for very conventional machines and modern fashion. Anyone who thinks that the only reason old Citroëns were so sublime was down to spheres and liquid pushrods alone is missing the fact that the springing, damping and fluid interconnection was only one aspect of a beautifully engineered suspension, from the massive alloy wheel hubs through the vast complex subframes and to the steering column.

 

So many automatically assume a BX, Xantia or C5 is a real Citroën through and through simply because it has bubbles of gas instead of metal springs, whereas the cars are really largely Peugoet but with different body styling and interiors. Which isn't to say a good Xantia doesn't shadow a 406 from the driver's point of view.

 

 

Can't agree that modern cars ride better than older cars. The market now seems only to care about test track lap times and giant wheels.

 

So true - loads of moderns can actually become unstable as speeds rise, since the (massively heavy) body shells and everything bolted to them - so engine, box and the rest - tend to start bucking about as they follow the road imperfections rather than having them smoothed out for them by articulating suspension. Not only that, but the systems have to deal with constant high frequency oscillations transmitted from rubber band tyres, instead of the tyres doing this work.

 

I think that as speed limits have become the easy way of collecting even more taxes from motorists, rather than enforcing a good standard of driving, which combined with over-crowded roads has led to motorists relying in cheap thrills of whizzing round smooth roundabouts and accelerating hard out of them, rahter than making journeys as rapidly, comfortably and safely as possible - which is how it used to be for those interested in all things motoring.

[forddeliveryboy]

On the other hand , not being a pedantic Dick , I know what you are after but think you may struggle and it may require hours of fun * looking through parts catalogs trying to match some up. Also be aware that modern springs are heat treated differently due to environmental reasons so tend to break more often.

 

Are there any catalogues online, ts? It would be interesting to compare springs for the two Golfs I mentioned, to see the difference. From that, one could potentially extrapolate what's needed for other stuff - much cheaper than having springs made to order.

[Squire_Dawson]

In ye olde days there was a device called Armstrong 'Selectaride' which gave several settings, selected from a switch on the instrument panel, for the dampers according to personal taste and the type of driving being done. It was standard equipment on some expensive cars but could also be bought from Armstrong and retro-fitted.