lowering ride height

badlyworntoy · Post by **badlyworntoy** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 9:26 am

yo dudes
has anyone ever tryed lowering the ride height on their Bx with the anti roll bar slider?
Dont want to waste my time if it doesnt work or breaks teeth

any info greatly reacived

cheers

djoptix · Post by **djoptix** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 11:20 am

In summary from what I remember when I looked at doing it... no point, it will handle worse (and increase driveshaft wear, I think). The trouble is that as you change the ride height on the BX the spring rates from the spheres change too - so if you lower it it will get bouncier. If you are going to do it then doing it on the ARB height correctors is the right way. I'm probably going to bring mine down a bit from standard, but this is because it'll be so light that I suspect it will be riding high if left alone.

Luke has a changed sphere setup on his - fronts are 16v rears, rears are XM fronts at 35 bar (IIRC) - and I think this may have involved a drop too, but only incindentally rather than for the look.

IMHO, just dropping it to the ground for photos and then putting it std for driving is the way forward - there aren't many cars you can do that with! (barring expensive 'bag jobs!)

badlyworntoy · Post by **badlyworntoy** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 12:35 pm

thanks mate
I thought it couldnt be that simple..........although i would have expected rear spheres to be softer than fronts.... any idea why luke went for these?someone suggested using XM V6 ones but i cant rember why..i tend to find it a bit wollowy on the front sometimes, especially if you do a banzi tommi makkinen esque manuvere around a roundabout.....switching to '16'inch rims with 195/45 tyres has definatly reduced the unsprung mass and has made a big chunck of diffrence but it still looks naff at the standard ride height even on 16's

Hey i lower mine eveytime i pop to the shop so when i come out it looks cool,only trouble is doesnt look so good when your sat there for a minuite or 2 waiting for the suspension to sort itself out

Post by **Adrian E** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 2:10 pm

Aren't you 2 talking about basically doing the same thing? I thought the height corrector was clamped to the roll bars for setting the correct height?

You often find that the front of the car sits higher than it did from the factory due to the clamp moving over time, or someone messing about with it.

I did mine on an overhead lift where the wheels are supported on ramps. That means no risk of getting hit on the head (can't remember which way round it works, but from memory with the clamps released the front jumps right up and the rear drops to the floor - it's one or the other!)

Basic rule appears to be 4 fingers width between the top of the tyre and the front wheel arch lip - then set the rear to match. Haynes book of lies gives figures to measure under specific components to get the factory setting back and relative front/rear measurement.

You'll probably find resetting to factory will drop the car, but going a cm lower won't do any harm and lots of people have done that without issue. You certainly don't want to be dropping it several inches or you'll get the problems described above!

Adrian

Timmo · Post by **Timmo** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 3:54 pm

by far the easiest way to lower the car is to cut another grove in the lever area, ive done this to mine and have it half way between low and normal, does drop the car a good bit but still has travel left,
you just have to remember to let the car Rise up to normal and then drop it down to the new setting otherwise it will be incredibly Bouncy!

the only issue you need to be careful of is the angle of the driveshafts, anything much over horizontal and you'll begin to get issue's, (doesnt allow for much of a drop as the shafts are not far of horizontal on the Normal setting)

i used to use mine in lower for more 'Spirited' driving or when pulling up next to a Chav in their Saxo/corsa etc. with the Tunes up loud, Pull up, Flick the lever down to 'sport' as i called it and watch their face drop as you gently drop down! Classic!

badlyworntoy · Post by **badlyworntoy** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 6:36 pm

timmo son.....that made my day.....classic

please if you wouldnt mind could you explain how you did that in as much detail as you can
ill owe you

Simran · Post by **Simran** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 10:31 pm

Vanny, you've forgotten what our bxs are famous for, constant ride height, making your car lighter wont affect ride height so you wont need to lower it, the car , heavy or light will still stay where it is.

If you do lower it, i highly recommend the regassed xm spheres i have, as vanny said, the handling is spoilt slightly due to the wishbones sitting at less than optimal angle. This actually makes the car roll MORE if you do not increase your spring rate and damping to match, hence the XM spheres.

EDIT: just re read your post vanny; on the bx the spring rate doesnt change if you lower it, thats where the problem is. On coil sprung cars you either chop the coils which DOES increase the spring rate, or fit shorter stiffer coils (most common). Thats why you need to change the spheres for somethign with a higher spring rate and matchign damping to control the extra stiffness and tendency to bounce (this why soooo many chav cars bounce about so much, they use lowering springs without also upgrading the dampers to match.) I did a vehicle dynamic study of the bx for my dissertation and made two ADAMS models to simulate body roll on the bx and sure enough, the standard bx seemed to handle that little bit better than my lowered, stiffened and wider wheeled car. For this reason i want to look at the geometry of the suspension to see how this can be corrected, either by changing the camber on the fronts to compensate for the wider flatter tyres or even altering the position of the inboard pivots of the wishbones to bring them back to standard angle in the lowered position.

Timmo · Post by **Timmo** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 12:08 pm

the method i used is the Most simplest,
played around with the lever out of its normal slot in the height gate to get a position of which i felt looked the nuts without being on the stops like Low mode is, turned out to be pretty much in the middle of the two low and Normal modes, marked it with a pen,
put the lever into High to get it out the way and avoid me accidentlayy drilling through it which was inevitable knowing me!!! then drilled a pilot hole and then one just a smidge bigger than the diameter of the lever just inside of the edge of the gate (if you look at the ones that are std they are in at an angle to make sure the lever stays there,) then filed off the edges to make it as close to a std one as possible, and Bingo, you have a new Middle mode!
i would nip out and take a pic but the cars 25 miles away at fathers at the mo! but is really a simple mod which allows you to keep the std heights for normal driving and lowered for chav humiliating!

and some really 'Sprited' driving!! you know the type when the engine's ticking away as it does when its been driven hard and your tyres are remarkably hot!

and you have a Massive smile on your face!!

badlyworntoy · Post by **badlyworntoy** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 1:09 pm

im out there now with the drill needle file and marker pen

Post by **Vanny** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 7:29 pm

Simran, unless i'm mistaken, you've been on the loopy juice! This is my first post in this thread, so while it's nice of you to reply, i've not said anything on the matter

Simran · Post by **Simran** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 11:25 pm

I apologise.
Ive just realised why it is that i thought you had posted, because i dont come on here that often, i still remember your avatar as being your red car, i saw djoptix red avatar and thought it was you, didnt pay enough attention.

I feel like an idiot now.

Timmo · Post by **Timmo** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 8:06 am

Simran, your not alone on the red car issue matey!

djoptix · Post by **djoptix** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 3:08 pm

I say you should all send djoptix some money.

Vanny over and out.

let's see what happens!

Post by **Vanny** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 8:29 pm

I should probably fix my avatar then, it died as it was a link to another one which vanished. Shame on me!

docchevron1472 · Post by **docchevron1472** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:42 am

Timmo wrote:the method i used is the Most simplest,
played around with the lever out of its normal slot in the height gate to get a position of which i felt looked the nuts without being on the stops like Low mode is, turned out to be pretty much in the middle of the two low and Normal modes, marked it with a pen,
put the lever into High to get it out the way and avoid me accidentlayy drilling through it which was inevitable knowing me!!! then drilled a pilot hole and then one just a smidge bigger than the diameter of the lever just inside of the edge of the gate (if you look at the ones that are std they are in at an angle to make sure the lever stays there,) then filed off the edges to make it as close to a std one as possible, and Bingo, you have a new Middle mode!

Not that you'd want to drive the car any distance at all like that.
Using the lever to control ride height is not a good idea.
With the ride height where it should be the control rods shouldn't actually touch the HC's at all, the HC's are an active part of the suspension and manually holding them in any position will not do the suspension any favours..

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lowering ride height

lowering ride height