on normal road driving i like how they feel. It's the rough road that murder.
That's a big statement on this. Here's the options as I see them:
1) Replace the 3/4" worth of bump stop with something a lot more substantial. A new one is 4" or 5" tall or so. I don't remember exactly, but it's a decent size, way more than 3/4". This will actually give you the protection that you want, that large piece of foam is actually pretty hard and is partially designed to protect the car.
2) Maybe turn up the AGX's another notch. They stiffen the compression and rebound at the same time, and stiffening the compression a notch may help as well.
What's happening right now is that your springs are coil binding. Once they are stacked, you have nothing left to absorb a bump and you get the slams. You need more "stuff" in there to keep that from happening. A stiffer strut will help, a large piece of foam rubber (aka bumpstop) will as well.
Unfortunately it's got to come apart, and you'll have to buy 4 new bump stops too. When those go in, don't cut too much off. My rule of thumb (take it or leave it) is if you lower the car an inch, cut off an inch. If you lower it 2", cut off 2". And so on.
Once it's pulled apart, you'll know if the strut is good or dead. A good strut will be hard to push in, and will push itself right back out. A dead one won't do that at all, it'll either slide in and out easily, or just drop in and not even try to come back out.
