Greetings,

Recently I purchased TSW Nurburgring wheels for my AP1 S2000. After installing them I noticed the spacing between the top of front and rear tyres aparently increased. The gap is like 8 cm from wheel arch (front and rear) and it looks a bit too much.




I use the car for weekend driving, no trackdays, so I would like to lower the car a bit but not to the point it gets too stiff. My concern about installing new springs are the way they will change car behaviour and confort (and also rubbing). I´m a total noob in car modding so I´m a bit in the dark here...

I found these Eibach spring kit wich will lower 2.5cm front and 3 cm rear. The seller´s site says they fit S2000 AP1.... do you think these are appropriate for my driving needs?

Thank you so much for your attention.

p.s - it seems the photo got a bit huge in this post. sorry for that :P

 

Yes, larger wheels and tires will make the gap seem bigger.

What size and offset are the wheels, and what size of tire?

Depending on your answer, you may or may not need fender modifications in order to lower the car.

I don't advise that people use lowering springs. But its definitely cost effective to do so.

 

Wheel Size
Front:17/7.5 ET45
Rear:17/9 ET63

Tyre Size
Front: 215/45
Rear: 245/40

I understand that original spring and damper have a setting correlation and coilovers are usually a safer choice to keep or even improve car handling but considering I use my car for daily and weekend driving (and also freeways) will spring swap sacrifice that correlation so much or the issue here is fender rubbing?

Thank you so much

 

Your fenders will probably be fine with those sizes.

The stock dampers are set to crush the bumpstop and stop travel early enough so the fender doesn't get eaten up.

Eibach springs should be fine for you. I doubt you'll need fender work with those sizes, but be careful going up sharp inclines with the steering wheel turned.

Make sure you research a proper install. You'll need to re-clock all the pivoting suspension bushings and get an alignment.

 

Oh, great Those are good news then... I'm going to research on that re-clocking thing you mentioned :P Also I need to check rear camber as it seems rear wheels could use one more tick... Is it "normal" the car loses camber?! :P

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Not with wheel changes

 

Ah no... that I´ve been noticing for quite a bit. It seems rear wheels are too "straight" or aligned with fender arch. The top of the wheel should tilt inward a bit.

 

Ok, so I found a thread here in the forum and I think I understand what needs to be done... basically it means you´ll have to apply weight/pressure to the lower and upper control arm bushings before a final tightening. Thing is, if I choose to rest the car on the ground it´ll leave a tight space to work on it. The alternative is to apply a vertical force to the suspension structure with a pressure jack - but how much force? Also, it mentions this procedure should be considered to the "lower shock mount" as well - is it the bushing where the suspension/damper connects to the lower control arm?

edit: I just found this information in the S2000 Service Manual pdf (page 18-37)

 

Correct.

Since you're changing ride height, you'll need to loosen ALL the pivoting bushings and then re clock to your new height.

Front:
UCA to chassis
LCA to chassis
LCA to shock

Rear:
UCA to subframe
LCA to subframe in both spots
LCA to shock
Toe arm to chassis.

use a marker or paint pen to mark your alignment adjusters before you start. That way you can put them back how they were for your trip to the alignment shop.

For the rear, you'll want to loosen all those bushings before taking the shocks out of the car. It will reduce your struggle to get the shock out of the chassis...and...well...you need to loosen them anyway. Might as well make it easy.

 

Raise it where you are saying until it just comes of the jack stand on that corner.