Defect Shocks And Ground Clearence

rcboy2005 · April 7, 2012

we bought this FB14 (1998) few weeks ago and garage told me that i have to replace shocks very soon.. now i have realized that vehicle is having low ground clearence.. Is fb14 having low grnd clearence comparing to other cars or does it cause by defect shocks.

Edited April 7, 2012 by rcboy2005

LashNeo · April 7, 2012

Yes. FB14's have a low ground clearance compared to many of the mid sized sedans of the same class and your worn out shocks might be worsening the situation. :-)

JadeyBlitzen · April 8, 2012

what nonsense. the condition of the shocks have nothing to do with the ride height. your springs are probably past their use by date or this is just a placebo effect. replace the shocks and see. worn shocks can cause the vehicle to bottom out more easily when going over bumps

Reckless · April 8, 2012

On 4/7/2012 at 5:37 PM, LashNeo said:

Yes. FB14's have a low ground clearance compared to many of the mid sized sedans of the same class and your worn out shocks might be worsening the situation. :-)

according to specs FB14 has a good ground clearance,

sunny FB15 = 130mm

familia = 140mm

civic vi = 150mm

sunny FB14 = 150mm

corolla 110 = 150mm

Carina =155mm

corolla 121 = 160mm

Comparison

hhrxz · April 8, 2012

bro i do have 1996 fb14..just recommndn u to put size 15' with big tube tires after shock replacment.i ddnt notice any reduced fuel consumption at all.but the riding is very precious now.feeln high and you dont have to worry about small rocks n all.

rcboy2005 · April 10, 2012

thanks for all... im having tyres of 13 inches. is this the factory fitted tyre size for fb14 (1997) ex saloon . adding 15 inch may give some benefit and local grages use metal bush (abt 1 inch) between shock and body to give some height.

YALA · April 10, 2012

we`ve had our fb14 for nearly 13 years and our family of 5 has been on it in the same time never had clearance problems on our suburban roads

rcboy2005 · April 10, 2012

On 4/8/2012 at 5:09 AM, Reckless said:

according to specs FB14 has a good ground clearance,

sunny FB15 = 130mm

familia = 140mm

civic vi = 150mm

sunny FB14 = 150mm

corolla 110 = 150mm

Carina =155mm

corolla 121 = 160mm

Comparison

from which place this height is measured?

Watchman · April 10, 2012

On 4/7/2012 at 5:37 PM, LashNeo said:

Yes. FB14's have a low ground clearance compared to many of the mid sized sedans of the same class and your worn out shocks might be worsening the situation. :-)

If you dont know about something you might not want to give people advice. You clearly have no idea what the shocks even DO!!

On 4/8/2012 at 3:17 AM, JadeyBlitzen said:

what nonsense. the condition of the shocks have nothing to do with the ride height. your springs are probably past their use by date or this is just a placebo effect. replace the shocks and see. worn shocks can cause the vehicle to bottom out more easily when going over bumps

+1

Couldnt have put it any shorter or any more accurately!

hatharasinghe · April 10, 2012

you can check your shock absorbers in good condition or bad u see this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=qycP-LZKX10 or just go to garage and the ground cleareance and this is totally independent case.

rcboy2005 · April 13, 2012

On 4/10/2012 at 4:19 AM, YALA said:

we`ve had our fb14 for nearly 13 years and our family of 5 has been on it in the same time never had clearance problems on our suburban roads

Yeah no prob with suburban roads..but some steep places are hard to pass..simple example is our garage entrance used by KE72, ford laser is now hard to enter by this fb14 without little crashing noise under the rear seat

LashNeo · April 13, 2012

On 4/10/2012 at 5:56 AM, Watchman said:

If you dont know about something you might not want to give people advice. You clearly have no idea what the shocks even DO!!

I think i have made a mistake by just posting a short response. It looks like rubbish when i look at it now since it can be interpreted in a different way. Sorry about that. What i wanted to say was a worn out shock absorber could not resist a shock like a fully functioning one. Therefore at times for an example when you are running on a bumpy/uneven road with a heavy load, the bottom of the car might hit on the road easily giving the impression that your ground clearance is low. So, in short "A worn out shock absorber worsens the situation".

LashNeo · April 13, 2012

On 4/8/2012 at 5:09 AM, Reckless said:

according to specs FB14 has a good ground clearance,

sunny FB15 = 130mm

familia = 140mm

civic vi = 150mm

sunny FB14 = 150mm

corolla 110 = 150mm

Carina =155mm

corolla 121 = 160mm

Comparison

Well.. i had a FB14 sometime back and low ground clearance was one of the problems i had with it. I got it checked from few places and what they told was this is the normal height of the car and if i need to increase it, i might have to use some spring pads. Since this alters the original specs of the vehicle i did not go ahead with that option. one of my friends owned a SB14 which is the diesel variant of this and he also faced the same problem of low ground clearance. I never felt the same whenever i drove other cars of the same league.

I remember some FB14 owners on the forum also claiming the same thing on some old threads.