[Beat_box]

I finally got my new wheels & tires installed today. I think it looks great, compared to the stock hubcaps but could use some lowering. What do you guys think?
The guy over at the installation shop mentioned something about coilovers?

 

[Beat_box]

oops, wrong location! Sorry

 

[Beat_box]

MOVED! :roll:

 

[nosser]

looks good man... what are the specs?

 

[TrevorS]

I finally got my new wheels & tires installed today. I think it looks great, compared to the stock hubcaps but could use some lowering. What do you guys think?
The guy over at the installation shop mentioned something about coilovers?

Good looking rims ;D!

From what I've read regarding coilovers, they are more of a racing suspension and tend to be especially stiff. Typical street lowering is usually accomplished by swapping out the OE springs for aftermarket lowering springs.

 

[nosser]

^ +1
Springs can do the job but coilovers will let you get low. More than 2"

 

[Beat_box]

looks good man... what are the specs?

The size of the wheels are 17 x 7.5 the tires are Hankook 205/45/17

I finally got my new wheels & tires installed today. I think it looks great, compared to the stock hubcaps but could use some lowering. What do you guys think?
The guy over at the installation shop mentioned something about coilovers?

Good looking rims ;D!

From what I've read regarding coilovers, they are more of a racing suspension and tend to be especially stiff. Typical street lowering is usually accomplished by swapping out the OE springs for aftermarket lowering springs.

Cool. Thanks for the help! Thinking about getting some Megan's real soon.

 

[insanely^3]

while the coilovers do offer a stiffer spring rate compared to the lowering and oem springs, the coils come with new struts and putting shorter springs on a set of struts that are made for taller springs can lead to strut failure somewhere along the road

 

[Square1]

Lowering your car using lowering springs may or may not be detrimental to your shocks / struts in itself. Running your shocks / struts anywhere within it's travel range should be OK, I've run other lowered vehicles using stock shocks / struts and lowering springs for many thousands of miles with no ill effect.

Operating your shocks / struts in a lowered state isn't what kills them. What does kill them is allowing them to bottom out, this will destroy them in a heart beat. As long as their operating anywhere within their travel allowance they should be fine, not ideal maybe, but should work fine and last a good long while.

Just be smart and watch for speed bumps, pot holes, and very rough roads. Slow down and take it easy over these kind of things so that you don't bottom out. If you watch cars travelling along a normal roadway take a look at the tire / suspension travel. There's barely any movement up and down. There's a combinarion of actions between the suspension travel, sidewall flex, and the car's movement that absorb roadway imperfections.

We ran our son's Focus on stock shocks with 2" lowering springs for 50k plus miles and never had a problem because we were very careful how the car was driven over anything that would cause a lot of suspension travel. But by the same token, I also know of several folks running the exact same setup on identical cars and they killed their shocks and struts in a very short time. But every one of those folks admitted that they wasn't careful about obsticles. - Dan

 

[Beat_box]

Lowering your car using lowering springs may or may not be detrimental to your shocks / struts in itself. Running your shocks / struts anywhere within it's travel range should be OK, I've run other lowered vehicles using stock shocks / struts and lowering springs for many thousands of miles with no ill effect.

Operating your shocks / struts in a lowered state isn't what kills them. What does kill them is allowing them to bottom out, this will destroy them in a heart beat. As long as their operating anywhere within their travel allowance they should be fine, not ideal maybe, but should work fine and last a good long while.

Just be smart and watch for speed bumps, pot holes, and very rough roads. Slow down and take it easy over these kind of things so that you don't bottom out. If you watch cars travelling along a normal roadway take a look at the tire / suspension travel. There's barely any movement up and down. There's a combinarion of actions between the suspension travel, sidewall flex, and the car's movement that absorb roadway imperfections.

We ran our son's Focus on stock shocks with 2" lowering springs for 50k plus miles and never had a problem because we were very careful how the car was driven over anything that would cause a lot of suspension travel. But by the same token, I also know of several folks running the exact same setup on identical cars and they killed their shocks and struts in a very short time. But every one of those folks admitted that they wasn't careful about obsticles. - Dan

Wow, thanks for the tip. I guess I'll have to weigh my options before I go with the springs. Any other suggestions?

 

[insanely^3]

Lowering your car using lowering springs may or may not be detrimental to your shocks / struts in itself. Running your shocks / struts anywhere within it's travel range should be OK, I've run other lowered vehicles using stock shocks / struts and lowering springs for many thousands of miles with no ill effect.

Operating your shocks / struts in a lowered state isn't what kills them. What does kill them is allowing them to bottom out, this will destroy them in a heart beat. As long as their operating anywhere within their travel allowance they should be fine, not ideal maybe, but should work fine and last a good long while.

Just be smart and watch for speed bumps, pot holes, and very rough roads. Slow down and take it easy over these kind of things so that you don't bottom out. If you watch cars travelling along a normal roadway take a look at the tire / suspension travel. There's barely any movement up and down. There's a combinarion of actions between the suspension travel, sidewall flex, and the car's movement that absorb roadway imperfections.

We ran our son's Focus on stock shocks with 2" lowering springs for 50k plus miles and never had a problem because we were very careful how the car was driven over anything that would cause a lot of suspension travel. But by the same token, I also know of several folks running the exact same setup on identical cars and they killed their shocks and struts in a very short time. But every one of those folks admitted that they wasn't careful about obsticles. - Dan

That is a very good point, I guess i never looked at it this way. At 17 i dont claim to know everything, but having heard this from you gives me a different perspective on the subject. I personally would like to go with coils given that the cube is a taller car than most and coils would decrease amount of body roll more so than lowering springs alone. I also think lowering springs are more for looks, whereas coils are inteded for a sportier feel (oviously) i live about 5 minutes away from a pretty sweet canyon run with many hairpin turns which i would love to run at high speeds. My friend had a dc4(integra ls) with coils and we would go up and down this canyon at upwards of 60mph, I'm not saying the cube is a race car by any means, but i do think it could make a nice canyon-running vehicle.

 

[ChristineK]

On my S-10 I got 3" drop shocks. I had run the stock shocks for about a week and the universal joint on the drive shaft kept binding on bumps and such. The drop shocks worked like a charm.

I used drop spindles on the front so the stock shocks up there remain.

I have not used drop shocks on my Fit 3-3 drop, and it is fine. For the Fit is was recommended to cut down the bump stops and I did not do that either and I have never hit them, I have friends with stock hight Fit's who said they have hit the bump stops.

 

[Square1]

For the Fit is was recommended to cut down the bump stops and I did not do that either and I have never hit them, I have friends with stock hight Fit's who said they have hit the bump stops.

That's a good point Christine. Like you I rarely cut off the bump stops when I use lowering springs, and if I do, I don't cut off as much as they say to. I would rather my suspension hit the fairly soft squishy bump stop than have the shocks / struts bottom out at the end of their travel. this is probably why I've had good luck in using lowering springs with stock shocks / struts. - Dan

 

[TrevorS]

I also think lowering springs are more for looks, whereas coils are inteded for a sportier feel (oviously)

You may think that, but I installed Eibach Pro-Kit (lowering) springs on both my cars and both are much more taut than before (OE and similar struts). Lowering springs are typically (if not always) variable spring rate (unlike typical OE springs which are fixed rate). That's for the purpose of being not too far from OE feel in the center range, but getting rapidly stiffer as excursion continues. Without this, it would be either much more stiff with mild suspension excursions, or too likely to hit the end of travel with greater excursions. Different brands and models of lowering spring have different characteristics. It helps to learn about the characteristics of each in order to make the best choice.

 

[Square1]

Trever make some good points about the differences (or purpose) of lowering springs Vs coilovers. Typically, properly selected lowering springs will do wonders for both ride and handling very similar to coilovers. The biggest advantage coilovers have is adjustability. Lowering springs normally don't drop more than 2" but coilovers can go much lower. - Dan

 

[schtebie]

This is from cubeperformance.com:

This is why it's "Coil Overs" so that you can corner weight the car when you put it on scales and what we do with all our Race Cars and why there adjustable NOT for it's comfort but balancing the car out so that at the race track the car will be as neutral handling as possible and you can adjust them either via shock adjustment or spring perch adjustment....IF you want more over or under steer......this is what "Coil Overs" were intended to be used for and not just a "lowering" instrument for show.