Hey everyone, I was just looking for some input on lowering my r53 on coilovers. My main question is what other parts of the suspension should/do i need to replace? I.E. end links, ball joints, camber arms...... I don't want to lower my car and a month later find out that all my ball joints are shot, i also don't want to drop a bunch of money on coilovers and find out i need to spend another $600 on other suspension parts. thanks

 

Some of it depends on how low do you plan to go, and what do you plan to do with the car. Just a DD/cruiser, or track day,s/auto-x stuff.. Lower the rear an inch or more will give it quite a bit of Neg camber which means you'll wear the inside of your tire more then the outside. This can be fixed by buying Adj rear control arms or If that is the "LOOK" you going for just try to rotate your tires often to help wear them all out at the same time and then once you have the inside part worn about half way down have the tire shop to flip the tire over on the rim so now the outside has become the inside so you can wear it down to prolong tire life before replacing.. Lowing the car doesn't have as bed of effect on the front alignment as the rear. Ideally you'd get some adj end bar links as well but again it mainly depends on the purpose of the car. You don't to have them as a lot of folks don't, for DD type stuff.

 

You might budget for springs and shocks vs. coilovers if you are budget conscious. Unless you spend big bucks on coilovers, the shock quality will not be on par with your stock shocks and you'll end up needing to replace them soon. The parts of the suspension that wear out first are the strut top bearings and the front control arm bushings. We have a good solution for the control arm bushings.

 

I lowered my mini with shocks and springs (not coil overs) While I think you could get away with doing the shocks, springs, and then correcting the rear alignment (I used eccentric bushings instead of adjustable control arms) to me it makes sense to change the front lower control arm rear bushings and probably the tie rod ends too (you're going to need an alignment anyway and they are probably going to be close to needing replacement)

I also replaced my rear sway bar and rear control arm bushings. If you change all that, it will feel like a different car. I like powerflex bushings and while they're not cheap they do last well, and perform better than stock.

Like N2Mini said, if you lower the rear, it will affect the camber significantly, I drove mine for near a year before correcting it with the eccentric bushings and honestly, I loved the handling, I could not break the rear loos in a turn no matter how hard I tried, but it did wear the tires quickly.

So I think the bare minimum is shocks, springs and then either adjustable rear control arms, or eccentric bushings, but if it were me I'd change more while I'm doing it.

 

I got BC racing coilovers and i love them. I lowered my car about two inches, and i have the stock control arms in the rear, and everything is still good, have them so about a year now in the shitty nyc streets with potholes everywhere (thankful for having a skidplate) and i actually have quite a bit of natural camber in the rear. Camber does not wear tires out, toe is what wears out the tires, so as long as you have a good alignment, everything should be fine.

 

This is also a question that I've been wondering about. I understand that to keep rear toe in check, most people will need to replace the rear lower control arms with an adjustable type. If you do not it may be difficult to get toe aligned correctly and you will wear the tires out prematurely.

One thing I haven't picked up on yet is adjustable swaybar links. If I were to get coilovers and drop around say 1.5" would I need to replace the front, rear, both, or any of the swaybar links?

 

I would replace all ball joints, control arm bushings, sway bar bushings, front strut mounts. All of these parts wear. I just replaced these parts on mine at the same time and it handles like a new car.

 

If im Not mistaken coilovers come with strut mounts, atleast mine did.

 

Superbriam I have a set of BC waiting to be installed but I am going to replace the springs with swift first. The current spring rates both front and back is 10k!

Did you install the extenders In the rear? What is your spring rate?