lowering my mx-5

erecsean · Postby **erecsean** » Thu May 30, 2013 3:09 am

hi guys, im looking to lower my na mx-5 with a set of king springs and i was wondering if anyone has any experience with it? my car is currently sitting on standard bilstein shocks and springs.

lee · Postby **lee** » Thu May 30, 2013 8:18 am

bensale used to use bilsteins and king springs to great effect. Its more the driver than the car, but he was very quick around a few of the local tracks with that setup.

Koni dampers and King springs is a very common combination, to the point where MX5Mania sell that as a kit.

I was after a more comfortable ride, so I went with Koni dampers and Mazdaspeed/Eibach springs. It's not a great setup for track use as the springs are way too soft, but for street use, I love it.

erecsean · Postby **erecsean** » Thu May 30, 2013 3:51 pm

yeah the roads in SA aren't the best. pot holes everywhere. i suppose i will give it a shot. thanks though

lee · Postby **lee** » Thu May 30, 2013 4:00 pm

In the worst case scenario that you hate the way it feels, you should be able to find a buyer without much trouble

erecsean · Postby **erecsean** » Sat Jun 01, 2013 2:34 am

yeah i hope so. thanks!

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Sat Jun 01, 2013 2:26 pm

If just fitting lowered springs, I would suggest adding FatCat bump stops. They make a huge difference in comfort over the stock bump stops. Possibly also consider NB top hats to return some shock travel.

As you mention, Adelaide's roads are pretty pathetic.

Kikuchi · Postby **Kikuchi** » Mon Jun 03, 2013 1:10 am

Tell me about it. Adelaide roads are the worse. But you kinda get used to driving on it after a while.
EIbach + koni are the best street combo for many cars including mx's. If looking to do a bit of touge through our adelaide hills, kings will do better, or better yet, some coilovers, assuming you set it up right.

erecsean · Postby **erecsean** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 2:13 am

haha finally some people from Adelaide on this forum! yeah i would get coilovers, but for now im just going more for the looks and the occasional hills run. since i'm only a student earning just enough to pay what i need to pay off, i managed to scrap some extra cash and decide to spend it on the car. i will probably get coilovers in the future once i can start to properly save up. but that's probably not gonna happen for another year or so. :-)

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 12:05 am

Hey mate...where in Adelaide are you. If you want, I can take you for a drive in both my 5's - an NB with coilovers & NA with standard height Kings. Will give you some ideas. I'm in Hackham...

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erecsean · Postby **erecsean** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 12:00 pm

Hey mate! Im in hallett cove. So your not that far away! Sorry for the late reply. Yes please!

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 12:31 pm

erecsean wrote:Hey mate! Im in hallett cove. So your not that far away! Sorry for the late reply. Yes please!

pm'd you some details mate

Mr Morlock · Postby **Mr Morlock** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 1:18 pm

save your money since "i'm only a student earning just enough to pay what i need to pay off" perhaps for something more useful. The last thing I would do on an MX5 is lower it. In Melb a low car is the one that you have to crawl over all the traffic calming features and a hard riding car is an awful thing to live with. It may or may not be an issue at some point for rwcs'. Also a standard MX5 is and always will be a sports car ie it handles well and generally better than most drivers are capable of driving them- me included.

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 1:36 pm

Mr Morlock wrote:save your money since "i'm only a student earning just enough to pay what i need to pay off" perhaps for something more useful. The last thing I would do on an MX5 is lower it. In Melb a low car is the one that you have to crawl over all the traffic calming features and a hard riding car is an awful thing to live with. It may or may not be an issue at some point for rwcs'. Also a standard MX5 is and always will be a sports car ie it handles well and generally better than most drivers are capable of driving them- me included.

Agree wholeheartedly ...

Why when we get together I wanted to take him for a drive in "Mexie" with stock height & style suspension, just upgraded slightly :wink:

His car may be fine. May be better to save money for now for unexpected repairs etc.

I'm not a fan of lowering these cars much. Even my NB with coilovers is only a few mm down from stock, nothing that affects practicality or comfort, just gives a slightly better appearance.

Mychael · Postby **Mychael** » Tue Jun 18, 2013 8:33 am

As I'm looking at cars generally with around 100000 odd k's on them I thought this discussion might be the place to ask what is the expected life out of the stock springs and dampers?

I know that the sort of roads it's been on and style of driving has some bearing but would you geneally expect to be replacing stuff around then.

Okay so from reading the posts so far I can see the consensus for comfortable road use (which I'll be doing) is to retain the standard ride height.
Would you then only replace the dampers and with what? Are Koni's the popular choice? Or is there a better recommendation?

What about the springs them selves would you replace them at the same time or retain the factory fitted ones.

Thanks