The front lower strut brace has arrived, will hopefully get round to fitting on Wednesday night.

Once on will post my findingsd, but I'm fully expeting to say "not much difference really"

Sounds good. Pics also please

Mark Elvin said:

The front lower strut brace has arrived, will hopefully get round to fitting on Wednesday night.

Once on will post my findingsd, but I'm fully expeting to say "not much difference really"

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Mark, are you still planning on going down the "plasticine" route for ride height measurements?

grimwau said:

Mark, are you still planning on going down the "plasticine" route for ride height measurements?

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NAh, I figure if Rod has never had a grounding issue on his car that is about 25mm lower than mine I should be OK.

Mark Elvin said:

The front lower strut brace has arrived, will hopefully get round to fitting on Wednesday night.

Once on will post my findingsd, but I'm fully expeting to say "not much difference really"

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I reckon there'll be no difference either. In ye olde days when car shells were all floppy there would be a difference but you can't get a 5 star NCAP rating with a floppy shell, no way!

Mark Elvin said:

NAh, I figure if Rod has never had a grounding issue on his car that is about 25mm lower than mine I should be OK.

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that is the second time in a week someone has called me Rod

I quite like it - sounds like a porn star name

The strut brace is on & I've been for a drive along my favorite 'test road'.

Much to my surprise there is an effect on the cars handling.

The front end feels to be gripping better than before when accelerating through medium speed bends, be car breaks straighter when braking VERY hard on eneven road surfaces, initial turn in is marginally better.

Also, there is one corner where it's a fast seeping left hander that is very uneven with many small ruts & undulations where previously the car felt like the front end was struggling for lateral grip, almost as if the wheels were skipping across the surface, now it feels far more controlled, it feels as if the skipping has been eliminated.

The only downside is the ground clearance is reduced marginally (30mm) so a little extra care will be required.

As a summary, if you are lkike 90% of 500 owners who have the car as an every day driver & it's "just a runaround" don't bother, but if you enjoy driving in a sprited manner occasionally, there is a difference, so it's worth considering.

Thanks for the comments.

I would guess then that lowering the car on coilovers will mean this modification is to risky, and wont produce massive results.

Spoons said:

Thanks for the comments.

I would guess then that lowering the car on coilovers will mean this modification is to risky, and wont produce massive results.

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When you say coil over, do you mean that you have replcaed the std rear setup with a traditional coil-over-spring setup?

Anyway, I've lowered mine 30mm and whilst low, it should, IMHO be OK, I'll just be carefull.

Mark Elvin said:

When you say coil over, do you mean that you have replcaed the std rear setup with a traditional coil-over-spring setup?

Anyway, I've lowered mine 30mm and whilst low, it should, IMHO be OK, I'll just be carefull.

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Nope Coilovers are an adjustable suspension design allowing both shock absorbers and springs to still function correctly at very low ride heights. You can manually adjust the ride height within its design range.

I've lowered mine around 40mm I think, dont know for sure as I didnt measure it first. But the front is very low.

Spoons said:

Nope Coilovers are an adjustable suspension design allowing both shock absorbers and springs to still function correctly at very low ride heights. You can manually adjust the ride height within its design range.

I've lowered mine around 40mm I think, dont know for sure as I didnt measure it first. But the front is very low.

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I know what coilovers are, I was an engineer at Williams F1 for 7years.

So really what you have is new dampers and springs, the rears are not actually coilovers at all, you have a spring/damper kit. Thought I'd missed a kit for the rear that's all

Spoons said:

Nope Coilovers are an adjustable suspension design allowing both shock absorbers and springs to still function correctly at very low ride heights. You can manually adjust the ride height within its design range.

I've lowered mine around 40mm I think, dont know for sure as I didnt measure it first. But the front is very low.

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I think Mark might slightly confused because you can't have a traditional coilover on the back because the spring and damper are seperate whereas a coilover has them together when it's replacing a macpherson strut setup.

In the setups I've seen for the 500, for instance the Bilstein B14 setup, the lower spring platform at the rear is height adjustable so you can raise and lower the car like that.

Mark Elvin said:

I know what coilovers are, I was an engineer at Williams F1 for 7years.

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lol OOooooooo

do coilovers improve ride comfort?

durukan said:

do coilovers improve ride comfort?

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Better dampers can be good for comfort yes. But it's not a given that coilovers will increase comfort especially as usually they're stiffer

durukan said:

do coilovers improve ride comfort?

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Depends how you set them up... I had them soft to start with and they were really comfortable.

But then I adjusted the settings loads and it now goes round corners really well, but its very hard

The choice is yours

Spoons said:

Depends how you set them up... I had them soft to start with and they were really comfortable.

But then I adjusted the settings loads and it now goes round corners really well, but its very hard

The choice is yours

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i like it hard and rough :devil:

Spoons said:

Depends how you set them up... I had them soft to start with and they were really comfortable.

But then I adjusted the settings loads and it now goes round corners really well, but its very hard

The choice is yours

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ok but is it more comfortable then stock suspension? the car doesn't feel confident on road at all. i drove an alfa 147 before and it was very smooth and quiet, you could hardly ever feel anything on road. however 500 is more like my old 145. i dont need it to corner well, i just need to feel that it won't fall apart as soon as i hit a bump.

durukan said:

ok but is it more comfortable then stock suspension? the car doesn't feel confident on road at all. i drove an alfa 147 before and it was very smooth and quiet, you could hardly ever feel anything on road. however 500 is more like my old 145. i dont need it to corner well, i just need to feel that it won't fall apart as soon as i hit a bump.

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:yeahthat:

Would love to see a definitive reply on this one. I've started a couple of threads on this and it always seems to get hijacked and develop into a performance handling thread - I'm looking for comfort at my age (big wuss).

My 500 is the most likable car I've owned in over 40 years of driving but would like a softer ride. Problem is that no one seems to be able to advise best suspension mods in detail based on comfort only.

baxwalker said:

:yeahthat:

Would love to see a definitive reply on this one. I've started a couple of threads on this and it always seems to get hijacked and develop into a performance handling thread - I'm looking for comfort at my age (big wuss).

My 500 is the most likable car I've owned in over 40 years of driving but would like a softer ride. Problem is that no one seems to be able to advise best suspension mods in detail based on comfort only.

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:yeahthat: Me too. I'd be interested on this as I have no desire to tear-arse around the Nurburgring but a more settled ride would be nice.