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New owner of a 2012 Vagon needing suspension advice (shocks / dampers, springs - urhh anything else?)

1362 Views 10 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  tinman, 
I
First, apologies for what might be a repetitive thread. I did a search and while I found quite a few threads on this, the information was a bit disparate and not necessarily complete.

The car is 2012, with 73k miles on it. Drives really well - heck it felt just as comfortable as my accord touring.

However, it's lowered on Eibachs, and since it will be a DD San Francisco car that will be pulling in and out of my garage + going over speed humps yadda yadda I want to go back to stock height.

Now, given that the shocks / dampers are also 10 years old, 73k, I might as well replace them when the stock springs are going on.

So with that I figured go OE. I'm over at Rock Auto and not 100% sure on what to do for the fronts.

2012 CADILLAC CTS 6.2L V8 Supercharged OHV Shock Absorber | RockAuto

RockAuto ships auto parts and body parts from over 300 manufacturers to customers' doors worldwide, all at warehouse prices. Easy to use parts catalog.
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Putting that bit aside - what else should I be considering doing while the car is in the shop and getting such work done?

Thanks all for your advice and I look forward to being here.

Cheers

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E
I replaced the fronts on mine earlier in the year with the Arnott units, but I bought mine from summit (free shipping, rock auto almost always charges a ton for shipping). I'd also suggest looking at the LCA bushings and possibly nordloc those if you need to replace them.
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I
Thank you thank you!

When you say Summit and Arnott - do you mean these ones? https://www.summitracing.com/search...illac/model/cts?N=brand:arnott-air-suspension
I imagine given that they are OE replacement - it should pair up well with the existing magneride system?

I was thinking other components as well that are generally wear and tear items like that - so happy to hear the list of items I should get etc.

I'd ask the shop - but their specialty is European exotics - but they have worked on all American muscle before, and they recommended that I ask owners on all the various stuff that is recommended to get done.
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PGA2B
Yes there are different part numbers for the Rear Passenger and Driver. Fronts are the same one for each side.
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I
Any idea on this setup? It says Eibach custom valved - but I can't see if it has a height drop or is stock. Coming fully preassembled has it perks in less labor needed.

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D
A new part is not a better part. Regarding suspension, since you are changing the springs and want to go stock height, it would make sense to replace the shock absorbers as well, considering most people report them leaking with age. As far as everything else goes suspension wise, if youre LCA bushings are fine and the arm isnt slipping, I would say have your mechanic just check the bushings at the upper control arms along with the ball joint, the bushings on the sway bar, the swar bar end links can also cause clunks if old but you reported that it rides nice. Other than that Im not sure there is too much else to address. I had a clunk up front and found that some of my subframe bolts were not completely tight. Might be a good idea to go over the large bolts and make sure they're all snug.
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deshars313 said:
A new part is not a better part. Regarding suspension, since you are changing the springs and want to go stock height, it would make sense to replace the shock absorbers as well, considering most people report them leaking with age. As far as everything else goes suspension wise, if youre LCA bushings are fine and the arm isnt slipping, I would say have your mechanic just check the bushings at the upper control arms along with the ball joint, the bushings on the sway bar, the swar bar end links can also cause clunks if old but you reported that it rides nice. Other than that Im not sure there is too much else to address. I had a clunk up front and found that some of my subframe bolts were not completely tight. Might be a good idea to go over the large bolts and make sure they're all snug.
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I100% agree that a new part is not a better part.

And exactly correct -it's why I want to go with new shocks. Just wondering what would be the recommended. Get the AC Delco OE ones? get the Arnotts? Get teh pre-assembled Arnotts? yadda yadda.

Thank you for the rest of the info :) Ideally I'm getting this all done before I even drive the car since it's already being stored at a shop and I don't really want to drive it back and forth until it's in the condition I'd like.

However, chances are - that's not gonna happen and I'll prob drive it a bit and then start thinking about stuff to do. :LOL:
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S
I'd go with AC Delco shocks at all four corners if it were my money. Where are you getting the stock springs? New?
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tinman
I, too, would go with OEM.
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I
I am not sure - there is a guy local who has a set of them for $100 - says less than 500 miles on them.

sfbay.craigslist.org

Cadillac CTS-V Gen2 New Stock Springs - auto parts - by owner -...

All 4 stock springs for 2009 to 2015 ctsv less than 500 miles on them. lsa, ctsv, cts-v, cts
sfbay.craigslist.org

Otherwise I could buy new from either Rock or Summit.

And glad to hear the affirmation for going OE. Thank you!
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tinman
Could be a deal. He prolly lowered his car immediately upon purchase.
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