Tuning Which are the thickest lowering springs available for Seicento Sporting???

[Bimmermeister]

Hello everyone,i have a Seicento Sporting 2002(1.4 16V swap) and i have Bilstein B6 Shock Absorters along with Eibach Sportline Lowering Springs - 30mm Drop.

I am dissapointed by this combination and i believe it is caused by the Eibach lowering springs which got measured and are only 11.75mm thick compared to stock Seicento Sporting ones which are 16mm thick.

Do you guys know which are the thickest lowering springs available?Or if you can measure your Lowering Springs for me and let me know the Brand and thickness...

Thank you...

 

[MazCinq]

the thickness of the springs has no bearing on the stiffness of the springs, the stiffness is down to the temper of the steel used, personally I have Eibach springs on my Stilo and find them amazing.


What exactly is your issue with them?????

 

[cc1]

Some have quoted Apex as being a hard ride. G-Max were good also but are no longer available.

 

[Bimmermeister]

the thickness of the springs has no bearing on the stiffness of the springs, the stiffness is down to the temper of the steel used, personally I have Eibach springs on my Stilo and find them amazing.


What exactly is your issue with them?????

They are very very soft....so soft i can squeeze them upside-down with my 2 fingers.That means....the whole response of the car changed dramaticaly to the worst and handling is bad....

 

[Huwbishop]

Spring rate, or stiffness is a difficult thing to get right. Often handling issues are more to do with incorrect damping and rebound settings than spring rate.

The spring needs to flex enough not to cause undue stress to the frame of the vehicle, but not to little that it allows the suspension to bottom out. This is why most aftermarket springs are progressively wound, eg they are wound closer at the top than at the bottom, or are thicker at the top than the bottom, to try to reach a balance.

If you stiffen a spring, you need to then adjust the shock to compensate, a higher degree of rebound damping is required due to a stiffer spring returning quicker after compression. This can cause bounce, which may result in a loss of traction or an unpredictable feel (anyone remember the triumph TR7).

You can more easily get away with an uprated shock on an original spring, than an uprated spring on an original shock.

I would suggest you use a damper that is designed for a lowered (therefore stiffer) spring. I believe apex do a short damper. Because I think coil overs are the only suspension to feature any real adjustment. I know spax used to make adjustables, I don't know if they still do.

That way you can dial in the shock to suit a) the spring and steering set up, and b) the roads and way you drive.
Anything else is going to be a compromise.

 

[Huwbishop]

A good way to tell if the spring is up to the job, is to put a cable tie around the damper rod at the bottom of the shock. Drive the car around as normal. If the cable tie ends up in contact with the bump stop, either the spring is too soft, or the compression damping is inadequate for the spring.

 

[Ian S]

I can confirm Apex are a hard ride having just fitted two new Apex front shocks.

Still got the old Apex springs on there. They appear to have sagged about 10mm on the drivers side. At some point I'll swap the springs left to right and see if the passenger side is then lower.

The two, about 20k miles, old Apex shocks:
Left, leaking oil, no compression damping, reasonable rebound.
Right, some in both directions.

The new ones felt a fair bit more resistant in both directions.

On the car however, I'm not all that happy about how much bumpier the ride is. I've only been around one corner so far before the HG went, but the car still wobbled a bit, so replacing the fronts have not fixed that issue.

Bilstein B6 are probably re-buildable and custom valve-able.

I got the impression that the Eibach springs were supposed to quite hard.

 

[Cento186]

I ran FK 60mm lowering springs with Uprated Monroe Reflex dampers and the ride was rather good although alot of comfort was lost the handling was great :slayer: