Ive just ordered 35mm lowering springs for my 93 1.4lx escort. Ive heard that lowering can f*ck up the tracking and put extra srain on the drive shafts.
Should I bother fitting the kit if its gony scrub my recently fitted michelin pilots?
Any help on this would be great. Cheers
TBH I'd cancel the order of the lowered springs and save the money towards you're next car. The springs are probably costing you more than the car is worth. To answer you're question anyway it would be best to get the alignment and camber checked, I doubt lowering it by only 35mm will put any significant increase in strain on the driveshafts. They're not exactly being strained as it is unless you're wheelspinning at every available opportunity.
One question is *WHY* ? What do you want to alter the handling for? Why do you want to make it bumpy and handle far worse than it does now? Get the wrong kit and you can ruin a car completely. I have seen many boy racers do this and regret it afterwards, then spend out having the original components put back. The slightest bump can cause the car to bang up and down, then actually jump up when it hits a bump. That means it can launch itself and go out of control when it lands. Drive like a complete idiot (as most people with lowering kits do) and you will end up in a field or a wall. A lot is also down to inexperience and no common sense.
The Escort 1.4 is hardly a performance car so you would be better getting shut and putting all the money you're going to spend on pointless alterations towards a better car if you can. A car leaves the factory set up to provide a balance between good handling and comfort. I agree with fitting a good quality tyre, but the only reason for that is in wet conditions. With a 1.4 that puts out about 80BHP, reaches 60 in 14 seconds and will only reach 95mph, it doesn't seem worth spending out all that money.
The worst type of brainwashed teenagers are the ones that fall for all the clever advertising. They think a low powered car will be transformed into a racing car. Those people will usually buy and fit the following -
Induction kit - to suck hot air from around the engine and decrease performance. Lowering kit - to ruin the handling and ride comfort - and make a diesel nosedive Massive wheels - to rub on bodywork and prevent correct steering and handling Body kit - to look like a complete idiot Sun strip - halfway down the windscreen to reduce visibility Big noisy exhaust - to wake up the neighbours and decrease performance on small cars Foglight wiring kit - to keep the foglights on - on a bright sunny day Spoilers - to increase drag factor and increase fuel consumption Engine management chip - hundreds of pounds to give a 1% increase in performance Neon light kits & washer jet lights - to shout "look I've got a tiny engine"
if the boy racers were honest with themselves, they would realise they had been conned. Most will never admit that and still think their 1.2 corsa will do 0-60 in 8 seconds if they fit an induction kit and big exhaust. It will probably make it more like 15 seconds!
Oh well, for some fine examples of wannabe racers go to the galleries on cruisewirral.com
You are altering the geometry of the suspension so get a full alignment done after and everything should be fine. Though I would suggest fitting new (preferably shorter travel dampers) as you don't know what condition the current ones are in.
Oops, Sorry new Rob. You really want to change your name though, you don't want to be mistaken too much for the genuine Rob.
I've just flamed "Rob" elsewhere, heh. :)
Rightio, using different springs can alter the tracking - best to get it done at the same time. Talk to your local Ford dealership because they sometimes do the work for a very respectable rate and include the tracking check with the work.
We had our Ka's suspension (springs and dampers) changed by our Ford dealership and the bill came to just over £100. That included tracking. Now before the regulars say "how much!?" I'd add that there's nowhere I can do this nor do I have any tools, and I'm certainly not going to have any Muppet do the work.
Because my Ford dealership did it and it's a Ford part, I've comeback if something goes wrong, too.
If you have two minutes, check out my website, specifically the bit about his suspension (although it's also mentioned in the last few Ka Diary updates). We've had the Ford Racing stuff on for ten thousand miles now and the ride height has settled down; now looks nicely low.
How many miles has the car done on this set of dampers? If they're new dampers, they'll wear out quicker with lowered suspension. If they've done a fair few miles then _seriously_ consider having them replaced. You're likely to find that genuine Ford dampers are not much different in price to some shorter ones, and it's going to be worth the change. It _will_ cost you more, but with matching springs and dampers, the ride won't be much different from now for most of the time...
Ah right, you're brian aren't you, not Rob.
Nope. This one is much more annoying. He has also changed his name, to be mistaken for Rob. It used to be Brian, and other things before that. He used to splatter barryboys everywhere, and now he has started using Cruisewirral.
Thing is, I know a few of the Cruisewirral guys, and they are decent sort, not a bunch of tossers like Brian/Rob
Most of them are, it's the small minority that ruin it. Kinda like the Ka Klub, heh. :)
You know the old saying:
"Don't make assumptions. It makes an ass out of U and MPTIONS."
Ok, I've worn that 'joke' a bit thin now.
Peter
Dose your Ka have a name?
He does, it's Kermit.
:o)
Can *everyone* please send an abuse report via
Headers as below - the traceable parts you need to mention are Message-ID: and X-Trace: newsfe6-gui.ntli.net 1116689080 82.14.39.31 (Sat, 21 May 2005
16:24:40 BST)It needs to be made clear that he's making a BUNCH of off-topic posts, and generally being a spammer.
or just past the whole bunch :
Path: news3.newsguy.com!lacy.pathlink.com!rex!extra.newsguy.com!lotsanews.com!newshosting.com!nx02.iad01.newshosting.com!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!news-in.ntli.net!newsrout1-win.ntli.net!ntli.net!newspeer1-win.ntli.net!newsfe6-gui.ntli.net.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail From: "Rob" Newsgroups: uk.rec.cars.modifications References: Subject: Re: 192.5 mph Lines: 22 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2527 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2527 Message-ID: Date: Sat, 21 May 2005 15:24:40 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 82.14.39.31 X-Complaints-To:
I doubt it this is NTL you are talking about short of having legally actionable material to use against them you don't stand much chance of getting anything done
Well that sums it up. I'll not bother posting here again as my car doesnt seem to be good enuff lol.
You know, if I thought that, I'd like to think that this newsgroup would be a... err... quieter? better? poorer? place.
It'd not be the same, heh.
Don't be too put off...
We don't bite, much. :)
There was quite a bit of useful advice amongst the noise and bluster.
A
For my money, the real Rob talked a lot more sense* than "Mr Hello" who is just the old "original equipment is better than anything else" monomaniac, trying out yet another online identity.
(* - for some values of "sense")
OK, drive shafts. Imagine/draw the car as just an engine/gearbox and a wheel either side, with drive shafts joining the middle of each wheel to the gearbox. Draw the shafts so they point down from the gearbox to the wheels.
As the weight of the gearbox pushes down the shafts onto the wheels in this case, the various bearing surfaces in it all will be designed to take the load in this sense. The shafts will normally be under compression.
Now move the gearbox down an inch or so. The shafts still connect to the same point on the gearbox and the wheels are the same height off the ground, so the shafts will end up with a different angle, and at some point in the lowering process the shafts will start to point up rather than down. Once this happens, the shafts will normally be under tension, and the wheels will be pulling the gearbox up, rather than it pushing down on the wheels.
Depending on how it's designed this means the loads will no longer be taken on the bearing surfaces but on some other part that may well not be strong enough to take the load.
If this happens with a 35mm kit, as you seem to have heard a rumour, that would be less worthwhile and whoever sold you the kit should take it back as not fit for purpose. If this is the case with your car.
When you fit lower, and therefore generally stiffer, springs, you should uprate the dampers at the same time, while the suspension is all in bits. Having put it all together again, make sure all four wheels are parallel when the car is driving along. The rears are usually easy to check, but the front need the correct toe in.
With a RWD car, the front tyres will splay out to point left and right, so to counteract this effect, when the car is parked, the suspension is set up so the tyres now point in towards the centre. Then, when the car is under drive, the tyres will all be parallel.
With FWD the same effect works in reverse so you set the wheels pointing out (i.e. with negative toe in) so that they toe back in when the car is being driven and again, all end up parallel.
If the tyres are not parallel, they will constantly push against each other and wear away very quickly.
Therefore, once you have taken the suspension to bits and put it back together, you need to have the alignment all checked and adjusted. There will generally be a place in your area that does proper four wheel checks and garages will take cars there to be checked. Find out where this is and when you're there, get their advice on how to set the toe in from now on with the modified suspension, as they'll have a better idea than me what's what, also they will be able to confirm if you've lowered it too much, or if it's ok, etc.
In my opinion, fitting new standard springs and dampers would also improve the handling no end over twelve year old bits so don't be over-impressed by the improvements, but stiffer springs and uprated dampers will usually give a tauter ride with more bumps. Personally, I prefer things that way but tastes vary.
N.B. don't take it to quick fit and the like for an alignment check. They're not really up to this.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.