lowering?!

[MOC826]

what would the effects be on puttin lowering springs on a car without putting a panhard bar on? would it effect the ride, tire wear, etc etc..(plan to get one soon but would just like to know what people think)

and the lowering springs are eibach pro kit springs

 

[KIMMER]

Well, I thought I was going to do the same thing and my $200 project turned into $1000 and growing. Lower the suspension and now your rear end won't be centered, so you need an adjustable panhard bar. But, now you need to adjust pinion angle so now add on adjustable LCA's, adjustable UCA, UCA mount, LCA relocation mounts, strut mounts up front and they suggest changing out the factory struts/shocks because they don't hold up well on a lowered vehicle. I have everything but the struts/shocks, but ran out of cash, so my car will set with a pile of parts until I can swing getting the Koni's.

 

[MOC826]

hmmm....guess i might have to ponder on this some more

 

[rojizostang]

you can run the pro kit without an adj panhard, i did for quite a while. like kimmer said, the rear end won't be exactly centered...it'll be about a 1/4" shifted toward the driver side iirc. if you have a stock wheel set, you won't notice the shift (at least i didn't). when i added wheel spacers to even the tires out with the fenders, that's when i noticed the shifting of the rear end becuase the tires weren't exactly the same in the wheel well.

imho with stock wheels (don't know what you have) you probably won't notice it.

i'm at work, can't see pictures

 

[Eggman]

I lowered my car with Summit(Hotchkiss)springs and all I did was have it aligned.I do have an adjustable panhard bar,but haven't installed it as of yet.This was done a year and a half ago and I have no issues with struts,strut mounts or pinion angle.

 

[SteveP]

I have the pro kit in mine and my rear end is stock besides the tokico shocks. All i did after it was lowered is installed the STEEDA x5 balljoints and had it aligned. I have had no issues with mine. I would invest in a adj UCA before the panhard bar

 

[MOC826]

thanks guys! thats the info i was looking for

 

[rojizostang]

in short, imho, you can get by w/o the panhard

 

[KIMMER]

Yes, you can "get by" with just springs if you want, especially with a car with a stock driveshaft, but if you have a 1 piece ds, the car is not going to be "right". If you don't want problems in the future, you will want to do everything now. The only thing I would even think about not doing right away is the struts/shocks, but in my eye's everything else is mandatory if you have a 1 piece aluminum driveshaft.

 

[Wyld]

Malachi just wait til u get back from Europe and do it all at once!

 

[rojizostang]

not to argue, but why is an adj panhard mandatory with a 1 piece ds? the 1/4" that the rearend moves to one side is imho very insignificant if you're talking about the pinion angle, imho. lowering the car the 1.5 inches from top to bottom has more effect, but even that's pretty arguable.

perhaps there's another reason why you insist on an adj panhard with a lowered car?

 

[Freaknazty]

perhaps there's another reason why you insist on an adj panhard with a lowered car?

some cars can stay centered when lowered but some may be actually off from the factory ( yea who would think huh ? lmao )


anyway with it being off from the get go then adding the drop it could move it over quite a bit, now what would be the max that it would move i dunno but if your running wide wheels it will be very noticeable

 

[KIMMER]

not to argue, but why is an adj panhard mandatory with a 1 piece ds? the 1/4" that the rearend moves to one side is imho very insignificant if you're talking about the pinion angle, imho. lowering the car the 1.5 inches from top to bottom has more effect, but even that's pretty arguable.

perhaps there's another reason why you insist on an adj panhard with a lowered car?

Yes, like freak said, it could be off from the factory and will be worse when lowered. The main thing is the lca's and uca when lowering because you need to be able to adjust your pinion angle back to where it needs to be. Me personally, i'm extremely picky and will measure, remeasure, and measure again to make sure my rear end is dead center and that I get my pinion angle set correctly.

 

[psycho bob]

to lower with the pro kit you will need the springs. if you're on a budget then i'd suggest getting the $30 camber bolts also. will you need them for sure idk, but i did. the alignment shop can slot your struts instead of using the bolts if you don't mind them doing that, but it will cost about the same as the bolts anyway. to get lowered those are the only 2 things you really have to worry about.

after that's done then see about the rearend being centered. many people are able to drive for months w/o it even if the rear isn't centered. just make sure your tire isn't rubbing the fender.

your dampers will wear out faster being lowered, but don't fear. in the year or so you'll likely have before having to worry about that you should be able to save up the money to buy some. also lca's and the relocation brackets are absolutely not a must. i did buy the lca's but not due to dropping my car. i got them to help with wheel hop at the track. i didn't however get the relo brackets until last week. drove my car for a year w/o brackets or an uca. i do still have the stock ds though.

 

[KIMMER]

I don't think you have to do the lca's with the factory ds, but with a one piece it is manditory. Any that has tried it without gets alot of vibration and end up buying the lca's.

 

[rojizostang]

my personal experience says differently

I don't think you have to do the lca's with the factory ds, but with a one piece it is manditory. Any that has tried it without gets alot of vibration and end up buying the lca's.

gonna have to disagree on that one. adj lca's made no difference after my ds swap and lowering. not to start another ds thread here, but rebalancing fixed my vibe. i only installed the adj lca's because i found a good deal on them. after lowering the car with the pro kit, the p/a was at -2. i installed the adj lca's and set the p/a exactly the same, and made no other adjustment to solve the vibe. (only rebalancing solved the vibe)

i know there's a lot of disagreement about this, but there have been a lot of posts from people adjusting their p/a's and it making no differnce related to ds vibe. in short, imho, the p/a has negligible effect on ds vibe....unles its waaaaay out

 

[KIMMER]

gonna have to disagree on that one. adj lca's made no difference after my ds swap and lowering. not to start another ds thread here, but rebalancing fixed my vibe. i only installed the adj lca's because i found a good deal on them. after lowering the car with the pro kit, the p/a was at -2. i installed the adj lca's and set the p/a exactly the same, and made no other adjustment to solve the vibe. (only rebalancing solved the vibe)

i know there's a lot of disagreement about this, but there have been a lot of posts from people adjusting their p/a's and it making no differnce related to ds vibe. in short, imho, the p/a has negligible effect on ds vibe....unles its waaaaay out

Yes, but obviously your ds was the cause of your vib, so of course the lca's wouldn't make a difference. I'm talking for the people that have good 1 piece ds's that had zero vibs until they lowered their cars, then installed adjustable lca's to get everything back where it needed to be. Nothing good is going to come out of having a car half ass setup...period. Premature wear and other problems will be caused by a bad setup.

 

[rojizostang]

okay.

 

[MOC826]

yeah uh...my question was already answered a long time ago guys but thanks for the heads up when i actually get a ds. my car is stock when it comes to suspension except for the springs that will be going in soon so no need for all the ds, p/a talk cause ill worry about that when i get to that point

 

[rojizostang]

well we kind of got off on a tangent there, sorry.