I'm finally actually going to bite the bullett and purchase some springs on Monday when I get paid! Going for the Eibach Sportlines as i've heard they are brilliant for handling (although the GPS handles well anyway) and obviously they're gonna be well made!

I've got a few questions though;

-I can't really afford to get anything else except the springs at the moment so by doing this am I seriously going to **** the rest of suspension setup? I'll get a full setup eventually but I might be running on just springs for awhile so wondered if anyone was having any trouble? Obviously I know you need to be careful on bumps but I don't wanna be bottoming out everywhere I go!

-Also, How would I go about fitting them if I wanted to try myself? It's not that i'm a mechanical invalid but I'm rather worried about this job as it's a rather part of the car! Anyone fancy helping?!

Cheers guys!

theyre fine mate dont worry about them bottoming out mine never have. yes the rides harder but thats to be expected. and ill ask my mate who did mine for me tommoro when i drive past his garage and ill let u know how much he would charge ya

dj_mtbiker_no1 said:

theyre fine mate dont worry about them bottoming out mine never have. yes the rides harder but thats to be expected. and ill ask my mate who did mine for me tommoro when i drive past his garage and ill let u know how much he would charge ya

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any chance of sticking some pics up, coz im seriously considering getting this done myself, and would like to see the clearance between the wheel, and arch!!

@manthatkidisscrewed, got my GSR fitted, and i see what you mean by it being quicker and a bit gutsy on fuel, but what a lovely noise!!!

Mine got dropped on sportlines on saturday. IMO not much harder ride, alot better round corners, well worth the money. Lowering is easy just depends if you can be bothered to do it or not. Looking at about 80-120 to get it lowered at a garage or £50 at mates rates.

Pic of mine a couple of hours after it was lowered so springs havent settled yet:

thanks for the replies guys...just lookin for a confidence boost i guess!!

That's great DJ ta! I'm lookin at doin it this week or early next week so be great if you could get a price for me!

they do look the dogs ******** lowered so it's about time I bit the bullet I think!

Glad you're finally sorted Steve! its awesome aint it! the noise is worth the fuel usage i'd say...and I got 45mpg out of mine the other day over a distance of 210 miles return (mostly motorway) so it's not too bad if you're careful! round town you aint got a chance of gettin over 33ish though!

manthatkidisscrewed said:

round town you aint got a chance of gettin over 33ish though!

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correct!!

@punto matt 40mm lowered?? if so im so having that done before next year!!:yum:

steve119 said:

correct!!

@punto matt 40mm lowered?? if so im so having that done before next year!!:yum:

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yeah, those are the sportlines by Eibach...tbh it's the only (spring only) mod that people seem to be doing to the GPS's...all of them come out looking 'sweet as a nut!'

Eibach say they're a max drop of 50mm but tbh I don't think you ever see over 40mm which helps to keep the suspension alive!

yea eibachs are the best. its not 50mm drop at all though but the handling is awesome with them fitted. this is what mine looks like

and im goin down to my mates today to ask him so ill let you know and if you pm me your mob number we can sort it out that way if youve got credit cos that might be easier?

dj_mtbiker_no1 said:

yea eibachs are the best. its not 50mm drop at all though but the handling is awesome with them fitted. this is what mine looks like

and im goin down to my mates today to ask him so ill let you know and if you pm me your mob number we can sort it out that way if youve got credit cos that might be easier?

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your car seriously looks the dogs nuts mate!! Ah wkd cheers! Yeah i'll PM you now just drop me a txt sometime today!

are the sportlines for the grande black or red?

clawliger said:

are the sportlines for the grande black or red?

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http://www.modifiedcarstore.co.uk/p1331653.htm

There red.

can you see the springs from behind the car or do you have to really look for them? I've noticed on some cars you can see the springs when following them but on others (like the grande is i think) you can't 'cos the bumper is very low covering the suspension!

How long did your springs take to settle Matt?

nah you cant see the springs. Still settling now. Usualy take 2 weeks or so then its time to go get the tracking done otherwise you can say bye bye to the insides of your tyres.

So is there some sort of running-in period before you can start to push it?

that's fair enough, that's a positive I think that you can't see them unless you look for them...stealth FTW!

The bedding in period is just the amount of time it take for them to reach optimum lowering etc. Technically you can get in the car and drive it as you have done before you change them but in all fairness i'd give it a week before you go experimenting with the limits of your new increased handling.

Im new to all this, can i just get new springs without adjusting the dampers or anything else? are they cheap and easy to fit? it looks really good done.

yea u can mate thats what ive done but im going to upgrade my shocks in the not so distant future hopefully as they just make the handling even better.
i tested the limits of my car the first night they were fitted didnt really notice much difference after a few weeks bedding in but maybe i wasnt looking out for any change.

Got my Eibach Sportlines today

Just one question though, in the box it comes with the springs in a row and to me the 2 outer springs seem slightly bigger and wider then the 2 springs in the middle. Now question is which ones go on the front and which ones go on the back?

Thanks.

Shorter wider springs are for the front, longer thinner ones are for the back Although front and back is usually printed somewhere on the springs

As for lowering, general concencis is that you're usually safe to go upto approximately 40mm lower on the standard shocks before you need to start looking into shorter and stiffer shocks.

This however has a tendancy to vary a bit between different suspension companies due to the real world increase in spring tension and tighter/shorter spring loops.

Cheaper springs (as I found in the past with Jamex springs on my old Bravo HGT) proved to be generally crap and bumpy both on standard and slightly uprated shocks.

Eibach however have always had good customer feedback and they seem very dedicated to building springs that work very well with the standard set up around them. So if they say that you do not need to uprate the shocks when fitting their springs then you can honestly believe that you do not need to uprate your shocks (I know their Pro kit is as safe as the standard springs are when coupled with the standard shocks).

Because of this you shouldnt have any worries about just uprating the springs, the shocks will be fine and you wont be bottoming out the springs (well no easier then you would bottom out the standard springs which I'm yet to see the GPS do).

As for fitting, it's relatively easy as long as you can get your hands on a hydrolic jack, set of axle stands, decent socket set/ratchet spanners, breaker bar, torque wrench (optional), spring compressors (about £10 from motorfactors) and someone to offer a hand.

The rears are the easiest because you dont have to compress the springs, the basic proceedure is:
- Crack the wheel nuts
- Jack up car and remove the wheel
- Put car on axle stands
- Use jack to take compression off the rear swing arm while undoing bottom shock bolt
- Carefully lower jack and pull swing arm down to release the spring
- Pop new spring in and turn until it's in position
- Carefully jack the swing arm up again until spring is firmly seated
- Pop bolt back through bottom of the shock and tighten
- Lower jack and check that the spring feels seated
- Pop wheel back on and tighen all bolts

That's one side done, move on to the next side.

The fronts are slightly more complex due to having to compress the spring to remove it from the shock. The basic steps are:
- Crack wheel bolts, jack car up, put on axle stands and remove both front wheels
- Crack the tight lock off the central top bolt on the shock before going any further (this is a PITA to do once you've removed the shock)
- Remove the 2 (17mm I think) bottom shock bolts from the hub carrier
- Remove the 3 (13mm I think) top shock bolts from under the bonnet on the top mounts
- Unclip any brake lines that are clipped to the bottom of the shocks
- Grab you mate and get him/her to help you manouver the whole unit out the bottom of the wheel arch

...... now the shock is out:
- Attach the 2 spring compressors to each side of the spring and carefully tighten in turn (half a turn at a time) until the spring is no longer compressed against the top mount
- Now carefully remove the top mount bolt (that you sensibly loosened off before removing the shock)
- Once the top mount is off, remove the spring and then untighten the compressors in turn until the spring is free
- Remove the rubber spring locater from the top of the spring (usually twists on)
- Refit the rubber spring locator to the new spring (beware that this usually moves slightly when compressing the spring)
- Attach the spring compressors to the new lowering spring and follow the same proceedure above
- Once compressed put the spring onto the shock and line up the bottom of the spring with the seat on the shock
- Put the top mount back on in order and tighten the top mount bolt
- Once the top mount is secure undo the spring compressors as above rotating the top mount to line up as you go
- Check the top mount is tight and the spring is in place before refitting

In true Haynes style, refitting is the reversal of removal

If any of that doesnt make sense or if you get stuck at all let me know/drop me a PM and I'll try to clear things up for you