Will I need shortened endlinks for a 1.25 inch lowering?
 

Will I need shorter endlinks for a 1.25 in. drop in the front if I'm on CSG Tein Flex A coils, stock front LCA, and stock sway bars? How will shorter endlinks affect handling?

need? no
should, yes

Shorter end links will make it worse.. If anything, you'd want them longer to adjust for your ride height. As you go lower, the pickup point on the strut gets further away from the stabilizer bar paddle.

Wait. I thought you need shorter endlinks to clear the front LCA

shorter is right, in either case

you want adjustable to set the sway at 0 preload with it sitting on level ground, that will give it the most swing with weight transfer and you wont have to overcome that load, it makes for a wonky driving feel.

What are some good adjustable endlinks then? Do I need endlinks for the rear?

to keep the proper stab bar geometry you'd need longer ones. As you shorten the coilover, the hub, moves up, away from the stab bar. The rear you'd need shorter links, but for the fronts, you need longer ones.

I would recommend anything more race focused thank a standard company.

Ive had good luck with Racer-x and SPL which are a bit pricer than the standard stuff, but theyll last a while

and to emphasis it all depends how you lowered the car. on my coilovers the shock body didnt change relative position to the height of the car. where it mounds is the same on the spindle. but when the car sides lower the sway bar effectively raises.

You're assuming OP's aftermarket coilovers maintain the same swaybar mounting point as stock on the strut housing. Most don't.

Do the Tein Flex A's retain the stock swaybar mounting point? Ugh, yeah this is pretty annoying on figuring out what I'll need for the car.

EDIT: I heard about Whiteline adjustable end links but I'm looking to stay away from them since Whiteline has a reputation of breaking on track.

i can vouch for not only the G86/FRS models, but also the STI and RX8

i think the metal they use for their threads are brittle and soft, cause i rounded two sets of threads, the rx8 guy snapped his and the sti guy bent his.

their sway bars also have clearancing issues with the lower control arms. too fat

For the tein's I would just get a standard length adjustable one. esp if you are only going down 1 inch

I got a set of SPL shorts and they were too short for my drop at 2.25 in the front

You're buying CSG's special parts, I'd contact CSG and include their recommended end links in the order, they've got good track experience and hopefully won't steer you wrong.

Although hopefully it's not the >$200 end links from SPL...

I still not understand what's the need for endlinks. Every (almost) aftermarket strut has the attachment of the endlink in the same place of the OEM, so the sway bar will not be lovered to the ground. So no need for shorter endlinks...