Many automotive enthusiasts look at a suspension for looks, performance, or both. Suspension performance is often a very overlooked part of a build as well. With that, there are a few different options available to get the desired performance or ride height out of the user’s vehicle. The three most common are lowering springs vs coilovers vs airbags. There are many factors that go into which one is best for the user’s application.
Let’s start off by focusing on two particular options and what they are. The two most common suspension upgrades are lowering springs and coilovers with lowering springs being the more often chosen upgrade. Now, this is often due to cost rather than any other factor. MaXpeedingRods has been making adjustable coilovers that rival the price of lowering springs thus now putting these two competitors head to head inaccessibility.
Lowering Springs
Lowering springs are replacement coil springs that go in the factory location. They are often shorter springs with a different spring rate. Spring rate is the mechanical force of the spring. This is the amount of force that is needed to compress the spring one inch.
The spring rate can be linear which means it stays consistent throughout its compression range, or it can be progressive which means it increases stiffness as it compresses more. This is to allow for a more comfortable and soft ride while cruising but aggressive and stiff when really going hard in the corners. In some one-off cases, these progressive springs are specially made for drag racing to allow for quicker weight transfer and to slow it down before it bottoms out.
Coilovers
Coilovers are coil springs integrated into the shock. This relocates the coil into the area of the shock/strut. Besides the utilization of space, this really has little benefit. Where the benefit of the coilover comes is that the strut is threaded and allows the coil to be moved up or down the strut. This allows for different ride heights to be had.
Often, but not always, the coilover shocks/struts are valved to allow different shock characteristics. MaXpeedingRods has 24-way adjustable coilovers which allow the coilovers to be tailored to the user’s application.
Coilovers vs Springs
So what is right for your application? It depends on many factors. Coilover includes the shock/strut while lowering springs do not. Because of this, coilovers are often more expensive than the basic lowering spring kit. Keep in mind, when the user buys lowering springs and a suitable shock counterpart to what comes with the coilover, the savings are no longer there. Often the coilover will be cheaper at this point or at least around the same price.
Performance is the next factor. The coilover will perform better for almost all applications. There are some cases like in drag racing where a lowering drag spring plus a drag shock will perform better than a coilover of around the same price. But notice that the top-performing drag suspension is also coilovers. Coilovers with their adjustability will most often outperform their basic lowering spring counterparts and net the user a better look.
As far as reliability, it really depends on the manufacturer and most often they will all go for an extremely long time. I will edge this category to the lowering spring solely for the simplicity it brings over the coilovers. Although coilovers aren’t complicated, they just have slightly more moving parts to them which ultimately are more points for failure.
All in all, what should you buy? It is up to the user to weigh these categories out and determine them for themselves. The coilovers should be looked at first as they offer more capability for the price and most likely net the user a better stance and performance in the majority of users’ applications.
