I don't really know how it works. I like the look and all...

Do you lower the car before you get the wheels?

I'm really trying to learn here, so any help would be wonderful.

Please explain in dummy terms :) Thanks

it doesnt matter IMO. It looks better if your lowered with 18's or 17's, but I've seen cars lowered on stock before. either way, it's better than having the huge wheelgap we have now

What if I lower it now, and then get wheels later, does that effect it much?

I don't really know how the lowering process works.

nah, like a 2" drop now will still be a 2" drop when you get new wheels

thanks for your help..cleared that up for me :)

lowering is just suspension work. it doesnt matter what wheels you have on the car.


here you can see me working on taking a shock off of a strut. the spring sits on the strut and basically tells the strut how far down to go before it should stop. lowering the car basically means lowering the springs because aftermarket lowering springs are lower compared to stock ones. so the shock which is hooked to the car gets to sit lower.

the black tube is the shock. and the coil looking thing is the spring.








in review. the spring sits on the shock and tells the shock how far to compress or how high to keep the car off the ground basically

What: Lowering a car is essentially changing out the suspension for one that allows the car to sit lower to the ground.
Why: Would you want to do this? Well, lowering the car also lowers the center of gravity, so you get better handling capabilities if it is done with the right combination of springs and shocks or coilovers. The price you pay is a harsher ride. Plus, it looks damn cool!
How: Basically, you take out the stock springs and struts and put in new ones that have different properties such as spring rates and stiffness. Coilovers are a combination of shocks and struts, so you get both in one. In some instances, you can adjust the stiffness of the shocks or coilovers to fine-tune your suspension. The job of a spring is to push the car up. The job of a strut is to resist movement of the spring. That's why with cars with blown struts, the car bounces up and down, because the strut is unable to stop the springs from vibrating up and down. Too stiff of a strut will overcome the spring rate, making the car feel really stiff, especially over bumps.

Sarah you are such a noob !!



ajna st4r: how much would that suck
ajna st4r: black... and like 5inches
ajna st4r: you got JIPPED



Member # 333

But she's a no0b that wants to learn! Considering how she doesn't really have to use the tech forums at all. Sarah can make a phone call and have a team of 2GNTers descend on her car in a swarm, resolving any technical problem she has. :P She just wants to test the waters because she knows that, if there's one thing cooler than a wife who drives a 2GNT and likes to hang out with 2GNTers, it's a wife who knows a thing or two under the hood (or in this case, fenders). :P

Alight it looks like it wasn't really touched on, so here is the break down, suspensions do TWO major things when lowering, it helps to reduce weight transfer. You want this because when you car loses balance it forces the tires to work harder. That, in turn, will bring your tires to the limit of adhesion, this is when the tires stop sticking to the ground as you slide or are forced into power-on understeer, where typically your front tires break loose and your rear wheels hold tracion. In Roadracing you want oversteer but in normal everyday driving and/or long tracks with decent sweeping corners you want mild understeer, because most people can't control their car with even moderate understeer at a 100mph 4 wheel slide.
Now lowering your center of gravity makes you car nimble (AKA agile), which lends your car the ability to quickly change directions. This is why hatchback can't compete with other sport compact cars in fast switchbacks (going right then left very fast - or vise-versa).

We could get into suspension types but then we'd be here forever and a properly modified suspension is what lets me drive away from corvettes in back canyons with only 140HP but that's another story...

EDIT:or you could check out my OG post from a couple years ago: http://forums.2gnt.com/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=6&topic_id=588&mode=full

Wow and what a good post that was!