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Lowering Springs
Lowering Springs are one of the cheapest and simplest ways to lower your car. We often talk about them as being the first step when you’re looking at the handling of your vehicle. This is because you can fit most lowering springs as a standalone upgrade, touching nothing else on the car.
They can also be just one part of an upgrade package too. For a reasonable outlay you can unlock a whole lot of handling improvements.
Q: Why do I want to lower my car anyway?
As we talked about in our beginners guide to car handling, when you lower your car you’re lowering it’s centre of gravity. Lowering your cars centre of gravity makes it roll less when you corner. This means there’s less weight transfer onto the outside tyres and off the inside tyres. That means you enjoy more grip from all four tyres, which means a better connection with the road surface.
If you’re changing directions quickly (as in an S-bend for example), the car needs less time to settle back between direction changes.
It also improves the looks. Arch gaps are rarely a good look. If you drop your car a bit, you reduce the arch gaps. This makes your wheels look bigger and gives your car a sporty, aggressive stance.
Q: How do Lowering Springs ride?
Q: How low can I go with springs?
There are limits to what you can achieve if you’re using a spring that must pair up to a standard shock absorber. Generally mild lowering springs offer around 30mm lowering. Sportier springs tend to offer between 45mm and 60mm. This does depend a bit on the car. Newer cars tend to have less travel to begin with in the suspension, so the lowering on offer will be less.
Q: What if my car already has sports suspension?
If you drive a hot-model (a GTi, S3, RS, AMG) or the sports suspension box (S-Line, R-Line, AMG-Line, M-Sport, M-Technic etc.) was ticked when the car was first ordered it may well already be lowered.
A lot of lowering springs fit both standard and sports suspension and the lowering amount they provide will be for a car with standard suspension. If your car is already lowered, you will need to subtract the amount the car is already lowered from what the new springs will do. In some cases, optional sports suspension can lower the car so much that some aftermarket springs don’t lower it. S-Line on some recent Audis lowers the car by 30mm which means many aftermarket springs don’t lower by much or at all.
Q: Do I need to replace anything else?
Many of the lowering springs we sell are TUV approved. TUV approval means that part can be fitted to an otherwise standard car. This means in most cases you don’t need to replace anything.
It’s worth bearing in mind that lowering springs are going to give your shock absorbers a bit more of a workout, so if they were on their way out anyway, they will hasten their demise. It’s worth considering replacing anything that seems worn on the suspension while you’re taking it to bits to fit springs.
We also tend to recommend fitting sports dampers when fitting lower and stiffer lowering springs. When you’re looking at the 45-60mm lowering spring, they certainly work better when paired with a sports damper. As the spring is going to be stiffer than stock, a stiffer damper will do a better job of controlling it and can help avoid the car feeling “busy” over rough road surface.
What upgrades go well with lowering springs?
Lowering Springs are like cheese. Great on their own, but even better when combined with other things.
Sports Dampers
As we mentioned above, an uprated sports damper pairs very nicely with lowering springs. The lowering spring will be somewhat stiffer than the original spring, which means that while they will work fine with your original dampers, they will work better with a firmer sports damper controlling them.
Some manufacturers offer kits of spring and damper, or you can choose dampers separately.
Anti-Roll Bars and Wheel Spacers
You could also look at complementary upgrades like anti-roll bars and wheel spacers. These upgrades both help control body roll (albeit they achieve this through slightly different means). Fitting either or both alongside springs which are already reducing body-roll is going to magnify the benefits.
An anti-roll bar (or sway-bar) is a popular suspension upgrade in it’s own right. On front wheel drive cars, fitting an uprated rear bar will help to tame understeer.
Wheel spacers help both looks and handling, by spacing the wheels out. Making the track of the car wider also lowers its centre of gravity.
Q: Do Lowering Springs work with adaptive damping?
One of the nice things about lowering springs as an upgrade, is they leave your dampers completely untouched. If your dampers contain fancy electronic valveing and the like, you get to retain all the benefits of this system, whilst gaining the benefits of a lowering spring.
Q: Do I need a TUV certificate?
TUV approval is a German safety standard. Many of the lowering springs we offer are TUV approved. This basically means they have passed testing and been proven to fit and work safely with the original equipment on the car. This is certainly good for your peace of mind and speaks well for the quality of the springs.
Either supplied with the suspension, or available to download, will be a copy of a TUV testing certificate. This will mention the specific product in combination with the car it is supposed to fit.
Whether you need the certificate or not probably depends on where the car is going to be driven. In some countries in Europe, it’s very important to have paperwork for your modifications. This is particularly true of Germany. On the other hand, you may drive in a country where the paperwork is not needed.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that we sell brands of suspension aimed at countries where TUV is not required. Tein are Japanese and will have been put through equally stringent testing in Japan, but as they don’t primarily sell in Europe, they have not been TUV tested.
Do I want linear or progressive springs?
One question we do get asked often is if the springs we offer are linear or progressive rate. This is a difference in how the springs are wound. A linear-rate spring has it’s coils an equal distance apart and offers the same amount of resistance as it gets compressed.
A progressive-rate spring is wound differently, with visibly larger gaps between some coils. As the spring compresses, it will offer more resistance. The idea is generally that the initial travel of the spring is quite soft, but as the car leans over more on it, it becomes firmer.
Progressive rate springs are widely used by manufacturers when designing suspension for road use. A bit of softer initial travel helps keep the car in contact with the road over bumps and the like and helps the secondary ride of the car. The firmer travel at the end of the spring helps avoid bottoming out the suspension and gives firmer handling during harsher cornering when you need it.
This lack of a constant spring rate can make a car less predictable compared to linear rate springs. This is normally the sort of thing you’d consider when setting up a track car, where it is going to spend more of its time cornering hard. On a daily driver you’re probably not going to be cornering fast enough for the slight variances in spring rate to bother you.
You do not normally get a choice when buying a suspension kit, particularly lowering springs. The engineers designing the product will have chosen the best spring for each corner of the car. We’d anticipate that most lowering spring kits we sell for road use will use progressive rate springs somewhere.
Lowering springs vs Coilovers?
We sometimes get asked how these upgrades compare. This is a tricky question.
A good coilover is always going to offer better handling than a good lowering spring. Anything that you can fit to the car as a separate upgrade (so lowering springs and sports dampers) must work with the rest of the OE suspension which limits it somewhat.
A coilover on the other hand is a matched pairing of uprated damper and spring. Because it’s been developed as a total package and neither component must match the factory parts, more can be achieved with a good coilover.
We did say a good coilover though. We’ve seen some very cheap coilovers on the market, which might look tempting price-wise when compared to a premium lowering spring and damper combo. We think you often get what you pay for
though. Many of these cheap coilovers will just not have been engineered to the same degree as premium brands. It’s not uncommon for these to not ride well at all. We’d have concerns about driving a car very hard on them too.
Lowering a car whilst still leaving it riding well is a bit of an art form and if ride quality is a priority we’d probably steering clear of budget coilovers in favour of higher quality lowering springs, and possibly shock absorbers.
Pluses and Minuses of Lowering Suspension
PROS | CONS |
More Road Feel. | Reduced ride comfort. |
Stuffer Ride. | Impractical for rough roads |
Less roll when cornering | Accelerated or uneven tire wear |
Better Handling | Chance of bottoming out |
Improved aerodynamics | Potential rubbing on parts or tires |
Improved traction | Can’t use a standard jack |
Less rollover risk | Cost |
Great looks | Warranty Issues |
Benefits
More Road Feel
A lowered suspension helps a driver be highly attuned to how their vehicle acts on different pavement as more of the vibrations from imperfections in the road surface come through the steering wheel.
Stiffer Ride
With this setup, you have to have more rigid springs so the front or back of your vehicle won’t bottom out over bumps or depressions. This is the driving experience many prefer, versus a cushier ride from, say, a luxury sedan.
Less Lean in Corners
The lean of a vehicle around a sharp turn is greatly reduced because the shift of weight is less due to the lower center of gravity. The part of the vehicle on the outside of a turn stays more level with the inside. This lets a car settle more quickly into a turn and act more responsively.
Better Handling
Another effect of being closer to the ground is improved responsiveness, more stability, and grip at speed. Because lowering means getting stiffer springs, there is less weight transfer when you hit the gas or brake hard. This means you’ll enjoy faster acceleration and quicker stops.
Less Air Drag
Lowered vehicles are more aerodynamic. There’s less air hitting the wheels and tires (that are not streamlined shapes). This makes these cars faster. Some owners of low-stance vehicles also notice improved gas mileage. BUT, lowering a car too much will actually increase wind drag.
Less Rollover Risk
Lowered vehicles have a lower center of gravity, which decreases rollover risk when cornering.
Improved Traction
Lowering generally means you’ll put a plus-sized tire and wheel package on the vehicle. Such tires have shorter sidewalls, a larger contact patch (that keeps more rubber in contact with the road) and less roll around corners.
Good Looks
Cars and trucks that have been lowered with custom wheels are attention-getters. It’s a more aggressive and performance-oriented look that stands out in a crowd.
Drawbacks
Less Ride Comfort
If you and your passengers are accustomed to a softer suspension that cushions impacts like bumps and potholes, you may think less of the ride comfort of a lower suspension. You may also notice increased road noise since you’re closer to the pavement.
No Go on Rough Roads
The lower clearance will not be your friend on rutted, rocky, washboard and potholed roads.
Uneven or Accelerated Tire Wear
Lowering changes the geometry of your wheel-tire fitment. If it’s done improperly, your car may have an alignment problem that results in premature or extreme wear patterns.
Bottoming Out
Even an inch-and-a-half lower suspension can cause problems around corners, with slight potholes or on speed bumps. Traveling over the lip of a parking garage or starting up a driveway or ramp could cause the front of your vehicle to hit the pavement. Contact with the ground can cause serious damage to components underneath the car, like the exhaust system and oil pan.
If you ever need a tow truck, you may require a flat bed. Otherwise, there could be a problem with the back body of the vehicle dragging on the ground.
Potential Rubbing on Parts or Tires
Can’t Use a Standard Jack
If you get a flat tire, you may find out at an inconvenient time that there’s not enough clearance to get the unit under the vehicle’s frame.
Cost
Quality components and keeping correct alignment can get pricey. The lower you go, the more chance you’ll need additional parts. For example, if coilovers (meaning coil spring over shock) are part of your new setup, you’re likely looking at an outlay of $1,000 or more.
Warranty Issues
You should check both your owner’s manual and any manufacturer’s or aftermarket warranty to determine if 1) the manufacturer advises against lowering your car, or 2) if lowering your car will void or adversely affect any warranty coverage you currently have.
Know This Before You Modify Your Suspension
- If it’s higher performance you’re after, you may need to lower a lot less than you think. It’s easy to miss the mark and actually make your suspension worse. To be sure that components like struts and springs can do the work of keeping tires at the right angles, get expert help.
- Don’t cut corners when it comes to shocks, struts or other components. You’re making changes to the structure and balance of your vehicle. You don’t want to risk failing parts.
- If you modify your vehicle in ways that aren’t road legal, your insurer may not pay a claim for damage. Talk to your agent before you customize your ride and ask if your premiums will go up or policy terms change.
- Installing extreme aftermarket wheel-tire setups or suspension changes can result in steering, suspension or drivetrain problems that won’t be covered by your vehicle warranty. Check to see if the modifications you’re planning will result in denied warranty claims BEFORE installation.
- Get an alignment after you lower to ensure the best handling and tire life.
- Take care while you get accustomed to how your new setup performs. With the much stiffer suspension, your vehicle may steer a little differently and won’t absorb road shocks as well. A sudden hard brake or tight turn on a bumpy road could cause a loss of traction.