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Eibach Releases Performance Pack Lowering Springs
- Thread starter DB-Cooper
- Start date
I see.. looking like I'll be waiting as well for updated springs from Eibach or UP.
markg1018
Member
if you have standard range plus dont expect it to be lowered than how it is now...
Is this expected to have any impact on the longevity of the struts? When I lowered my last car I had to change the struts as well to aftermarket because everyone said the stock struts would go out much faster. That was also only about a 1.6" drop.
Any thoughts? I like the look of it but don't want to compromise my warranty or long term comfort. It's a LR RWD.
Any thoughts? I like the look of it but don't want to compromise my warranty or long term comfort. It's a LR RWD.
It's possible, but you have to look at spring rates and other considerations. Back in the 90s when lowering common cars became popular, people were lowering Honda Civics, Accords, etc. These cars didn't have extremely sporty or great dampening shocks. The spring manufacturers were catering to a scene of performance enthusiasts so not only were they lowering cars they were greatly increasing spring rates to make cars sportier, stiffer and all the things that culture of buyers wanted. Also, some drops were in excess of 2" so they needed to be hyper-stiff just to prevent the car from bottoming out. In these economy car cases, the struts would fail earlier, so it became sort of known, "Never do springs without struts.". Some of that has lived on.
At least for the Performance model, many of these springs aren't ridiculously stiffer and the struts themselves are already designed with some performance attributes and track use in mind (not what Honda was working on with Civics and Accords). I've lowered a lot of cars and have found good success with lowering BMWs and Audis and other performance oriented cars with sporty shocks and never had issues with stock struts, but I don't keep cars for more than 5 years and these are usually more refined 1" drops on cars that were already fairly stiff and sporty. Just food for thought.
Finally, outside of full coil-overs which are overkill for me (I just wanted aesthetics), I'm not aware of any specific high quality sport dampners out there. I'm sure with the popularity of the 3, someone will produce them so may be an option down the road.
dwalme
Member
When you lower a car just by changing springs you lose a bit of range of strut/shock travel.
Lower 1" and you lose 1" of strut travel before your strut bottoms out. This causes the strut to bottom out more frequently. This usually causes premature wear.
When you move to a full coilover setup the strut travel is matched (typically) to the new ride height as long as you have the suspension and ground clearance. In this scenario you are not constantly bottoming out the strut. No premature wear.
Some cars this is a big deal (they have very little strut travel to begin with). Not sure how big of a deal this is on the model 3.
Question: I know coilovers are more expensive but they are almost better in every way, how come you guy's don't go for coilovers and take price different? Springs are cheaper but have but unpleasant side effects that I've heard. Springs = looks but sacrifice some ride quality and will have camber/rake/squeaking noise and other issues in the future. Coilovers = expansive but has quality, looks and can adjust to your taste. As someone who hasn't pulled the triggered yet I guess I'm wondering what the majority thought process are when getting springs over coilovers, is it because of money? Thanks
It's a budget thing, I know I personally installed lowering springs on the first few cars I owned before I experienced quality coilovers. - Jesse
Yes. I have 5 track days on my UP "Mild" springs and feel they provide great value for the money ($550 installed) - 1" drop, reduced body roll, comfort improvement on the street. That said, if I had $3k to spare right now, I'd get coilovers.
I’d disagree with the unpleasant side-effects with choosing just springs. Coil-overs could just as easily have many of the same side-effects, they still in fact have springs and can squeak. They’re not this perfect solution that gives you the best of everything and in many cases they can run too stiff. It all depends on how they were designed. Fundamentally, coil overs are better in that they’re built together as a suspension system and springs and struts are matched, but it’s also a more complex job, more cost, etc. The springs being produced are not being produced with ridiculous spring rates, they’re fairly moderate. Unless you’re tracking your car or need the best possible handling characteristics at the limit, the benefits gained by coil-overs are not regularly used. Sure better dampening but you could also have a significantly harsher ride on coil-overs depending on how they’re designed.
Camber when lowering with springs is around 1 degree negative which is actually quite ideal. I haven’t seen camber reports from those with coil-overs, perhaps when they lower it more they can get more negative camber but that also increases tire wear. The camber side effects simply is not an issue with just lowering springs is what I’m saying, so that’s a false concern, coil-overs share the same side effect. You want to manage toe with an alignment but you need to do that with any suspension change including coil-overs so that comparison is debunked as well.
Let me put it this way, if you want the best performance in terms of track and at the limit driving, go with coil-overs for sure. If you want a moderately more performance oriented drive and the aesthetics of lowering, springs are fine for that at significantly less price. Like anything in this world, you get what you pay for. Just because one is more expensive doesn’t necessarily mean it’s entirely worthwhile or justifiable to everyone. I’ve yet to hit my bump stops in 4,000 miles of driving, so again we are not talking about the lowering trends and side effects when people were 2” dropping Civic econo-cars in the 90s.
The cost difference is 6-7X, it’s hardly trivial. These aren’t $200K super cars either. They are cars that to some are woefully aesthetically unpleasing at factory heights. So for many of us, a simple fix to a simple problem exists, and in that case there’s no reason to boil the ocean.
So this is how the car sits after the install for the LR/STD springs, the front sits way higher than the rear bec its lighter than LR:
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I contacted Eibach, and they were nice enough to offer me a proto type theyre working on for the STD+ models. They changed my front springs and it looks way better. they nailed the look I was going for:
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