Lowering Springs or Coilovers?

[hpanju]

Looking to keep myself busy during the quarantine and wanted some nicer fitment. Don’t wanna break the bank too much, but I do want good quality stuff. Should I go lowering springs or coilovers? Keep in mind it’s a daily driver for me and I have to brave Canada winters as well, wanting a 1” drop max. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated

[shiumai]

I first went with lowering springs (swift) and didn't really like the way the car felt with them on curves with bumps and dips. It felt like the rear was wallowing. Switched to Tein Flex Z coilovers and have been happy with them. The Flex Z's also allowed for corner balancing as well as adjusting the ride height and shock firmness. Well worth the slightly extra cost vs the lowering springs.

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

lowering springs. Cheap coilovers ownership will go like this:

1. Wow this is just like OEM!
2. Okay a tiny bit firmer than OEM
3. *starting to research suspension technology and finding this thing called "damping"*
4. Realizing the damping in your cheap coilovers ain't that great
5. Painfully browsing online car part shops for $4000 KW V3 with Raceseng camper plates and Shock Tops in the rear, wishing you knew this before hand and saved up a while longer instead.

[Vital]

If its a daily just get lowering springs and call it a day. Theres great springs that offer a 1" drop. I would personally recommend RCE Yellows other options are TRD, Hotchkis, and Eibach Pro-Kit.

[ZDan]

Lowering springs are fine if you don't go with camber plates. I'm on Swift BRZ Sport springs, lowered the car ~1.25". If you also want front camber, do it with camber bolts and pick wheel/tire fitments that allow you to get the desired camber.
With camber plates, the additional loss of front bump travel makes the ride kinda intolerable as the fronts will bottom out over the smallest bumps...

[TommyW]

I just have springs and and happy with em. I don’t like adjusting things. The car feels good on the track and a bit stiff on the street but I don’t really care. Stiffer sway bars also. I drove an 86 with one of the less expensive coils and didn’t like it at all.

Camber bolts up front to get -2 degrees. any more and you run the risk of killing your tires if you drive on the street much.

[HaXx]

Originally Posted by hpanju

Looking to keep myself busy during the quarantine and wanted some nicer fitment. Don’t wanna break the bank too much, but I do want good quality stuff. Should I go lowering springs or coilovers? Keep in mind it’s a daily driver for me and I have to brave Canada winters as well, wanting a 1” drop max. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated

i installed coils, but ive walked friends through their springs install and seen their result. id just start with springs. you will probably be more than satisfied, you dont need to worry about setting preload, setting ride height, dampening. plus, if you decide to get coils a few years from not, just sell the lowering spring/oe strut as a package. for the $100 that you can buy springs for on here or facebook buy/sell/trade groups, its a pretty good starting place.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by StraightOuttaCanadaEh

lowering springs. Cheap coilovers ownership will go like this:

1. Wow this is just like OEM!
2. Okay a tiny bit firmer than OEM
3. *starting to research suspension technology and finding this thing called "damping"*
4. Realizing the damping in your cheap coilovers ain't that great
5. Painfully browsing online car part shops for $4000 KW V3 with Raceseng camper plates and Shock Tops in the rear, wishing you knew this before hand and saved up a while longer instead.

OMG this is so spot on As soon as someone with cheap coilovers says #1 I just ignore the rest of the thread or start trolling.

[strat61caster]

Springs
Eibach, RCE, Swift, etc.

If you're feeling fancy get dampers too, Bilstein B6 or Koni Yellow

[solidONE]

Originally Posted by StraightOuttaCanadaEh

lowering springs. Cheap coilovers ownership will go like this:

1. Wow this is just like OEM!
2. Okay a tiny bit firmer than OEM
3. *starting to research suspension technology and finding this thing called "damping"*
4. Realizing the damping in your cheap coilovers ain't that great
5. Painfully browsing online car part shops for $4000 KW V3 with Raceseng camper plates and Shock Tops in the rear, wishing you knew this before hand and saved up a while longer instead.

Aww.. not that bad, man. For $800 a set, it give plenty of performance per dollar.

The list is just a possible, albeit likely, scenario.

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

Originally Posted by solidONE

Aww.. not that bad, man. For $800 a set, it give plenty of performance per dollar.

The list is just a possible, albeit likely, scenario.

Just my personal experience. I paid about $1100

[solidONE]

Originally Posted by StraightOuttaCanadaEh

Just my personal experience. I paid about $1100

Flex-Z? Or something else? I was referring specifically to the Flex-Z.

Best way to go about it is to get a test ride. Then you can determine how you want to spend your money with no ragrats. Im sure someone will do it for a couple of rolls of TP or hand sanitizer

[86TOYO2k17]

Depends on budget. You got three best bang for buck options you really can’t go wrong with.
300$ RCE yellow springs
950$ tein flex A
1550$ tein flex a csg spec
Beyond that isn’t worth it unless dedicated track car.

You’ll probably want rear LCA and front camber bolts to go with any of these to get camber dialed in.

[86MLR]

If you go lowering springs get dampers to suit.

Lowering springs are a poor mans option, they are marketed well though.

These cars ride the bump stops at stock height, so....

Save your money and get some quality coil overs.

Don't go silly with spring weights.

I wouldn't drop more than 20mm.

Adjustable top hats for the front, and some camber solution for the rear.

Also, if your coilovers don't come with new front sway bar links, get some adjustable ones.

80% of the mods people do typically makes their car handle worse than stock, typically people just want the lowered look, don't be a typical person.

The best advice I can give is don't believe any marketing, go the track and have a look at what the quick guys run.

Me, I went MCA street performance coilovers, car was just my daily, way better than the rubbish performace pack Sachs and spring combo that was on my 2017, and at only $2k AUD, the swap was a no brainer.

My rear camber solution was Superpro adjustable LCA.

The car handled like a dream, till I hit oil mid corner and backed it into a wall.

Opinions may vary