my friend said the eibachs go good with the stock struts. and he knows his stuff, so i will look into that for other members on this forum. and post here.
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Gregory-
keep it in the dirt.
ok, question for vew or anyone who has the answer.
arent there springs out there that are designed for the stock shocks? so they will give you a lower ride, but the spring rate is designed for the stock shock?
i dunno just curious, incase there is someone out there that wants to lower it but scared of shock damage.
Perrin "Tunner Sport Springs" are (accroding to Perrin) designed for stock struts.. Check out the Perrin page for more info or my home page for pictures of them installed...
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02 WRX.. Tearing up the streets Yet again.. "Hells Yea"..
the only problem i have with what companies claim, is that they make products to make money, yes i know thats how businesses stay a business, but sometimes they bend the truth or make things seem better then they appear. such as perrin, i love the company, one of my favorite companies. but its like "designed for the stock strut" can also mean its designed to fit, not necessarily designed to work well with... i would like to see peoples experiences with lowering springs and what their personal experiences were with them ya know?
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Gregory-
keep it in the dirt.
Consider this then. In order to lower the car, the spring's length has to be shorter. That means the weight of the car will compress the shocks until it meets the top of the spring and the resistance holds up the entire car. Shocks were not made to be partically compressed 24/7 more than it was origionally meant to. This would also be what leads to faster wear on the shock itself.
Going back to the aftermarket spring, they're shorter in overall length so the car can sit lower. This is the obvious. They say it's made to work with the stock shocks, okay, but think about it. It doesn't make sense. If it's made with the same rate as the stock shocks, then you would bottom them out (one reason why cutting stock springs are bad) on major turns, braking, or on acceleration. The only way to compensate for that is to make the spring stiffer, and thus avoid bottoming out the shocks. But if the spring is stiffer, it no longer works with the stock shock.
Maybe there's some spring manufacturing secret that I'm not aware of and defies the laws of physics... I guess I did get a C in physics for engineering majors
I've been reading some stuff and I'm quite impressed how Whiteline is not hiding the facts about lowering springs. Take a look at this link, it's also full of great information.
very good point vew. if its lower it needs the stiffness to keep it from bottoming out, and with the higher stiffness its not longer what the strut was designed for.. makes perfect sense.. thanks for clarifying that.
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Gregory-
keep it in the dirt.
ok, question for vew or anyone who has the answer.
arent there springs out there that are designed for the stock shocks? so they will give you a lower ride, but the spring rate is designed for the stock shock?
i dunno just curious, incase there is someone out there that wants to lower it but scared of shock damage.
The Eibach Sport and the Prodrives (which are made by Eibach).
so what your saying instead of getting lowering springs for 200 bucks, save your money and get coilovers, because you are going to end up replacing your stock shocks and struts to shorter and stiffer, and after all said and done you could have bought coilovers and be done with it.
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06 WRX TR
Aspen White
Stage II
Don't get me wrong. It's a cheap way to get rid of the wheel gap. In fact, I'll be getting lowering springs over the summer. Just as long as you realize it will worsen your handling, and put more stress on your stock shocks. As of now, the gains for me are better than what I lose since most of my cash already went into handling, and right now, I'm concentrating on visuals.
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Jon
"We live for a good time, not a long time."
RIP Colin McRae
Here's why lowering springs can be troublesome for MacPherson strut setups
As you lower the vehicle, control arms become closer to paralell or in extreme cases lower than parallel!- this reduces the roll center which quite simply means the car is going to roll more - everything else being even.
To compensate for the reduction in roll center, lowering spring must increase spring rates- if they stay at stock or near stock rates- your performance is degrading, not improving.
There are springs available that lower modestly and increase spring rates, that will net you performance gains. The oe dampers (especially the 04+ ones) provide a fair amount of damping so if spring rates aren't too awful high, they'll do adequately matched w/ one of these springs.
The ideal setup would include moderate lowering, a good bump in spring rates with a well damped strut- fortunately these can be had Obviously optimizing alignment settings go a long way in increasing grip as well.
There will be a product on the market soon that will reverse the negative geometry effect of lowering- it simply provides a spacer to lengthen the lower ball joint so the lower arm goes less parallel. It will also provide a spacer for the tie rod so bump steer doesn't then become an issue.
This will allow you to have your cake and eat it too
Struts are a wear item- the oe springs will wear out the oe struts. Depnding how and where you drive will determine how long they last. Adding a stiffer spring will accelerate that wear- the STi springs are stiffer. They also lower lsightly over the WRX springs ~ 10mm- so that adds a little to the wear equation.
Having said that- the STi oe springs are very, very similar to the WRX pinks springs in both spring rates and lowering. I think these will work fine w/ the oe struts, strut life won't be as long as w/ oe springs, but you will reduce roll and dial out some undesteer as well.
Stiffer springs will stiffen the ride, as will firmer dampers- that's one of the tradeoffs of going to a higher performing suspension. How much stiffer is subjective, I find the oe WRX setup very wallowly- others find it find pretty firm as is
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Obviously optimizing alignment settings go a long way in increasing grip as well.
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