Failing to heed this warning will result in a number of negative consequences:

-

 If you drop your car too low, there will not be enough adjustment for the

alignment to be set back to where it needs to be.

-

 Shock absorbers will fail quickly because they won’t be able to cope

with such a narrow and harsh range of compression and rebound stroke.

-

 Your car will suffer from ferocious bump steer (when the car jumps side-

ways mid-corner as it encounters a bump or dip in the road) as your sus-

pension bottoms out (literally runs out of available travel) and contacts

the bump stops with every road imperfection and undulation.

If the lower control arms have dropped past the horizontal, you have lowered

your car too far. Raise it back up to restore the handling.

If you have lowered your car too far, where the control arms are now past the

horizontal, a set of roll center adjusters (aluminum spacers that mount at the

bottom of the strut tube) help correct the suspension geometry and ward off

bump steer.

If your car uses leaf springs (few modern cars do — mostly trucks rely on

these), you need a leaf spring upgrade, not a traditional wound coil spring.

Many aftermarket shops geared toward off-roading will be able to provide

customized leaf spring arrangements depending on your needs.

If you lower your car, stick to two guidelines:

-

 Don’t drop more than an inch.

-

 Get shocks that are valved to match stiffer springs.

Although a “slammed” car with the tops of the tires tucked underneath the

fender lips may look cool, odds are that it is both illegal for road use and a

terrible performer, because the suspension alignment settings are way off

and the amount of available travel needed for the shock to work properly is

next to none. This causes excessive tire wear, poor handling, traffic citations,

and prematurely worn shocks

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