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Ok, for any of you who are interested>
I have now fitted the full Abbott springs and Koni struts/shocks to my 1998 CSE 9000. It has been an evolving process which has seen 4 versions of suspension on the car over the past few months. A very expensive quest that I would like to complete!
A bit of history.... I want a good ride with added performance. The original suspension was tired and was replaced by the Speedparts 'Aero' kit. This was an improvement, but still allowed more body roll and dive than I wanted. I then added Abbott springs to those dampners, this helped greatly in the rear, but the front struts couldn't take the rebound [very uncontrolled on road bumps]. So I splurged and went with Koni inserts and shocks.....
My results after riding on the Abbott and Koni setup is anything near what I have read from others. I have a couple strange things going on. If any of you who have this setup, and want to add a comment or two, I would be very grateful.
I will start with the ride height...measured in centimeters from the center of the center cap to the lip of the fender well.
Front right : 36.7
Front left : 37.0
rear right : 35
rear left : 34.9
This is no where near what it should be. These are numbers similar to a standard CSE suspension height. The bumpstops were trimmed and the suspension was installed correctly by a Saab trained mechanic. Car was aligned immediately after the installation. Also, this ride height was the same with both the Sachs struts and the Koni inserts. Ironically, my original tired suspension was lower and most likely an Aero suspension.[But I don't have the ride heights from then, just memory].
And now for the actual driving experience. I used the Abbott settings in their literature. The rears are 2/3 turn from soft. This seems to work good. The fronts are another matter. I have gone from full hard to full soft and everything inbetween. The car exhibits a 'bounce' over any significant road bump. Good over small stuff, it is the larger bumps. Any bump large enough to cause the front suspension to compact fully. [This was also the same with the Sachs, but much more pronounced and uncontrolled]. If the Konis are set full hard it does compensate for the bounce but can still be felt, not to mention the very harsh ride. At softer settings the ride is better but the bounce is more noticable. So much so that I hesitate to push the power most of the time. I can't get a setting that is 'best'.
I cannot believe that this is the correct way for this suspension to work. It's as if the set doesn't match. Do any of you with this setup have a similar experience? I would think the front would be more controlled than this. I do have some experience with past suspension upgrades on several cars. I am talking with Abbott Racing through emails. However, since I live in Florida and they are in England, I am in somewhat of a tight spot. So I hope to get some feedback from Saabnet members.
My only ideas on what could be happening are that the springs are in fact the wrong ones for my car. But that also seems highly unlikely in Abbotts case. It does still have to be confirmed by Abbott racing. Other than that I am at a loss as to what the problem is.
Thanks for looking.....
Mike
posted by 206.148.10...
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