Last month, I installed Brembo brakes on the Cruze, so up next was the suspension. Surprisingly, quite a few kits were offered for the Cruze, both lowering springs and coilovers. Once again, I was faced with a decision to make. My Cruze is pretty much my daily driver, but I want to take it on track occasionally, so I want some adjustability with the suspension. Coilovers offer the most adjustability, so that’s where I focused my research.
Just like the brakes, there were quite a few kits offered by companies I had never heard of, and since coil-overs are a fairly significant investment, I decided once again to go with a reputable company with a history in motorsports. I chose the Variant 2 coil-overs from KW Suspension, which have an adjustable rebound setting. I purchased them from my friends at Quality Tire, a family-owned business that opened in 1986, and I have been a loyal customer ever since.
The installation was pretty straightforward. My longtime friends at Quality Tire let me use their lift, so it made the install much quicker. After the car was lifted and the wheels removed, I unbolted the stock front struts and springs and removed them from the vehicle. The new KWs required the use of the stock upper spring perch, so a spring compressor was needed to remove those from the old struts. I also needed a 24mm box-end wrench to install the damper shaft nut on the upper spring perch. One nice feature of the KW’s is the slotted top hole for the front strut to steering knuckle bolt, which eliminates the need for a camber bolt.
The rear was a piece of cake. I just put a jack under each spring perch, unbolted the shocks, lowered the axle, and removed the springs. The new springs and adjustable perches fit right in. I unbolted the old shocks and bolted up the new ones with no trouble at all.
After everything was installed, it was just a matter of adjusting the ride height and setting the rebound. One of the beautiful things about KW is they test the adjustment range on actual vehicles and then provide the information in the installation guide. I went ahead and set it at the lowest recommended height because that’s how I roll! I also set the rebound on the soft side to start.
Once the car was back on the ground, I took it for a test spin and noticed right away the difference in stiffness. They are a little on the stiff side for street use, but I don’t have any issues with that. Everything seemed right, so I took it to PTuning in Manassas, VA, for the alignment. One of their specialties is aligning lowered cars. They will also give you a recommendation on the camber and toe adjustments, or they will set it to your specs, which is nice.
Once the alignment was done, I took it out on the road for a test drive. Front-wheel-drive cars are notorious for understeer, and so far, from what I can tell, KW has done an excellent job of dialing some of that out on their Cruze kit. I’m looking forward to getting it on track one day to see how it feels. I still have a few more things to do before that happens, so I’ll keep plugging away!
DS
