96 Coupe Ride Improvement

[TLeBlanc]

Recently purchased a very clean 96 coupe with 60K miles. Have started noticing a bit of a vibration as speeds between 35 - 65, particularly when encountering bumps in the road. I think the tires/wheels may need balancing but am wondering about the shocks. It has Bilstien shocks. Are these the type of shocks that come with the vehicle new ? What is the best way to test shocks to see if they are in need of replacement ? What are my best options for improving the ride , not much of a hot rod'er just like cruisin the Houston Autobahn.

 

[6 Shooter]

1st Welcome to

2nd - What air pressure r u running in your tires?

3rd - What options r on your Vette?

 

[Vettelt193]

along with the above questions, do you let the car sit for more than a couple days at a time?

 

[TLeBlanc]

I have always set the pressure according to the tag on the inside of the driver's door... if I remember correctly it was 35psi which I have already checked. The options are the standard (FE1) suspension package.

Yes, unfortunately the car sits idle a lot. I generally travel on business from Sunday afternoon till Thursday so I only get to drive the car on Friday, and the weekend.

 

[poorboys831]

hi and welcome-the old way to test your shocks is push down on each corner-if the car DOESN'T bounce up and down the shocks are probably o.k.-don't know what the stock shocks are. I smoothed out my ride quite a bit by lowering my tire pressure to 30-32lbs.Iknow it doesn't sound like a lot but it helped me.If you do get your wheels re-balanced make sure they use the type that spins the wheels at different speeds and i've read quite a few posts that advise that weights be used on both the outer AND inner sides of the rims-hopes this helps dennis

 

[TLeBlanc]

Thanks for the tips everyone...... installed a set of shocks this morning and had the tires balanced while I had them off. Was glad I chose to do the shock replacements myself. The garage I generally use wanted $220 labor to do the job. I did it in just over 2 hours and that included running the tires/wheels over to the shop to have them balanced. The road test results were an improved ride without the vibrations.

C Ya,

 

[JimmyS5600]

Good job,glad to hear things worked well for you.