Lowering

danishbear

danishbear

Dan Schlinder
Hey....

right, im looking at getting an almera gti very soon so im gonna need some tips on lowering...

ive had a look around and a lot of manufacturers say that the springs shouldnt be used on a car with standard sports suspension, because the ride height won't change due to it already having the lower suspension. So i just want to find out the exact ones to go for, and i thought you guys could help seeing as though a lot of you have done it! and i obviously want to get it done right! any info or advice would be great!!

Cheers!!
 
erm put it this way it may say GTi but is isnt sports suspension.

just whack a set of lowering springs on your standard dampers are jobs a goodun :)
 
very sorry paul, but im gonna have to step in here, through personal experience id foot the extra cost and fit uprated dampers at the same time, really it depends how old the car is, but it saves paying out twice like i had to when my standard shocks threw in the towel after being on lowered springs.....
 
where do you get uprated dampers for an almera though, ive never yet come across a lowering "kit" besides coilovers

EDIT KYB shocks sorry, blonde moment.

i agree if you want a good guarantee your shocks will be trouble free on lowering springs go for the gas shocks, think your talking about 80-100 for the rears but i think thats a rough price for phase 2, so phase 1 shocks are cheaper iirc
 
i have just pust mine on springs and im not to impressed the fron the Tip of thet looks good but the back st of theill looks the same and its rather bouncy the
 
andymcgti said:
i have just pust mine on springs and im not to impressed the fron the Tip of thet looks good but the back st of theill looks the same and its rather bouncy the
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I fitted KYB AGX shocks and Tein springs a few weeks ago - took a couple of weeks to settle but are shit hot now they have, also the rear will not drop as much as the front due to the multi link suspension geometry on the back axle iirc.
 
by rights they should work fine, but chances are it will kill your standard shocks. mine lasted a month before a rear one popped.
 
I bought my car with lowering springs on in January, no idea how long they'd been fitted before I bought it, but they hardly looked new...anyway, my dampers are fine! Think it's completely random as to whether they go or not to be honest. No doubt it is better to match the dampers and springs, but if you're on a budget I wouldn't have said there's any harm in just changing the springs.
 
i see, where do you get new dampers from though, i can hardly find anything for the almera, the only thing i can find are the springs... is there some certain sites that sell all this stuff?
 
danshieber said:
So its not a good idea to have just springs then? not even if its only a 35-40mm drop?
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Matching your spring rebound rate and damping force is an important part of the suspension setup, the shocks & springs are designed to support the mass and chassis dynamics of a specific car in this case the B14 which iirc is heavier than the N15 (being a yank). To compensate for this I increased the damping force until I found a ballance point where the harshness of the springs matches the reistance provided by the shock and eveything started to work together properly.

Basically the shock needs to be strong enough to control the spring and vice versa. This may not be an issue if you are buying springs designed to support the specific weight of the N15 but the Teins are not and so may max out the standard shocks.

My comments only relate to the Tein springs for the B14 not the springs made specifically for the N15.

Try e-bay, I got shocks & springs from the US via e-bay.
 
gloves86 said:
I bought my car with lowering springs on in January, no idea how long they'd been fitted before I bought it, but they hardly looked new...anyway, my dampers are fine! Think it's completely random as to whether they go or not to be honest. No doubt it is better to match the dampers and springs, but if you're on a budget I wouldn't have said there's any harm in just changing the springs.
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I have also been running my standard shocks on my g max springs for over a year now with no probs.
 
Hey
I've got some K-Sport Coilovers on my Toyota MR2 that I use as a track/drift car. They're cheaper than Tein's and a little softer if you decide to go down the coilover road.(I've spoken with the guys at Bilstein and they basically said don't use Tein's unless you've got a car that just goes on tracks, their super stiff!) With the K-Sports, you get ride height adjustment and compression adjustment, as well as being able to adjust your camber should you so wish.
Greg
 
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