New owner seeking advice: Car too low
 

Hey guys,

Picked up a nice 3rd gen recently and have been enjoying it quite a bit. People weren't joking when they said it was a money sink. I spent quite a bit taking care of some minor modifications and maintenance work. Now i'm trying to address the last little annoying factor on the car which is the ride height.

The previous owner had aftermarket springs installed on the car. The only information i have is that the car was lowered quite a bit with them. I've attached some pics here so you more experienced owners can get a rough idea of the ride height. The car gives me problems with the bottom scraping on speed bumps and steeper inclines. Certain plaza entrances with bumpy entrance ramps also scrape.

I'd like the car to be close to stock height, or at least at a height where i don't have to cross my fingers everytime i go over a bump. I don't plan to track the car or race it so i don't need anything really stiff that sacrifices too much comfort. A mechanic at the local shop suggested the Tein Basic coilovers but the 12/10 spring rate made me nervous considering the stock spring rate is <5. The more expensive coilovers (like Flex) have slightly softer spring rates but in that case I feel like I'd be paying for performance and adjustability that I don't really need. The options i'm considering now are either a) put on a different aftermarket spring that will raise the car (eibach, tein etc) or b) track down some stock springs and put those back on. I've read good things about eibachs from users on this forum. I definitely wouldn't mind having a performance boost, but not at the expense of being able to drive the the local cinema / restaurant because of bumps and scraping.

Being inexperienced with the car I can't quite tell from numbers/pictures people have posted how the ride height with those options compare to mine. Do eibach/tein spring owners also get the same bottoming out that i do? I'd feel very silly if i bought another set of aftermarket springs just to find out that the height is the same as what i have now :wallbash:

Thanks for reading...

get some used stock suspension
get an alignment
done

alternatively, stock springs on some fresh shocks
and
alignment

Slow down when going over bumps and such....this isn't a Camry. The R1 lip scrapes all the time, no big deal.

AFAIK, the Eibach has a reasonable lowering. I have a set of stock springs sitting around if you are interested.

Yea the lip scraping doesn't bother me much. Its when the midsection scrapes that I get nervous. Some bumps I take at and angle going really slow and it still bottoms out.

PM'ed about the springs

That's too low! You should be able to fit two fingers in between the tire and fender lip for street use, otherwise even at an angle you will scrape speed bumps and driveway ramps.

I had the Eiback Pro springs before I got coilovers and had no problems with the bottom scraping. I did get the occasional lip, but no big deal there. IFRC, the Eibach springs lowered my car slightly more than 1" compared to stock springs.

I have a set of stock shocks/springs for sale if you need them. PM me.

you mean it should be tucking two fingers worth? i think thats what you mean, cause what i read doesnt make any sense.

Measure the distance from the ground to the top edge of the front fender arch when the car is parked on mostly flat ground... My car (pretty lowish) is around 25.5 inches. Some serious racer types like to run 25.0 or so. I think stock is something like 27.0 or 27.5 inches (double check that!).

I would recommend picking up a used set of low mileage R1 or R2 shocks/springs or some Eibach stuff.

The 10/12 springs your mechanic is talking about would SUCK on the street..

My god that is low! Surprised you don't get stuck going over speed bumps.

I honestly enjoyed the ride quality of stock springs on the road. It was great and the car handled very well. Stock shocks in good condition are getting harder to find. I'd suggest some Koni shocks with stock springs. As you can see there are plenty of people that'll sell you stock springs (and they're cheap).

you can get Konis from shox.com. They have adjustable spring perches that allow you to lower the car slightly if desired. the highest spring perch is stock ride height. If I were on stock springs, I'd probably use the Konis on the middle perch.

I think the first step in fixing/adjusting your ride height is figuring out what you have on the car right now.... it would be pointless to buy some new shocks/struts/coilovers/springs only to find out that its exactly whats on the car right now. Also RX7's are kinda low even with the factory springs... and like any other car that sits low, you will scrape your exhaust sooner or later on a speed bump. thats just life with a low car

you are totally right on that, i have flta-2s on my fc and they are only 8\10 and it really sucks some times but is totally worth it on the track

You should be able to easily slide in two fingers in between the wheel well lip and top of the tire and thould would equal approximately 25" from the floor to the bottom/center of the fender lip. 26" would be approximately a three finger gap.

One finger, which is how I picked up my car is about 24". It was also adjusted wrong and I had to do it all over again. So I paid $100 to do it all over again myself. Shops love to take my money (and girls to). Anyhow, if you have coilovers that have an adjustable perch then do not touch the springs. High is adjusted by the perch. There should be no need to preload the springs.

Corvettes have like a 4 finger gap and I forget what Porsche's and Ferarri's have.

so racecars have 2 fingers of gap and street cars have 4 fingers?


its so simple now.


would having -6 fingers of gap make my car even faster? zOMG, look out corvette.

Sometimes... people post stupid shit that makes me want to tell them how ignorant they are..... but I resist the urge, I hold back....

DUMB ASS!

sorry, that slipped out.

The finger thing is just a quick and easy way to determine ride hight without a tape measure. My fingers are about 3/4" wide and not everyone's will be the same width. Track cars do not have to worry about tickets, pot holes, dips, speed bumps, stuff on the road, etc. From the pictures it looks like those springs may have been cut instead of being replaced with lowering springs.

If you get coil overs, this thread may help you out...
https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showthread.php?t=600868