Daily Driver Lowring Springs

[Raymos24]

Hey guys, I have another question and this time it is about lowering springs. When I bought my 1997 Gst it came with tokico blues and skunk2 lowering springs (yuck). Needless to say the car is slammed and the ride quality is horrible. Since it is my daily driver and I live in Boston (roads suck), I am looking fro new springs that do not drop the car as much and make the ride quality better. I have looked into the Tein H. Tech's (advertised .9 drop), the Eibach Pro Kit (1.3 drop) or the H&R sports (.75 drop). I know these numbers are probably different in real world applications and I was looking for a suggestion for a spring that does not "slam the car" and gives a good ride quality. Thanks for your input.

I am looking for some experience with these different springs. I know they advertise a certain drop but in reality they probably drop the car more.

 

[ttetzner]

My eibachs suck, the ride got a lot worse and I can't even drive over speed bumps. It helped in handling a little But my car is also my DD and I don't think it was worth it, I read somewhere that the Eibach pro springs are actually softer than stock springs anyway.

 

[Raymos24]

So do you think I should go with something like the Tein H. Techs that only drop the car .9 inches?

 

[rarson]

I take it you're keeping the Tokico blues?

I've had a couple different setups on my car: AGX shocks (the original flawed version) with crappy coilovers of a brand that I don't want to mention, AGX shocks (the updated design) with a set of no-name ebay coilovers that were actually better than the name brand, and currently I've got a set of Tein Basic coilovers.

AGX's are great shocks, nice and stiff (I think they're probably a bit stiffer than the blues you have), but slapping a set of springs on them isn't optimal in my opinion. The problem is that even with a set of progressive rate lowering springs, you're stuck with what you've got. You can't adjust the height of the car which means the ride height is fixed, you can't cornerweight the car, and if your alignment shop can't get your car onto its machine, then you can't get the car aligned. Also, the ride height plays into other factors, such as the limits of alignment correction that can be done, bump steer, etc. Naturally, if you buy enough parts and throw them at your car, you can mitigate some of these problems, but I prefer to keep things simple.

The Tein Basic coilover setup not only matches springs to shocks, but also gives you a progressive spring for good ride quality AND handling, while allowing you to adjust the height of the vehicle over a range of several inches. The shocks are not adjustable, but they're stiff enough for my liking and I never adjusted the AGXs once I set them anyway. I bought them because my tires were wearing extremely fast since my old coilover setup was completely incapable of raising the car higher than a 2" drop, and I couldn't find any alignment shops that could get the car on their machine. I had to install these and raise the car up to about a 1.5" drop, and even then, the first shop I went to was unable to align the car.

Previously, the car was dropped about 3 inches, which looked pretty cool but the ride quality wasn't great, suspension travel was terrible, and alignment was non-existent (I would drop tire pressure to 15 psi just to get enough traction at the track with a 16g). Now, my car sits much higher, but doesn't look like a slammed rice mobile, has better suspension travel, rides better, and is aligned. I know there are other coilover setups out there, but the Tein Basic is the only shelf setup I'm aware of that utilizes a progressive rate spring.

By the way, I believe the springs used in the Basic coilovers are the S. Tech springs. I like the way they ride. They are firm, but not bouncy and allow a good amount of suspension travel.