Soften the suspension?

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78K5Blazer

Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2015
Messages
7
I've got a serious problem now. I leased this car Saturday, and my wife cannot drive it because of a bad back. Dammit! Now what? I leased it to keep miles off of my van and save the gas. My plan is officially dead. Can anyone think of a way to soften the suspension on this thing that won't cost me an arm and a leg? Tires? Shocks? I really need some help here, as I have one day left to return it, if indeed I even still can. Nope, can't return it. Looks like I have an expensive garage ornament for the next 36 months. There must be something I can do here.
 
Why don't you drive it and let her drive whatever you are driving?
Honestly you should have let her test drive the car before you bought it especially if you expected her to be the main driver.
The problem here is that you lease so anything you do to the suspension or seats you will have to pay to get it reverted when you return it. Might be cheaper to fix her back :lol:
Also since the bottom of the car has a big battery pack running down the center it's going to remain pretty stiff either way. I'd first try shocks though.
 
78K5Blazer said:
I've got a serious problem now. I leased this car Saturday, and my wife cannot drive it because of a bad back. Dammit! Now what? I leased it to keep miles off of my van and save the gas. My plan is officially dead. Can anyone think of a way to soften the suspension on this thing that won't cost me an arm and a leg? Tires? Shocks? I really need some help here, as I have one day left to return it, if indeed I even still can. Nope, can't return it. Looks like I have an expensive garage ornament for the next 36 months. There must be something I can do here.

I also have severe back trouble with a history of broken vertebrae, and I find the Spark EV seats very comfortable. What has helped sometimes when I need to drive a different car is very carefully adjusting the seat position forward/backward to minimize the back discomfort.

Is there any chance your wife might give it another try?

If she has spinal pain from driving over bumps perhaps some sort of a seat cushion might help?

Good luck because you chose a great car and you ought to get use out of it.
 
You can greatly affect the ride by lowering the tire pressure. Take it down 5 psi and the ride will be noticeably softer. You will lose a portion of your range, but it beats not driving at all!
 
Great suggestions, thanks. The immediate problem seems to be that headrest that pushes the head forward at an uncomfortable angle. If I can flip that thing around, and reduce tire pressure a bit maybe that will be enough. I will check out this headrest option tonight.

My other car is a 12 year old Sienna with 100k+ miles, and the ride is much smoother, but the city mileage sucks.
 
OK. I found that answer to that particular question in this forum here:

http://chevysparkforum.com/topic/346-how-to-remove-front-headrests/
 
78K5Blazer said:
OK. I found that answer to that particular question in this forum here:

http://chevysparkforum.com/topic/346-how-to-remove-front-headrests/



did you swap out the headrests? or flip them around? I need to do one or the other, flipped around they seemed too far back to protect much, as is they push my head forward and cause problems.
 
I put the headrest arms in a large vice, used a "cheater bar" (a 24" length of pipe over the arm) and bent the arms backwards about 15°. Moved it back just enough to be completely solve the issue.
 
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