Coilovers vs lowering springs

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Coilovers vs lowering springs? That is the question everybody wants an answer to. How do you choose between one another when you hear good and bad about both of them. Right here we are going to dive in to this topic and have a closer look at both systems. Pros and cons and when you should choose what, you will get answers to that and more right here. Stay tuned.

In this article: Lowering springs / Coilovers / Coilover vs Lowering springs – side to side comparison / Application / What to choose / Advanced tip

If you are new to suspension work I would highly recommend you to check out my coilover post HERE to get more understanding about coilover system.

Lowering springs

As you can hear from the name it’s a spring that is made to lower your car more than the stock. Lowering springs are made to directly replace the OEM spring with little to none modification required. They are easy to install, just *remove the old spring and put in the lower one. 

There are some difference between OEM and a lower one. Otherwise what would be the point. First of all the spring is physically shorter, this is what makes the car lower. Second is that it’s harder to compress, in other words the spring rate is higher. We need a higher spring rate for stopping the suspension to bottoming out and to improve our handling. Now when you are using lowering springs your handling will become firmer, this is a sacrifice you need to make. But it comes with an upside – performance.  Your car will handle better because we have lowered the center of mass. The increase in spring rate will also some body roll so your car will stay flat when cornering.

*If you have a strut design suspension, use a spring compressor. Be careful because the spring stores a lot of force.

Coilovers

If you have read my post on coilovers you know that they replace the whole OEM shock assembly with a new one. A quick recap is that they will have a smaller spring, height adjustment and the ability to set up shock firmness. Since a coilovers replaces the whole shock assembly you will get a nice weight reduction in the purchase. Add to that the smaller diameter spring and you can fit wider tires as well. Wider tires will also improve your handling by adding grip.

Coilovers comes in all different price ranges. Everything from cheap to expensive. Here money talks, you can’t expect race car handling from a 200$ kit.

Coilovers vs lowering springs – side to side comparison

LOWERING SPRINGS

Pros:

• Will lower your car to specified height.
• Easy to install.
• Will firm up your cars handling.
• Cheap.
• Requires no extra setup. Except wheel alignment.

Cons:

• No further adjustments possible.
• Few choices of spring rates.
• Can be disappointing for track use.

COILOVERS

Pros:

• Weight reduction, since they are lighter the OEM.
• Adjustability.
• Lots of spring rates to choose from.
• Restore and repairable. 
• Good for track use.

Cons:

• Requires more work to install.
• May require a professional to set up correctly for your needs.
• Price. With coilovers you get what you pay for.

Application

When should you use what, this is like double edge sword. Some mat use lowering springs on the track and it works fine, others use a race coilover on the street and that works fine too. A good rule of thumb would be to use springs on the street and coils on the track. Why? If you have a street car that just needs to come down on the ground and step it up a notch in handling, springs are probably more than enough. But If you are taking your daily to the track for some afternoon fun, you should have a look at some coilovers. Just to give you the extra setup possibilities and weight reduction. For the racers out there who are serious track slayers, I do not think you even should be looking at the lowering springs section in the catalog. 

What to choose

When you are choosing between coilovers vs lowering springs only you are the judge. Write down what your needs are, maybe your application only requires lowering springs, then there is no need to buy coilovers. Don’t let someone talk you in to buying race stuff if you only drive on the street. You will probably end up with a car that is very hard to set up right and you end up not being satisfied. After all you it’s your car and it should fit you not someone else.

Just for reference for you, I will take my self as an example. I have tried both and I personally likes coilovers. If I’m going to lower a car I find a set that fits my needs and wallet. I just like to have the choice of adjustment, if I’m not satisfied with the ride I just firm up or loosen the shock. But that just me.

Advanced tip

Right now we are about to enter the advance world when it comes to lowering a car. This might be overthinking but it’s good to consider when you are lowering a car a lot aka. slamming it. This will also apply to a race car situation.

When you are lowering a car the geometry of the front and rear suspension changes, since the suspension thinks it’s getting compressed. Lowering will act like compression geometry wise. This will cause the whole suspension geometry to think it’s supposed to compensate for the compression. In easy terms, the wheel alignment moves depending on where on the travel of the sock you are. This can have serious consequences for the handling. If you are using a solid axle, the pinion angle must be changed to compensate for the lower ride height.

Here are the facts, no matter what kind of suspension you have you always want the control arms to be parallel with the ground. This is where the suspension is neutral. From this point it can compress and get the right amount of camber gain during compression. 

In some applications they actually move the whole control arm to get it to be parallel to the ground for maximum performance of the suspension. For instance my Pontiac Firebird needs lowering adapters for the rear control arms when you lower it. This just to keep the geometry of the rear end.