lowering

[dean]

i want to lower my car if it is possable and after spend a few yr on for i got to know the limits with ford but have no idear on how low and safe on my new car



if u have lowered your car could u post a pic up and if u have any advise plz shout away im all ears on this 1

[mpau009]

i want to lower my car if it is possable and after spend a few yr on for i got to know the limits with ford but have no idear on how low and safe on my new car



if u have lowered your car could u post a pic up and if u have any advise plz shout away im all ears on this 1

Iv had both my legnums with adjustable height suspension, which always seems to get left at 100mm from the lowest structural point (NZ law)

Be aware that lowering the car will give you camber issues, especially on the back, but its not the end of the world.

a lot of people just go for a shorter spring, which is okay too, although sometimes a heavier spring is a bit beyond the capacities of the stock shocks

Also be prepared to scrape the **** out of the underneath and front lip if you go down a significant amount

Best to have a bit of a search/trawl around, and see what other people have said about their setups.

[pitslayer]

i had one standard height and gashed the sump open.
got one lowered on the front and constantly scraping the front end,

[Subaru ETA]

hoad my legnum lowered to nz legal limit on adustables and my galant is lowered on king springs.

only real probs are camber (which is not adjustable but there are mods you can do - in the members section) and the constant scraping!

[Ryan]

hoad my legnum lowered to nz legal limit on adustables and my galant is lowered on king springs.

only real probs are camber (which is not adjustable but there are mods you can do - in the members section) and the constant scraping!

OK, what are the probs with camber, excessive tyre wear or something more sinister (and expensive)?

[bradc]

thats basically it, you'll chew up the inside of the rear tyres

[kamal]

I'm also thinking of lowering my car using Eibach Pro-kit 30mm springs from http://www.piper-cams.co.uk/frame-detail.asp?PAGE=/eibach-suspension.htm

What do you guys think? and is it a difficult job to do?

[Kieran]

I'm also thinking of lowering my car using Eibach Pro-kit 30mm springs from http://www.piper-cams.co.uk/frame-detail.asp?PAGE=/eibach-suspension.htm

What do you guys think? and is it a difficult job to do?

If you search for Eibach on the boards you'll find a lot of happy V6 owners talking about them.:scholar:

The procedure is documented in the library, but it's not difficult. The rears are very easy - THe fronts are a little more involved still not difficult. Make sure you use good quality spring compressors though!

[Mark 4]

thats basically it, you'll chew up the inside of the rear tyres

That's ok cos if you swap em regularly then it'll even up the wear from the front outside getting scrubbed.

[kamal]

Thanks that's reassuring, and will do.

Never been keen on lowering in the past due to increased tyre wear, premature shock failure etc. but the handling on the v6 is just not good enough, I mean my old rover 600 diesel handles much better considering

A: its a good 50kg or so heavier
B: it has 16" wheels with highish profile tyres opposed to the galants 17" low profile
C: it's mileage is almost double that of the galants
D: it's a Rover! :scholar:

Yes I think the galant suspension definitely needs uprating, now I'll just wait for the weather to get a little better:sunny:

Thanks again.

[scc]

After I lowered my V6, I thought the transformation was fantastic. However, now that I've had a go at a VR4 I'm now back to square. The v6 feels horrible in comparison.

Would a strut brace on a V6 help much?

scc

[Wodjno]

After I lowered my V6, I thought the transformation was fantastic. However, now that I've had a go at a VR4 I'm now back to square. The v6 feels horrible in comparison.

Would a strut brace on a V6 help much?

scc

You had a go in a VR4 :speechles

[scc]

You had a go in a VR4 :speechles
ok ok ok, it was a VR4 with mega upgrades and two lions in the back./JawDroppi

scc

[kamal]

ok ok ok, it was a VR4 with mega upgrades and two lions in the back./JawDroppi

scc

two lions???

[mpau009]

After I lowered my V6, I thought the transformation was fantastic. However, now that I've had a go at a VR4 I'm now back to square. The v6 feels horrible in comparison.

Would a strut brace on a V6 help much?

scc

On my first legnum STR, i had tanabe coilovers, and a stock VR4 strutbrace that i got from a wrecker. It handled pretty close to the VR4 iv got now, bar the lack of acceleration and AYC:scholar:

Cant say i noticed any direct improvement from fitting the strutbrace, but it was cheap and it looked pretty, and it must help to some degree.

[Kenneth]

Lowering isn't going to help a great deal if you shocks are crap and springs are too soft. (which I found was the case in the non VR-4 models that I drove)

The VR-4 comes with much sportier suspension from factory which is one reason the handling feels much better.

You do not have to lower the car to get decent handling, though if you want great handling then you will want to have it lowered on decent springs and shocks.

[kamal]

Lowering isn't going to help a great deal if you shocks are crap and springs are too soft. (which I found was the case in the non VR-4 models that I drove)

The VR-4 comes with much sportier suspension from factory which is one reason the handling feels much better.

You do not have to lower the car to get decent handling, though if you want great handling then you will want to have it lowered on decent springs and shocks.

I agree stiffer is better than lower but stiffer springs which aren't lower are difficult to come by and eibach springs should be a fair bit stiffer than stock... i hope.

Think I'm going to stick to standard shocks tho. Not really after brilliant handling, just looking for... say your average GTI kinda handling if you know what i mean.

[Kenneth]

I have to say I am a believer in coilover adjustable suspension now.
With a lot of sets you can specify the spring rate when you purchase them also. setup right the ride is good, the handling even better and best of all you can run it at a decent enough height that unless you have to traverse some interesting terrain you shouldn't have [too] much problem scraping.

[bradc]

I'm impressed with the tanabe sustec springs (just springs, not coilovers and I haven't changed the shocks) in my VR-4. When I get coilovers for the VR-4 I'll put the tanabe's into the ST-R. The stock ST-R suspension is fairly average.

[MarkSanne]

Mine is lowered with a set of AST coilovers (adjustable in height & stiffness), now set to almost highest (yes, these can go extremely low!) height, and the firmness setting to softest (still a stiff ride, never dare to set it to most stiff setting! afraid my organs will get mixed up after a ride :) ). A picture:

http://www.markspages.nl/images/galant/v6/showpics/21.jpg

[Kieran]

Nice picture - You might want a camber correction kit for the rear wheels though!

[bradc]

you know your camber is bad when you can see it from a side on shot!

[MarkSanne]

Yeah I know, strange thing is that I will be replacing the wintertires for summertires. When I look at the rear summertires, they look very evenly worn... which I don't really understand knowing the camber is off.

[bradc]

you could have a lot of toe in?

[MarkSanne]

toe in? (sorry don't know what it is)

[bradc]

imagine that from head on you're looking down on your car. Normally the tyres would be like:


| | front

| | rear

with toe in you would have

| | front

/ \ rear

if you had no camber at all, this would normally wear the outside of the tyre. Obviously you have a lot of camber on the car, so a small amount of toe in might infact negate the effects of negative camber, or minimise it.

[MarkSanne]

THANKS brad, now 'toe in' makes perfect sense to me... I just should have translated it litteraly! :)