Hey I am going to lower my Cav soon and I was wondering, my friend just bought some springs to lower his 1.8 in the front 2.3 in the back, but I dont think the front is low enough.

What are better to get, springs or Coilover High Low Springs that are adjustable? The coilovers i am lookin at are adjustable from stock ride height to 4" lower. Anyone have any advise on this? thanks

I got eibach springs and whipped them in. They were supposed to lower the car equally but the back dropped hugely. I'm a mechanic, I have put coilovers on tons of civics. They are crap. Unless you get a good set of struts too. For lowering purposes, they are the best. especially when winter comes.gl

coil-over's will give you a rougher ride than some people want too

ok, thats what i have heard that coilovers are a rougher ride. i guess i will just go with lowering springs. thanks for the help.

go with the coilovers. it will be bumpier ride but thats when u know they are working- u have to sacrifice something for perfomance

yes steven is right. you do have to sacrifice something for performance

well i went with just the springs, they are on there way to my house now.

I went with springs and Koni strut, performance is great, ride is great.

Matthew Strong wrote:I got eibach springs and whipped them in. They were supposed to lower the car equally but the back dropped hugely. I'm a mechanic, I have put coilovers on tons of civics. They are crap. Unless you get a good set of struts too. For lowering purposes, they are the best. especially when winter comes.gl

did u get the pro kit or the sportline kit-i just cant see how the sportline kit would look all that good w/the difference between front and rear being so much-i've been looking at the pro kit for my 05 but i dont want it to be unlevel......


"I can't believe you are doin all this to a Cavalier!"-Everybody Else
"Hey-at least its not a damn civic!!"-ME

the rear is hight than the front stock, with the difference in drop front to rear with sport lines it even out the raked stance of the car. the car is set up that way to transfer the weight more readily to the front tires, helping to cause under-steer, and the front brakes do more of the work in this situation as well. thats why you have disk brakes in the front and drum in the rear, well that and it's an econo-box. most people just don't realize how high the rear is until they start looking into lowering their car.

there are two kinds of coilovers on the market crap and good.

Crap are those ones that you just slid over a regular strut and put some set screws to hold that threated column in.

Good coilovers come with struts desined to fit the tighter springs with the threating for the height adjustment on the body of the shock. some good brands are Tein, Koni, and Eibach. these kits are usually up in the 1K range for your wallet. If you don't have the cash for that regular old "loose coil" drop springs work just as fine. Be sure that they are at a stiffer rate then stock so you dont bottom out the shock.

cya

the only coil over setup that come with struts from the get go is the RK pro-streets, and I think Gravana came out with a set. there are coil overs from Mantapart, but they come separately like the rest, Ground Control is a very good set-up for J-bodies. as far as I know the Eibach threaded kit is not available for his Cav and neither does Koni kit. I don't know enough about the Tein product to comment, but they do have a good reputation in the import community.

...and non of this applies to the individual performance struts or springs from these companies.

ive seen some of these kits where its just the spring and your told to just slip em over you stock strut theres so much free play in the system espesaly at full rebound breakin sh*t doesnt seem to far off

my friend has an 03 cav and has been running the track constantly for 4 months and uses it as a daily driver with just springs slipped over the struts. nothing broken yet.

I got a set of sportlines on my 04 sunfire with an RK Sport streetfire body kit, you cant realy tell the difference between the front and rear. if you are going to put a body kit on you might want to go with a coil over set up so you can adjust your hight because my car i have 3 1/2 inches of clearance on the front bumper and that is with a 225/40/18 for rubber

chev_cav04 wrote:my friend has an 03 cav and has been running the track constantly for 4 months and uses it as a daily driver with just springs slipped over the struts. nothing broken yet.

i autocross and my rear struts were blown after 7,000 miles with stock springs


see ya!

anyone have any pics of their cav w/the prokit and the sportline kit w/the stock 16's? im curious to see how bad it will look until i get wheels-also does anyone have any pics of their black cavalier w/black 18's w/a polished lip?


"I can't believe you are doin all this to a Cavalier!"-Everybody Else
"Hey-at least its not a damn civic!!"-ME

My 2cents on lowering. There are two ways to lower your car the right way and the wrong way. If your going to swap out suspension do the struts and springs and mounts at the same time. Camber kit is also recommended. I say this only because i work at a shop and ive done a bunch of cavi's because well i like to help the jbody folk. Ive seen everything from ebay coilovers to tein full suspension. Setups ive seen and thought to be some of the best are of course the "real" coilovers from tein, gravana, and rksport. Now i personally enjoy the tein for sheer quality i think they are about 850-950 depending on places you shop. Also some good combos for non coilovers are koni's setup, eibach springs with kyb agx or a koni strut. If your looking for maximum drop id look into the ground control with either a kyb agx or koni's. The nice thing about the koni setup is that you can adjust from under the hood instead of reaching under the fender for the kyb agx's. But if your looking for sheer ease of adjustability for dampening id look into tein. Although expensive it offers superior performance. You can setup the tein with their dampening controller all done from inside the car. Well there it is. If you disagree please state your opinion id love to discuss this topic further i think this is a major part of tuning that most overlook. If your car cant handle the power than your losing precious costly hp.

*2012 mazdaspeed3*

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Camber kit is also recommended

J-Bodies don't need[/] one, only if your into Auto-X or extremely low, it's more of a fine tuning thing with a J.

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The nice thing about the koni setup is that you can adjust from under the hood instead of reaching under the fender for the kyb agx's.

almost, the AGX front adjust under the hood with a small screw driver, the rear adjust behind the tire with a knob, Koni rears are in the trunk and a pita to get to , but still better than crawling under the car. and you can find the AGX on E-Bay all the time for $3-400. limited drop yes but with a J-body the best handling is at about 1.5 inches, much more than that and the A-arms straight going up instead on being even, or down, when they start going up it will negatively impact handling performance.

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Although expensive it offers superior performance. You can setup the tein with their dampening controller all done from inside the car. Well there it is.

are the Tien electronically adjusted? and can the corners be adjusted independently
of each other as well? I have been working on a way to do that with may Koni set-up.

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i think this is a major part of tuning that most overlook.

agreed, if you can't keep it on the road....