I've had both Eibach and H&R rear springs on my 2000 SE Max. Whenever myself, the wife, my two almost grown kids(its like 4 adults in the car), and a trunk full of luggage, go out of town for a road trip, the rear suspension is constantly bottoming out. It makes a 6 hour trip miserable. I've already got the KYB dustboots with the built in cut bump stops. The problem seems that the springs just do not want to support the extra weight in the car like the stock springs did. Are there any lowering springs out there can support the weight with 4 adults in the car? Or am I looking at putting the stock rear springs back on(shudder at the thought-last resort), or is a coilover suspension the only answer?

 

What struts are you running? Nevertheless, extreme situations like what you've described are going to cause bottoming issues with any lowering spring. The Eibach would likely be the best since it's a mild drop and stiffest spring, but looks like it still caused issues. If you run Illuminas in a very high stiffness setting you may be able to resolve this to some degree.

 

well thats interesting, i have the gr2's and teins and have had 5 adults in my car and never bottom out with my 10's in the trunk. but thats just my 2 cents.

 

I've got GR2's. The H&R's cause the least amount of bottoming, but they also provide the least amount of drop. FYI, with the H&R rear and Eibach fronts, my front to rear fender gap is within 1/4" of each other, with the two 10's in the trunk, and no passengers. With the Eibach's in the rear, the fender gap is 1.0" difference front to rear.

 

If you aren't happy with H&Rs, you will never be happy.

 

You need to get springs with higher spring rate. lol


~limsandy

 

I need to clarify a point. I do like the ride and drop of the H&R's on the rear. But the problem with both them and the Eibach is they have very little load carrying capacity. Even with just 4 adults in the car, there is only about 1" of suspension travel in the rear with the H&R, less with the Eibach's. I guess I'm looking for something that will give the car the sporty look and handling improvement, but still allow it to be used as a sedan that can handle 4 adults without bottoming out.

 

maybe its not your springs but your rims. if u have aftermarket rims the offset is different so they stick out more than stock rims maybe your tires hit your quarter panel instead of tucking in and thats why their rubbing. if thats not the problem, maybe stiffer struts is the answer.

 

I've had 4 adults in my Max, with Teins, and it hasnt bottomed out. As a matter of fact, I had HitmanSE, his cousin, Cwally and myself, cruising on Saturday night, and we had no problems.......Neither of us are small either !

 

Wait, from your first post, you didn't say you have aftermarket struts. If you are using stock struts, then your ride would be bouncy, causing the springs to bottom out. If you change your struts to Illumina or KYB GR-2, it should eliminate the bottoming out part.

If you already have aftermarket struts, then just forget my post. :P


~limsandy

 

........

might want to look at getting tokico illuminas struts

 

kloogy, you're the second person that answered, with no bottoming out and running Tein's. I've got a friend here in Houston with an '03 SE, H&R, GR2 combo, and he has the same problem as I do. Looks like its pointing to my choice of springs that is the main problem. Maybe limsandy is right, the rear Eibach and H&R spring rates all too low if you carry a load in the back of the car. Think I'll do a little more research and find the rates for all three of these springs.

 

Positively the tires are not rubbing. When I took the rears apart, there are nice indentions in the bump stops(actually more like poundings) that match the wide part of the strut shaft, just below the threads. Yes, I am running GR2's, and Cattman's KYB dust boots with the built in cut bump stops.

 

Bottoming out is a major problem duel to the lack of rear suspension travel. I have H&R's with agx, and even set to 8, with a full load bottoming out will happen. I have posted before concerning this, but there really is no viable solution. With H&R's and AGX set at 5 in the rear I have never bottomed out despite very high speed driving over undulating roads when the car is empty or I have one other person with me.

Some sort of a self leveling shock would be ideal and eliminate all the problems. Another option would be to uses rear air springs that are calibrated such that at when the car is unloaded the air spring set at the same ride height as H&R it would also mimic the spring rate of H&R. But, as the car is loaded the air spring would increase the spring rate to compensate to maintain the same height. This would be in the air strut style so a standard damper can be used. Furthermore, you would not need huge air tanks and pumps because your not trying to make to make a show car style setup. A small air compressor would suffice. The design of the air system would be similar to a Westinghouse railroad air brake. Brakes are applied due to a reduction in air pressure, not by adding air pressure. This way in case of failure the air spring would be fully inflated instead of fully deflated so that the car will still remain driveable.

 

That's cool. I've never seen a train analogy for anything. Very interesting! But anyhow..... to the post.


On JIC coilovers I've had 5 adults (well 3 guys and two girls but asian women arent' very big) with my full system and luggage for all of us and I never bottomed out on a 300 mile trip. But for your application I thing that coilvers might be a waste of money. From the other posts it seems like the Tein is the way to go???

 

I have H&R's and Tokico Blues and haven't ever bottomed out. Not even with 4 big guys from work or taking my wifes parents and there luggage for a trip to Inda(Heavy) to the airport. It sucks that they don't work the same for you.