phrenzy

I have a 2004 EM2, and I want to change the suspension set up. I got the car 2 weeks ago and learned that in the front there is Ground control sleeves (eibach springs obviously) and in the back it's on H&R lowering springs... Q1: when I jack up the car in the front, the GC sleeves I can literally move around freely... I'm pretty sure I can't even raise or lower the ride height... is this normal for these? (I forgot to take pictures to post) I'm trying to lower the front passenger side because when I measure from the center of the rim to the bottom of the fender, it's an inch higher on that side... but I'm sure that adjusting it doesn't do anything because of how it's set up. Q2: I want to get full coilovers and I've done a ton of searching but I can't find anything that tells me the coilovers that go the lowest... I've done research mostly on raceland ultimos, it says 2-4 inches... but I'm pretty sure the set up I have is already lower than that. (maybe?) what coilovers should I get to lower the car as low as I can without any frame notching etc? (racelands, k-tuned, ?) Q3: right now I'm on stock alloy wheels, which are 15s with 195-60-15 tires, I'm going to be getting 16x7 +35 RPF1's, and I want a VERY similar size including the tires, if I get 195-50-16s will that be fairly similar, I'm not sure how much the tire with from 60 to 50 changes, or should I go with 195-55-16s?

Thanks everyone!

B serious

iTrader: (1)

The car is lowered way more than it should be. which is why your front coils are loose. It doesn't really matter. Lower it more if you like. Of course it will lower if you lower the spring. You can lower it until your bumpstop pancakes and the shock basically touches the tophat.

Choose a CHEAP full body coilover (F&F, Raceland, etc). You want a company that does minimal R&D. I'm not saying that to be a jerk. But you want a coilover with no safety limiters to stop you from dumping the ride height til it looks good to you.

Either that or buy a race style coilover with pass thru mounts that, again, does not limit your drop prematurely.

2-4" is a massive drop.

People are going to tell you how bad it is to lower an EM2 more than 1/2" without doing significant work. They're right. But if you're not looking for some sort of functional setup...then who cares how right they are?

phrenzy

Thanks for the info, I'm sure it's bad to lower the car without significant work, I wasn't questioning that... I'm going to be doing significant work, but I'm just starting there because the car came with crap suspension already. I have other things to do like possibly swap the transmission or input shaft bearing because gears 1-3 have a weird noise they are making... things like that before I spend money on inverted tie rods and do things like frame notching to lower the car... I'll probably end up going with racelands or something for the time being...

As for my first question... I wish I had a picture to show what I'm talking about, the coils just sit on the bottom of the strut but spinning the adjuster clockwise doesn't raise or lower the spring... at least that I can see... maybe it is when the car is sitting on the ground. I'm just a noob when it comes to coilovers.

Any word on question 3? will 195-50-16 on 16 inch rims be around the same height from top to bottom (including tires) as 195-60-15 on 15s?

thanks again for responding though.

EDIT: I should mention that I'm not trying to take the car to the track or anything... It's just a daily that I want to look good lol.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

The gold or black perch that the spring is sitting on. Did you loosen the allen screw? It spins...but you need to hold the red threaded collar still.

Think of the perch as a nut and the red collar as a screw.

Are you just spinning the whole thing as a unit?

phrenzy

no, I spun the gold perch and the red collar was still... but the gold perch is sitting all the way down on the bottom of the strut. so no matter if I move it up or down then the spring will still be where it is at if im not mistaken.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

I guess I'm having a hard time picturing this.

The way I'm picturing it....if the perch is touching the shock...then its all the way down the threads already. You can't screw it downward. Only upward....

phrenzy

Nope, it's not even all the way down... there is plenty of room but the center of the bottom of the strut is like a "cup" and it has enough room that the collar fits in it and I can't do anything about it. it's pretty odd... I would take a picture if it wasn't cold dark and windy LOL

KiNGDEE206

iTrader: (1)

Go take a picture. Ur threads may have been damaged hence spinning. But not moving up or down