Lowering Springs for 2021 M3P

[CorneliusRox]

@CorneliusRox For what it's worth, when I was occasionally tracking my daily driver years ago (figure 5-6 HPDE/year and 10k-15k summer miles/year), I was able to find one alignment setup that reasonably balanced inner vs outer tread wear, using the same RE-11 tires for summer street + track. Got a surprising amount of miles out per set of those, they really handled the mix of street and track day use well, including the wide temperature range.

I'm sure a purely track-focused alignment could've given me a bit more grip, but I wasn't racing and there were much bigger fish to focus on for improving my lap times! (Like my driving, and also oil temps were an issue on that car on hotter days...)

I played around with it on my last Audi a ridiculous amount of hours and I could never find a setup I was happy with. I ended up buying a 'lifetime alignment' at a certain firestone where a guy worked that tracked his car at the same events as me sometimes. I'd give him my alignment specs, drop it off, and he'd get to adjust it on the clock and it didn't cost me anything more than the initial ~$200. Totally worth it!

Prior to that, I would adjust toe before/after tracking, but the 'virtual balljoint' Audi does on the upper control arms made it a real pain to adjust camber on the fly. I wore through a lot of tires. Sad/expensive times. ha ha

What mud flaps are those on your car? The ebay ones?

Here you go:

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I love the look of them compared to anything else I've found, but... They needed some cleaning up when I got them. I had to take some time with my dremel to clean up plastic injection molding parting line flashing.

Wow, that looks amazing! Your posts are __not__ helping me to not lower mine (and we have the same '21 M3P MSM)

I've done just springs, spring + shocks/struts (sourced independently / custom) and full on coilovers, and in the case of just springs, I had a little issue with bottoming out on the bump stops. I'd love to go with just springs, but I'm concerned about, well, "streetability" and the ride getting bouncy on wavy roads.

I am definitely going to swap out these 235/35 Pirelli and go a 255/35 on the OEM Ubers, a little more sidewall / width / wheel protection, looks terrific on your ride - I see they're BFGs, can't quite see the model, assuming those are a g-Force COMP-2 A/S PLUS ?

I thought about a 10-14mm slip on rear spacer with extended shank lugnuts, I've personally never used them - but I also picked up some 5mm spacers months ago and some killer lugnuts, so that might be my jam.

Especially if I get it lowered

First off, thanks! I'm really happy with how the updates have gone.

Yeah, you and I were in the same boat. I've done wild to mild with suspensions. Last time I did a car up, living in MN at that time, the coilovers were a nightmare to adjust after one winter (KW V2's). I swore I'd never do coilovers on a daily driver car again. Also, I really did coils for the looks, not performance on this car.
I really love these coils though. The ride is a little softer, and I've never gotten into a wavy oscillation with them. I've never hit the bump stops (at least not noticeably) and I've been semi hard on them at times, but definitely not 'track use' hard.

You got it right. BFG G-Force COMP-2 A/S PLUS. I'm really happy with them. Surprisingly cheap for the performance.
They've been keeping me hooked up through this winter and we've gotten a decent amount of ice and snow. When it's warm, they gave me an extra 0.1 lateral G on the parking lot I like to test things out in. That's likely due to the added contact patch and not material compound though.

 

[67King]

I went with the Unplugged Performance. As things have settled, the car sits lower than I expected, the caveat being I didn't measure it. Unfortunately, I now have a lot of issues with clearances, and I managed to destroy the plastic rocker extension coming out of a parking garage the other day. Did not matter how slow I went, or at what angle (which wasn't much, it was in a 90 degree turn), I couldn't help but scrape a LOT. Car looks great, but it is a bit much. Only have about a 7/8" gap between tire and fender lip.

 

[CosmosMpower]

I went with the Unplugged Performance. As things have settled, the car sits lower than I expected, the caveat being I didn't measure it. Unfortunately, I now have a lot of issues with clearances, and I managed to destroy the plastic rocker extension coming out of a parking garage the other day. Did not matter how slow I went, or at what angle (which wasn't much, it was in a 90 degree turn), I couldn't help but scrape a LOT. Car looks great, but it is a bit much. Only have about a 7/8" gap between tire and fender lip.

Mild or moderate?

 

[fluxcapacitor]

Mild or moderate?

from what it sounds, it has to be moderate

 

[Brettka7]

Not a performance, but I’m happy with Eibach springs!

 

[67King]

Mild or moderate?

When I bought them, the "Super Performance" was the only option they offered for the Performance.

 

[NoNoBadDog]

Not a performance, but I’m happy with Eibach springs!

Looks great. Can you provide F & R fender to ground and F & R jack point to ground measurements? Thanks!

 

[Brettka7]

Looks great. Can you provide F & R fender to ground and F & R jack point to ground measurements? Thanks!

I know fender to ground was 27.25” front and 27.5” rear. I don’t know jack points, but I will say it’s quite low now and my black plastic side under panels are scratched to hell from exiting parking lots

 

[kimi]

For those of you who went with the Eibach coils, did you had to trim the bump stops from your shocks as described in the documentation here?

 

[slvrndblck34]

View attachment 770581View attachment 770582

Not a performance, but I’m happy with Eibach springs!

What the size of the lowering springs did you get? 1.1 front and 1.3 rear?

 

[slvrndblck34]

What the size of the lowering springs did you get? 1.1 front and 1.3 rear?

Also is your Tesla the stasndard+ or long range

 

[MaskedRacerX]

Install was super easy, and I'm pretty happy with them.

I just noticed this (after a previous post), and saw the thread where you DIY'ed the install, dang nice job. I used to do a lot more myself, I'll still do simple jack-and-bolt-on/off, but I think springs may be a bit much (I don't even have a spring compressor tool anymore ...)

I guess there's nothing very Tesla-specific, I could probably just hit up a local garage vs. driving all the way out to Electrified Garage in Ocala (that's a ~4 hour round trip).

 

[scalbert03]

Just finished up installing my Eibach springs last night. Not too bad and did them on my Quickjack. Also added 14mm H&R spacers and like the look now. Will take pictures soon.

 

[scalbert03]

Just a few snaps I took a moment ago, except the one on the QuickJack which was taken earlier. Pre-install, getting ready. Like I had mentioned earlier, not bad to do on these. They are the 6000XLT and fairly heavy to more around. But I can use them with all our vehicles.

Post Install. Now a two finger gap versus the stock 3+ finger gap. Need to take another picture later when outside and from a slight distance.

Fortunately I no longer have the wheel gap of my wife's Q7:

 

[whenryb]

Looks great! 14MM spacers front and rear?

 

[scalbert03]

Looks great! 14MM spacers front and rear?

Yes, stayed the same all around. Took a while to decide but happy with the results. Plus, knowing me, I might mix them up (or someone else). Staying square avoids the potential issues.

Just took a couple more snaps at my office building.

 

[CorneliusRox]

I just noticed this (after a previous post), and saw the thread where you DIY'ed the install, dang nice job. I used to do a lot more myself, I'll still do simple jack-and-bolt-on/off, but I think springs may be a bit much (I don't even have a spring compressor tool anymore ...)

I guess there's nothing very Tesla-specific, I could probably just hit up a local garage vs. driving all the way out to Electrified Garage in Ocala (that's a ~4 hour round trip).

Yeah, definitely nothing unique about the Tesla suspension compared to anything else. In fact, the suspension is pretty basic and cheap compared to most since it's an upper and lower control arm vs a 4-link (virtual ball joint) design like you'd see on Audi or other OEMs.

Get yourself some cheap spring compressors, a breaker bar, basic mechanics set of sockets, and a pry bar. That's all you need to do a job like this and it's so easy! Plus, you can sleep better knowing you torqued every bolt and it wasn't just some mechanic with an impact.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

Yeah, definitely nothing unique about the Tesla suspension compared to anything else. In fact, the suspension is pretty basic and cheap compared to most since it's an upper and lower control arm vs a 4-link (virtual ball joint) design like you'd see on Audi or other OEMs.

Get yourself some cheap spring compressors, a breaker bar, basic mechanics set of sockets, and a pry bar. That's all you need to do a job like this and it's so easy! Plus, you can sleep better knowing you torqued every bolt and it wasn't just some mechanic with an impact.

Good into thanks.

I actually have a ton of tools: 1/4,3/8, 1/2" sockets, multiple ratchets, torque wrenches (just picked up a nice new 1/2"), extensions, multiple set of wrenches, lots of specialized stuff like pulley removers, O2 sockets, etc., ramps, good stands, a solid 3 ton jack. I've done major stuff like heads/cam on an LSx, a few set of headers, a full coilover install. I occasionally borrowed things like a QuickJack or engine hoist as needed.

I hear you about the quality of work. I was in a time pinch to get some new rotors on for a track event (for my Z06), had the local Chevy place do it, holy f-in heck, when I did a pad check at the end of the first day, one of the calipers had a finger loose bolt. That was it for track prep type service, it was all me from that day forward (also learned how to do my own track alignments in the garage).

I guess at this point, it's a mix of time, laziness, umm, old guy aches and pains, hahahaha, the upside is I work from home, have a garage, we have two cars so I wouldn't even have to be in much of a rush. If I took a whole day on each corner, that would be fine.

OK,maybe I'll plan my week-of-pain

 

[scalbert03]

Get yourself some cheap spring compressors

Even after lubing the threads, the amount of shavings on my garage floor showed how cheap mine was....

 

[scalbert03]

umm, old guy aches and pains,

Been feeling it the last two days. Another set of hands would make things go tremendously easier, just fyi. I was on my own. For the front strut assembly installation after the springs were swapped, I use a small 2x4 piece (used also with the floor jack when lifting the suspension) in the fork to hold it so I could get up top to get one of the three perch nuts on.

On the rear for the insertion of the new spring, use one leg to press the lower down, so both hands can handle and maneuver the the spring in place.

And above all, clock the front strut assembly well before trying to reinstall.