Dropzones....yea yea yea lol Options

[XE_Nathaniel]

Okay heres te situation.....i'm purchasing alot of crap for my Celica right now and DropZone coilovers are on the list.....OK

heres teh scenario....I want to instal drop zones but use stock shocks. I would want to lower it whenever I want but for the most part keep it at stock height. My question is that would it ride pretty much like before if I kept it at stock height but I have it at the same height.....what about lowering it just an inch? And what does "blowing out" the shocks mean....becasue I realyl dont wanan do that becasue im sure that Toyota wouldn't cover that under warrenty....I cant afford konis yet.....lol

Please help? =)

-Nate

[Silver94CelicaOw...]

I would say go for a compromise and get Toms springs or Sportlines or something...unless of course you really want the adjustability, in which case i would imagine the dropzones would ride a little rougher than springs would, although usually it depends on your shock condition, and how low you decide to set them at as to what your ride quality will be.

[XE_Nathaniel]

stock to 1 inch....nothing more for street......for show....drop em down

watcha think?

-Nate

[Silver94CelicaOw...]

Im sure it would work and ride fine, as long as you dont mind the slight sacrafice in ride quality the rest of the time you drive.

[XE_Nathaniel]

How much is "slight" and how about my shocks? I need them to last a long time....will they last as long as they normally would or no? Thanks alot

-Nate

[Silver94CelicaOw...]

By slight i just meant maybe some extra bounciness than you otherwise would normally have, like when you hit a heave in the road or a pothole or something. As far as shocks go, im sure they would wear a little faster if you had your celi dropped much lower than stock height, but as long as it isnt below like 2 inches you should be ok with your stock shocks ad not raise hell with them.....i personally dont have coilovers on, but this is just what ive gathered from all my time on here and other sites, and from what knowledge ive gathered from hanging around other more mechanically inclined people.

[95STHATCH]

When I blew my struts out I really did blow them out. When I took the retaining nut off of the strut (the one that holds the strut cartridge in there) < fluid actually shot out. it did that on both of the front struts.

[kuya1284]

My setup (before my car went into the shop):

Front: Custom made springs by Valley Springs in Dixon, CA -> 1.5" drop
Rear: H&R -> 1.3" drop
Struts: Factory all around

Rough? In the beginning, no. Before it went into the shop? Yes.

Solution: Just becareful where/how you drive. Try to avoid deep bumps and pot holes. My car was lowered in 95, and did well up until around 2001, which is when I started noticing my car bottoming out.

[Kwanza]

QUOTE (kuya1284 @ Jul 12, 2003 - 2:19 AM)

My car was lowered in 95, and did well up until around 2001, which is when I started noticing my car bottoming out.

Sounds normal to me Ray...;] Struts tend to fail after a few years of abuse...

Lowering your car on the stock struts should be fine so long as you can bare the bouncy ride. It will decrease the strut life, but as Ray points out, it's not a huge major deal... the struts still should last a bit, IMO, even with coilovers slammin it.

On my old celica, I had some generic coilovers on it and had it slammed 90% of the time ( over 2" drop). My stuts didn't go out until I was being dump and spun out the car at thunderhills trying to hit a turn too fast and went off the track. That was back in 2000 and I had the car lowered since I bought it, in 97.

[XE_Nathaniel]

I just need em to last for 5 years.....you think it would last that long? LoL

-Nate

[presure2]

not with D/Z..its not gonna last...if you want ride quality, i'd stay away from the dropzones..check out ground control..

[kuya1284]

Nate: Personally, I think you should just stick with springs. They're good enough for your application.

[XE_Nathaniel]

Which springs?

-Nate

[XE_Nathaniel]

I can't afford ground controls.....at least I don't think.....

-Nate

[XE_Nathaniel]

Personalyl I dont mind how low it is in front....its jsut the rear...I jsut want it lowered about an inch....nothing more......and springs unless they are TRD.....lower too much..tahts why I figured DZ coilovers..so I could adjust them when I need to...

-Nate

[Silver94CelicaOw...]

I would think that if you liked that dropped look for show, you would wanna have it look that way all the time, and once it is dropped, you'll probably think it looks kinda dumb when its raised back up to stock height again and just keep it dropped......in which case you could just get yourself some nice springs and it'll do the job- youre shocks wont get killed, and your car will look alot better if you want that dropped look. I would reccomend Tom's springs.....1.5 in the back, and 1.75 in the front, that sounds about where you wanted them anyway, so i would go that route if i were you.


EDIT- Plus, toms springs are cheaper than DZ's anyway.....98 bucks at racer wheel

This post has been edited by Silver94CelicaOwner: Jul 12, 2003 - 4:48 PM

[XE_Nathaniel]

Wait I dont get it....woudlnt it be the same if I had coilovers instead of springs....the only difference them beign adjustable?

-Nate

[Silver94CelicaOw...]

Im pretty sure that coilovers seat differently due to the adjustability, or something......someone correct me if im wrong, there but im pretty sure thats correct, and in result of the different seating they tend to generally ride a little less tame as springs would. But yeah, look at the Tom's springs, i just edited my last comment to show you what i was talking about. I would go springs since your main objectives in all this seem to be preserving your shocks but getting a nice drop look. I say forget about adjustability, you dont need it in Cali anyway.....and once you drop you probably wont wanna adjust them all the time.

[XE_Nathaniel]

How low would it be..and how bouncy? Because my parents like the car adn they try to drive it sometimes.....they took my keys and made a copy so they coudl drive it LOL

-Nate

[XE_Nathaniel]

Maybe I should instal the kit first and see if I want to drop it...

-Nate

[XE_Nathaniel]

What if I installed the dropzones and kept it at stock height? would they be like before or will there be a noticible difference?

-Nate

[presure2]

yes, the springs in the d/z's are not great quality.
if your looking for about 1" i'd recommend the eibach pro-kit springs, 1" all the way around. same as the TRD, just a bit cheaper, and from what i've heard the TRD's are made by eibach anyway...

[IczerCelica]

I have a set of the Drop Zone adj. coil-overs on my 94 Celica GT, and it was cool at first, but now its so goddamn bouncy, you cant go fast over bumps unless you wanna bottom out like I do sometimes, and believe me, the sound of the car hitting the road is absolutely horrible. if you try to take on even little dips in the road....if they are in succession..the car will not stop bouncing, until you slow down. oh well there my 2 cents on the Drop-Zones.

[Coomer]

I had generic coilovers from eBay for a while which are supposedly very similar to the Dropzone coilovers.

I absolutely hated them! They were by far the worst purchase I've ever made for my car. They were bouncy to the point where it was dangerous to drive fast, and I bottomed out on everything, even when the car was close to stock height. It was no fun driving my car at all, and at one point I got so sick of it that I raised the car up to about an inch higher than stock, and the ride was still very bouncy and horrible. Plus, the coilovers popped every time you'd turn the wheel, and if only one side popped, the car would pull heavily to that side until the other side popped.

I had the coilovers for about a month, and then I bought some KYB GR-2 struts and some Eibach Sportlines, and now I am very happy with my suspension setup.

Also, keep in mind that it's not very easy to raise/lower your car with low-priced coilovers. It's about fifteen minutes of work to do all four corners, and you need to re-align your car every time you change the ride height very much for optimal tire wear.

I would simply go with some Eibach Pro Kit or TRD springs if I were you. They'll ride much better than coilovers, be easier on your stock struts, won't be as bouncy, won't make as much noise, etc.

[95STHATCH]

Hey coomer, I know that eibachs say that the drop is 1.5"s but it looks lower on your car and a few others that have them also. Would it be safe to say that the eibachs settle at a lower height than they say it does. I was thinking about getting coilovers but I like the hieght yours is at, I seem to have such a huge gap between the tires and fenderwheel with my 40 series tires.

[uberschall]

i've been weighing out whether or not to put coilovers or springs in my car...ultimately, coilovers are a crapload of work. they're more difficult to install, need to be "tuned" for an acceptable level of performance, and have to be adjusted to maintain even ride height. and that is one bouncy, miserable ride. they're great for people who never DRIVE their cars, like show puppies. i'm probably going to use tom's springs for what it's worth.

[celica3sgte]

Don't buy dropzone coilovers. They're crap. I had set of them. You will bounce around like a honda with cut springs. There's a good chance you'll blow out a strut. Even with the the coils raised up all the way, you will still bounce everywhere. The springs are just crap.

This post has been edited by celica3sgte: Aug 9, 2003 - 5:30 PM