sorry if this has been covered before...

So in an auto magazine, they had an article on the 7th gen civic (2001+) when they first came out, and it said that Honda switched from doublewishbone over to McPhearson struts for the suspension, sacrificing handling for reduced cost.

Then, in various other magazines, I read the specs on several high-end cars, ie. Ferrari, BMW, Lexus, etc and they use MacPhearson Struts on their performance/sports cars.

My question is how can honda "downgrade" from double wishbone to MacPhearson strut while most of the performance cars uses the MacPhearson strut?

 

has alot to do with a camber curve during suspension compression. McPhearson struts work great on cars with STIFF suspension and little travel.

 

I'm curious as to which Ferrari you read about that had McPherson struts.

 

i think it was the modena.. but of course i may be incorrect. however, my point is still that corvettes, lexus, benz, bmw,... have MacPhearson strut listed as their suspension...

 

the lancer evo 7 has the mcphearson's as well

 

Honda not only went to front McPherson because of cost, but also for packaging. You can fit a bigger motor in the same area. Double wishbone suspensions take up more room.

nothing wrong with McPherson strut setup. Went tuned right, they can be equal or even better than a double wishbone set up.

 

the strut assemblies are a bit harder to work on that the double wishbone design

 

ok let me rephrase:

if double wishbone is better than mcphearson strut, why do those higher end cars use the mcphearson strut and not the doublewishbone?

 

because honda rules and BMW etc. SUCKS !!!!......
and it is killing me that honda is lookin for savin money when builting the cars...= bad cars = i will never buy a 02 model i will have 2 drive around in my 100 year old HB until i die !! or honda starts biulding like they use 2 !!!!!!!!

 

Look at it as a positive, you can now get camber/caster plates for the new Honda's.

CB

 

THe only real performance cars you mentioned there are Corvettes and some BMWs.

I personally don't know why either is better or worse. That's what forums are for...learning.

 

So, does anybody actually know the pro and cons of McPhearson and Double Wishbone set up? I was just about to ask this.

In my experience, I had a Toyota Corolla before, and it had McPhearsons up front. I could never lower it as much as other honda civics because it would hit the bump stop immediately after about 2 inches of lowering. (Don't flame, I did not know what I was doing attempting to "slam" the car...I am now more informed thanks to HT members)

It seems that double wishbone has more travel and generally have longer springs that have smaller diameters. I have not gotten a chance to mod my 6th gen accord, but I know that it has double wishbone on all 4 corners.

so, which is actually better? Or where does each type exel?

 

Sorry to bring this post back from being long dead, but i have been very curious about this also. I have heard a lot about how the McPhearson strut setup is cheaper but does not perform as well as the double wishbone setup. I did not realize that BMW and the Corvette also used these setups which makes me wonder if they are in some way more than just cheaper. Also, it seems that many new cars, especially economy cars are going to McPhearson setup, like the Focus and I believe the Tc and such. So in the long run, which one actually performs better and why?

 

A Double Wishbone does have higher construction costs and as mention in the thread above does need more room than a strut designe suspension.

A double whishbone suspension performs better mainly becuase as it compress's the suspension gains camber, which increases grip in most situations, which is better.

A Strut suspension when compress starts to get negative camber, but then it actually starts to go posititeve when compressed enough.

BMW does use struts on most of thier cars, but tuned correctly it performs great.

To call the Corvetttes suspension a McPherson Strut design is a stretch as it uses a composite transvers leaf spring and really is a hybrid all its own.