Lowering Springs

[blinkwatt]

I'm about to order a set of H & R springs but have a couple of questions before I buy them;

-does bottoming the car out become a major concern?

-has anyone blown out a shock doing this?

-how does the car handle w/ H & R springs compared to the RoW 030 set up?

[stcroixdrew]

Originally Posted by blinkwatt

I'm about to order a set of H & R springs but have a couple of questions before I buy them;

-does bottoming the car out become a major concern?

-has anyone blown out a shock doing this?

-how does the car handle w/ H & R springs compared to the RoW 030 set up?

I have the H&R springs......No bottoming yet.....no shock blow outs and the ride I feel is better then stock....I cant answer the comparison to the RoW 030. The H&R's are fantastic. I have no regrets at all.

[jmatta]

+1 on the H&R sports...lowers the car nicely and improves the feel over stock without changing out shocks. I had them installed on my '02 S with about 8k miles on the clock...5k miles later, no problems at all.

[Gary in BR]

Does anyone have side views of a boxster on H&R springs??

Especially with 19s.
I am interested in how much they really lower a car, if someone with H&R could measure their car height that would be great. Measure it though the center of your wheel to the start of the wheel well.

I have coilovers on my car and am getting tired of trying to get them just right, Iam considering going back to normal shocks and lowering springs. but I am very satisfied with the look of my car, and am intrested in how low I can get with the H&R's.


Thanks

[heyjae]

Here are the measurements I took before removing mine to go w/ coilovers:

Fender to ground:
Front 24 in.
Rear 23 3/4 in.

Fender to center hub:
Front 12 in.
Rear 12 3/8 in.

This is with 245/40/18 and 275/35/18 Nitto NT01's.

[heyjae]

And the pics in my signature are of the car w/ the H&R's not the coilovers. The coilovers are actually slightly higher in the front and a little more so in the rear to get some rake and because my condo has ridiculously high speed bumps. Even my Audi A8 will bottom out if I'm not careful. I even offered to pay for them to be ground down. I think they thought I was nuts.

[Gary in BR]

Originally Posted by heyjae

Here are the measurements I took before removing mine to go w/ coilovers:

Fender to ground:
Front 24 in.
Rear 23 3/4 in.

Fender to center hub:
Front 12 in.
Rear 12 3/8 in.

This is with 245/40/18 and 275/35/18 Nitto NT01's.

Thanks for the info.

You have a nice Boxster. Have you posted pictures yet??

[heyjae]

No pictures yet. I've been too occupied with trying get rid of my CEL issues and waiting for my new hardtop, which I'm supposed to get today. Once both of that is done and I wash the car (it's been almost 6 months), I'll take some pictures. Promise.

[stcroixdrew]

Here is a link to my Boxster on H&R's with 18's...I love the new look.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leelee0123pics/2425693453/in/set-72157604631009375/

[jonnycool]

has anybody got a link to a D I Y lowering springs fitting guide?

[blinkwatt]

Originally Posted by jonnycool

has anybody got a link to a D I Y lowering springs fitting guide?

Follow these for the front;

http://gwl.rmsolo.org/hacks/suspension/
http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=11407&st=0&p=56444&#entry56444

Follow John V's write-up here for the rears;

http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=4091&hl=suspension

[FTD]

Yikes. I bought the MO30 Sway bars, and now that the car is out of warranty and the weather is nice I thought I would start moving towards installing them. I thought it would be unpleasant work, but doable. After reading the DIYs, I am completely intimidated and believe it to be out of my league. How naive of me!

Drat.

[blinkwatt]

Originally Posted by FTD

Yikes. I bought the MO30 Sway bars, and now that the car is out of warranty and the weather is nice I thought I would start moving towards installing them. I thought it would be unpleasant work, but doable. After reading the DIYs, I am completely intimidated and believe it to be out of my league. How naive of me!

Drat.

It's totally doable. Go for it!

Just remove the wheel,remove the sway bar nut,loosen the sway bar bushings and replace it with your 030 bars.

[FTD]

Originally Posted by blinkwatt

It's totally doable. Go for it!

Just remove the wheel,remove the sway bar nut,loosen the sway bar bushings and replace it with your 030 bars.

Oh, thanks for your comment! That's what I envisioned. I guess its when you also replace shocks and springs that things get tricky? Whew. I am going to take another look.

[Gary in BR]

Originally Posted by heyjae

No pictures yet. I've been too occupied with trying get rid of my CEL issues and waiting for my new hardtop, which I'm supposed to get today. Once both of that is done and I wash the car (it's been almost 6 months), I'll take some pictures. Promise.

Not meaning to highjack the thread,...

But, Jae, what sort of CEL issues are you having, maybe we can help.

[heyjae]

*sorry for the hijack*

I really hope that someone can help because I've been pulling my hair out on this. The CEL issue is really convoluted. I've been getting combinations of P1115, P1117 and P1119 (all O2 heater problems). The CEL literally turned on as the car was being driven onto the rollers for a smog check. Before that, I don't ever recall getting a CEL, even with headers, a EVO intake and GIAC chip in the last 5 years I've had the car. The only thing that had been changed was 1) installed a smaller, Braille battery several weeks prior and 2) pulled the EVO intake out and put it back in.

Since then, I've changed all the O2 sensors with generics (probably close to about time anyway--my car has 80k miles and is driven hard) and the MAF (again, probably about time anyway). The good news is that the car definitely performs better. The bad news is that the P1117 has been consistent and the P1115/P1119 is isolated to one O2 sensor. I checked the ECU to make sure there was voltage going to the O2 heaters on start up and also saw that the ECU was also signalling the O2 heaters after the car has warmed up to test for function. So the ECU seems to be fine.

The really weird part is that the pending codes clear themselves if I drive or even just rev the car above 3k RPM for a couple minutes. If I drive below 2.5k RPM (doesn't matter what speed), they come on and eventually light the CEL. I thought it may be related to the heat generated at higher RPM's, so I got some header wrap to keep the heat in the headers. That helped--the pending codes will clear at idle too and is less likely to come on at highway speeds, but will still come on at lower speed / lower RPM. So it seems to have something to do with heat or the higher temperatures help.

Now my current theory for the P1117 is that it is caused by a cat converter that is ready to fail. Watching the voltage on that sensor, it is fluctuates more than the post-cat sensor on the driver's side in those low RPM situations--cats work better when hot so that seems to make sense.

However, the P1115/P1119 is still a mystery. I swapped banks to see if it is wiring or the sensor and the code switches sides. So I bought a 5th sensor and wired that in. Same thing happens. Therefore, it seems to be the connector on that sensor and not the sensor itself, although cleaning it with electronics cleaner did not seem to help. In any case, higher revs / heat seems to help and the pending code is cleared at higher RPMs. In fact, it happens faster than with the P1117. Makes sense given it is closer to the engine, but doesn't explain why.

I don't care about the CELs as the car performs fine and passes the sniff test. It's basically a dedicated track car, but I do want to pass smog and finally get my tags. Hopefully someone has an idea.