Need suggestions of how to raise my '13 fr-s up by a little bit

[H_K]

Hi guys, I'm facing the problem where the driveway to my garage is very steep. It is steep to the point that my front lip will just barely scrape the ground at the bottom of the ramp. This is a huge pain and the ass and my only solution right now is to reverse down the ramp, as the rear seems to have enough clearance to not scrape the ground. This works well enough, but unless I'm going down at exactly the right spot, I can still scrape the ground. There is no ability to angle the car at all, as it is a very tight ramp squeezed between two buildings with not much wiggle room to go down at an angle.

At the moment, my car is a pretty much completely stock daily driver. No modifications to the suspension or anything. I am not a very technical guy and the only thing I really do besides wash my car is swap the tires out myself for the winter. Here are some solutions I have thought of:

• Getting taller tires/wheels. I think upgrading to 18" would solve the problem, but is a very costly solution. Looking at ~$4k-$5k to replace the wheels and get a set of summer and winter tires.
• Getting a front and rear spacer that will raise the body of the car up. Cheapest solution at only a couple hundred dollars
• Getting a suspension kit similar to a rally suspension kit and replace my springs/coilovers. ~$1k

Does anyone have any better ideas? Or of the three, which would be the best idea?

I like the idea of spacers, but can't seem to find any good installation instructions. I'm really not a mechanic or wrencher and am not super confident in my abilities to just start replacing parts. How difficult of a job would this be for an average joe?

[ichitaka05]

Originally Posted by H_K

• Getting taller tires/wheels. I think upgrading to 18" would solve the problem, but is a very costly solution. Looking at ~$4k-$5k to replace the wheels and get a set of summer and winter tires.
  If you upgrade your wheels to 18's and keeping the wall size same, that'll change the speedometer, so keep that in mind. Most ppl go inch up on the wheel, they drop wall size, so they can keep same speedometer as stock.
• Getting a front and rear spacer that will raise the body of the car up. Cheapest solution at only a couple hundred dollars
  You can get suspension spacers and you can prob do it reg tools... BUT keep in mind, anytime you mod your suspension (higher or lower), I would recommend getting alignment done PLUS might need camber bolt in front (it's all depends how how much you raise it up).
• Getting a suspension kit similar to a rally suspension kit and replace my springs/coilovers. ~$1k
  You can get coilovers cheap as $500 to expensive as $5k. It's all up to how much you wanna spend it.

Other than first option, two options are up to you.

[H_K]

Originally Posted by ichitaka05

Other than first option, two options are up to you.

1) This is the very first time I've ever heard of different tire sizes changing the speedometer. Interesting and I will read into that. What steps do you need to take to change the speedometer?

2) If I go with 1" suspension spacers at the front and back, like what's offered by the one I have been looking at by Subtle Solutions (here), would I need this camber bolt? How do I know if I'd need a camber bolt?

3) Do you have any coilover suggestions that could raise my car up by about an inch?

[rvoll]

Originally Posted by H_K

Hi guys, I'm facing the problem where the driveway to my garage is very steep. It is steep to the point that my front lip will just barely scrape the ground at the bottom of the ramp. This is a huge pain and the ass and my only solution right now is to reverse down the ramp, as the rear seems to have enough clearance to not scrape the ground. This works well enough, but unless I'm going down at exactly the right spot, I can still scrape the ground. There is no ability to angle the car at all, as it is a very tight ramp squeezed between two buildings with not much wiggle room to go down at an angle.

At the moment, my car is a pretty much completely stock daily driver. No modifications to the suspension or anything. I am not a very technical guy and the only thing I really do besides wash my car is swap the tires out myself for the winter. Here are some solutions I have thought of:

• Getting taller tires/wheels. I think upgrading to 18" would solve the problem, but is a very costly solution. Looking at ~$4k-$5k to replace the wheels and get a set of summer and winter tires.
• Getting a front and rear spacer that will raise the body of the car up. Cheapest solution at only a couple hundred dollars
• Getting a suspension kit similar to a rally suspension kit and replace my springs/coilovers. ~$1k

Does anyone have any better ideas? Or of the three, which would be the best idea?

I like the idea of spacers, but can't seem to find any good installation instructions. I'm really not a mechanic or wrencher and am not super confident in my abilities to just start replacing parts. How difficult of a job would this be for an average joe?

How much space do you need? I have a new 18 BRZ with 17" wheels and upgraded to 225/45 PS4S tires. Assuming you have 17" wheels, that will let you keep the stock wheels and raise the car about 1/3" without any modification to the suspension or alignment. 18" wheels will not help because you will be moving to a lower profile tire with the same diameter. My 225's change the speedo less than 1 mph at 65, so I don't consider that a big problem.

You could always have an asphalt or concrete guy fill in some of the dip at the bottom of your driveway. That may well be cheaper depending on where you live.

Otherwise, totally agree with the previous poster.

[rvoll]

Originally Posted by H_K

1) This is the very first time I've ever heard of different tire sizes changing the speedometer. Interesting and I will read into that. What steps do you need to take to change the speedometer?

2) If I go with 1" suspension spacers at the front and back, like what's offered by the one I have been looking at by Subtle Solutions (here), would I need this camber bolt? How do I know if I'd need a camber bolt?

3) Do you have any coilover suggestions that could raise my car up by about an inch?

Changing the speedo is difficult at best. If you really want a solution and have the money, you could always go to airbags and raise the car when you enter your driveway and lower it when you drive. This is expensive, however.

[H_K]

Originally Posted by rvoll

Changing the speedo is difficult at best. If you really want a solution and have the money, you could always go to airbags and raise the car when you enter your driveway and lower it when you drive. This is expensive, however.

If only I had that kind of money, haha. Though, probably cheaper than a complete tire swap x2 (summer and winter) and wheel swap

[johan]

long 2x4 or 2x8 placed at the bottom of the ramp where it meets the street. I did this at one place I lived. Worked fine for years.

[H_K]

Originally Posted by rvoll

How much space do you need? I have a new 18 BRZ with 17" wheels and upgraded to 225/45 PS4S tires. Assuming you have 17" wheels, that will let you keep the stock wheels and raise the car about 1/3" without any modification to the suspension or alignment. 18" wheels will not help because you will be moving to a lower profile tire with the same diameter. My 225's change the speedo less than 1 mph at 65, so I don't consider that a big problem.

You could always have an asphalt or concrete guy fill in some of the dip at the bottom of your driveway. That may well be cheaper depending on where you live.

Otherwise, totally agree with the previous poster.

It is difficult to measure exactly how much I need. I know that I am just barely scraping the ground at the bottom of the ramp when going forwards, and have enough clearance if I go down in reverse, so it can't need that much more height. However I've been looking at options to raise by a total of an inch just to be safe.

Do you think a 215/50R17 tire would give me any problems with the speedometer? That seems much taller and looks like it would give me about 21mm more in diameter (about .8 of an inch). 215/55R17 would give me 43mm (1.69 inches).

[H_K]

Originally Posted by johan

long 2x4 or 2x8 placed at the bottom of the ramp where it meets the street. I did this at one place I lived. Worked fine for years.

I like the idea, but it is a shared condo driveway that probably wouldn't be interested in letting me put some materials down on the ramp.

[johan]

Originally Posted by H_K

I like the idea, but it is a shared condo driveway that probably wouldn't be interested in letting me put some materials down on the ramp.

Ask for forgiveness, not for permission.

[ichitaka05]

Originally Posted by H_K

1) This is the very first time I've ever heard of different tire sizes changing the speedometer. Interesting and I will read into that. What steps do you need to take to change the speedometer?

2) If I go with 1" suspension spacers at the front and back, like what's offered by the one I have been looking at by Subtle Solutions (here), would I need this camber bolt? How do I know if I'd need a camber bolt?

3) Do you have any coilover suggestions that could raise my car up by about an inch?

As for the Speedo, it's not crazy speed change. We're talking bout 1%~3% change in speed reading, but it's always good to know. you can look here and compare: Tire Comparison

2. I don't remember stock bolts can adjust as much... so just look for whiteline or other well known brand camber bolts. I, myself have Whiteline.

3. Tein, RSR, HKS, Apex, Ohlins, Cusco and list just goes on and on. It's all depends on how much you're willing to spend. I have RSR, but that's a bit different story. I like Cusco too. Just 2 yen.

Originally Posted by H_K

It is difficult to measure exactly how much I need. I know that I am just barely scraping the ground at the bottom of the ramp when going forwards, and have enough clearance if I go down in reverse, so it can't need that much more height. However I've been looking at options to raise by a total of an inch just to be safe.

Do you think a 215/50R17 tire would give me any problems with the speedometer? That seems much taller and looks like it would give me about 21mm more in diameter (about .8 of an inch). 215/55R17 would give me 43mm (1.69 inches).

215/45/17 vs 215/50/17
Reading/Actual
20/20.7
30/31.1
40/41.5
50/51.8
60/62.2
70/72.6
80/82.9
90/93.3

Originally Posted by johan

long 2x4 or 2x8 placed at the bottom of the ramp where it meets the street. I did this at one place I lived. Worked fine for years.

Or you can get one of these.

[H_K]

Originally Posted by ichitaka05

215/45/17 vs 215/50/17
Reading/Actual
20/20.7
30/31.1
40/41.5
50/51.8
60/62.2
70/72.6
80/82.9
90/93.3

Thanks for all the help so far! I'm loving all the suggestions. I'm learning a ton. What are these numbers?

[ichitaka05]

Originally Posted by H_K

What are these numbers?

Those number are:

Tire sizes
215/45/17 vs 215/50/17

Speedometer reading:
Reading/Actual

20MPH/20.7MPH
30MPH/31.1MPH
40MPH/41.5MPH
50MPH/51.8MPH
60MPH/62.2MPH
70MPH/72.6MPH
80MPH/82.9MPH
90MPH/93.3MPH

If you get 215/50/17 tires and you're driving and see the gauge you're going 50MPH, but you're actually going 51.8MPH.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by H_K

Hi guys, I'm facing the problem where the driveway to my garage is very steep. It is steep to the point that my front lip will just barely scrape the ground at the bottom of the ramp. ………...

I'll suggest a very simple solution. Do nothing, just get used to it. The front lip is made out of plastic, so it won't rust and is flexible … so, that awful sound that it makes while scraping is worse than any possible damage that it's doing.

My driveway is quite steep with a crown at the top. So, our Saturn has been scraping it's front bumper for the past ten years, going out of the garage. I just cringe a little, then shake it off. My FR-S (not lowered) high centers on the crown by the sidewalk going out 2 out of 10 times. It's rubbing on the resonator, which, after 4 years seems, to be holding up real well.

You most likely won't be living there and driving your FR-S the rest of your life … so, it's a temporary thing...

Besides, just how much time do you spend laying on the ground looking up at the scratches on the underside of the front lip ..??

Hey, I'm relatively old and have learned over the years, not to worry about stuff like that...


humfrz