Best aftermarket all-in-one lowering kit?

[BennyLava]

Hi all. I'm looking for the best aftermarket all in one lowering kit for my 2009 Yaris sedan. I must admit that I haven't even looked under the car yet to determine whether it has coilovers or not. I'm afraid most of my plotting and scheming on performance upgrades goes towards a different vehicle.

I'd like the kit to come with all the necessary hardware. And I'd like the car to be lowered at least 1.5 inches on all 4 corners, nothing less. Not a millimeter less, really. I'd like it to be about 1.75 inches, but in my experience it seems difficult to pinpoint an exact amount when lowering a vehicle. Can yall recommend a good kit for what I'm looking for?

[david_827]

if your car is stock, then no there will be no coilovers..... you can take a look on the micro image (microimageonline.com) website as they have plenty of options re: lowering springs and coilovers for the yaris.


of course you could also go the air bag route as well

[WeeYari]

Springs: either Micro Image or Eibach Sportlines

Shocks/Struts: Tokico Blues

Done!

[yari-ka09]

Best bang for the buck and for daily grind. Tokico blues and MI springs

Or go hardcore and do coilovers. Save the pennies. Broski

[BennyLava]

I'm looking to save cash so I guess the bags are out for now. How much do the tanabe nf210 end up lowering the car? Seems people around here like those. Yeah its a daily driver that's why I'm not really going all out with the suspension. Need it to be comfortable and drivable.


Right now I'll just do the springs cause the car only has 40K miles on it. So I'll let the factory shocks wear out over another 40K miles and replace them at the regular maintenance interval, with tokico blues.

[WeeYari]

NF210 too mild a drop for what you desire. DF210s are more in your ballpark.

Here is a reference for you http://www.microimageonline.com/forums/showthread.php/852-Aftermarket-Spring-Rates?p=9168&viewfull=1#post9168

Tanabe springs used to be a hot item around here when not much else was available. They tend to be a soft spring, prone to sagging.

[BennyLava]

Thanks I bookmarked it. I don't have a bodykit... but do you think that the DF210's drag on too much stuff? During city driving, as well as suburb driving. I want to go as low as I can without starting to scrape on everything. I mean I'll be careful of course, but as I'm sure you're aware the lower you go the harder it becomes to avoid scraping.

[DeathBeard]

stechs and blues

[b20vteg]

stechs and blues

:thumbup:

[BennyLava]

Any particular model/part number of Stechs? Or do they just make one type for the Yaris.

[DeathBeard]

stech is the specific model made by tein, it lowers the yaris 1.9 which is lower than any other spring

[BennyLava]

Ok thanks for the info. Anyone here running those? If so what are your experiences? Good, bad, or ugly?

[BennyLava]

Nobody here has 'em?

[Kaotic Lazagna]

if your car is stock, then no there will be no coilovers..... you can take a look on the micro image (microimageonline.com) website as they have plenty of options re: lowering springs and coilovers for the yaris.


of course you could also go the air bag route as well

I think, technically, our cars have coilovers in front and a spring and shock set up in the rear. Coilover just means a spring is sitting on a strut.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Nobody here has 'em?

I have the S.Tech's. I like them. They are paired with TRD Sportivo dampers. Some people complain that my ride quality is a little harsh, I don't think so.

[BennyLava]

Bout like stock?

[Astroman]

Please try to post your threads in the correct thread section. It's getting old moving all the stuff from the "general discussion" when this was clearly suspension related. I've moved it to the correct section. :thumbsup:

[1.5]

I ran ksport springs on my sedan for a while and they had about as much of a drop as the teins give or take a few mm. The handling was great and it was a progressive rate spring so under little to no compression the ride was nice. When you need stiffness it was there. Never bottomed her out with those unless going over big speed bumps too quickly. Springs by themselves will give you a decent drop and some stiffness without being expensive and like you said you can do the struts at a later date, although that gives you double the work.

I now have Megan coilovers which I love. The adjustability of ride height and stiffness is awesome and you can dial your car in to the exact settings you desire. The drop and dampening can be a lot higher than springs or a lot lower depending how you set it. But those are pretty expensive, a little easier than springs to install though.

btw my ksport springs only ran about $100 shipped.

[BennyLava]

I just want to get rid of that horrific factory wheel gap, but not have enough left to be able to say something like:

"Yeah, its lowered... but it still looks like it should have gone down just a bit more..."

I hate when that happens.

[1.5]

Yea that's why I upgraded to coilovers

[cali yaris]

The OP is asking for a medium drop, 1.5" to 1.75" if I read it correctly. S Techs drop 2" or very close to it.

I would recommend the Sportlines, our MI springs or H&R.
H&R have such a nice ride, being a progressive spring that gets stiffer when you corner hard.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Bout like stock?

Nope, nothing like stock. lol

[ciscobear]

I just want to get rid of that horrific factory wheel gap, but not have enough left to be able to say something like:

"Yeah, its lowered... but it still looks like it should have gone down just a bit more..."

I hate when that happens.

Then you want Tein S-Tech Springs.....:cool:

[BennyLava]

I now have Megan coilovers which I love. The adjustability of ride height and stiffness is awesome and you can dial your car in to the exact settings you desire. The drop and dampening can be a lot higher than springs or a lot lower depending how you set it. But those are pretty expensive, a little easier than springs to install though.

btw my ksport springs only ran about $100 shipped.



Got a link to the exact Megan combo setup you're running? That sounds like the right way to go for me. I'm seldom satisfied with the ride height after lowering a car. So maybe I'll just save up and get those. That way I can adjust the ride height to be what I want.



The OP is asking for a medium drop, 1.5" to 1.75" if I read it correctly. S Techs drop 2" or very close to it.

I would recommend the Sportlines, our MI springs or H&R.
H&R have such a nice ride, being a progressive spring that gets stiffer when you corner hard.

The other member says they ride kinda rough. Don't want that at all cause the wife also drives this car sometimes when needed. And I really don't want to hear her complain about how I messed up the ride quality of that car. So which springs should I go with that really aren't going to change the ride quality? But still lower the car enough.

[1.5]

KSPORTS!!!!!

But here's the Megan's link
http://shop.microimageonline.com/Megan-Racing-coilovers-Yaris-Scion-xD-MEG-MR-CDK-TY07.htm

[cali yaris]

I gave three choices, and you said "they" ride kinda rough. which ones did you mean?

The H&R or Sportlines are going to be a nice, firm ride.

The Tanabe DF210 springs will give you a FACTORY ride while lowering the car.

[BennyLava]

Sorry I meant the Tien S-techs. I believe it was 1.5 who said that they don't ride anything like the factory ride quality. I'm looking to go as low as I can possibly go, while still keeping factory ride quality. Something tells me that's about 1.5 inches max.

[1.5]

That was kaotic who said that. I never rode on s techs.

You said you want 1.5-1.75 no less but then you said you want almost no wheel gap and that you don't want to drop it and then think it's not enough. This all makes it sound like you may want more of a drop than you thought. For the lowest spring drop its going to be s techs with a few others coming in close second like ksports and MI. The ride will be considerably stiffer. I can say the ksports actually retain a very smooth cushy ride for having a more a aggressive drop. The shorter drops should be closer to stock feel but will give you very minimal ride height change.

And again there are coilovers.

[b20vteg]

Sorry I meant the Tien S-techs. I believe it was 1.5 who said that they don't ride anything like the factory ride quality. I'm looking to go as low as I can possibly go, while still keeping factory ride quality. Something tells me that's about 1.5 inches max.

i just dropped my car on s-techs 2 weeks ago, and on stock shocks, mine rides completely like stock.

[1.5]

I doubt that ^

[b20vteg]

I doubt that ^

why would i lie about something like that? then again, i've heard the gen3s ride stiffer than gen2s...

[Freestylin]

why would i lie about something like that? then again, i've heard the gen3s ride stiffer than gen2s...

There is less suspension travel to absorb the bumps with a stiffer rate and shorter springs.

[b20vteg]

There is less suspension travel to absorb the bumps with a stiffer rate and shorter springs.

i cut off half of my bump stops - about 1.5 to 2 inches - makes up for the reduced height.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Sorry I meant the Tien S-techs. I believe it was 1.5 who said that they don't ride anything like the factory ride quality. I'm looking to go as low as I can possibly go, while still keeping factory ride quality. Something tells me that's about 1.5 inches max.

Yeah, they are nothing like factory. No boat feeling. But then I do drive around with max psi in my tires. :laugh:

[Kaotic Lazagna]

But yeah, keep in mind that I'm on TRD Sportivo dampers, 205/40/17 tires on max psi, and I do have spring coil spacers in the rear.

[1.5]

@b20, lowering springs have to be stiffer than stock or the car would bottom out on like every bump and you'd be eating up your tires with your fenders. I did some searching and our stock spring rate is ~130lbs and the s techs are rated ~165 lbs (both front rates). So you're trying to say either teins numbers are off or you can't feel the difference between the two. Its just almost impossible for the teins to not be stiffer. That's all we're saying.

[b20vteg]

yea, no worries. weird thing though is that physically, the s-techs felt softer to me than stock springs - as in they were easier to compress... :iono:

[33OH]

I'm on Tein S-Techs, daily drive 110 miles per day, and have a girlfriend who hates the harsh ride that my Miata has being on coilovers.

I think S-Techs are nice and soft and do everything you want them to do. My girlfriend has never complained about the ride.

Buy them from Micro Image as mentioned before - great customer service and pricing.

http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/gg493/ryank03/3f0a1120.jpg

[ciscobear]

They are stiffer but not coil-over stiff, we have some very bad roads here and that is when you feel it, not sure where the OP is from but in the USA you guys have pretty good roads and you won't notice a damn thing. I choose my roads since the front of the Belta is pretty low but it is not harsh to ride on.

[1.5]

My roads are decently smooth other than like a 1 mile patch that makes me cringe every day and two railroad crossings.

[jerome]

I gave three choices, and you said "they" ride kinda rough. which ones did you mean?

The H&R or Sportlines are going to be a nice, firm ride.

The Tanabe DF210 springs will give you a FACTORY ride while lowering the car.


When you say factory ride you mean in terms of comfort, correct? Not handling/performance? What would you pair with the DF210 springs to maintain that factory ride?

[BennyLava]

So the lower you go, the worse it gets. After reading this... maybe I only want to go down 1.5" instead of 2.0"

But man, I wanna make sure I get every last bit of that 1.5". All these spring companies are waaay too liberal when it comes to how much they say their springs lower a car. In my experience at least. If they say they lower 1.5", I assume they really only lower 1". Probly more like 0.9 or 0.8". If they say they lower 2", its really going to be more like 1.4".

And what is it about tokico blues that makes it a better shock, when it comes to lowering? I mean, does that little plunger thing inside the shock have more room to travel up and down, or something?

[WeeYari]

But man, I wanna make sure I get every last bit of that 1.5". All these spring companies are waaay too liberal when it comes to how much they say their springs lower a car. In my experience at least. If they say they lower 1.5", I assume they really only lower 1". Probly more like 0.9 or 0.8". If they say they lower 2", its really going to be more like 1.4".


I'd have to go out on a limb for this entire community and state that it is our experience that manufacturer specs are pretty much bang on. Nobody has made a claim with any spring that it is lowering 25-50% less than claimed on the box.

[1.5]

I agree with this ^

I am only trying to warn you, the way you talk about lowering the car the more it sounds like coilovers are for you. I think getting springs is only going to delay the inevitable.

[cali yaris]

Tokico Blues are a stiffer damper, they tolerate a shorter stroke and are a better match with lowering springs than your stock struts and shocks.

By "factory ride" I mean ride quality, in terms of road feel/softness/etc.

[cali yaris]

Nobody has made a claim with any spring that it is lowering 25-50% less than claimed on the box.

+1

[ciscobear]

Thing is, Yarisworld has so much info and pictures on it, the decision is really easy. These guys helped with my purchase and it didn't take three pages, just doing the homework. More than enough info is here and in this post.

Will be interesting to see what decision you make.

[DeathBeard]

If your going to run stechs on stock shocks don't get them, save your money do it right and get the blues