How low can coilovers go? What’s the max drop and whats the minimum drop?

When our customers know they want to upgrade their suspension, one of the first things they think about is what type of suspension they are going to get, and the second question is if it will go as low as they want. There’s always the debate of going with coilovers or lowering springs, but with lowering springs you generally know how low you will drop your car. Lowering springs always come with a amount of lowering front and rear, so you know what to expect.

However, with coilovers, it’s not always so clear. You know that coilovers are adjustable, but generally there’s confusion over just how low it’ll go and some customers also ask if they can keep their car at stock height. Both are very good questions. We’ll answer the most common questions below. If we don’t cover something you’re curious about, please let us know in the comments.

How low can coilovers go?
Unfortunately there’s no definitive answer here. Every brand and type of coilover is going to have different ranges of lowering. For example, some coilovers such as the BC Racing BR Type Coilovers come with the option of “Extreme Low” for certain applications where you can get a max drop of about an extra inch. Usually drops this much will allow you to tuck the tires in the fender pretty deep.

In most cases, expect coilovers to lower your vehicle from 0.5″ and go as low as 3.5″.

Can I add coilovers but keep my car at stock height?
In almost all cases the answer to this is no. By default, even at the highest setting, most coilovers still lower your vehicle by at least half an inch.

If I drop my car as low as the coilovers go, will I have a bouncy or bad ride?
This really depends on the brand of coilover. There’s two ways to adjust your system. You can either use a supplied wrench to turn a threaded sleeve ring that compresses the spring, or to unlock a locking ring that allows you to thread the entire shock body. If your coilovers adjust with the shock body, you can slam your car to the max, and your ride quality won’t change much (except for the suspension dynamics adjusting). The reason for this is because you aren’t losing shock travel and your springs aren’t compressed, so much of the ride quality remains even if you dropped your car as low as you can go. If you have coilovers that adjust by compressing the springs, then you will suffer ride quality since you need to literally compress the spring to lower the vehicle. In this case, the lower your coilovers are adjusted, the worse your ride typically becomes.

If I slam the car, will my shocks blow?
The good thing about coilovers is they come with shocks that are designed for the added spring tension and compression. The shocks are made to handle the extra demand. Unlike using lowering springs with aftermarket shocks or stock shocks, the shocks are usually not made to operate with less shock travel and end up failing. Coilovers that adjust with the shock body vs compressing the spring are less demanding on the shock.

Hopefully this has helped to answer some of your questions. If you have a question that we did not answer here, please leave a comment below.