suspension help

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some help on choosing a suspension set up. I've been looking at the Bilstein HD setup with the lowing mounts, but it seems the more I'm reading the more negatives I'm finding. I keep seeing that wheels and tires are rubbing and that any lowering is going to chew through tires, even after alignments. Ive done a lot of searching through other posts but haven't been able to find anything concrete.

my current wheels are 17/18 Racing Hart C2s with 215/40r17 and 260/35r18 ZIIs.

I'm looking for someone with a similar setup that can help me out in whether the bilstein dampers with the stock springs at the lower ride height are going to rub or chew through rear tires.

Thanks,

Evan

This is a common setup and there is no problem of rubbing with it as long as your wheels ET and tire size is correct, which seems to be the case. As the lowering is pretty light, I am sure you will be able to get the rear camber back to the stock specs or at least at -2° which is not bad at all. Anyway, tire wear comes mainly from the toe setting.

Hi efett, I had the exact same wheels (I am guessing yours are also in the NSX-specific fitment) and very similar tire sizes; I went 265/35-18 in the rear. I was on Bilstein/Eibach for the first couple of years of NSX ownership and I think that particular suspension setup is one of the best in terms of value. My wheels did indeed rub at full lock but this was typically not an issue because I would only be turning that far when trying to move slowly in parking lots. Any lowering will indeed tend to affect tire life because you are fundamentally changing the suspension geometry ~ that's just how it is. I did not personally see any 'unusual' tire wear though ~ my tires were just as short-lived as other NSX owners haha

The big negative for me was that over time (and a lot of miles on rough DC-area roads) my springs began to sag. I think the Bilstein/Eibach was a great combination but ended up opting for a different suspension option when it came time for replacement.

I just ordered Bilsteins - got a shock reading the OP haha! Good to hear from asylum and FF Drifter thet they confirm the info I also found

Drifter,

Was the rubbing on the wheel wells or on the suspension linkage?

Im thinking of keeping the stock springs and just changing out the dampers.

I was hoping that there wouldn't be any increased tire wear. there was a thread I found that some guys were saying they couldn't get their alignment back into speck after lowering, but that could be they were going lower than what this kit will do.

Thanks again

efett, the rubbing was the wheel wells at full lock. There is a shiny spot about 2 inches vertical where the tires used to hit the wheel wells. I no longer have this issue with my current suspension setup (KWv3/iLIFT Systems).

In my opinion the increased tire wear is not that significant. I was putting about 30K miles on the car on the Bilstein/Eibach combination and the difference in my tire wear vs. my current KWv3 setup is marginal. Tire type or driving style may make a bigger difference. Compared to factory wheel/suspension combos I am sure I have more tire wear but based on my conversations with other owners I'm not doing too badly.

Thanks,

I had gotten a set of Hankook tires that were the wrong side profile that rubbed slightly at full lock. Im sure that is similar to this then. Nothing crazy but an annoyance for sure.