So, can you use factory shocks with a set of lowering springs? Well, that's the question I'm going to do my best to answer on this episode of. I'm going to answer from personal experience. If you haven't guessed by the name of my channel, I don't really like to throw away money unless I really have to. And years ago, when I decided to go ahead and lower my trans Am, I had literally just put new shocks on the car. And I figured why would I spend extra money on new shocks? When I could just reuse those factory-style replacements, this turned out to be a terrible idea. And here's why. I think it's best that we start by taking a look at what makes a factory spring and a lowering spring so different. So the first difference is going to be the length of the springs. Now, a lowering spring is going to be shorter than a factory spring, and this is what actually lowers the car. Now, in most cases, this difference isn't going to stop you from physically pairing a factory shock in a lowering spring and getting a vehicle that still more or less rolls down the road. But in the instance that the factory shock is actually too tall for that lowering spring and leads to that shock bottoming out over and over again as the vehicle rolls over bumps, then it's not going to take long for that factory shock to fail. At which point, you'll have to replace those factory shocks anyway. So while the height difference between a factory spring and a lowering spring may or may not matter much, what does matter is going to be the difference in spring rates. And what is spring rate? Simply put, spring rate is just a quick and easy way for us to describe how stiff a spring is. And the way that we do that is how many pounds of force does it take to compress that spring one inch. Now, spring rate can vary a lot from one model of vehicle to another, but for the purposes of this explanation, we're going to use the front springs on my trans Am and from the factory, those come in at about 400 pounds an inch. The aftermarket lowering springs that I have are much stiffer at about 600 pounds an inch. Lowering springs are stiffer for a couple of reasons. One is that a stiffer spring will better control body roll and cornering and nose dive under hard braking, resulting in a car that handles better and is much more predictable. But also, because those springs are shorter, they kind of have to be stiffer, because there is less available suspension travel under compression. Either way you look at it, the main point here is that the softer factory spring and the stiffer lowering spring will behave very differently as the vehicle encounters bumps and contours in the road. And we need a shock that behaves differently as well. Let's quickly go over the roll that the spring and shock play in the vehicle suspension, and then we'll have a better understanding of what we need to look for in a shock that we plan on pairing with lowering springs. Now the roll of the spring is pretty simple. It's just there to support the weight of the vehicle in a way that still allows the tire to move up and down with the contours of the road. Now the shock's job is to control or dampen the movement of the suspension up and down. This keeps the vehicle from just bouncing wildly and also keeps the tires and firm contact with the road's surface. Now the shock is there to control or dampen two things, one of which is the rate that which the suspension compresses as we hit a bump and the tire and wheel are driven upward. And the next thing is to control the rate of rebound. Rebound is what happens after we've moved over the bump and the wheel and tire need to come back down. And here is where the factory springs and lowering springs have very different needs in regard to how much compression and rebound damping is needed in order to achieve optimal handling and ride quality. Since the stock spring is softer, thus it's a little less resistant to compression alone, the stock shock needs a little more compression damping built in to ensure that the spring doesn't compress so quickly that the wheel and tire actually lose contact with the road when encountering a bump. Also once that softer spring has been compressed by the bump and we've now moved over it, well that wheel and tire need to come back down to meet the surface of the road. So that softer spring has less potential energy stored within it. The factory shock doesn't need to do as much to control the rebound as it would with a lowering spring. Taking a look at the lowering springs using that same example, the lowering spring is already much stiffer and more resistant to compression on its own. So we don't need or really even want the same amount of compression damping from that factory shock with that stiffer spring. Using the same amount of compression damping with a factory shock is going to give us a really stiff uncomfortable ride and we'll even have a negative impact on handling. We also have to consider that once the stiffer lowering spring has been compressed, it's going to want to rebound with more force than the factory shock is designed to effectively control. I can tell you from personal experience this results in almost a pogo-stick sensation. After you hit the bump, you got that really hard jarring sensation and then if that spring's been compressed at all, the car just wants to pogo-stick back up. This makes the car feel really, really unpredictable if you're trying to corner at any speed on an uneven road surface. So to sum all of that up, what makes the ideal shock for a set of lowering springs is going to be a little less compression damping and a little more rebound damping. Essentially the opposite of what you would get from a factory shock. And one shock that meets those requirements and what I ultimately ended up putting on my Trans Am is the Street Shock by Coney. The Street Line is essentially Coney's entry-level budget shock that works well with lowering springs and I've been really pleased with this choice. The car rides much smoother now going over bumps and I don't feel like I'm being catapulted head first in my T-tops anymore either. So win-win, right? For someone on a limited budget, they're not that expensive. A complete set for my Trans Am only set me back about $400. And yeah, there are much nicer fancier shocks out there. For example, there are shocks that allow you to control both the rebound and compression dampening individually. I mean, they're completely adjustable and they're amazing, but they're also really expensive. For the money on a 25-year-old car that I commute to and from work two or three times a week, a 40-mile round trip that I just want to enjoy driving again, those Coney Street shocks are worth the money. The bottom line here is that if you're going to spend the money on lowering springs, you may as well get the right shocks to match. Because in the end, that's going to give you the best ride quality and the best handling for your money. So if in the end all of that helped to answer your question, please smash that like button and subscribe to the channel for more automotive DIY content like this. And feel free to leave any unanswered questions down in the comments. As always, thank you so much for watching. I'll see you guys next time. Bye.