Lowering springs Comparisons? Comments? B4 & after Pictures?

[morkys]

Do you have any before and after pictures of your car with and without lowering springs? Any comments on handling before and after? What struts and other changes and/or mods did you do in addition to lowering your Corolla?

I'm going to be debating this year whether or not I install lowering springs on my 01 CE when I replace the struts. Struts will either be Tokico HP or KYB GR2. No racing, just mild modding to improve handling. Strut brace is here and hope to install in short order. 14" alloy's with 195/60 tires will work nice vs the stock CE 175/65 tire size, or 185/65 LE/S tires.

I am debating lowering springs. I am mainly looking at the smallest amount of lowering I can do, so 1.2-1.3" inches or so. Either Tein H-tech or H & R. I am not going to race this car. It's my all-around car, my only car, and I'll use it for everything. Work, pleasure, car road-trip vacations, camping, errands, etc. I only want to improve the handling for fun and safety. No racing.

If you have comparison pictures of your car before and after you added lowering springs, that would be awesome. Also, any comments on how you like your car now vs before you lowered it. Are you having any problems etc? If you are local to Toronto or the Pickering/Durham area and are willing to show off your car, that would be handy too.

thanks in advance

[RoachRolla]

before: (4x4'in lol)


After: (Tein S-Tech)


Definitely looks better. But rides rougher than stock (Duh!). I like it though, nice sport ride. Also have a strut bar installed and sway bars in the future.

[morkys]

Looks cool. Nice work with the similar angled shots. Your car is dark and shadows are hiding a bit of the wheel/fender clearance travel area, but it still shows the difference well. Glad you bothered to take a before shot I couldn't ask for much better than that for comparison angles.

So the Tein S-Tech lowering springs are about a 1.5" drop vs the 1.2" of the H-Tech?
What size wheels?

I'll be sure to take pictures of my car as I mod it.

thanks mucho!

[RoachRolla]

heres a better comparison I just found:
Before:


After:


The S-techs have a 1.9" (f), 1.4 (r) drop. The H-Techs have 1.3" (f), 0.8" (r) drop.
In those pics, I had my 16s. Im now riding on 15s and my car looks like this. Notice the fender gap is slightly larger in the front with the smaller rim/tire combo...I like how the 16s looked, but these new rims are much lighter.


Looking forward to the pics of your car!

[morkys]

Yep, that's cool. I will definitely take some more pictures. I'll take pictures of the car with the stock steelies and snow tires, then I'll take pics with the new rims and 195/60's. I took a picture of the car last year with the stock steelies and 195/60's.

Yeah, my rims are even smaller than yours....heheh....14" ...but again, like you say...for the money, very light. 13.4 LBS. for the money is great and 195/60R 14's are plenty good enough for this non-racer ..if I had the money, I may have gone for 15", but another bonus of 14" 195/60 is plenty of sidewall stiffness but also cush for potholes.

So in your case, do you ever have issues with hitting the front or rear of your car when it compresses? Any other issues?
Is your lower body (skirt?) kit aftermarket? I guess that's an issue for hitting stuff.

[RoachRolla]

light rims are good, mine are 12.6 lbs but I have to drive around everything so I dont hit a pothole and crack my rims lol.
I used to have rubbing issues in the rear with my old rims that got worse when I lowered the car. But I used the baseball bat method to roll my fenders a bit. That solved the problem. The front was fine.
My lip kit is aftermarket. It makes it tough to get up driveways and steep inclines, but most things are not a problem as long as you angle the car and be careful.

[morkys]

Gotcha. Had to ask questions because I can't find my way through your cardomain links. What size/ratio tires on the 15" wheels? 12.6 is really light for a 15" wheel. Sounds like Konig heliums. I noticed on my wheels there is a sticker indicating that they are made by Kosei.

[RoachRolla]

my rims are Konig Britelites, 15x6.5, the tires are 205/50. btw, I made a small mistake, the chart I have of wheel weights say they are an even 12 lbs, not 12.6. oops lol, I absolutely had to correct myself... It also says that the heliums weigh 11.6 lbs (even though Ive seen other sites say they are ~10.6). regardless, the heliums are a bit lighter than mine. Im happy with these though.
sorry about my links, I just fixed them.
btw, do you mean Kosei?

[morkys]

Yes, Kosei. Was typing too fast... : p

Either way, these wheels we're talking about, mine and yours, are quite light. 13.4 LBS is significantly lighter than a steel wheel, and much lighter than the larger wheels people install. I understand it's nice to have a big scary 17" + wheel, but it really offers little in performance gains in practical terms, as far as I'm concerned, especially with the heavier weight. Of course, your wheels are lighter still than mine. Although the Sport Edition D5's are 'only' low pressure cast, apparently, they are also shot-peened, which is at least something to make em' a bit stronger. That combined with the larger tires makes for safe non-rim cracking situtation.

[RoachRolla]

imo, 16s look best. but 17s look ok as well. I think my rims are too small with the lip kit on my car, but whatever, ill keep them.
I guess Ill be the one sitting on the side of the road scratching my head and looking at a cracked rim as you drive by LOL. just gotta be careful.

[morkys]

205/50R 15's are a nice wheel size. Good overall wheel height.

Anybody else with lowering spring comparisons? Comments? Pictures?

P.S. I will take pictures of my car with the rims/tires and post them here. I will say this. Now that I'm in the frame of mind of rims, tires, lowering springs etc, my car does look like a 4 x 4 with tiny wheels....heheh...oh well.

[morkys]

14" Sport Edition D5's with Canadian Tire Evertrek HP 195/60's installed and mounted.
Stock struts and springs. TRD strut brace hiding under the hood



I love how the colour of the wheels match the car quite well. Doesn't look kooky. I was used to the look of my car with stock 14" wheels. After looking on the forums etc at all these Corolla's with bigger rims/tires and lowering springs, my car is starting to look to me like a long travel 4 x 4 (as Roach Rolla says) with tiny wheels, even with the wider 195's installed vs the 175 snow tires.

Yeah, it looks like I could lower this puppy

[morkys]

If I lower my car, I want to lower my car more towards the smaller 1.2-1.3" amount. Are there any other springs that I should consider other than the Tein H-tech or the H & R lowering springs? As mentioned above, my struts will be KYB GR2's or Tokico HP.