Lowering Springs or Coilovers?

[SharkyX]

#1 i know nothing about either. now with that said ive been looking on ebay and have foun no coilovers for my car but many lowering springs. Have also read somewhere that lowering springs are better than coilovers, is this true. i dont have alot of $$ to spend so help me understand guys.

[Bloodlust]

I would say springs. One of the best setups is Revalved Bilstein struts and H&R springs. Just my personal preference maybe, but many will agree.

Coilovers have the advantage of being adjustable, but you will always be off balance.

[SharkyX]

ok like i said above i dont know alot about the nitty gritty of this stuff, what would a setup like that cost me?

[ivanfbi]

if you don't know a lot about that, then just get lowering springs, cause they are easier to install. I would go with Konis(try to find) and Suspension techniques(2" drop), camber kit and strut and sway bars, but everything is just how YOU want it...

[ivanfbi]

Also I would advise you to use this next time, and you will get answers 5 times faster

http://3geez.com/search.php?

[ivanfbi]

BTW, post some pics of the car, PPL wanna see it, I like white 3geez's

[SharkyX]

pics have been posted of my car for well over a week. use the "search" feature and you will find them in the Accord pics section. and i did search the topic but i know jack about lowering a car therefore not a whole lot of what i searched made a whole lot of sense to me. from what i have seen so far it gonna cost in the area of $4-$600 to lower my car? thats insane thats almost what i paid for the thing.

[ivanfbi]

ok, you can just get some tokicos(around $220) on ebay and some soft springs like H&R, Intrax or Tokico. I think that is going to be pretty good, if you don't run coilovers or Sprints, because they are insanely stiff, so running them with stock/tokico shocks is plain STUPID and you will need Bilsteins(revalved) or Konis to handle it.

[smufguy]

it always comes down to these basic questions

1. Why do you wanna lower your car? Looks or performance?
2. How do you normally drive yoru car? occasional speed driving and taking fast curves, sparse drag stirp addict
3. Where do you live? Lot of potholes around your place, snowy, rainy?

Do know anything more than 1" not 1.5", but mere 1" will notice a camber difference.

Also, there are no Koni's available. I was one of the guys to bag the last brand new set of em. They go for around $450 a set easy. You might be able to get hold of the rears and some used fronts, but im not sure.

I personally dont like coilovers, but a lot of people get em to have a balanced look on the car, front and rear wheel gap looks the same, but on a lowering spring with even drop will drop your car the same, but looks a lot lowered in the rear than in the back.

Also, you are set with a lot of choices for springs than coil overs and much cheaper too. One of the new companies that is getting competitive is Progress group. I got my spring set (only comes in a 2" drop and nothing else) for $165 shipped to my house.

I personally dont like Intrax, tokiko or even the H&Rs. Too soft for my desire and not a likely candidate to go with the Koni's.

For the cheapest and easiest solution, i would say get the Tokiko blue shox and tokiko lowering springs. Im sure they are well matched for their price so u would not have to be worried about anythig, but do know, they wont be stiff. If i can recollect good, they are a lil stiffer than stock, compared to Progress group or any other stiffer spring, it will be a lot stiffer.

You have to match up the Spring rats on the lowering springs and see if they are acceptable to your shocks. If they are not, then u will either bottom out on a soft spring, or keep bouncing on a stiff spring. and either of em is not good.

I hope that helps and yeah, if you read the top threads that Jim posted in this section you would have had ur answers all answered.

http://3geez.com/showthread.php?t=7856 <<<this and this>>> http://3geez.com/showthread.php?t=9462

[SharkyX]

thanks for all the tips guys, think i will be forced to stick with stock height regardless of how crappy it looks due to sheer cost, on top of buying this stuff id proably have to have them installed. Have had a getto lowered car before and the ride was terrible so i am def not gonna do the quick and easy on this.

[bobafett]

time to voice the opinion for coilovers:

i have ground control coilovers which have a 250lbs rear, and 350lbs front linear spring rate. the ride is fine, i dont mind it at all. in fact i am looking into getting revalved/shortened struts and running 450lbs all around :)

to give you some info on my setup, i have tokico shocks in the rear, and konis in the front, which are only adjusted to 2/3 rebound. i had h&r springs at first, and the ride was really nice, relativly comfy, and handled well. the problem with h&r springs is that it dumped the rear of my car about 2" and the front about 3/4" lol so i went with coilovers so i can make that damn car sit right. i love the stance i can get with coilovers, and honestly it handles better than ever.

the bad thing is with coilovers i dropped the car to the point that i did need a camber kit in the front. i got prelude upper control arms and that fixed the problem beautifully. ;)

i would honestly suggest getting a set of dropzone or toms motorsports coilovers off egay, they are cheap and u will love being able to adjust the ride. even if you go with springs, if you dont have good struts u will be miserable. so u might as well get a more versitle coilover package. because struts and camber correction is what is going to cost u the most. :)

[bobafett]

also ground control makes a special kit for use with koni/bilstien struts that turn them into full sleeve coilovers giving you a lot more adjustment and it doesnt have to use the ghetto perches, the sleeve actually sits on a snap ring or threads onto the strut itself. i havent used it ,but when i called ground control they asked if i was using koni struts and told me about it. ;) i needed the polyerethane sleeves to keep the coilover from jittering against the strut, and they i must be using the coilover without the "proper" hardware for use with my struts.

[smufguy]

oh yeah, the coil overs are linear. I like progressive springs. but yet, are not that stiff but gets stiffer under load. Me likes that very muchas.

[bobafett]

its true that coilovers are linear spring rates vs progressive, but linear spring rates can be easier to predict, and honestly anyone who has ridden in my car agrees that its not that bad. ;)

i have to encourage coilovers because there isnt much worse than seeing a nice looking car pointing sky high with the rear dumped. it just kills any look that they might have been going for! ;)

[Busted_Blue]

thanks for all the tips guys, think i will be forced to stick with stock height regardless of how crappy it looks due to sheer cost, on top of buying this stuff id proably have to have them installed. Have had a getto lowered car before and the ride was terrible so i am def not gonna do the quick and easy on this.

I have a tokico spring/strut installation. It cost me rroughly $315 for parts. Course I got my tokico springs on an overstock sale from tokico themselves for $63 shipped and got tokico struts from ebay from a guy called 'jdmwerks' for $250. I had to pay tax for the struts since I was located in california. (sucks). Anyways, total is about $313 just for parts.

The ride isn't harsh. If there is bounce, it is rather minimal and almost not noticable unless you are nitpicky. The handle is by far better than what I had with stock springs and KYB GR2s. This is probably the best bang for the buck. It lowers the car 1inch as well as giving the car a stiffer ride than stock. Just think of a stock brand new accord and you got yourself a ride similar to that now. It's not as stiff as many would like it to be, but for me it's perfect. It is definitely stiffer than the stock ride. Let's just say it gives the car a modern stock car suspension feel to it now. That's how my ride is.

I would reccommend this solution to you if 1)you are on a budget 2)not about slamming it to the ground 3) want a stiffer ride but not too stiff.

hope this helps.

[smufguy]

The only problem with linear springs is that i dont like the feedback. I push myself based on the steering feedback that i get from the tires, despite the steering angle. With the progressive springs, i can not only see my car get stiffer on turns, it also makes me feel much more agile and yet stay within the limits while taking curves. ppl in NJ know that Parkway has crazy exits and usually the exit speeds posted range from 15 to 35mph. With my suspension set up with stock front and rear sway bars and no strut towers yet, i can take Exit 130 with a posted limit of 35mph no less than 80mph. The only time i slow down is for cops and these are still on stock tires.

Point being, i prefer progressive, why? the reason above, makes ME feel in control and more predictive. Lateral body roll is minimal under progressive springs because of their spring rate 'increasing' under increased load. Besides, i like a lil smoother ride on normal driving and it seems to provide me with that. There is a guy with Skunk2 coilovers in his teg that i work with, and god it was one fucking firm ass bumpy drive, shattered everything inside of me and the car.

So yeah, it always depends on the purpose and mainly Preference. So far you got two guys with strong preferences to two different suspension setups. and hope you get your answers from our posts. :cool:

[BITESIZE]

Lowering Costs Money.....

I Paid...

$250 - Eibach Sport Line 1.5" Drop
$280 - Tokico Struts (4)
$180 - Camber Kit

Word Of Advice....if You're Going To Lower Your Car, Do It Right!

[smufguy]

Word Of Advice....if You're Going To Lower Your Car, Do It Right!

Amen to that million zillion times :bow: It always takes only once to get it right esp when money like that is involved.

[BITESIZE]

LOWERING 1O1!

If you lower your car, your stock struts will die......
Thus...you will need aftermarket struts...
If you lower your car, your camber WILL be fucked! People will say it won't be off....they are full of poopy!
Thus...you will need a camber kit...or your tires will die!