I have a 2001 Civic, and thinking about lowering it with some rims. I saw the ad for Ground Control coil overs and noticed that they used Eibach springs. I've been doing some research on them, and have been asking owners what they thought of them. Some said great, but fair amount said that they cause a lot of stress on the stock shocks and they had to be replaced soon. Is this common? Anyone else with this or similar experience?

 

buy new struts. The ride is usually garbage if you dont.

 

If your going to spend the money do it right and get good shocks. It's not about slamming the car or bling bling rims its about performance. If you don't agree with that statement post something in the cosmetic board about the best way to cut your springs.

Sorry for the sarcasm but if your really serious about performance and not just looks you will wait untill you have enough to do it right.

Mike

 

Lowering you car without replacing the shocks is like putting on shoes without any socks. It will look good from the outside, but your feet are going to suffer and eventually blister up. Well the same applies to the shocks. It will look good, but eventually the stress of the stiff springs will cause the shocks to blow. Your shocks are the key component to your suspension.

 

Ok, relax Sleeper... no need to get all hardcore on me. I thought this was a tech fourm, not competition...........

I never asked about how I can achieve the best cornering. I just wanted to know if anybody had any shock problems.... I live in Canada and when it snows, the last thing I want to do is shovel snow with my front bumper, if you know what I'm saying.

As far as shocks not lasting, I don't mind using it until it blows if I'm going to change them anyway.

The reason for asking is a lot of people have no problems lowering their cars, get marginal improvement in performance, and get away with not replacing the stock shocks even after several years. Since I'm not planning to keep my car for more than 3 years, this would be a the most cost effective way. But if my shocks are gonna crap out because of Ground Control, then I guess I might as well just get the normal Eibach springs.

 

Just an FYI, I had some friends have stocks shocks on a lowered car for year without them blowing. But others had them on for a week, and then they were riding on a pogo car.

 

You are looking at ground control the wrong way. Ground controls aren't neccesarrily stiffer then eibachs, since you can get ground controls in any combo you want.

FYI, ALL lowering springs are STIFFER. This is just a fact of life. You lower the car, you need to make the spring slightly stiffer to keep the car from bottoming out. The stiffer springs tend to work stock shocks more, but they wont blow in 10 miles or anything. I got over 30k miles on my g20's stock shox with intrax springs.

Sounds to me like you don't care about performace (not knocking you at all). Although I hate the thought of cut stock springs, that will probably suit you the best. If you prefer not to cut your stock springs, and I dont blame you, getting ground controls seems like a waste of money for you, since those are a performance orientated setup that you dont need to spend the extra $ on.

Just get the eibachs or neuspeed sports or something.

 

You may not have to get the shocks now...but you will eventually. Might as well just do it at the same time...it'll be cheaper in the long run.

-Rod