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Lowered is an absolute must-have in the tuning area. Sports and coilover suspensions are therefore very popular and in high demand among professionals. Surprisingly, some misunderstandings and errors about the products in demand persist. BILSTEIN gives expert tips for sensible lowering in order to ideally bring the horsepower onto the road.
Lowering the vehicle's center of gravity for a sportier set-up
With a sports suspension, shorter springs combined with the appropriate dampers ensure a lower center of gravity for the vehicles equipped with it. Sometimes price-conscious buyers only retrofit lowering springs and combine them with the existing series dampers. However, BILSTEIN recommends doing it right straight away and adding new, sporty, comfortable shock absorbers and new dome bearings to the springs in order to keep the driving behavior harmonious and consistent overall. The aim of these measures is to give the chassis settings a sportier design overall than in a production vehicle. The result is noticeably better handling.
A vehicle can be even more variable with a coilover be matched. Instead of a fixed setting, the spring plate is moved up or down by means of a thread adjustment. This is done by a screw thread on the strut. In this way, a vehicle can be perfectly adjusted relatively easily and adapted to the respective circumstances. Conclusion: Every coilover suspension is a sports suspension, but not every sports suspension is also a coilover suspension.
More performance for tuning enthusiasts
In contrast to lowering springs, where the series dampers remain unchanged at their set level, some coilovers are also flexible and offer adjustable rebound and compression damping. This enables performance-oriented tuning enthusiasts to tailor their vehicle even more precisely to personal preferences or certain requirements such as vehicle weight, tire characteristics or the nature of the route.
With a coilover kit, the adjustment range is defined with millimeter precision in a from-to range. BILSTEINSuspensions have an adjustment range that has been tested and entered in the vehicle documents. BILSTEIN technician Alexander Kranz explains: “It is often wrongly assumed that every millimeter up or down is also reflected one-to-one in the ride height of the vehicle. This is not the case, however, because the nib also has a say in the matter.”
Or to put it another way: The vehicle height is the sum of the current functional height of the spring plate plus the spring including the dome bearing. Incidentally, the shock absorber on the rear axle is only involved in ride height if it is spring-loaded.
Documentation of the before state for measuring the height
In order to be able to objectively assess the change in height after a lowering, the prior condition must be documented: namely in the K0 position on level ground, measured from the center of the wheel hub vertically to the lower edge of the fender on all wheels. The after state is used for comparison - but only after the chassis measurement and extensive setting or test drive. Photo credit: ThyssenKrupp Bilstein GmbH
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