Gday,

Im not too much of a mechanic, gota be honest here, and i was wondering if there are any benifits or disadvantages to lowering a car? Ma mates are doing it to there cars, but i want a person with a bit of experience ta help me out with some info b4 i make a decision..

thanks a ton!!!

i got a 97 Vti civic coupe

 

Lower center of gravity. Stiffer springs and better dampers are used so that reduces body roll, even though the roll center is lowered, and just makes the car handle and look better. Remember: do it right the first time or don't bother. Do some reading and make an educated run at it.

 

[*]Advantage: Lowering your car looks cool.[*]Advantage: Lowering your car also lowers its center of gravity (CG) which decreases "weight transfer" to help improve handling. And it may also lower your car's "roll center" and change other aspects of your car's suspension geometry in ways that help handling. But sometimes these changes hurt.[*]Advantage: Lowering your car improves aerodynamics at high speeds.[*]Problem: Lowering changes your car's wheel alignment. Usually the car's "negative camber" and "toe-in" are increased. Extra negative camber may be a handling advantage.

Solution: After you have lowered your car, make sure to get the car's suspension aligned immediately at a good wheel alignment shop.



[*]post 2x[*]Problem: Lowering the car makes it more susceptible to "bottoming out." This is when your suspension compresses enough, usually over bumps (and especially bumps in turns), to cause your suspension's "bump stops" to contact. This pounding can damage your car's suspension and chassis if it is excessive. It can also cause your car to "skip" over bumps in fast turns, or even increase the likelihood of your car flipping over! This can be dangerous and isn't the way to win races either.

Solution: Make sure that you select a spring rate that is stiffer in proportion to the amount you lower your car. If you plan to lower your car so much that it only has half the "wheel travel" it currently has (the distance between the bump stops with the car at normal ride height), you should double the spring rates. This will ensure that your car will not bottom out any more than it currently does.

 

^ good info, but don't immediately get an alignment after lowering your car. Give the springs some time to settle (usually around 2 weeks) before having the alignment.

Also, if you get lowering springs (since you'll already have the suspension off the car), you might as well just get new (and better) shocks. Pulling apart the suspension once and upgrading everything at one time is always better than having to tear apart the suspension twice because you blew out the stock shocks. And on that note, you'll probably want to know that no matter what companies will tell you, lowering springs will lower the life span of stock shocks somewhat (yes, that even applies to Tein S-Techs).

 

^^When I swapped my wheels I noticed my rear d/s strut was finally gone...fluid all over it and everything around it. I'm about due I'd say. (and I have S-Techs)

 

Actually, lowering the roll center is a bad thing. You want to keep it as close to the center of mass as possible or it increases roll. This is usually accounted for with stiffer springs and is a non issue on street cars. On most race cars extensive reworking of the suspension is done to raise the roll center.