cedarmn

Hey guys,

Looking for some tips. I've ordered my foose 20" wheels and 275 rear tires. I got the 45 offset in the rear so I assume I won't rub. My issue now is I want to lower the car and am not sure what kind of drop I should go for.

I want the car to stay drivable. I'm not the guy who does not wany to be anable to go anywhere in fear of a speed bump.

Guys/Gals any tips?

mustangspotential

1.5 inches is the standard lowering spring for this car and is fine for daily drivers. AM has SR springs, Ford Racing springs, etc that all will do this for around $200 give or take brand.

waykooljr

Keep in mind when lowering that there is more to it than putting springs on the car.

Depending on how much you lower it, you may need:

Panhard bar for centering the axle.
Upper Control Arm for adjusting pinion angle.
Camber plates for front alignment.
Struts and shocks to smooth the ride. The suspension supposedly becomes bouncy on the stock struts and shocks.

cedarmn

wow thanks guys. More to it than I thought. I just wanted to get rid of the gap once I put the new wheels on my ride. Sounds like this could cost me a bit with all those parts plus install....

Would I do any damage if I just did the springs for now? Would I need an alignment after?

Andy13186

edit, misread post

mustangspotential

None of those parts are necessary. I'm lowered 1.5 inches with no panhard bar and the rear is aligned good. Camber bolts were $25 and my alignment guy said they weren't even needed. 88k miles. The ride is rough but it's a sports car.

AJ06GT

Just doing springs will cause the stock shocks and struts to wear out faster, so be aware that you're going to need to do those after a while anyway. A panhard bar can be skipped, but if you go down 1.5" your axle center will be off. Some people don't care or find their own solution, PHB isn't very expensive to do though. As far as alignment, I've heard of some people going down 1.5" and aligning just fine like mustangspotential said above, others go with camber bolts to get in alignment, though on an 05-09 if you lower and keep the stock strut mounts, you'll probably end up with popping as well, which means upgrading to GT500 mounts, which means (to me at least) that you might as well have gotten caster/camber plates.

Finally, lowering will affect all kinds of suspension geometry, like control arms, leaving you with less traction than you had before lowering (fixed with LCA relocation brackets and some new LCAs). Pinion angle may need to be adjusted with an adjustable UCA, as mentioned previously.

So, all this to say, can you just throw springs on? Absolutely, but at the very least you'll need to upgrade the shocks and struts in the near future, and if you get popping out of the front, it's because of the stock strut mounts. The rest of the suspension geometry may or may not bother you depending on how hard you drive the car. Nothing will break if you don't change it out with springs though.

Oh, and yeah, you'd need to get it aligned after you installed springs.

shouldhavegottheGT

I had the Eibach Pro Kit on my last mustang. Decent drop, definitely not slammed or anything. No problems going over speed bumps or driveways. I didnt do any thing else but the springs. Stock shocks and mounts. The ride was a little firmer but not in a bad way. Definitely got rid of the gap on my 20s. I didnt even need an alignment.

If it's just a daily, I'd say go with the pro kit. If you're not tracking or getting some springs that are lower than 2" you'll be fine.

Torch_Vert

The H&R OE Sports are also great for a mild drop to help the look and performance, without going so far that it's constantly scraping on speed bumps and driveways.

cedarmn

Thanks for all the info guys. I should have said that I do like to drive the car a little hard. How can you not drive a GT a little hard. I will be far from tracking the car or street racing. In saying that I will only be insuring this car 3 months of the year. I drive a 350 diesel daily. I want to say I may put 3000 miles on my mustang this year. She is my top down Sunday cruiser....

Does this change any suggestions? Just springs at this point?

Would anyone heat the stock springs to get the drop i'm looking for?