wayland1985

I just had a spare 30 minutes and decided to put my wife's Christmas gift in: hotchkis lowering springs.

I only did the rear (the front is too involved for today), but it seems to have lowered it more than I was expecting. (Before, with hose mod I was at 27.5". After, with the factory isolators back in place, I'm at 27").

I was expecting maybe a 1/4" drop after, assuming the heater hose drops 3/4".

So my questions are: will lowering the front springs bring the back up any?

If not, can you add heater hose to the hotchkis springs to gain height?

Did anybody with the hotchkis springs have to roll the fenders (running 315s on OE zR1 deep dish wheels)?

I'd hate to have to deal with the front springs more than one more time... And I bought the hotchkis knowing they were some of the least aggressive dropping springs... (Pot holes in New England, and cobble stone roads in some areas make slamming the car very impractical... But the factory ride height was just too much on my car)

UMI Sales

iTrader: (1)

That doesn't sound like an unreasonable amount or drop. If you'd like to fine tune your ride we have Spring Spacers that you can stack on the spring perch.

wayland1985

Those might be just the ticket. Do they have any noise associated with them? I was looking at some urethane spring isolatoors and thought about those.

I think I'll have to wait until the front is lowered to see if any of the drop is due to weight shift backward.

UMI Sales

iTrader: (1)

I wouldn't think so. The spring compresses the washer against the axle housing just as it would if there was no washer there.

The Guz

iTrader: (8)

Hotchkis lowers more than the advertised drop.

Midnight02

iTrader: (8)

The spacers have zero impact on the ride.

I had to run a 1/2" spacer in the front and a 1" coil spacer in the rear to get the needed clearance on my exhaust. They worked like a charm with no ill side effects. Just got done with a custom exhaust that's tucked up pretty tight, so I'm going to pull them out.

wayland1985

Too bad. I was reviewing photos online, and there was a consistent area around the rim. The springs didn't look like they slammed the car.

Had I known, I probably just would have gone with strano springs, and added the shims.

Oh well. hind sight is 20/20.


I was more worried about the spacers making noise. Sounds like I shouldn't worry though!

CamaroLSwon

iTrader: (3)

Washers don't make noise when they are under a bolthead.. I don't see how a spring spacer would make noise under a spring in compression lol

wayland1985

I'm just thinking it's something to rattle or clunk if I go over a bump and unload the suspension.

I did the heater hose mod originally, and whenever I hit a bump, you'd get a nice clunk in the rear. I don't know if I installed the springs incorrectly, or if it's common.

Given that the hotchkis springs are shorter than the factory springs, I could see the car unloading the weight faster than before. (Not that i'm flying over ramps every day...)