Quote:
Originally Posted by shrini23
Glad you brought this up.
I'm also looking for answers.
I wanna lower my car, I've a 2LT convertible. Not sure is it really worth to spend more than grand to lower your car or just go with some eibach springs and get it lowered?
Any help will be much appreciated
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that's surely the cheap way of thinking, and why sooo many videos are on youtube about "never lower your car". ive gone that way on a few cars and prob wont ever again. lesson learned.
its mainly because most did it the cheap route. found out the ride gets harsh, car doesn't handle as well and now you have the anti-lower-your-car-vids.
struts are the meat and potatoes of a lowering kit, in my view. its kinda like your muscles... you more or less
need them. they control most of the situation.
anyone can make a spring shorter, stiffer, etc... but theres only a few places you can get aftermarket upgraded struts... the struts and shocks control the spring energy so your car doesn't go down the road overly stiff or bouncing around like a 1970 family station wagon with blown shocks...
anytime you upgrade to a lower spring, it will be stiffer. this puts more stress on a shock/strut to function with, and most times it wears them out quicker along with if its overpowering from the start...you go from a smooth handling car to a car that's erratic, bounces, etc when you hit any decent bumps.
springs for a set of 4 for OEM gm springs are about 100$
a set of struts are about 400$ that's just oem...moreso, the v6 1LE springs and struts which are FE3 level.
the gm lowering kit, doesn't excessively lower, you get stiffer springs, nearly a stock compliant ride, shortened struts and shocks that are valves to handle the new springs and lower stance. anytime you see a company be it coilovers or shocks and struts go as far as using a lowered/shortened strut. that's going out of their way to do it right, not just using a stock setup and hoping it lasts long enough for the buyer to forget its stock
moving on to aftermarket struts...generally about 600$ to 700$ was the cost on the 5th gen. no one makes any for us currently (Bilstein, koni, etc...) so theres no options. figure 250$ for a set of aftermarket springs... 850-950$ so really prices will be roughly the same if you do it right, and not cheap. especially with gm coupons of 15-20% been out a lot this year, and forum vendors can def help out as well.
the way it was put to me when I started working on cars.... the suspension handles everything you want the car to do. from braking (yes braking is a factor of suspension function as well as tires and pads), handling, acceleration, comfort. why go cheap on a major area? you don't have to spend thousands and thousands like DSSV's at 4800$ but if you are gonna lower the car, especially a 1LE model which is already suspension focused? why be cheap?
something to think about. just from experience, when you lower a car the right way and not be cheap about it, you'll never think twice again about lowering it as long as its done right.