mx5cartalk.com

my 92 appears to have been lowered - by about 40 mm.
The ride is very bumpy on rough sydney roads. Is it possible to raise the suspension, or would i need to install stock springs and shocks to bring it back to original condition?
Or is the bumpy ride (hits the potholes hard) just a part of the mx5 experience?

the mx5 has short suspension travel so you are probably hitting the bump stops.

as for raising your suspension, that would depend on what kind of suspension you have in there at the moment.

My Clubman on 130,000kms Bilsteins was a real struggle to live with. The ride was very harsh and the car still rolled quite a lot. When I went to the Tein SS, it lowered the car by about 30-40mm and the car rode much flatter and was more compliant when on the softer setting, say below 8/16. MX5's generally have a bumpy ride due to the lack of travel, but having correctly matched springs and dampers does wonders.

What do you mean by bumpy? Do you mean that when you hit a large bump, it crashes through the cabin? or do you mean that over small bumps the cars feel jittery? In any case, as said above matching shocks to your springs would help. It seems like (correcet me if i'm wrong) you need new shocks that are stiffer.

Just take it to some suspension guys and ask them exactly what IS under there (shocks/springs/bars)? Then figure out what you need to replace.

There is a dozen difft scenarios which you will not find the answer for here until you actually LOOK under the car.

the springs are wound up tight, as in not much gaps between the spirals. When you hit a bump it crashes through into the cabin.

I hear there is a mod for the rear shock top mounts that increases the travel length of the spring for NAs???

This is just pure conjecture because you haven't told us what you have under there. I'd say you are still using standard shocks with the lowered springs. If this is the case then your shockies are probably screwed. The reason I say this is that standard shocks aren't meant to be paired with lowered springs, especially 40mm. You would probably be riding on the bumpstops constantly with that drop in height. If this is the case then you need a shock designed for lower ride heights (eg Koni Yellow) that have the ability to dampen before it hits the bumpstop. Also because of the design of the NA you need to cut the bumpstop at the rear down or fit something like the fatcat motorsports bumpstops. The first to give you more suspension travel and the later actually gives more travel and acts as part of the suspension system in helping to soften the blow. As Wun mentioned you can also buy a new rear tophat that gives more travel in the rear or you can try and adapt NB tophats to your NA suspension but from what I have read the later involves a little work. My advice is to get a nice Koni/King or Eibach combo, buy something like tein coilovers or buy a nice set of used NB coilovers and go with a max 30mm drop. But as I said this is all conjecture really. I had my car lowered about 30mm and this destroyed the shocks in about a year so I went with some Megan Racing coilovers which I am quite happy with and will write up about soon. Hopefully I helped a little, but you really need to find out what you have under there

Ben

My Clubman was fine on the stock springs and Bilsteins, but a bit worse when I put the Kings springs in. Seems better now with the Stance coilovers

wun911 wrote:I hear there is a mod for the rear shock top mounts that increases the travel length of the spring for NAs???

Fatcat motorsport do a replacement top hats for front and rear shocks on NA/NB, along with better bumpstops.

It gives you approx 25mm more travel before hitting stops.

Terry

that makes sense. it looks like the previous owner just cut the springs down and kept the original shocks. I would be happy with less of a drop, 30 is fine.