My girl got me Comp Springs for Christmas and my B-Day today, I get them put in on the 18th at PAA so I'll post my reactions. I already have sways and Toyo's and love them both. Hopefully I'm happy with the springs. I had the same reservations about them but was told there's no way I would be unhappy. I'll let you know! Thanks again to Amy Ern Chris and the PAA team!

 

H@mmerm@n (Mike),
I've got a question about your gallery car pictures: Are the pictures at the top of the gallery with standard springs and the pictures in the middle with comptech springs? If so, and if those are pictures of the Comptechs installed, I like the stance of the car.

 

That is what convinced me to get mine. Took a ride with a guy that had them. Went home and ordered them. I would have to say go for it. You only live once brotha......
Besides you can always change back to stocks if you don't like them.

As for bottoming out.... I have never bottomed out. With 4 adults and a trunk FULL of sh*^, averaging 85 - 90 down the freeway no sweat.

I have had the springs on for 30,000 miles. Still running stock shocks w/o any problems. I am still running stock tires w/o any problems or uneven wear.

Another board member (Technique) and I put his SSR Comps. w/235/45/17 on my car, stuffed the car with 4 adults and tried very hard to get the tires to rub. They did not!!!!!

JUST DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!

The only bad thing.......... I did notice the springs SETTLE for about a month after putting them on. CompTech says they won't. I say they do.

 

Shawn,

GREAT QUESTION! My two cents: listen to Eric. He continues to be a wealth of knowledge especially when it comes to the tires/wheels etc. (God I hate complimenting these goobers!)

I think this boils down to:

How much do you care about how the car looks?

If lowering it is important, then the C/T springs lower it enough but don't upset too much else. They may require an earlier than normal change on the tires and shocks and you definitely need to keep an eye on the alignment and tire wear, but otherwise they look cooler and help handling. The height and rattle and bounce does not seem to be a big issue for those that live in an area similar to you (i.e. Shtoopa)

However, I think what I am hearing is that a good set of tires and sways give the same - virtually the same effect on handling that the springs do without the risk of wearing shocks and tires more - although softer handling tires will wear faster...

So, if you want to have the dropped looked - get the springs, if you are only interested in the handling aspects, get the tires and sways...if you have too much money to know what to do wth, get it ALL!

 

My car is stock and with one person in the car I've had a whole lot of rubbing. The tires were fine of course though.

 

Any handling differences that you noticed with the 225/45 vs the 235/45?

I have not lowered my cls, but I am thinking of going with the 225/45 on stock rims. Are you overall pleased with the 225/45???

 

Mike, i don't know what order you did your mods in, but i did the sways first and then upgraded the rubber to the very sticky Toyos. The handling improved noticeably, but nothing like the handling improvement after i did the Comptech springs and Koni yellows. the car really cuts much sharper through corners. Just my .02 .

 

What size Toyos did you put in????

215/50-17 or 225/45-17 or 235/45-17

 

I'm sure he has the 215-50/17 Toyo Proxes T1-S.

 

That could make such a difference in how the mods would be perceived....

The 215 does not have a reinforced casing -- it's stickier, but doesn't get the change in contact patch (front-to-side area) that the 225/45-17 through 245/40-17 would get.

There is a trade being made:

Steady state handling (with the bigger tires) (Without down force, there will be a limiting width, but I'm pretty sure the fronts need a lot of tire width).

The springs would tend to provide a bit of negative camber (a good thing in corners) and a slightly lower CG. A higher spring rate could actually work against the car in turns with bumps ("suspension tuning and travel comes to mind")

$0.02

 

Sorry for the delay in responding Eric. Right now i have 215-50-17s. I stayed stock cause at the time i wasn't doing springs and i didn't want to increase the SUV gap. On order is the Volk TE37s in 18x7.5 with 225-40-18 Toyo Proxes T1S. The offset is +48.