My car is lowered 1.75" all around...
ever since I lowered it (Dropzone Springs), the car bottoms out very, very badly on bumps at speed. it sounds like the strut is literally mashing into the top of the strut tower, and I'm scared the front end will explode in a firey ball (im kidding, of course...), or just scamper to the side of the road like an 8 year old with terrets...

that being said, I am fully aware that it more than likely my struts bottoming out... but what is the best way to solve this?
I am worried that the springs may simply be too soft, so that with any strut it will bottom badly (The ride isn't bouncy, so I know that the struts in place aren't in terrible shape..)
I've been told that KYB GR-2's will help with lowered cars, however, how much can it really help?

im running stock struts right now, and I need to get this taken care of... please respond ASAP!



***** I have started looking at Tokico Blue's.... they seem to be my best bet, running around about $350 for all 4 corners in parts...?

 

If it was me I'd put it back to stock height. I don't like the look of these cars lowered and they are a huge pain in the *** to drive when lowered.

 

What did you expect??? These cars have very little clearance even at stock height.

 

You need new struts n shocks..
I like bilstein..
you can also build uper strut mount spacers to raise them up a inch or so.
I have seen several develpment cars and they do help..

http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/shocks_1.aspx

 

@DJP87Z28 - its not the clearance - clearance is no issue at all. its the struts themselves bottoming, i very rarely have the body/underside itself scraping.



**ive read everywhere that i jsut need upgraded shocks, i just don't want to spend $500 just to have the problem unsolved, so i want to be as sure as possible that this will cure the problem. you think new shocks alone will solve it?

again, its not the body, its simply the shocks themselves bottoming.

 

Rule #1 on a lowered car encountering a speed bump:

1: STOP at the speed bump
2: Idle up on to the speed bump
3: STOP on top
4: Ease it off the speed bump with only releasing the brakes
5: Proceed until the rear tires touch the speed bump
6: Repeat steps 1 thru 4

AFTER the rear tires touch the level pavement again, then you are free to use the gas pedal again (unless it is a standard, then you'll need need to feather the clutch in & out to proceed up the speed bump, but still do not touch the gas pedal until your rear tires have gone over the speed bump).

This Lowered 3rd gen F-body Service Announcement has been brought to you by BlackenedBird. I now return you to your regularly scheduled TGO.

 

lol thanks for that wonderfully educational public service announcement. makes me feel safer already!

haha but no, its mainly bumps on roads where im doing like 80 or so km/h or highways, if theres a noticeable bump, its accompanied with a sickening bang... it is no fun

 

You're in better shape than me. I get that and mine is not even lowered yet!

 

Better shocks will help the car alot. When you put them on, I would suggest thowing out the stock bumpstops and getting something softer:

http://www.ground-control-store.com/...php/II=10/CA=1

Rubber or polyurethane bumpstops are never going to ride very well. These will slide right over the shock/strut shaft, but you'll want to make sure you don't internally bottom out the shock before the bumpstop is fully engaged or your brand new shocks are going to be trash. Taller strut mounts may help as well, but for me wasn't the limiting factor.

 

Are those things cut on one side so that they can slip over the shaft? I've seen them before, just never understood how they fit on the shock or strut.

 

They're not and I wouldn't suggest slitting them if you can help it. The'll slip right over the strut up front once you remove the dust shield and get the strut disconnected from the mount. In the back it just depends on your shocks, The bilstein and thunderbird koni's I've ran have removable dust shields so its not a problem. The third gen specific Koni mono-tubes I have on the car now have to use a split bumpstop.

 

Out of curiosity, how many inches is it from ground, through the center of the wheel, to the center of the wheel well fender? Shocks that advertise ___ amount of lowering tend to be all over the place for the most part. It might be 1.5". It might be 2 inches.

New front struts will help with bottoming out. My car with stock 22 year old springs has a 1.7" lowered front driver side and a 0.25" lowered front passenger side. When I put new Koni struts in the front, I noticed a huge difference in terms of not scraping the air dam on steep parking lots, steep driveways etc. Things were you wouldn't be "bouncing" the struts up and down that much (driving 2 mph).

You may have lost your bumpstops. Are they still there? With my 1.7" lowered front left, I noticed some wear along the A-arms near the rubber bump stop. No wear on the passenger side.

With 1.75" lowering springs, you need some SUPER high performance struts to keep up. My heights (still with stock front springs) are Left 26.8" and Right 27.75". I have no trouble with bottoming out on the highway. And I have concrete highways with potholes and cracks here.

I do plan on replacing the front springs with stock height springs. Just a matter of finding the time.

You have a few options.

1) Konis or Bilsteins (I prefer Koni). You'll get better performance AND better ride quality. You can't match this with the KYB GR-2 setup. The Konis and Bilsteins are the only companies I know that are meant for lowered cars as well.

2) Take those super lowering springs out and go with something a bit tamer. Pro Kit?

 

haha ok, so the front is 25.4" in the centreline of the wheel, ground to edge of fender.
the rear is 27.0".

it has an amazing stance, and like i said earlier. my body/airdam/underside of car never bottoms out, its just the loud bang coming from the struts. i dont know how, but i've made this ride height work without any tire rub either (its like 1/4" clearance, its so awesome... ) its just the strut issue i have to work out. im getting my hands on tokico HPs (blues) which are made for lowered cars - im getting them cheap, $100 for all 4 corners... very, very lightly used (less than 2500 miles). so ill see how they fix/dont fix the problem and ill post back once they're on!

 

btw, both left and right sides are equal front and rear.
front value applies for both sides, as does rear.

 

i feel like stock would be ~28" front and back...do you know by any chance?

 

Stock is roughly 28.5 to 29 inches.

If you're at 25.4", then you're riding around on the bumpstops. So ANY bump in the road would be harsh.

 

well i can feel theres ~2-3" of movement before it bottoms... im actually amazed that the handling is still quite good... i mean like very good - super balanced.

 

Sounds like you have dead struts in the front, usually theirs a rubber or foam stopper on the shaft to keep the strut from bottoming out & you may wanna check your bump stops on the a-arm in front. I would change front struts, rear shocks & replace any damaged bump stops. Struts & shocks choice is all on what you are willing to spend & preference.



Might wanna check your strut mounting plate for damage also.

If you can push down on the car & it bottoms out your struts are pretty dead & if they are original they are definately dead. Since your car is a v6 the frontend should be lighter than a v8 car & shouldnt bottom out as easy.

 

[IMG]file:///Users/bryanresh/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot-4.png[/IMG]^^^ I agree with Karl,it is highly likely that your struts are bad, now hears the bad news if you do not fix this issue you WILL break suspension parts! causing the front wheels to fall off, maybe not that bad but it will cause a very bad day for you.

after replacing the struts you still have this issue check out the link below.
they have additional strut travel built in for lowered cars.


http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/82...berplates.aspx

 

So your saying that lowered cars WILL break their suspension, if the raised strut mounts aren't used? I'll be sure to tell my daily driver car that it is about 2 years over due for breaking, with its 25.75" ride height up front & bone stock strut mount plates.

 

No that is not what I said. but what i did say "I agree with Karl,it is highly likely that your struts are bad" "if you do not fix this issue you WILL break suspension parts!"

Ellis123 said, from my understanding, is that his struts are bottoming out on bumps as road speed. struts or shocks are not designed to be the limiting factor in suspension movement. a strut or shock that is used to stop suspension travel will break, if your car has been lowered and the struts are not the limiting factor in the suspension movement then you have nothing to worry about. but in Ellis123 case it sounds like his struts are where the hash noise is coming from. if this is not fixed, something will fail. it is kinda like taking a 16lbs sledge hammer to the suspension, something will break and it will not be a good day when this happens

 

Ive seen ball joint, strut mounts & bearing failure. Its about up keep & preventive maintanence.

 

I know that the J+M caster/camber strut mounts give 1" of extra strut travel, and they have a good solid bearing which further improves handling.

I met Ellis over the weekend and I sold him my low mileage Tokico struts and shocks. They should be much better than his current struts and shocks but I did notice his car was extremely low! Although, he did have good clearance under the car (no frame connectors, smaller exhaust that does not hang low except for that cat but that wasn't even too bad, and the airdam wasn't that low maybe it sits higher on a v6 than on the v8?) there still is the bottoming out possibility with any car being that low. His rear height was a bit higher, about an inch higher or so, and I thought that the rear looked like the perfect "lowest ride" height..

 

struts/shocks are going in tomorrow - ill post up here to give you guys a heads up on how it changes/fixes the problems ive been having.

 

I had not seen this one before, but especially since you state the car bottoms out when driving faster then 50 (I think you mentioned 80) I´m positive your shocks are out of order.

My shocks, after 22 years of good use, could compress themselves with the mere assistance of gravity
Let us know how yours do.

The new ones should solve this.

Personally I would not save or cut corners when it comes to suspension. Lowring is nice, but get progressive spring rate springs and good shocks to prevent headaches in the near future.

 

shocks/struts are on! The ride is much better - seems more "quiet" all around... you feel less of the imperfections of the road which is nice, and it seems to be taking mild/medium sized bumps much, much better. im yet to hit a bigger bump in a highway, but from what ive felt it seems like it will still bottom, but not nearly as bad. overall its a great improvement. I dont think its possible to completely solve the bottoming problem 100% without different spindles and then scrapping the drop springs... anyways, it worked out good. thanks hellz_wings for the blues, they seem good.

my old struts seemed pretty shot - the right front, i could compress very, very easily and it would take a over a minute to reset to its natural position. the right front was not as bad, but still extremely dead. the rears weren't too bad.

 

Ellis,

Glad they are working out for you. They were pretty decent shocks an I'm sure they will be good enough for the street, although they are not really a 'racing' shock.

When we met I mentioned the 'wonderbar'. It's actually the steering brace that most camaros didn't come with unless they were an IROC or WS6 i think. I don't think your car has it actually. It actually prevents cracking of the frame rail by the steering box and it will help keep your front end tighter.

That won't solve the bottoming out issue though. I would look into J&M strut mounts as they are 1" taller and will give you 1" more travel.

After seeing your car, I would raise it about a half inch in the front because I find that is way too low for any camaro. The fender lip seemed to be overlapping the tire. I think you can add a 2nd spring isolator up above the spring to raise the height some.

 

I went through 3 sets of springs before getting it
right 'for me anyway'. My best result was after
removing 20% of one link of stock springs. The
ride is GREAT, no rub and no bottoming out. It
sits at 27". Using KYB AGX + J&M strut mounts.

 

IMO you get what you pay for with the dropzones. i had them and everything about them were horrible. lowered the front 3in and raised the rear 4in. so low my k member sat 1.5 inches from the ground. couldnt get it out of my driveway. currently running eibach sportlines and couldnt be happier. hope you solve your issue.