Installation and Review of Megan Racing Lowering Springs
Why Megan?
I decided to install lowering springs as a cheap way of improving handling until I can get a set of coilovers for the car. I chose Megan Racing springs specifically because they were the stiffest that I could find, provided a reasonable drop, and were inexpensive.
Megan advertises the spring rates as 6.26 kg/mm (350 lbs/in) front and 4.47 kg/mm (250 lbs/in) rear with a 1.75 in. drop at both ends. The stock spring rates are 2.0 kg/mm (112 lbs/in) for both the front and rear.
Unfortunately, I don't think that the Megan springs are rated accurately. I tried to compress the Megan springs and then the stock springs when I took them out of the car. It felt only slightly harder to compress the Megans as compared to the stock springs. Most likely, the springs are progressive, and the spring rate increases as the spring is compressed further. Thus, at proper ride height, the spring may actually have the advertised spring rate. I did feel that the suspension got stiffer after installing the springs, but certainly not three times stiffer than stock.
The Megan Racing springs are about the cheapest lowering springs you can find (without going to ebay). They were $140. I didn't feel like it was worth it to spend over $200 on better brand springs when I planned to replace the strut assemblies with coilovers anyway. I checked the shocks when I removed the strut assemblies from the car, and a couple of them were not providing too much resistance. So, I don't feel too bad about wearing out the shocks by using the stiffer and lower Megan springs. I plan to get coilovers once the shocks are gone.
In addition to spring rate and price, I also chose the Megan springs because of the relatively large drop of 1.75 in. Most lowering springs that I looked at gave a drop of 1.0 to 1.4 in. I wanted to get the car as low as possible with the springs, so I chose the Megans.
Installation
Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me when I did this, but the process was relatively straightforward. It should be easy to understand without pictures.
- Remove the clip that attaches the front brake line to the strut.
- Remove the two strut spindle bolts at the bottom of the strut.
- Remove the three nuts that attach the strut to the front strut tower. Make sure to hold the strut assembly so that it doesn't fall down when you remove the bolts on top.
- Put marks on the lower and upper spring perches so that you can properly align the upper spring perch after switching springs. If the upper spring perch is rotated away from its correct position, it will hit the strut tower when you turn to full lock.
- Use a spring compressor to compress the spring on the strut. Compress it enough so that it is not putting any pressure on the upper spring perch.
- Remove the nut that holds the upper spring perch to the end of the shock absorber.
- Remove the spring, and take off the spring compressor.
- Compress the new spring and place it over the shock absorber shaft.
- Replace the upper spring perch, and make sure to align the two marks you made earlier on the spring perches.
- Re-install the front struts in the same way that you removed them.
- Do the same for the rear. The only difference on the rear struts is the lower strut mount. Also, you must remove two small panels in the trunk to get to the bolts (two for each strut) that hold the struts to the rear strut towers
This took me about four hours to do because I didn't mark the initial position of the upper spring perches. I had to keep adjusting them until they no longer touched the strut towers at full lock. If I didn't make that mistake, I probably would have finished in about three hours.
Review
I've driven the car with the Megan Racing springs for the past three months and have been very happy with the performance. The car is much more responsive, and body roll has been greatly reduced.
In autocross competition, the suspension feels much more predicatable and safe. With the stock suspension, I would often get corner-entry oversteer. The car wanted to spin out when I hit the brakes before turning or even when I jumped out of the throttle before a turn. The car is much more stable on corner-entry with the Megan Racing springs, which allows you to be more aggresive when entering turns. The springs have not made the car understeer excessively. It feels well-balanced.
I drive this car on the street every day (only on the weekends when I'm in school). The ride is not excessively harsh. I expected much worse after installing the springs, but it is not bad at all.
In addition to the performance benefits, the car looks much better. The first side picture shows the car with stock springs, and the picture below it is with the Megan springs installed. I'll take a side picture of the car soon to get a better comparison. Unlike many other lowering springs, the Megans give a large enough drop that you can clearly see the difference over stock.
I measured the height of the car before and after installing the springs as specified in the factory service manual (see image on the left).
Before:
Left front: 26.69 in.
Right front: 27.00 in.
Left rear: 27.19 in.
Right rear: 27.56 in.
Average front: 26.85 in.
Average rear: 27.38 in.
After:
Left front: 25.25 in.
Right front: 25.25 in.
Left rear: 25.88 in.
Right rear: 26.13 in.
Average rear: 26.01 in.
Specification in FSM:
Front: 27.32 in.
Rear: 26.38 in.
Drop compared to measured stock height:
Front: 1.6 in.
Rear: 1.37 in.
Drop compared to FSM specification:
Front: 2.07 in.
Rear: 0.37 in.
These measurements are a little off because I had varying amounts of things in the back of the car when I made the different measurements. The fact that I had some of the interior parts out of the car and no spare tire in the rear when I measured accounts for the small drop in the rear compared to the FSM specs. I will update the ride height as I perform modifications (see Build Plan).