I have ordered a set of lowered (25mm) and stiffened springs. Do I need to consider anything else after fittment ? Will tracking etc be affected? Does lowering alter toe in/out or any other things that I know not much about?

C

 

Well, in the general case, altering your suspension is going to change the original settings on your car. After you're done, get an alignment. Are the spring rates fixed on your set or are they progressive? I think if you do a search there's more stuff on this .

 

If you want to know more, here's a pretty good link on suspensions.

http://www.chris-longhurst.com/carbi...ion_bible.html

I hope it answers any questions you have. Knowledge is power :D!!

 

Yes, you need to get an alignment afterwards. If it's not dropped an extreme amount, drive the car a day or so before getting an alignment, so that everything settles in first.

And when installing springs, tighten the suspension bolts while the car is on it's suspension, not while it's on the jackstands.

---jps

 

are coil overs for lowering the car as well?

 

Coilovers are a spring and shock assembly in one package. They offer lots of adjustability. For example, JIC's FLT-A2 offers 16-way adjustability, which means you can switch from soft to hard or vice-versa with a turn of the spanner wrench. Tein offers the EDFC, which controls ride height from inside the car (or wherever) through stepper motors. This is much better than physically turning a spanner wrench every time you want to adjust the height. Unfortunately, as far as I'm concerned, Tein only offers the EDFC for its products only. The most interesting suspension is Praxis' air suspension systems. I wrote a thread about it. Try a search. I think it's really interesting, and I would love to try it out on the RX-8 if it ever becomes available (Praxis systems are vehicle-specific). To answer your question, yes coilovers have the ability to lower or raise the ride height.

 

actually tiens edfc is a damping controling system which means you can adjust the pressure inside the shock for a stiffer or a more comfortable ride,( from inside the car)you still have to use a wrench if you want to adjust ride hight unfortunately, edfc is very cool for ride comfort on the highway, or racing at the track cause you can adjust in cabin and dont have to pop the hood and get out, it even has presets so you can adjust while driving if you wish

 

Oh. Sorry about that :o. Can't you tell I haven't read the specs on the EDFC?

 

I've heard that getting stiffer springs without changing the stock struts will place more strain on the struts and might shorten their life.

 

That's not necessarily true. You can get lowering/stiffer springs, and the stock shocks will not compromise. If you were going to keep your stock shocks, then a softer spring would help in longevity. Of course, too stiff a spring, say 1000 lbm/in, they might cause some serious wear on your shocks.

 

I explained (from an engineering standpoint) in an old thread why I thought it was possible that OEM shock life could be reduced by installing stiffer springs.

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...9&page=2&pp=15
(2nd page near the bottom)

Basically, stiffer springs reduce the damping ratio of the vehicle bounce mode, thus the OEM shocks will experience more cycles during a given amount of driving. Every suspension component has a certain fatigue life, or number of cycles until failure. Therefore, life will be shortened if cycles accumulate at a faster rate.

However, the decrease in life could be insignificant. I don't claim to have even a rough idea of how much the life of the shocks could be shortened.

 

I have seen some springs that adjust from .5" (Racing Beat) to 1.0-1.5" (H&R, Eibach). I got the RB's. A 1.5" drop scares me as I have seem some kids get 1.5"-2.0" drops and their cars handled like garbage around the track. and on the strret. It was as if the springs were made out of inferior material. The ride got bouncy (and the fenderlip hit the tires on bumps) and the handling got compromised.

 

The harsh ride could be from cutting the bumpstops. It doesn't always have to be the material of the spring. Stiffer springs means a harsher ride. The point is not to select the ride height, but the stiffness of the spring, though the former is important for lowering the center of gravity.