whyS0serious

Hi guys,

I'm planning on getting bilsteins b8's with eibach pro kits and I was wondering if eibach fixed the sagging problem in their springs. All the other threads are a couple years back so that is why I'm asking... If you guys have any info please drop a post. Thanks a bunch!

Tyson

i have never seen any issue with eibach pro kits "sagging".

its a spring.... its supposed to compress. how can a spring "sag" and be a problem?

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Does the car need to pass TUV or something?

GC coilovers don't cost much more. And then you have all the height adjustment you need.

H&R also makes a coilover that's based on Bilstein shocks and (IIRC) passes TUV...if you're worried about something like that.


Not sure I remember sagging issues with Eibachs. You sure it was spring related and not bushing related?

boxedfox

This is actually a very common thing. Metal coil springs lose free length over time. Even the good quality ones settle and take an initial set after install, then slowly lose length as they go through cycles. It's nothing extraordinary, it's just how spring steel behaves when you cycle it a few hundred thousand times.

The answer to the original question is a firm no. Eibach doesn't run a process to force a factory "set" on their lowering springs like they do with their ERS coilover springs. So they will take an initial set after install. and you should expect to lose somewhere between 0.25 in to 0.5 in in free length, measured at the spring. The good news is that they are pretty good about honoring their warranty. If one corner of your car loses an inch of ride height or something they will replace the spring free of charge.

That said I only know of two companies that go through the trouble of forcing a set on their lowering springs before shipping them out. One of them is Hyperco, and the other is Swift Springs. Swift uses an oddball alloy so their springs don't set the same way standard automotive coil springs do. And Hyperco is just kind of pedantic about this kind of thing. Not that I'm complaining of course, they make some of the best metal coil springs you can buy.

Tyson

ok, taking your response at face value, and googling "eibach pro kit sagging", it seems that the camaro crowd complains of pro kits sagging, and a bunch of other paranoid threads. never have i heard a valid complaint of a honda with pro kits developing a latent ride height drop. my experience included, go figure with a 70/30 weight distribution, 2200lbs crx. a civic or integra isnt going to be any worse.

and talk about springs "settling" is typically people not re-installing the suspension properly and tearing bushings by not zeroing them out at static ride height.

boxedfox

This isn't something that's unique to Eibach pro-kits. All metal coil springs take an initial set after they go through a few initial cycles, and lose free length as they're used over the course of their life. Most manufacturers of automotive suspension springs cycle their springs on a jig as part of the manufacturing process to limit the amount of height that the springs lose after it gets into the customers' hands, but it's a time-consuming process so depending on the use and price point of the spring the length of the process and the tolerances of what's acceptable will vary. And even then you'll get the odd batch of springs that mysteriously lose 15mm of ride height after 25 hours of use.

I found it hard to believe too until I had the opportunity to sit down with a distributor of aftermarket springs and spent an afternoon running hundreds of used Civic springs through a spring tester. There were a few pairs of progressively wound springs that were within a few millimeters of each other when measured on a table but would show a difference of 10-20mm when you put 10kgf of load on them.

All that said, on a street car application like this you probably won't care or notice too much unless one side loses noticeably more ride height than the other side. Plus Eibach's customer service tends to be pretty good. I've bought a fair few suspension springs from them in the last decade or so and have run into a bad batch or two. A phone call and a few emails and they made things right.