Lowering On Eibach Pro Kit?

[PeanuckleJive]

Hi all, looking for some advice about the Eibach pro kit lowering springs.

40mm front and 30mm rear I believe.

I use the car to transport people and musical equipment from time to time, so it gets pretty loaded.

Anybody got these springs and load their estate/ know more about them to give an opinion?

I really like the look of them when they're on, especially with the 18" ST wheels I have lined up. But I need to know if I'm still ok to load my boot up too.

[Stoney871]

I'd recommend you measure from the wheel arch rim to the centre of the wheel and then load up the car as you would normally then measure again.

That should give you an idea of how much a lowering kit will affect the wheel clearance.

[PeanuckleJive]

Aye, that's on my list of things to do actually, so I can get a better feel for how it will look loaded.

But, it doesn't give me an awful lot of answers about how the suspension will operate when moving.

The last thing I want to do is find myself rubbing the arch liners. How likely is that?

My theory is that since Ford approves the Eibach kit, it should be pretty well suited to keeping the car practical aswell as making it look better and improve the handling a bit.

[FOCA]

If you fit the Eieback springs and 18" wheels (eg ST ones), the tyres should not rub on the arches, but, if you have a lot of weight in the car it can hit the bump stops/ jolt (bottom out) over potholes, it lowers the car enough to make it difficult over speed bumps, the truth is its more a cosmetic thing and does not make as big a difference to the handling as much as some would make out,(it tightens up the steering a bit and reduces roll - but how hard do you drive?) the 18s and lower springs ruin the ride

People that have winter tyres/ wheels are fitting them about now, perhaps you should wait till next autumn/ summer for the lowering springs/ 18s

[PeanuckleJive]

Yup, the 18's are more a project for next year. They need to be refurbed and two new tyres before going on the car so I'm not in any rush to do them.

The bump stops occurred to me last night, thanks for replying with what I thought was right.

I'm mostly after the cosmetic gain really

[gforce]

I had Eibachs on my Mondeo ZS hatch,,,loved the lowered stance and never had any problems. Can't remember having any abnormally heavy loads though if I'm honest.

Does the estate have different shocks to the standard ones though? As you said, as the Eibachs are a Ford approved part, you'd hope there wouldn't be any issues. I reckon they're a must when goin with 18s but you will def notice a difference in ride quality when you get both changed.

[PeanuckleJive]

Not sure if the dampers are different, I imagine they'd be the same and the springs would be different between estate/ hatch/ saloon to compensate for the increased loads estate tend to get.

I'm aware that I may end up replacing the dampers to better match the springs if I go ahead with this, I can justify that since the whole setup back there has done 106k and still works fine.

[gforce]

Thought I remember though from another forum I was on when I had the Mondie that the estate dampers were self-levelling or something and cost a pretty penny to have replaced? Could have my wires crossed though so will try look into it.

[PeanuckleJive]

Yeah, some of them have self levelling dampers on the back but not all. This is something that I need to double check but I'm pretty sure mine aren't self levellers as it usually squats down under load.