Dropped the 3 off today at Eibach for measurements and prototyping. If all goes well, we should be seeing some lowering springs for our 3’s in a few months!
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Lowering the Model 3
- Thread starter Cricket88
- Start date
Boy, I sure am excited to see people lower these so far that they're actually tucking the tires behind the fenders, because that looks awesome. Even better will be the wild cambering, stretched tires, and other performance-improving modifications!
There will be a market for this. With 400k plus reservations, there is definitely going to be people that want to lower their Model 3 at least by a little bit (especially if you don’t get air suspension) Getting Eibach involved will only make the springs much more affordable for everyone as opposed to small run private label lowering springs (at double the cost who will probably be made by Eibach to begin with anyways)!
Thomas Edison
Active Member
Anything aftermarket can void the warranty for that specific part if it was deemed the culprit of the breakdown. So if your window or door handles stop working, no the lowering springs won’t void that.
T34ME
Active Member
Those who jump the queue should avoid sarcasm and remain silent and invisible.
e-FTW
New electron smell
That is great to hear! Any hints on how they plan on dealing with the lack of camber adjustment?
I’m having them confirm since they’ll have the car apart but we’ll also have to see how much the camber gets affected once they determine the appropriate drop to give the car. If need be, I can see about making some camber control arms for the car once we reach that point! I also don’t foresee any issues with sensors or autopilot if the tech is Same/similar to the Model S. My air suspension S is lowered and I don’t have any issues with auto pilot!
T34ME
Active Member
Good on you @Cricket88 post photos as soon as you are finished. I drive past Eibach at least a couple of times a month. Perhaps we can have a SoCal meetup to view the results. I will configure my car the same as yours - white with 18's - but I have a few tricks up my sleeve (@modfather)
Did you consider deferring your 3 to get SAS? Why/Why Not.
shrspeedblade
Rideshare Monkey
I hope they design a set of adjustable sway bars, too! For a car with the battery pack in the floor I think this might be a more prudent suspension change for some over lowering the car, especially since it's really not suited for track work anyway. I know all the reviews comment on the lack of body roll, but throw on a set of sticky summer compounds you're going to see more, and the bars would improve transitional response and let you "tune" the handling a bit as well.
In my experience Eibach is fairly conservative with how much they lower the car though, which is a good thing, but I would bet a hefty sum that any battery pack damage to a car lowered even a quarter inch would not be warrantied by Tesla. Of course, dubious what they would cover anyway. That could get expensive fast- your call!
In my experience Eibach is fairly conservative with how much they lower the car though, which is a good thing, but I would bet a hefty sum that any battery pack damage to a car lowered even a quarter inch would not be warrantied by Tesla. Of course, dubious what they would cover anyway. That could get expensive fast- your call!
Thomas Edison
Active Member
sreams
Member
Wild camber and stretched tires don't improve performance. But maybe you were kidding.
What are the benefits of lowering? Would have never thought about this for the life of me... I could find a use for raising, for ex. to be able to drive on mild offroad trails... although when I think more about this, it makes more sense to use a beat up car over there rather than 60k+ car.
Does lowering improve your range by 3% or something?
If given the option, yes I would have gone with SAS just like I did with my S. Having a dynamic ride height gives me a much greater range of flexibility when going in/out of driveways, over speed pumps, letting passengers in/out without scraping the door, etc. it is also much simpler to tweak the static ride height via longer links/brackets etc.
Knowing how Tesla-Time works however, I didn’t want to wait with an unknown uncertainty for SAS to become available and also lose my place in line for the car.
SAS wasn’t as important to me as getting the car while it was available to me, since I figured I’d be able to lower it anyways.
All of the cars I’ve owned have been lowered (not slammed) because to me they just look much better!
timk225
Active Member
Lowered cars look stupid, don't do that. I see idiot kids riding around here in their slammed Honda Civics with the wheels all out at crazy angles and about a half inch from touching the fenders.
When they come out, I will surmise that they will probably be private labeled by Eibach, (or similar manufacturing company) anyways.
Surprise! It's no secret that Eibach private labels a very large portion of suspension products for smaller companies so it basically comes down to paying more for small run private label springs, or paying less for mass-released Eibach-branded variants! Either way, if all goes as planned, you will have options (which will make pricing much more competitive for everyone)!
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Well aside from the aesthetics and reducing the huge wheel gap (from tire to fender), it lowers the overall center of gravity. Most vehicles that get lowered properly will exhibit better cornering and handling. As far as range goes, its possible that it can increase range, but we'd need a wind tunnel to test how the drag coefficient gets affected.
A bigger symptom that lowering springs might cure would be the "ride quality" that I see a lot of complaints on. The stock springs are linear and have a pretty high spring rate on them (giving the car the firm "sporty" feel it has). Switching the springs to a "progressive rate" version might give it a bit more comfort during straight line driving, etc. (progressive rate springs are springs which are wound tighter up top and wider at bottom to give more up-down compliance while giving stiffer characteristics when loaded hard (ie: turning)...
They will also be taking measurements on the stock sway bars, but we discussed how the stock sway bars are actually pretty beefy as-is and the Model already feels very neutral when cornering (minimal understeer/oversteer) due to the heavy low center of gravity from the battery, and the short gearing of the steering rack)
Adding beefier sway bars may not be necessary at this point. Eibach will determine whether the car would benefit from it, and whether the demand would warrant the additional R&D costs for them...
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It’s definitely not for everyone, but I personally don’t think my Model S looks stupid at all!
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