Bottoming Out
 

How many of you guys with coilovers and lowering springs have bottoming out issues with your car?

I'm finding that I'm scraping the bottom part of the car past the bumper. I'm not even sure what that area is but I'm sure it shouldn't be scraping.

when you write "bottom out" do you mean that the suspension has no more travel and the car gets rock hard or do you mean that you have problems on driveways and speedbumps etc... ?

Driveways,sorry.

The worst is going up and down my driveway every day.....I don't like the sounds and marks it's leaving underneath the car.

It is a problem. I have a steep driveway and after checking clearances decided that lowering my car is not an option. My car only clears by 1/4 inch now!

I got my car with Eibachs and it was a major issue. Mostly just scraped the plate behind the bumper but in Pittsburgh last summer I hit a major bump in the road and demoed the whole length of the underbody tray. When I got my KW V3s put on I told them to raise the front an inch above where it was with the Eibachs but I still scrape a fair amount.

Your suspension is not "bottoming out". It's just scraping because your car is too low. Have you checked the tire pressure recently? Or perhaps you haven't been to the gym for a while? :p

Yeah, I think it was established below that we weren't talking about the suspension travel, we were talking about ride height. And yeah, I've been to the gym lately, I go every morning. At 5'9", 175 and about 5% body fat, I don't think I'm bottoming the car out. Of course, after my 75 mile bicycle ride this morning, I'm probly a little less than 175.

Crrrrchhhh
 

Hey Guys,

I blame my woman for my bottoming out. :D Good thing she's not a forum member! :eek:

I hit my header collection pipes when I drop off the lip out of my storage space. I can not go into it on an angle. I have burned off the front undertray A-arm deflectors just driving. I have to be real careful and angle up ALL curb entries/exits. I have not "bottomed out" under compression on a flat road though.

Fortunately I just use my boxster as a sport driving machine.....going from point A over the Pass to point B and back.....No stopping at Buford's Bait and Booze.

This extra care has become second nature now. It is well worth the major handling benefits of having lowered it on PSS9s with M030 sways.

Happy Trails,
Ike

& 3.6L X51 Power.

It took a while getting used to just getting the car sideways enough not to scrape. Also I have scraped off the 2 little diffusers (or what ever you call those 2 little wings that hang under the rear suspension) under that car. After all that it's still worth the trade off.

Some of these guys have mentioned angling their cars when approaching a bump, driveway, etc. Have you tried this Blinkwatt? I find it to be a HUGE help. Generally if I hit something at a good angle and take it slow I won't have problems with bottoming.

Kirk

I have the eibachs as well and if I enter any steep ramps the angling certainly helps. I don't have any problems unless I have a hefty second passenger. When I do scrape I find that its either the front plastic pieces behind the bumber or the plastic pieces covering my headers. Doesn't sound good but nothing seems to be damaged.