Lowering Your Car

Thinking about lowering your car to enhance its performance and appearance?

Customizing your suspension can offer performance benefits and create a more aggressive look.

Find about how springs and shocks affect the performance of your vehicle, and learn how low is too low. In "A Look at Lowering," see for yourself how the combination of larger diameter wheels and vehicle lowering can provide the performance look that you want.

How low can you go? Find out here

Take a closer look at Lowering your car click here and see the dramatic change in appearance that lowering springs will make on five popular vehicles (and even see how Plus Sizing affects the visual relationship between the tire’s sidewall height and vehicle’s fender well gap).

How Low Can Your Go?

A good rule of thumb is that most cars can be lowered about 1.5 inches without complications. Beyond that, changes in a severely lowered car’s suspension may negatively affect ride quality, tire wear and increase the risk of "bottoming."

Increased spring rates are required to control vehicle movement with reduced suspension travel. 

Eibach and H&R suspension usually provide the required higher spring rates using progressive rate springs that minimize the affect on ride quality. However, the lower you go the higher the spring rate required!

Vehicles must always be realigned when lowered. Severely lowered vehicles often experience difficulty in achieving adequate wheel alignment without the use of aftermarket suspension adjusters.

Reduced suspension travel increases the risk of bottoming. While bump stops help prevent bottoming damage, removing or modifying them should only be done if instructed to do so by the spring manufacturer.

article descriptions and images courteousy The Tire Rack