I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Springs
I have a standard car a present and am slowly getting a wish list together. One of the points I need to look at is lowering the car. On MX5parts I have found the attached link - https://www.mx5parts.co.uk/shocks-springs-c-378_113_283.html .
My question is what do I need to lower the car. I see 30mm, 35mm and 45mm by Eibach. I dont want to go too low, as I still want a smooth drive and am concerned about speed bumps. So do I buy the 30mm set? But what does the 30mm mean, do this mean the car is lowered from standard by 3cm? (and then 3.5cm and 4.5cm respectively.
My wheels are 16 inch if that helps you answer my questions, as I see the standard ones seem to mention wheel size, which is part of my confusion as the Eibach ones dont mention this.
Cant afford coilovers at present with all the other things I want to do to it.
Exactly that! The car will be 3 cm closer to the wheel.
Changing coils brings the body closer to the wheels, this is why they might mention wheel size as different wheels will have different clearances to the wheel arch.
So on 16inch wheels, the 30mm Eibachs should be good enough, give probably better handling, but as the springs are more compressed a bumpier ride. If so 30mm Eibachs is what I need I think.
I wouldn’t go lower than -30mm springs. Even with these my 5 can ground out on certain ramps. Ideally, I’d like a -20/25mm drop and was thinking a new set of coil overs would do that but the cost isn’t worth it, at least not until the oe shocks are knackered.
I went down the same route as you are thinking. I asked the questions and sought advice. The points that came up time and time again was not to bother with springs. They’ll ruin the ride with standard shocks. I ignored the advice and fitted the springs. Wasted my money and indeed, ruined the ride.
So step forward to my latest MX5, my Mk3.75 is being treated to a set of MeisterR Sportive coilovers. I don’t track/race the car so don’t need fully adjustable coilovers. However, I want to lower the car and improve the ride. Oh and they are £500 which is about £350 cheaper than the fully adjustable models
I changed springs only, and never had any issues with keeping the standard shocks, a 30mm drop with Eibachs, car looked better, ride a bit harder and sharper but not to any detriment, but can still hit the occasional speed hump and dead hedgehog! Its a 2.5 rather than a 3
I’ll just add I went the way Delpel did, lowering springs first then decided that wasn’t good enough. I did have tired Bilsteins with the lowering springs which didn’t help.
Definitely don’t lower by more than 30mm, plenty low enough. I had some MeisterR’s fitted, wished I’d gone straight to them really but at the time it was a cost thing. Best money/mod I’ve spent on the car.
There have been numerous topics on here where the OP “couldnt afford” coilovers. Several springs, shocks and a significant amount of time and money later they found that they could. Although there are loads of people running on the Eibach and others lowering springs quite happily there have been issues with sagging springs, uneven ride heights etc as well.
Coilovers will give you the height and ride you want without having to reuse bits of your existing setup.
You can swap them back out and recoup some money if you sell the car.
IMHO
Would these be suitable, decent cost which is affordable. I will not be doing track days and really just want the car to look better and have a nice ride? £336 is doable for me.
Hi Delpel,
I’m thinking along the same lines as you with the Sportive coilovers. My main reason being to reduce the ride height without any sacrifices in ride quality etc. The £500 price tag is very tempting. Have you seen any reviews/photos of this setup on the MX5? Mine is a mk3.
Del
The general advice about going straight to a setup you aspire to is very sound. Unless you want the journey and labour costs of changing out each component?
The Tein spring rates are soft compared with the Meister R which uses the same rate as the More expensive and popular CRD. I found Tein setup I had on an mk1 to be compromised for UK roads.
The sportive is height adjustable but not adjustable damping.
It is also a twin tube design that is cheaper to manufacture and very slightly less responsive than a mono tube to keep the cost down but unless you take it on a track then the design compromises will not be an issue.
Not seen any photos yet as they are a fairly new addition to the NC range. However, they are getting a good reaction on miata.net and the UK specialists rate them highly. Blink motorsports are offing them fitted and alignment for £700 + vat. You can also get them for less than £500 posted from Performance Link.
Some of the other makes at this price range requires you to use parts from your old suspension so you need to factor that into the costings.
Just my observations, when I was after a sport tec and I test drove a few. (standard springs, bilstein shockers and 17 inch wheels). They drove lovely but I found them to be floaty over fast crests and a bit ‘soft’.
I managed to find a car that had the Mazda lowering kit fitted from new. These are 30mm lower Eibachs.
Handling is great for road use. Firm but not too hard.
You have to be careful over speed humps so I would not go lower for a road car.
I understand there are some really good set ups out there but like you confused by the choice and everyone has a favourite. With no opportunity to try them for myself I thought the factory set up would be well sorted and it is.
The car has more ability than me so unless I get much better at driving it, there is no benefit in improving the suspension for me. After eight enjoyable years I am not at that level yet
I have an NC with the Mazda 30mm lowering springs and standard Bilstein shocks (2.0 Sport).
As previously stated the springs are not more compressed - just shorter so the ride is pretty much the same.
I think the car handles slightly better, probably because of the slightly lower centre of gravity and the full wheel alignment carried out after changing the springs.
Aesthetically the car looks better too.
Never had any problems at all in 63k miles with the lowered springs, just need to take extra care over ramps and speed humps.
Never had a problem with the original Bilstein shocks so my opinion is you don’t need to change the shocks for everyday road use.
Yup, standard shocks (yellow Bilstein) + 30mm lowering springs (blue Eibach).
I believe these are the ones for around £130 from MX5 parts.
IIRC they cost about £75 a corner fitted when the car was new back in 2009
