I installed a set of H&R Sport springs a out 4 months ago. I have been happy with everything accept the front end was higher than the rear.

I finally figured out how to drop the front end without sacrificing the ride or compromising the suspension in a negative way. There is a bracket on the front strut that holds the brake hose and abs sensor wire. This bracket is welded to the strut on the inside and top portion of the bracket. I took a dremel with a cutting wheel and carefully cut 1/4" off of the bottom and was very careful not to cut into the strut itself. There are no welds or any connecting material fixing this lower portion to the strut so after it's trimmed it falls right off. I also measured a 1/4" and made the hole higher where the pinch bolt goes through back of the bracket. By making these changes the strut now sits a 1/4" deeper into the casting hence lowering the front end another 1/4".

My car still rides the exact same and suspension travel has not been effected. When I measure the distance from
the ground to the edge of the wheel well in the middle of the wheel it's now 24 1/4" on every corner. This is exactly what I wanted to achieve and was very successful. There is a bit more room to trim if you wanted to go even lower. Just make sure you measure once, measure again and cut slowly to make sure you don't damage the strut. This job only took me about 45 minutes from start to finish.

 

I forgot to mention that after making the initial cut, I smoothed ond evened everything out with a stone grinding attachment.

 

Pictures? and how will this affect the longevity (sp) of the shock?

 

Unfortunatly I didn't take any pictures of the step by step process. I will be doing other mods to my car this weekend and I will take some pictures then and post them here.

As far as the strut and suspension geometry are concerned, nothing has changed. The travel is exactly the same. The only difference is that the strut sits lower in the casting of the control arm than it did before. The ride wasn't effected either. There are no clearance isuues or anything. The only thing I was concerned about when I had this idea was weakening the bracket by cutting away welds. After inspection I noticed the welds that connect the bracket to the strut are located on the upper insides of the bracket. The Part that I trimmed off is not even welded.

I will definetly post some pictures this weekend for reference.

Chad

 

Only thing i would truly be concerned about is the bottom of the strut coming in contact with the axle, but w/o playing around it myself i cant tell for sure.

I would like to see the photos you snag though, and take some of between the strut and the axle too.

 

You still have quite a distance before it starts tearing into the CV boots. Coilovers like KW and Vmaxx have their brackets raised a good bit to allow the strut to sit lower in the hub and thus allow more travel at lower ride heights. He shouldn't have any problem contacting the cv boot with the limited cutting he has done.

I'd like to see pics of the tab when you have a chance

 

As you can see, there is clearly enough room on both sides. This is with the car up on ramps so the suspension is compressed. Notice how the bracket sits closer to the casting on top. You can see the amount I have cut off by that picture. There are still no problems there either. If I wanted to go any lower I would probably have to bend the bottom of those brackets a bit for the hose and the line to be completely clear. With 1/4" there are no issues though.

Chad

 

I don't know why my images are coming out so small on the post. I resized them to 800 x 800 so they would be accepted. If you click on them they will enlarge.

 

Love your ingenuity, now if you could just figure out something similar for the rear.

 

Thanks for the compliment. I didn't even think about the rear because it is already low enough. I was trying to correct the unevenness of the H&R springs from front to back and was successful. The design of the rear suspension doesn't allow for further modification without changing to an adjustable coilover.

 

Thinking of doing this too. Great idea. When you dremeled the bracket on the shock, did you have to take the entire shock assembly out? Or did you just jack up the car, take the wheel off, and just let the suspension be uncompressed while you dremeled?

thanks!

 

I removed the struts, measured and then carefully cut the measured amount of the bracket off. I don't think you'd have enough room to do a good job while the strut is still installed in the car. Remember to be very careful not to cut into the strut itself, just the bracket.

 

Awesome writeup. I just did the same thing to my new KONI FSD's. The IE Fixed Camber plates I got were taller than stock by about 1/4" or so...and I didn't want the front of my car riding any higher than it already does.

I trimmed the shock bracket and mounting hole....and it worked great! Just take your time with the dremel...it's really pretty easy!!

 

Thanks for the compliment! Nice job!

 

Do you have pics of the difference in ride height?

 

The reason I trimmed the brackets on my shocks was to keep the ride height the same level as when it had the stock upper shock mounts.

It sits just like it did before as far as the height goes.