Well fellas, the time has come, I know nothing about dropping a car, I've read countless threads about prokits, teins, cambers and such, and I still have no idea what any of those are. So I'm making this thread. What do I need to buy, how much will it cost, and what am I looking at as far as install cost?

Thanks fellas!

 

shocks - $300
springs - $200
install - $200

that's the upper end estimate of what I paid for my setup on my 3.0 about 2yrs ago

with your 2.2, and prices getting cheaper on these parts, you should be able to get it done for a lot less these days...and if you can do the install yourself, even better.

 

This can be a pretty deep subject, so bear with us.

There are generally two popular avenues to take when lowering your car nowadays. You can either get lowering springs, or get a coilover system. Lowering springs lower your car because they are shorter than the stock springs. As a result, they are stiffer than the stock springs, since you dont want your car to roll and pitch as much when it is lowered. The lower you go, the stiffer the spring, and the harsher the ride. Stiffer springs will also accelerate wear on your stock shock absorbers. This is why people typically upgrade shocks as well, to handle the new stiffer springs.

Coilover kits are (i think) usually an integrated spring/shock unit with threads on the shock body to allow for ride height adjustment after the installation of the kit. But if youre changing your ride height alot, the camber will be all over the place each time. Springs and shocks are upgraded from the stock units in this case as well. The advantage of doing an integrated setup like this is the springs and shocks are usually tweaked to work in harmony, ie there is no guesswork when matching springs and shocks separately. You can also get matched springs and shocks in non-coilover form.

When a car is lowered, it effectively moves the suspension up from its original state. This is what causes the camber to change. If you leave the camber where it is after lowering it, you risk wearing out your tires very fast. The lower you go, the more negative camber you get. Camber is basically the angle at which the top of the wheels tilt in (negative) or out (positive), if youre looking from the front or back of the car. When you take a turn and compress the suspension, the outside camber becomes more negative to keep optimal contact between the tire and road.

Some good spring brands off the top of my head: Eibach, H&R, Skunk2, Neuspeed, Ground Control. Some good shock brands: Koni, KYB, Bilstein, Sachs. Prices range alot with shocks, but springs usually run around $200 to $250. Generally youre looking at spending at least $500 for a basic set of springs and shocks. I have no idea how much installation would cost.

If done correctly, your handling will improve by leaps and bounds. Holy crap, now that im done listening to myself talk, someone else add on to this.

 

Here is a good link which will probably answer all of your technical questions:

http://www.tirerack.com/suspension/tech/index.html

 

i droped mine 2" with Tenzo R drop springs. true the ride is a bit bump at times but the handleing was greatly improved. If you got tyhe money i suggest go0ing with the complete prefab kit of springs and struts

 

So what are teins?

 

Tein is a Japanese company that makes aftermarket suspension parts. Springs, coilovers, things like that. Actually some of their stuff is pretty sick, like EDFC. Check them out here:

www.tein.com