What is the stock spring rate, front and rear, on our GE cars?

I am well aware that there have been dozens of threads on suspension on the forum. Now, it's my turn. I'm about to start thinking about maybe committing to the idea of eventually replacing all of my suspension, front and rear. Do I sound hesitant? Do I sound cautious? If so, then you are not hearing things. This is a job that I will have to hire someone else to do, then hire someone else to do the alignment. Having other people work on my car makes me nervous and unhappy. But, at this point, the car is like a bobblehead at highway speeds. I consider suspension tuning to be a dark art. It takes more than just slapping new parts on. Much to learn before I enter the darkness.

 

Does anyone know of a suspension forum site that you could help with this?

Thanks.

 

Are you trying to create a suspension from scratch using upgraded parts or are you trying to replace worn components with OEM parts?

If OEM parts, shouldn't they match what you have? And, if you use OEM parts, why will "suspension tuning" be required? To use your terminology, it kind of should be as simple as "slapping new parts on," especially if you're replacing everything.

By the way, replacing suspension components on a Fit is not a particularly hard job, especially if you buy pre-assembled front struts and don't have to use a spring compressor.

 

@Drew21 Thanks, Drew.

I want to know what the amount of change will be if I upgrade to Bilstein B14 PPS. Something like this:


Bilstein:

Front Main Spring Rate (lbs/in): 200

Rear Main Spring Rate (lbs/in): 171


Honda OEM (according to AI):

Front Main Spring Rate (lbs/in): 128.79

Rear Main Spring Rate (lbs/in): 117.59


I cannot find confirmed numbers on the Internet. Next step is to take the wheels off yet again and see if the OEM springs are marked for spring rate.

Note: I saw a YouTube recently in which the guy was saying that most of the time people only detect something like a 2% change in ride quality when they upgrade their suspensions. I do not know what to make of that.

 

you seem to have been misled by the llm slop

 

I haven't touched the suspension on the Fit, but did a complete refresh of the suspension on our 2014 Nissan Leaf EV in summer 2024 -- struts, LCAs, sway bar links, rear shocks -- but didn't really notice much difference outside of improvements with (some) of the suspension clunking that led me down that maintenance path.

After removal it was clear that the original struts and shocks on the Leaf were definitely gone. If you compressed them by hand they just sat there and barely rebounded at all. So, some difference should have been noticeable but to my butt the Leaf handled fine for the driving we do both before and after maintenance. (I will note that the roads are so bad in central MA that my desire to keep our cars in one piece precludes any spirited driving. There's no point, but significant peril, in chucking the car around a sharp curve when you're more likely than not to hit a minefield of deep potholes just around the corner.)

 

@mike410b Thanks, Mike.

@Drew21 I've lived in MA and NY/NE. I know what you mean about potholes. Come to California. The biggest danger to your car here is the crappy drivers.