lowering my ride

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Capt. Orygun

Win the Day
most lowering springs will lower the ride hieght of the car 2 to 2 1/2 inches. That beings said if I used them with adjustable shocks could I lower the ride height say 1 1/2 inches or would that hurt the springs? wondering the the rules are in this...
 
the adjustment on the shock absorber as far as i know only changes the dampening/rebound of the shock absorber, not the height
 
no, hes right..

on my koni yellows, the perch has 3 places to mount the bottom of the spring... that can change the height like 0, 1/2, or 3/4 more lower.

all it does is compress the shock more, as the spring sits lower.
 
actually....adjusting the softness of the shock will make it ride lower but it will ride like shit.......but thats only on shock/ leaf spring cars ....turnin the screw in the top will affect the hieght....struts it doesnt work though
 
On my car, adjusting the single-valved single-adjustable Konis I have does absolutely nothing to the ride height, even after drastic Autocross driving. My single-adjustable, double-valved Konis in the rear are the same way. The way you adjust height (and thereby, corner-weight) is to preferrably get a coilover to balance the chassis, or to guess and use the separate perch levels that some struts have.

Coilovers obviously give you an infinite amount of adjustability in their given range (usually like 2-4 inches total adjustment), which lets you dial in camber (1/10 of a degree), corner-weight (on my car, within 50 pounds), ride-height (infinitely adj), and front-rear weight ratio. Strut perches are not really for precise chassis tuning.

Lowering a corner will:
-Make camber at that wheel more negative
-Take weight AWAY from that corner

Therefore, if you lower only the front of your car, you're putting more weight to the back, which tends to balance a FF car (front-wheel-drive, front-engine) since most of the weight is up front.

If you tend to do any sort of drastic driving, I would set your dampers (struts) all the way hard. If you do loosen them, make sure you have the lateral (right-to-left) damping balanced. My theory is that the springs are for absorbing the majority of the road, and the damping is for slowing down the spring. Rebound is (i think) for bringing the spring back to its center (under load & damping).

Someone please correct me if I have mistaken assumptions.
 
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