FAQ's about LOWERED CARS ~

[sanjay]

Hey fellas.
The stock ride height is disgustingly high. I can fit my foot between the top of my tread & the bottom of my guard.
I am tossing up whether or not to lower my car.
I know that the appearance of a lowered car is significantly greater than one of stock height. However, does the effect of lowering an accord make the ride very uncomfortable or what?
I have no idea about the comfort of the ride.
I have to travel 3 hours a day in my accord, so is it worth sacrificing the ride comfort for appearance?
~ some assistance would be greatly appeciated ~ Jim?

[SiR]

With my Suspension Tech. springs, I was surprise on how comfortable it was.

[RobT5580]

If you do it right it will be fine. My first set up sucked but second time around i bought Koni Struts and set them to what Jim said to and got H&R springs. It rides as good as i think you will get but my only negative thing is i want it to be a little lower in the front. The only negative things i can think of having a lowered car is: if you buy poor products the ride will suck, generally tires wear faster, and if you live where it snows a lot it can make it easy to get stuck if the snow is deep. But if done right you will be happy which i am. But my next step is finding a shorter front spring that wont mess this up for me.

[89AccordNate]

If you are commuting a lot, you definitely need the right setup. Running bad parts like TOKICOS are going to be your downfall. Nothing is worse then a bouncy and uncontrolled feeling ride. The only downsides is that on super rough roads with pot holes, lowered cars will throw you around. You are going to feel more bumps in the road, but you will get used to that. The handling part is fun.

I just blew out my rear tokicos after about 2 years.. (they are bottoming out ) running a 2.25" drop or so, so do not buy tokicos, they are horrible!


Nate.

[jigga225]

yah man if you do it right, you will not have to sacrifice that much.
nothin beats sittin on the rims if you ask me.
I'd neva buy rims before i drop after all that i've been thru

[sanjay]

Holy Shit - Nate with a positive post!
Thanks Nate :thumbsup: :woohoo:

Thanks to the rest of you as well.... I'll look into a quality set of springs and struts.

[Nate2310]

I wanna get some kyb struts, I heard those are nice

[Jims 86LXI HB]

Originally posted by Nate2310
I wanna get some kyb struts, I heard those are nice

For a car not running stiffer lowering springs,.....yes. Otherwise GR-2's are no different than oem sturts and they are NOT valved any DIFFERENT. If you were looking at KYB AGX struts, that's totally different, but they don't make AGX's for our cars.

Here's a cut and paste from my "so you want to lower your car FAQ"

What struts should you use for your lowered car?
All lowering springs and all coilovers are stiffer. You need to install struts that are likewise stiffer. The struts need to control the stiffer spirng, get it wrong you you'll have bounce, excess brake dive during braking, you'll have less responsiveness for emergency lane changes and your car will rock the rear suspension (dip) with every gear change on a manuel equipped car. Plus they the pavement get ruff the strut will not be able to control the spring/tire and you'll lose grip, that includes hitting a bump mid corner

Tokico H.P.'s and Bilstein H.D.'s do not have the needed stiffness for duty with lowering springs, they are ONLY SLIGHTLY stiffer than stock. The are only Hi Performance or Heavy Duty with a car running stock springs. DO NOT use the in the front of a lowered car. (Keep in mind that the Bilstein's can be used with stiffer springs when they are revalved.) Kyb GR-2's are not valved stiffer than stock. They are OEM replacement struts and also should only be used with car's with stock springs.

The tokico's (or the Bilstein's for that matter) can be used in the rear with lowering springs. I would not use them in the rear with rear springs stiffer than 250 or 240.

The Koni's do have the stiffness to control all but the really stiff coilovers that are avaliable. They are the strut of choice. If all you car about is how you look in a lowered car and care nothing about how the car rides and drives, go ahead and get whatever strut please's you. But when you wonder why you car no longer drive's like it should, or you test drive a newer car and you wonder why your's does funny things, just remember,....I told you better.

What if your thinking about those cheap coilovers that are really stiff, stiffer than the Ground-Control coilover's? I'll tell ya right now, the ride will be stiff. For struts, even the Koni's DO NOT have the stiffness to ride and drive right with those stiffer coilover, like Dropzone or Skunk2's. Get revalved Bilstein H.D.'s or revalved Koni's for those coilovers. I can't stress how important is is to do this with coilovers that stiff.



SPECIAL CAUTION TO THOSE THAT WANT TO BE LOWERED BELOW 2.25"!!!
If you go below 2.25" you should have the front Koni's strut's shortned to improve their performance and to not KILL them cause your bottoming them out repeatedly.

[socal3rdgen]

Originally posted by Jims 86LXI HB
For a car not running stiffer lowering springs,.....yes. Otherwise GR-2's are no different than oem sturts and they are NOT valved any DIFFERENT. If you were looking at KYB AGX struts, that's totally different, but they don't make AGX's for our cars.

Here's a cut and paste from my "so you want to lower your car FAQ"

What struts should you use for your lowered car?
All lowering springs and all coilovers are stiffer. You need to install struts that are likewise stiffer. The struts need to control the stiffer spirng, get it wrong you you'll have bounce, excess brake dive during braking, you'll have less responsiveness for emergency lane changes and your car will rock the rear suspension (dip) with every gear change on a manuel equipped car. Plus they the pavement get ruff the strut will not be able to control the spring/tire and you'll lose grip, that includes hitting a bump mid corner

Tokico H.P.'s and Bilstein H.D.'s do not have the needed stiffness for duty with lowering springs, they are ONLY SLIGHTLY stiffer than stock. The are only Hi Performance or Heavy Duty with a car running stock springs. DO NOT use the in the front of a lowered car. (Keep in mind that the Bilstein's can be used with stiffer springs when they are revalved.) Kyb GR-2's are not valved stiffer than stock. They are OEM replacement struts and also should only be used with car's with stock springs.

The tokico's (or the Bilstein's for that matter) can be used in the rear with lowering springs. I would not use them in the rear with rear springs stiffer than 250 or 240.

The Koni's do have the stiffness to control all but the really stiff coilovers that are avaliable. They are the strut of choice. If all you car about is how you look in a lowered car and care nothing about how the car rides and drives, go ahead and get whatever strut please's you. But when you wonder why you car no longer drive's like it should, or you test drive a newer car and you wonder why your's does funny things, just remember,....I told you better.

What if your thinking about those cheap coilovers that are really stiff, stiffer than the Ground-Control coilover's? I'll tell ya right now, the ride will be stiff. For struts, even the Koni's DO NOT have the stiffness to ride and drive right with those stiffer coilover, like Dropzone or Skunk2's. Get revalved Bilstein H.D.'s or revalved Koni's for those coilovers. I can't stress how important is is to do this with coilovers that stiff.



SPECIAL CAUTION TO THOSE THAT WANT TO BE LOWERED BELOW 2.25"!!!
If you go below 2.25" you should have the front Koni's strut's shortned to improve their performance and to not KILL them cause your bottoming them out repeatedly.

thanks for the essay jim.

[Jims 86LXI HB]

Originally posted by socal3rdgen
thanks for the essay jim.

I know, sorry. But I needed a FAQ answer that covered everything. If I left a point out, I guarantee I'd get asked about it.
I felt if it was worth doing, it was worth doing right

[socal3rdgen]

Originally posted by Jims 86LXI HB
I know, sorry. But I needed a FAQ answer that covered everything. If I left a point out, I guarantee I'd get asked about it.
I felt if it was worth doing, it was worth doing right

definetly, it made me laugh because i know that this type of subject you could speak for days about. good ole jim setting them straight heh.

what you need to do is whenever you make a FAQ like that just copy and paste it into a text file and store it. then when someone asks just go to the text file and copy and paste it backonto your new post.