Lowering the Model 3

[jimsslee]

Gentlemen's stance. Not too much but just enough..

 

[jimsslee]

It’s definitely not for everyone, but I personally don’t think my Model S looks stupid at all!

View attachment 274313

That looks fire !! Is that Model S skid marks?

 

[ss71]

Gentlemen's stance. Not too much but just enough..View attachment 857605View attachment 857606

Sharp! 15 up front & 25 in back?

 

[farkhan0109]

As someone with a lowered gasoline powered car, I would not want to lower a car that has a battery at the bottom. Speed bumps, driveways, and city streets will cause problems with both your bumper and the under carriage.

This requires a minimum of a camber kit, higher spring constant, and stiffer dampers.

Maybe I'm just getting old.

 

[pdx_m3s]

Maybe I'm just getting old.

I think you’re just getting old.

 

[eglove]

I hit all the time on speedbumps etc, I just go with the flow lol.

 

[gearchruncher]

I hit all the time on speedbumps etc,

Don't you know there is a battery down there? How are you not on fire and dead!???

 

[eglove]

I should buy a lottery ticket, lol

 

[Fpbenz]

In the suspension, specific shocks are picked to dampen the isolation from the specific springs, selected for a specific vehicle application.
If you increase the stiffness of springs, or shorten their length (aka drop the car), you would want to re-evaluate your selection of shocks.

I have not taken apart the 3P suspension (mine is a daily driver, and already scrapes a few driveways around where I live), but have done that with most of my other cars.
The most likely answer is that your suspension is bouncing off the shocks' rubber bump stops. Those are round rubber pucks installed around the shock piston that soften the impact when it runs out of travel. In other words, you are no longer using the shocks as designed. You have exhausted their amplitude of travel, and are hitting the bump stops that limit the range of travel.

You could remove the bump stops or shorten them to regain shock's dampening ability. But depending on how much you dropped the car, you may just increase the chance of shocks piston slamming into the shock housing, and self-destructing.



It's up to you.
Only you can tell how tolerable (or not) the bouncy ride is. I would not worry about destroying shocks too much (they are a throw away item), unless you plan to re-install the OEM springs in the future (when selling the car).



There is nothing "for sure" in life, let alone in suspension upgrades.
Everything comes at a price, and represents a compromise of some sort.

Let's get the terminology straight first.
Coilover means simply that the shock is mounted by threading it inside the spring. That's all there is to it.
That is actually not the best configuration, but is the most compact and low cost solution that has been adopted by the auto-industry. OEM front suspension setup on Model 3 is a coilover. Rear is multi-link. Forcing the rear into coilover configuration is not necessarily and improvement!

Aftermarket coil-overs simply means that someone has assembled (presumably) well matched pair of springs + shocks that go well together. Consequently, you will be paying more for more components, and someone else's R&D in pairing them.

One can achieve an equal, or even better, outcome by pairing the right set of springs and shocks on your own. You just need to know what you are doing. Or buy the pairs that someone else has put together for you.
Coilover, or otherwise.



That is a common and misleading selling point advertised by some aftermarket coilover vendors.

While some shock housings have threaded nuts that would allow you to change the ride height, that is not something that you are likely to do in real life. For one thing, changing ride height on one corner effects weight distribution and handling on other corners. So you really need to be doing that over a set of 4 scales under each wheel. Very few car guys own those, never mind a typical Tesla owner.
Secondly. changing ride height effects suspension geometry, so you would need to re-align the car after each meaningful height change. OEM suspension does not allow camber adjustment, so now you need to buy additional suspension pieces to actually achieve the desired alignment settings. Again doable, but gets progressively more expensive, and alignment is not a DYI activity in your garage.

I've BTDT, and paying $200+ for proper alignment after fooling around with ride height gets old, fast.
So set your ride height, align the car, and forget about touching it again.
Changing dampener settings, OTOH, is relatively easily and fun. Especially if you have DA (dual adjustable) shocks - one adjustment knob for rebound, and another for compression.

HTH,
a

I’ve read through 20+ pages of this thread and this comment makes the most sense. My RWD is still sitting on stock suspension because I can’t decide wether lowering it is worth it sacrificing ride comfort. If I decide to lower it, it’ll likely be mild. Hearing so much on here about road noise, suspension noise, bottoming out etc. Is not encouraging. Leaning towards coilovers, but still ultimately undecided.

 

[Fpbenz]

Gentlemen's stance. Not too much but just enough..View attachment 857605View attachment 857606

This is what I’m looking for. Trying to avoid the slammed look while preserving as much of the ride quality as possible. What setup are you running?

 

[tegra7]

Can anyone tell me what the weight difference is between oem standard range springs and eibach pro kit springs?

 

[eglove]

Can anyone tell me what the weight difference is between oem standard range springs and eibach pro kit springs?

Almost nothing, maybe 1lb max

 

[stevehifi]

Don’t go too low. The Cg of the car is already very low so doing the slammed look won’t improve things that much.

 

[tegra7]

Don’t go too low. The Cg of the car is already very low so doing the slammed look won’t improve things that much.

Been lowered with eibachs for over a year. Was wondering if i benefitted from any weight reduction.

 

[M3_Performante]

how is this thread not on the sticky list???

this is a very informative thread regarding "driving dynamics"

 

[BobbyM3]

Gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I inform you I’ve been running 4.5 years on UP mild lowering springs and I’m still loving it! Looking good out there guys lot of nice looking rides posted above.

 

[M3_Performante]

View attachment 919867
Gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I inform you I’ve been running 4.5 years on UP mild lowering springs and I’m still loving it! Looking good out there guys lot of nice looking rides posted above.

looks sick! how was the ride quality compared to stock? what size spacers? M3P?
Thanks!

 

[kyro840]

Lowered on Mountain Pass Performance Comfort Non-adjustable coilovers. Roughly 1/2” from fully lowered. 26.75” ground to fender. Ride quality is very close to stock.

 

[jmaddr]

@kyro840, nice ride. What size wheels and tires do you have on your M3P. Any spacers?

 

[kyro840]

@kyro840, nice ride. What size wheels and tires do you have on your M3P. Any spacers?

19x9.5 +28 265/35 PS4S. No spacers.