So i've been reading a lot that says if you lower you car, you stretch your driveshaft and apparently, that's not that great. Is this true? Should i get driveshaft spacers to help prevent this problem?

 

your drive shaft goes front to back.

when you lower it it doesnt do anything to that
it might hurt your cv boots because it is always stressed at a certain shape

just image driving a car loaded with crap all the time. hurts the car just as much as lowering it

 

 

I'd like to set straight a slight error in terminology.

The shaft that runs from the tranny to the rear diff on an S2000 is referred to as the "propshaft". The shafts that connect the rear diff to each wheel hub are referred to as "driveshafts" (or 1/2 shafts) by Honda.

And lowering the car will change the angle of the driveshafts and can cause some stress to the CVs and to the diff output shaft bearings. How much stress and over how much time is anyone's guess. Maybe very little, maybe a lot. I guess if you obsess over it and take seriously the sales pitches of those who sell these spacers, then you should get them.

 

thanks guys, i was just curious

 

I'm trying to envision how adding spacers to the driveshafts (half-shafts) could change their angle enough to offset the effect of lowering the car.

 

That's a very nice drawing Harry - thanks!

However, isn't the normal attitude of the S2000 suspension more like the middle diagram (Lower w/o spacer), and a lowered car would be more like the upper one? That would mean that the the housing contact point would still be missed, only inboard instead of outbaord. Also, I thought that the CV joint housing had grooves in it to effectively allow the movement of the spider and ball assembly inboard and outboard. Correct?

 

I have a lowered s2k by about 5 cm or 2 in
when under the car ( I luckily have a pit in my garage)
I looked at the half shafts to check the cv boots
the half shafts are directly in line with the output of the diff to the cv joints dont have to run out of line at all unless going over a bump
the half shafts are splined to take into account the linear extention / contraction due to the geometry changes when moved up and down so there should be no extra lead on the cv joints or diff output if the splines are not seized up (they are in the cv boot with grease )
the biggest problem you could have is to run the car too high off the ground and then flex the cv joints too far
by the way the way to see that you are runing lo or hight on the cv joints is to look at the boots , if they are constantly out of straight the accordion shaped rubber will touch and be rubbed smooth + shiny
cheers
Paul
it is almost impossible to run too low springs as your suspension units will be bottomed out before you run out of flex

 

anyone else have any input on this? i know this is an old thread but im VERY curious. been searching up a storm lately and this is the best info i can find.

 

im guessing that increasing the traction of the rear wheels would cause more stress to these already "become fragile due to stretching" joints.

my definition of the extra traction/stress