Lowered MX5? Should you avoid this???

[m0b1liz3]

A few questions from someone who knows nothing about lowering:

I was looking at used MX5s and saw a few that were lowered. The question is doesn't this ruin the handling and enjoyment of driving an MX5?

Should I stay away from used MX5s that were lowered?

If a car has adjustable suspension that is lowered, does that mean that it can be adjusted to bring the car back to the original position?

[JBT]

doesn't this ruin the handling and enjoyment of driving an MX5?

Not necessarily but it depends on what you enjoy or hate. If done properly, the car should still be enjoyable to drive. However, if it bottoms out on dips, scrapes over speed bumps and driveway entries, has \"darty\" handling characteristics and rides like a dray, you may tire of it after a while.

Should I stay away from used MX5s that were lowered?

Were or are? It comes back to personal preference.

.....does that mean that it can be adjusted to bring the car back to the original position?

Not necessarily. It depends on the type of suspension installed. Some are designed to be completely height adjustable but adjusting others may result in some change to damper stroke which, in turn, may compromise the intended ride/handling setup and result in undesirable characteristics.

However, if you have one that has a system you don't like, you will probably have little difficulty selling/swapping the suspension to replace it with OEM specification stuff.

[Sasso]

A few questions from someone who knows nothing about lowering:

I was looking at used MX5s and saw a few that were lowered. The question is doesn't this ruin the handling and enjoyment of driving an MX5?

Should I stay away from used MX5s that were lowered?

If a car has adjustable suspension that is lowered, does that mean that it can be adjusted to bring the car back to the original position?

Depends how low. And how they lowered it.

Even if they do have adjustable shocks and lowered it doesn't mean its going to be nice, because if you lower it using the spring perch then you lose bump distance and you can constantly hit the bumpstops and that is not nice to be doing all the time. (harsh ride, darty and wrecks shocks).

If they are adjustable spring perch then you can easily raise it to what the shock company designed it for, which is usually a little lower than stock.

Some shocks though are physically shorter (and some length adjustable like the tein flex), they are designed to be lower and should be fine.

Assuming its not so low you get bump steer and not compensated for (below 11" fender lip to wheel centre), it doesn't hit the bump stops, and the spring is matched to the shock, a lowered car should handle better, roll less and be better to drive, not to mention the better visual effect.

[sliq]

hrmm.. i was thinking of putting some eibach springs into my nb... without changing the shocks.. my mechanic told me by doing this, it shortens the lifespan of springs.. gave me some technical reason, i lost track of it all too quickly..

should there be a problem with this?

[stevesports]

i would agree with the others. If you do lower the car, ideally you should tune the spring and shock bound and rebound rates to the height of the car. Otherwise you will, as the others described, get a bumpy or wallowy car that is worse off than it really is. I'm sure if you look around on the internet, you can find guides on suspension tuning.

[Sasso]

hrmm.. i was thinking of putting some eibach springs into my nb... without changing the shocks.. my mechanic told me by doing this, it shortens the lifespan of springs.. gave me some technical reason, i lost track of it all too quickly..

should there be a problem with this?

It would shorten the lifespan of the dampers rather than the springs I would have thought. The car would be underdamped. You can't just double the spring rate (or more) and keep the same shock. You should get some Koni's to go with it. Or buy some Tein super streets which come matched.

[Adam_NAclubman]

If you want to go really low, you need something that was designed to work at that height. Like these




I think my Clubman was nicer to drive with the stock springs on the Bilsteins than after I changed to the lower Kings springs. Hopefully coilovers that still have lots of travel even when low will make it a bit nicer again

[chrislevingston]

Mine came with Bilsteins and Eibachs, and was lowered way too much.

It now wears Koni adjustable shockers and King springs, and is lowered only one peg.

A complete transformation!

Chris

[m0b1liz3]

So how do I tell if it is a worse ride than a normal MX5 if I haven't dríven many? Will it be blatantly obvious? If I am buying a car I don't want to get one that handles bad.

The person mentioned that the car had koni adjustable suspension. (Could they just mean that they replaced the shocks and nothing else so it will have the previously mentioned issues?)

On the pictures, the car looks quite low. If your suspension is adjustable and you raise it back what exactly are you doing? Just tightening the shocks? If the springs were replaced those would obviously not be adjustable right?

[Okibi]

Some great advice.

Our car defiantly handles better now its lowered

I just have a paranoia about speed humps (there should be penalties for people who make them so big a legally lowered car still bottoms out at walking pace!!)

[JBT]

The person mentioned that the car had koni adjustable suspension. (Could they just mean that they replaced the shocks and nothing else so it will have the previously mentioned issues?)

Usually means that it has Koni adjustable (for "stiffness") dampers. Springs could be anything. They may or may not work in harmony.

[stevesports]

The person mentioned that the car had koni adjustable suspension. (Could they just mean that they replaced the shocks and nothing else so it will have the previously mentioned issues?)

Usually means that it has Koni adjustable (for "stiffness") dampers. Springs could be anything. They may or may not work in harmony.

yup, again it is more important to tune the spring rate, as well as the bound/rebound settings of the shocks than to worry purely about ride height. =]

[MX5-SP]

I think you have to answer some questions to yourself about what is more important.... handling or \"looks\"

I saw a beautiful Ferrari the other day, following a couple of ordinary cars easily traversing some speed bumps on Sussex Street Sydney. The Ferrari was clearly at a disadvantage. That is one of the reasons I don't have a Ferrari, because it would not negotiate the dip in my drive and I would have to leave it on the lawn. The other reason is the cost. But, I digress. I also have a continuous scrap underneath my front spoiler caused by (the BOV) trying to park my car frontwards, and not backwards due to the error of the house builder. That is why I am planning a move; and/or, planing the drive a tad.

My MX5 drives beautifully as is ...so why change it? The BOV has forbidden any track work, so it's just routine driving for me. Why change a good thing?

I can go back to the '70's when a lowered car indicated \"something special\"... but frankly... If my SP has it's ass in the air... So what? AJ is unlikely to catch it.

I guess my point is, why put up with the inconvenience of every-day drivability for a few hours track work... unless you can afford to have a \"play car\".

[Okibi]

... because you only come across a speed hump perhaps once a week that you can negotiate slowly, you come across thousands of corners a week you can take with a massive smile on your face.

[Sasso]

Depends what you mean by handling. It might not be able to handle speed bumps as well, but it will be able to handle corners even better.
I find the stock ride height a bit too monster trucky, as slow as it is, its still a sports car and should be low and look sleek.