How much can you lower without getting new shocks?

[TidyRach]

I really dont know that much technical stuff at all about lowering cars... want to lower mine though! Was gonna buy coilovers with adjustable height, but I kind of dont really want to spend quite so much money... although I probably will end up doing so!

So just been doing some research on just lowering springs etc... so how much can you lower on standard shocks without ruining anything?

Cheers guys, any info is loved!

 

[Gaz_]

I'd say around 30mm from my experience, anything more and you'd need uprated ones imo

 

[Alastair.]

people on here have lowerd there clios on 60mm springs, dont fink any1 has had a problem yet

 

[Jordi17]

so 40mm springs will be ok with standard shocks mate???

 

[Gaz_]

people on here have lowerd there clios on 60mm springs, dont fink any1 has had a problem yet

yeah there will be no problems as such, but the ride will be crashy as f**k tbh, which defeats the object!!! The extra strain/pressure on the dampers majorly f***s up their life also.....

 

[TidyRach]

^^^ Thats what i've been told...

Is it worth paying out the extra for coilovers, even though my car only gets driven round town?!

 

[Aluco]

i had 60mm springs on stock dampers for about 6 months and it was fine, a little crash on speed bumps and that but it handled lovely on decent roads and at high speed.

 

[Willy]

gonna get lots of mixed opinions mate. did alot of reading up on this myself and finally came to the conclusion, yes you can drop 60mm on standard shocks but for a better ride new shocks would'nt go a miss. for the price of a decent set of springs and shocks i believe you might aswell get coilovers. 30-40mm is whats advised on normal shocks and anything below new shocks are advised but arnt exactly a must.

 

[Gaz_]

^^^ Thats what i've been told...

Is it worth paying out the extra for coilovers, even though my car only gets driven round town?!

Just get some 30mm springs then imo. Dont need coilovers unless your going looow

http://www.k-tecracing.com/show_product.asp?id=2469

^Should be fine on your current shocks, but is always nice to maybe just get some standard new Renault shocks. I did that with the gf's Saxo, lowered 30mm and bought some new standard fit Bilstien shocks from demon tweeks

 

[TidyRach]

I was thinking lower than 30mm... but then I dont wanna buy them, stick them on & then decide actually I want it down to 40mm if you get me? Least with the coilovers I can change the height?!

I'll measure my arches tonight & see how much of a gap there already is, cause at the moment my baby looks like a 4x4... not good! lol

Cheers for all your advice guys

 

[2thumbs]

Lowering on standard shocks is fine, but I'd recommend getting new ones. Lowered springs have a tendancy of killing already-worn shocks.

I'm running Eibach Sportlines on KYB Premium shocks (bit like OEM+) and it's perfect.

...Well the front is, the back ones are farked!

 

[Clgale88]

Im running 40mm springs on my cup shocks and its fine Get soem cup shocks there better

 

[Mark One]

Im running 40mm springs on my cup shocks and its fine Get soem cup shocks there better

Difference is negledgable

Your right to be cautious about lowering on stardard shocks, on other cars it's often a bad idea. on a 172 it's fine.

 

[TidyRach]

Right ok, cheers!

Also... u know shocks can need replacing individually, what happens with coilovers? Can you buy seperate parts or a coilover individually? I really dont know much at all!

 

[Clgale88]

I dont think you can buy coilovers individually but i would quess the company would repair them if they did get damaged not sure