The 5 Best Ways To Lower Your Car

Lowering a car has become a modification trend now. The reason behind lower your car is to increase the visual appeal of a vehicle and for the potential increase in handling performance it may provide. While there are several methods to properly lower a car, choosing the right method for you also for your car is important to make sure your car performs better. Let’s find out how to lower a car and why would you lower your car. 

How To Lower A Car

Lowering a car can bring you many benefits and since it is becoming a trend these days, professionals say that there are several ways to help you answer the question of how to lower a car. The most often question that we get from readers is “Where can I lower my car”. The direct answer is you can lower your car by lowering the suspension. So how to lower car suspension? There are 4 methods that you can apply to lower your car suspension. They are:

Method 1: Lower a coil spring suspension

One of the best way to lower a car is lowering a coil spring suspension. The coil spring is in the car front and/or back suspension and it is attached onto the A-frame or the axles. 

You can manipulate your car coil springs by removing the stock coil springs and replace them with shorter springs or take your springs to a spring shop and have the coils softened and shortened. 

You also can cut the coil spring by yourself by using a grinder, cutting wheel or torch to cut them. Firstly, you should start cutting in quarter or half coil turn increments since cutting a coil is a permanent action. You may need to install shorter bump stops or cut your stock ones to fit. It is the first method on how to lower a car. Now, let’s move on the second method.

Check out the video below to see how professional cut the coil spring!

Method 2: Lowering a leaf spring suspension

To do this method, you need to use a universal lowering kit. In many vehicles, especially, older vehicles, the leaf spring suspensions are installed instead of coil spring suspension. Lowering leaf spring suspension is similar to the coil spring suspension. Tools you need are basic hand tools, jack and jack stands, a universal lowering block kit, wood blocks, and tire chocks.

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The first step is raising your car and placing a jack stand under the frame nearest to the side of the vehicle you will be working on. To prevent the vehicle from rolling, you can place wooden blocks or tire chocks under any opposite side of your car. 

The next step is removing the bolts of the suspension spring. Locate the two U-bolts on the suspension leaf springs. So now you need to bolt up the long bolts shaped like U’s with threads on the ends to the underside of the leaf springs, securing the two together. After that, use the ratchet and socket to remove the U-bolts.

So, the U-bolts are removed already, you can raise the axle and put in the new U-bolts. Use the jack to raise the axles and raise them until there is enough space for the lowering block to fit between the axle and the leaf springs. Next is installing the extended U-bolts from your lowering kit over your axle. The new U-bolts will be slightly longer than the old one so double checks to make sure everything is right. Then repeat for the opposite side and you are done with the method to lowering your car by lowering the leaf spring suspension. It’s all about how to lower a car by lowering the leaf spring suspension.

Method 3: Lowering the torsion bar

First, use the torsion bar key to adjust your car’s torsion bar down. The torsion bar key is a part of the torsion bar, which allows the vehicle ride height to be adjusted at the factory when the vehicle is built as needed afterward. It is easily adjusted with a small hand wrench at home and by doing that, your car will lower to the ground.

Method 4: Replacing hydraulic cylinders

The fourth method that we introduce to you on how to lower a car is replacing the hydraulic cylinders. Your car has four suspension corners so you can install the hydraulic cylinders to 1, 2, 3 or all of these four corners of your car. But keep in mind that installing the hydraulic system also requires installing an internal control system, hydraulic pumps and the batteries to operate the pumps. 

Here is an instruction on how to lowering torsion bar !

Method 5: Replacing the spring and shocks

As we mentioned above, you can adjust the spring to lower your car, but you can also replace the old spring with a new one which helps you on how to lower the car. There are 2 cases that happen in this situation. 

Firstly, if your car does not have rear leaf springs, you can do the process of replacing the springs at home. What you need to do is trade them out for adjustable airbag units available at a local auto supply store or from an online auto shop. 

Secondly, if your car has rear leaf springs, you should bring your car to a professional since you have to get rid of them and replace them with a 4 link setup. It is more complicated to replace the new spring. So we recommend you take your car to a mechanic to check and replace them.

Why Would You Lower Your Car?

There are several pros and cons of lowering a car which you should consider before doing it. Check it out what is the benefit and drawback of lowering a car.

Pros of lowering a car

Lowering the center of gravity

By lowering the suspension as some methods we recommended above, your car is closer to the ground and more stable through turns or during the emergency manoeuvres.

Improving handling

According to professionals, with the car sitting lower, it handles better and sits flatter through turns.

More aerodynamic

When your car is lower than usual, there is less air going underneath which can reduce the amount of drag imposed on the vehicle.

Better visual appearance: A car with lowering looks fantastic in front of people, it is the thing that everyone can not deny. It adds a great deal of visuals to your car. 

Cons of lowering a car

Besides the benefits of lowering a car, there are some drawbacks that you should consider before going to lowering your car. 

Reduction in ride quality

As its name, lowering a car will lead to the ride quality. The car will be more jiggly and you will notice new bumps in the road.

Increased wear and tear

It is one noticeable drawback you can see clearly, your car will hit harder and slam into potholes or other road imperfections. Therefore the damage to the wheels will increase together with the damage to the car suspension. So we do not recommend you to lower a car if the place where you live has rough terrain. 

Bottoming out

Since your car is lower, it will contact the ground a lot. Contact with the ground causes damage to the car, ranging from wear marks on the front or rear bumpers, to damage to the exhaust system or the underside of the engine.

Rubbing bodywork

Another drawback of lowering your car is increasing the risk of having tire rub on the guard or inner wheel wells while driving or scratches on the car surface.

Uneven tire wear: It already happened to many cars which are lowered. When the car is lower, lowered suspension can cause tires to wear unevenly or cause extremely wear patterns. 

So, Should You Lower Your Car?

We already introduce to you the methods on how to lower a car and the pros & cons of lowering a car. As you can see, there are many drawbacks compared to the benefits. So the real answer depends on you. If for you, the most important thing is the appearance and you do not care a lot about the ride quality or other damages, you should go for lowering your car. But be prepared for any damage which can happen in the future.

On the other hand, if you do care a lot for the ride and hope to enjoy driving your car for a long, we recommend you to not lower your car. 

Wrap Up

So be sure that you already understand the pros and cons of lowering your car before going to do it. The 5 methods on how to lower a car above can help you to lower your car and have a great driving experience. But we still recommend you to read carefully. Moreover, do not forget to follow our maintenance tips to better understand your car problem and know what to do when something happens.