Improving Handling and Bumpy Roads

[Anthony]

Sorry, this is not a genius DIY thread.

I plan to do a lot of work to my RS and I'm starting with the wheels, tires, springs, sway bar/brace/both, and brakes. I consider this doing things the "right" way as I'm sure most of you would agree.

I do want to lower my car, however, I live in a bumpy area (very bumpy actually (old suburb of Boston)). Guys, whenever I hit one of these "you have no choice but to eat me" potholes with my brand new RS a small part of me dies on the inside. I hate it. Wish I could move.

In the mean time I still want to lower...as I've heard of people having little to no issues lowering these cars with bumpy daily-driving roads. But I'm still nervous about it.

Since I have the RS, does that mean that a set of Eibach's (for example) would make the car sit lower in comparison to an LT with the same springs, and wheels, etc? Because of the RS struts?

Should I purposely buy the tallest lowering springs I can in order to help with bumps/scraping and my environment in general? I'm worried about being too low on these roads. The taller the better for rougher roads...am I wrong here?

I want to make my car more durable for rough roads. So that I have something to make me feel a little better about it. What aftermarket parts are available with this goal in mind?

Thanks for absolutely anything on this subject.

 

[laborsmith]

Here goes my take. I had Pedders lowering coils on my LT (1.4 front & 1.1 rear) and now have Eibach drop spring on my RS (1.2 front and 1.4 rear) and both front and rear on the RS are lower; obviously the rear should be but not necessarily the front.

There are pictures posted in the build threads and measurements if I recall correctly.

I live in Michigan, a state that goes out of its way to have the worst roads in the world. I have traveled "roads" in southern Ethiopia that existed in the imagination of the driver and those roads were better than some of the roads in Michigan. I have had one problem being lowered (I was in a still recovering from Katrina part of New Orleans and destroyed a one-off front lip spoiler backing out of a new driveway onto a still messed up street).

So, if you like the lowered look than go for it. The better coils/springs will help maintain stability when driving on Interstates etc, and may help with mpg but I do not keep good enough records to say for sure.

I have the DDM brace and like it but do not think I would add the ZZP rear sway bar; to me it is one or the other until someone (Clyde?) shows me both can work together.


Laborsmith

 

[ecohauler]

Lowering does slightly improve gas mileage on the highway in some cases due to a lower frontal surface area. I noticed an improvement of ~1MPG on the highway in my Saturn when I lowered it, but that gain is more than offset in the city because I have to crawl around bumps and potholes. In general, I don't recommend lowering a car that you drive on rough city streets all the time. It makes driving more challenging, but it can be done.

Depending on what kind of rough roads you're dealing with, you may want to go to a smaller wheel than the RS 17's. A taller sidewall on the tires will soak up a lot of the bumps. We have a lot of cobblestone roads around here, and the bumps are considerably more pronounced with 17's than 15's. More sidewall also protects the rim from potholes and curbs.

The RS suspension is lower than the other models because of the springs, not the struts. The RS struts are, however, generally considered better suited for lowering springs than the stock struts are. I think they're also stiffer, so the other models' struts may be better for city driving.

The rear brace or sway bar does sound like a good idea. It doesn't make the suspension very much rougher and really reduces body roll in the turns. I imagine on the RS it's even more helpful due to the stiffer front sway bar.

You might also want to upgrade your sway bar end links. Apparently the stock ones are pretty flimsy. File this idea under durability rather than performance, but it may improve both.

That's all I can think of. I've pretty much covered everything, I think.

 

[$ub$onic]

As far as I know the rs has the same sway bar as the rest of them...

 

[ahtoxa]

Take what I say for what it's worth to you.

I once had a lowered Golf. I used very mild lowering springs, which only got me 1.25" lower than stock. I hated life driving it in pothole-ridden Chicago.

I will never lower a car again, particularly one that is a daily driver, now matter how few miles I drive every day.

Coilovers do not provide a performance improvement at the ride heights that people use them. In fact, they are mostly for looks. A car on proper coilovers doesn't look lowered (stock production car with no other suspension changes and original geometry) at all. The benefit of coilovers isn't in lowering but in adjusting rebound and dampening as well as stiffness of spring, as well as being able to corner balance the car.

So before folks jump in with their hands on experience, do some reading on this subject and see how suspension geometry is most often negatively affected by any lowering greater than .5 to 1 inches at most. Remember that less body roll doesn't always make a better handling car at the limit. A good handling car still needs to transfer weight well.

Sorry for the tirade. It's late and I'm bored. I need to get to bed.

 

[Anthony]

Thanks for the responses, guys.

I think I'm just going to go ahead and experience it lower before I decided whether or not it's right for me.

I think the only part that didn't get touched on was the idea I had about getting springs
with the least amount of drop. So that I'm not being as harsh on the car in the long run while still being able to drop a little.

Any ideas?

 

[ahtoxa]

For an RS, I really wouldn't bother, because your springs are already lower than other trims of the Sonic. Going back to my point above, I think as far as handling, you're already at the ultimate ride height (for stock geometry) with improvement possible in other areas.