what are the good and bad things when you lower your car

[topikuq]

What are the good and bad things for lowering your car. This mechanic said that youll have problems with tires, brakes, alignment. He scared the (bad word)(bad word)(bad word)(bad word) out of me, im having second thoughs on lowering my car?
whoever has lowered his/her car you think is woth it?

 

[curtis_rak]

I talked to a mechanic the other day and he said that if I were to put lowering springs on my car, I would have camber problems, rough ride, and my alignment would probably never be true again.

Needless to say I won't be putting a spring kit in my car. To much hassle, and I like having paint on my front facsia.

From what I hear, coilovers are the way to go, they are adjustable, and provide good handling. They are just DAMN expensive...

 

[eclipsinemcee]

In some cases when u lower your ride with stiffer springs, its too much for the stock struts to handle so they blow after a while. negative camber is also a problem but its nothing too bad. Another is scraping on driveways but u learn to avoid that. Other than that, there are MANY pros that i love about a tuned suspension. It looks wayy better lowered, winddy roads are hella fun, easier to handle at high speeds. I say start lowering it and go from there.

 

[Blitzed95Eclips]

as long as you dont buy cheap coilovers you wont have a problem. i did this and my car rides like (bad word)(bad word)(bad word)(bad word). my friend lowered his gst with struts and all that and it rides real nice better than before. use a camber kit go get the b*tch aligned and you shouldnt have any problems.

 

[jdmawd]

Repair mechanics are idiots, I had on tell me that my fuel pump was bad because it whined. I explained that it was an aftermarket hi flow pump. the mechanic said that he did not care what type of pump it was, no fuel pump should whine. i was like whatever dude im out!

 

[Blitzed95Eclips]

a lot of the time they just want money. so they will replace s hit thats not even broke. i had one mechanic say he was gonna replace my front right tie rod. so i marked it. and when he was done. the same one was on. he thought i was an idiot about cars but i fooled him. got a free fix out of the deal too.

 

[808_SpyderGST]

very simple

looks better, handles better.... what more do you need? ya so you might have to avoid curbs and stuff and yes the ride wont be like stock, it will be stiffer cause of the springs but these are minor details, you'll understand once you drop it!!!!! if you dont want to sacrafice ride quality but want to improve handling then get a 1.5 drop but if you want an aggressive look stance and handling get a 2" (i say 2" i've had them both on my car had the 1.5 just wasnt low enough, i love the slammed look) and yes lowering a car does change it, aliangment, camber, ride... but these can all be fixed easily from camber kits and tire rotation. hey if you wanna do it DO IT but never let a dumb ass mechanic tell you other wise reseach it and do whats best 4 you but i say SLAM IT!!!

 

[RocketDSM]

I say stick with less than 2" drop (or max AT 2"). It won't push your alignment out of whack by anything really noticeable. A camber kit would help, but isn't really required yet. I had Eibach Sportlines w/Tokico Illuminas and really liked the handling. The drop was just a little excessive for me (ended up being a 3-1/4" drop loaded down). Another thing to watch for is shock travel. Our cars appear to be a little on the short side (less than 3" from what I gather) and dropping it too far can cause havoc on your shocks even if you don't blow them from tight springs. As long as you research it right, dropping a car is not going to hurt anything and can have lots of benefits. Just don't do it haphazardly.

 

[Rx3]

Not being able to find a jack that fits under your car....


but other than that, if you do it RIGHT (i.e. camber kit, no riduclous lowering like over 3 inches) you shouldn't have any problems with alighnment at all

 

[psyjoniz]

pros:
looks better (if you care)
handle's a hell of a lot better
your alignment (done right) will be perfect

cons:
scraping - no matter how much you try to avoid it, its gonna happen
cant take bumps @ high speed
most likely need to get a rear camber kit (i did - 1.2" drop)

and if you want advice don't ask someone motivated by YOUR money - they will only try to rip you off (ie: mechanics - ya, i despise them)

 

[Tevenor]

Just make sure you know the basics of a suspension and you can fire comments back at the idiots who tell you not to do it:

1) Springs control weight transfer. That's all.
2) Shocks control the springs and hence are what really determines how nice the ride is. Your ride will only be as nice as the shocks you buy.
3) Lowering springs do nothing more than lower the car. Don't expect a GT car out of lowering springs.
4) Just like 'if you want reliability, don't race the car', same thing goes for lowering. If you don't want to go through tires quicker, don't lower it. Even with camber kits, caster will not be the same.
5) Our cars come with toe adjusters only and severe toe will kill tires faster than any camber issues. You can not by stock means adjust caster or camber (hence camber kits).
6) It is possible to go too low to the point where you are hurting performance. Your CG only needs to be so low to maximize the suspension. Go any lower and you are hurting what you are trying to do.
7) Severe camber will kill wheel bearings in a hurry.

 

[NDgsx]

Anything lower than 1.5" will not actually make your car handle any better.

I love the, "well it's low and stiff as hell, so it must handle good" attitude most people seem to have. A slammed stiff ass car will not corner as hard as a slightly lowered car with an appropriate spring rate for the dampers valving.

 

[dsmnate]

Originally posted by curtis_rak
I talked to a mechanic the other day and he said that if I were to put lowering springs on my car, I would have camber problems, rough ride, and my alignment would probably never be true again.

Needless to say I won't be putting a spring kit in my car. To much hassle, and I like having paint on my front facsia.

From what I hear, coilovers are the way to go, they are adjustable, and provide good handling. They are just DAMN expensive...

The so called mechanics at Meineke, Monroe, and Midas, all told me that you couldn't get my car back to the proper alignment settings also. But they have no idea what they are talking about. I put a camber kit on and went to the Mitsu dealer and got it aligned and they said everything was in spec.

To answer your question I am not going to get technical but ......

Basically the pro's are better handling and better looks.

The con's are a rougher ride (depending on setup and how much it is lowered), need for camber kit, and you will need to be more careful on driveways and big dips in the road.

 

[Tevenor]

Originally posted by dsmnate


The so called mechanics at Meineke, Monroe, and Midas, all told me that you couldn't get my car back to the proper alignment settings also. But they have no idea what they are talking about.

Actually they are right on the money. Our cars DO NOT have any way to adjust the camber or caster. We only have toe adjusters. SO if you drop the car, they can't get it back to specs in all 3 adjustments because its not possible with stock hardware. So as far as they are concerned, you can't do it.

Originally posted by dsmnate
I put a camber kit on and went to the Mitsu dealer and got it aligned and they said everything was in spec.

Now that you have changed the camber with a 'camber kit', what the other guys told you doesn't really count now does it? Usually most places won't touch the camber kits or ajust it for you if its aftermarket camber parts. I am suprised your Mitsu place would.

Originally posted by dsmnate
The con's are a rougher ride (depending on setup and how much it is lowered), need for camber kit, and you will need to be more careful on driveways and big dips in the road.

Ride has everything to do with shocks and how they handle the springs. The problem is on a severely lowered car (in excess of 2") you are limiting shock travel which doesn't allow them to do their job. This means the springs will over power the shocks (unless you bought shocks explicitily for the purpose of short suspension travel) and you will feel the springs more.

When the center of gravity drops below the roll center of the car, the suspension dynamics are such that you will lose grip in a loaded state. This is bad. The whole idea is to increase grip in a full load situation which is why GT cars have insane static front camber. To some degree we want that as well (if you don't race just in a straight line).

My ideals for autocross is -2.5 camber in front -2.0 in the rear with about a 1.5" drop to get the CG just over the roll center of the car. This is not possible without aftermarket camber adjusters. Will it eat my tires on the street? OH YEAH! Will it make my car a turn in beast on course? OH YEAH!

Its all about trade offs.

 

[dsmnate]

Originally posted by Tevenor


Actually they are right on the money. Our cars DO NOT have any way to adjust the camber or caster. We only have toe adjusters. SO if you drop the car, they can't get it back to specs in all 3 adjustments because its not possible with stock hardware. So as far as they are concerned, you can't do it.

Now that you have changed the camber with a 'camber kit', what the other guys told you doesn't really count now does it? Usually most places won't touch the camber kits or ajust it for you if its aftermarket camber parts. I am suprised your Mitsu place would.

I know that our cars DO NOT have any way to adjust camber from the factory that is why a camber kit is needed. They told me that there was no way to do it, even when I mentioned that I had a camber kit and that I had put it on and adjusted it. All I was asking them to do was put it on their alignment rack and they said it cannot be fixed. Which IS NOT correct, I don't care if it takes aftermarket parts the fact is that it CAN be fixed. If their policy is that they don't do it then that is another story, they should have said that it can be done but we don't do it.

I didn't ask anyone to adjust the camber for me or even to touch the kit, all I was asking for was an alignment. I knew it was in spec because I had an alignment before I put the camber kit on and knew how far it needed to be adjusted. The Mitsu dealership even asked me what kind of camber kit I put on and how to adjust it if it needed it.

-Nate

 

[Tevenor]

Originally posted by dsmnate

I didn't ask anyone to adjust the camber for me or even to touch the kit, all I was asking for was an alignment.

So you were just asking for the digital readout (since part of getting an alignment is to bring everything back to whatever specs you dictate)? You didn't want them to actually 'do' anything? Save the money and buy a camber gauge that way you can do it yourself.

 

[dsmnate]

Originally posted by Tevenor


So you were just asking for the digital readout (since part of getting an alignment is to bring everything back to whatever specs you dictate)? You didn't want them to actually 'do' anything? Save the money and buy a camber gauge that way you can do it yourself.

Actually, to be technical, what I wanted them to do was adjust my toe because it was way out of spec after I fixed the camber. The dealer told me that my toe was -2 when I got them to align it.

 

[kylemoto]

I'll try to keep (some) opinion out of this!

Lowering a car using springs:
- Looks better (ummmm depends. A four inch drop doesn't llok cool to me, but thats my opinion!)
- better handling. Not neccesarily. You gotta have shocks, bushings and tuning to make sure of this. Otherwise you might be worse off. If you bottom out, watch out!
- worse braking. Yup, possible! Lowered cars have more camber change under braking. This means your car will want to wander when you hit the brakes. If you hit the bumpstops when braking you will really be in for an exciting time.
- better gas mileage. In theory, yeah. So?
- worse drivability. Slowing down for driveways will be a job, slowing for speed bumps even worse. If you have to slow for paint stripes you are too low!


A well thought and tuned setup will, make all of those gains and claims.

Kyle