focusva

I've been doing some reading on the site but no where can I find some one who just put lowering spring on their S197. I want to know if it's a good idea to just put lowering springs on without having to add new shocks,LCA's and UCA's? Also are camber bolts needed? We have been looking at the FordRacingor Steedasprings or if there is another brand weshould be looking at? I'm a little confused, any help will be appreciated.

F1Fan

Hi focusva,

Sure you could install springs only but you will be hating the car pretty soon after. The problem is caused by the fact that in order to get the car lower you have to make the ride height lower which makes the car want to bottom out more often on the strut or chassis bump stops. To compensate for this many of thespring makers are using a progressive rate spring to soften the hit when you bottom out the suspension. Progressive rate springs also allow you tomaintain a pretty nice street ride and yet still offer the additional anti-dive and body roll desired for sportier handling. The lower you go on ride height the sooner and stiffer you have to make the spring toreduce or prevent suspension bottoming on the bumpstops.

The folks making sport springs also will try to select a spring rate that will still allow the stock struts anddampers to work O.K. But if thespring makerpick aperformance oriented spring rateas most of them have done for the S197 chassisthe stockstruts and dampers will work sort of butjust barely. There is also the issueof the stockdampers now operatingoutside the range that they are designedto work, both inpiston location and the amount of pressure thatthe dampers are now being asked to control. Most people find that once they install a sportspring that initially thecar feels O.K. but the damping is off worse than it was when stock. Then after several thousand miles (it varies),the dampers are no longer working even as poorly as they were right after the sportsprings were installedand the ride and handling goesto poop. At this point most folks end up looking to buy struts and dampers and have to pay for installation yet again for something that they could have just installedthe first time and avoidedhaving to pay for the second time.

Look at it this way, the springs and strutsinstalled will cost you about$800plus installation of about 3 hours shop time, call it $225 or so. If you install just the springs you get to pay an extra $225 for the same thing you could have hadfor the first $225! That $225 will buy youthe adjustable Panhard bar andPanhardsupport brace that you will need to make your car handle right once you lower it. You know that saying "You can pay me now or pay me later." it is usually true and you get to pay extra on top of it.

If you can't or don't want to swing the cost of the D-Specsand sportsprings at the same time how can you afford to payan EXTRA$225 for a second round of installation? Trust me, save your money and do it RIGHT the first time. Of course if you had the tools and could do the installation yourself without screwing up anything else on the car while doing the springs you might feel differently about what I'm saying. But from your post I don't thinkthis is the case. Bite the bullet and do it right or learn some patiencewhich will pay dividends and allow you to buyan adjustable Panhard bar and support brace.

HTH

focusva

Thanks, F1Fan.

The car will never see the track that's what my Focus is for.I've seen alot of people saying something about the Roush or FordRacing shocks, any input on these. I know you love yourD-Specs, but she doesn't need adjustables. I'm used to working on Focus and Honda suspension butthis will be my first Mustang.

F1Fan

Hi focusva,

I've driven a Roush stage 2 car and installed the full FRPP kit on an S197GT for a buddy of mine andI was not favorably impressed by the damping rates of either kit out of the box. The Roush stage 2 carfelt underdeveloped to me, it just didn't all work well together.The ownerof the Roushafter driving my cardecided to make his Roush stage 2 a clone of my suspension which is basically the whole Steeda suspension catalog along with Eibach Pro-Kit springs and Tokico D-Spec DSP12's. The Roush stage 2chassis setup felt like a collection of parts andis not particularly well tuned setup IMO. The FRPP kit is pretty good for the track or very agressive driving but on the street the dampers are just too stiff in compression and toosoft in rebound. It seems that all American car makers think that a performance suspension has to have damping rates like this for some reason. The stock Ford suspensionwith stock springs is valved just like this also.Too much compression damping making the already challenged rear axle bounce the tires right off the ground, and not enough rebound damping to controlthe chassis motions or allow the chassis to get settled in the corners.

I like the FRPP kit's springs and anti-roll bars (these are actually Eibach Pro-Kit springs and Eibach anti-roll bars badge engineeredas Ford parts), IMO they arenear perfect for aperformance street car. They are very well done with the front bar seton the softest setting and same size tires all around but the dampers are killing theride on the street! A set of D-Specs would solve this problem and then you would have agood basic suspension in place. It isslightly compromised in terms of geometry and "handling" feel but thisgood enough for most people on the street. As I've said before, allmost folks really needto add to the FRPP kit IMO is an adjustable Panhard bar and HD Panhard bar brace and the car is better than 90% of the drivers out therecanexploit even on the stock all season tires.

HTH!