Wheels and all that Jazz

[Plutonus]

To lower, what are they actually doing? Making the shockys lower?

[project.r.racing]

Originally Posted by Plutonus

To lower, what are they actually doing? Making the shockys lower?

as you are asking that question, i'm assuming you know nil about cars. please go and ask the person that might be doing the work on your car about it. it'll save you alot of time and money.

ryan

[Plutonus]

There's only one way to learn, and telling me to basically "go ask someone else" isn't really going to help.

So after a bit of searching, it is springs that control ride-height, and obviously I got shocks and struts a bit mixed up. So with lowering I would probably need new springs, new shocks + the tire package. Hmmm becoming expensive. What have most people spent getting 17" and lowering?

[Rupewrecht]

If you're only going an inch lower, then just lowered springs would be ok, but they will reduce the life of your shocks compared to stock.

And lower and you should get something decent/firmer ones.

[Plutonus]

So do i need new springs to lower 1 inch? And how much will the life be shortened, alot? I think they'd be pretty old shocks in there right now. Would the inch be enough to make it look normal again after getting 17s?

[chicaboo]

Shocks/Struts/Dampers are much the same things in our cars:

The Damper/Shock (absorber) is the compressed gas/oil cylinder that controls your bump/rebound settings, ie: how bouncy, smooth or refined your suspension is. Shocks don't like to be shortened too much, this affects the stroke, which I don't fully understand.

The Spring goes over the above and mainly controls your ride height, however it also contributes to the smoothness of your ride, ie: via springrates, progressive or linear spring design. Progressive springs have a softer ride on small bumps, but have the same or usually greater springrate under more compression than linear springs. This allows for more comfortable everyday driving with a good firm setting for hard cornering.

The Strut is a load bearing vertical member in the front suspension of some vehicles (sometimes refered to as an upright). In our case the strut is also the shockie to save up on space and weight. Fixed struts require an additional swing arm of some sort ontop of the strut, and then the shockie is located within the sweep of the suspension somewhere. My dunebuggy has this design, which allows for greater camber control, but has limited to no castor adjustment. So for many reasons the previous design is more sensible on many road cars...

You need to ask yourself if you can live with 17" wheels on the country roads around where you live. They are much more aggressive than 15" wheels, as the tyre sidewall is also part of your suspension, ie: less sidewall makes for a firmer ride. If you want the car to look nice, that's one thing. However if you want the car to handle nice, that's another.
You can lower a car and still have 15" wheels and go for a "tuner" look, rather than the "ricer" look. Yes, bigger wheels are counter-productive to performance/handling to a degree, there's a point where bigger is better, and then it's just too much and then you go backwards... Anyhow, just saying you can lower and have hot lightweight "tuner" wheels with lowered suspension and well chosen tyres. The right ppl will see this and regard it well for what it is.

Cheers.
Gav.

[Plutonus]

Thanks chicaboo, starting to understanding it all now.

The main reason I was looking at 17s was because there is little to no choice in 15s (that i could find anyway).

[project.r.racing]

sorry ididn't mean to offend you bt it is easir to have someone that knows the answers to you questions accually there infront of you pointing to all te bits n pieces that you wanna learn about.

ryan