Has anyone heard of these? Are they any good? I have a 99 2.2L coupe and just put 17's on and theres a pretty nice little gap in the fenders, so I found these relatively cheap coilovers. Also, will these be hard to install myself? Will I have to rent a spring compressor? Thanks in advance!

 

Heres the link for those coilovers...
http://www.sportcompactwarehouse.com/PROD/gc7506-01

 

Alrighty... first of all, it would be best to get new shocks when you plan on putting those types of coilovers on your car.. Your shocks are probably going to die very quickly, leaving you with a uncontrolled ride (bounce, bounce, bounce)

Secondly .. you'll have to fiddle with the bumpstops if you plan on lowering it a lot, as you might just be sitting on them when you least expect it.

Third, installing the springs can get a little tricky.. Not only a spring compressor, but a long breaker bar, and some way to loosen the nut on the top of the strut shaft. (its like a 19mm or something nut, but you need to simultaneously have an allen key in the top of the shaft to prevent the shaft from moving/twisting. Not only that, but the nut is recessed so a regular combination wrench won't work.)

Lastly.. Ground Controls are the best of the "coilover-sleeve" type systems. The springs are made by eibach and have a lifetime warrenty. There are many, many copies of this type of system. Some are "okay" in quality, while others are downright crap.

 

Man this is gonna be expensive if I get more than just those ground controls tho, isnt it? What if I only lower like an inch in the back (maybe a tad more) and an inch and a half in front? Would I still bounce a lot quickly? Thanks for your help.

 

Well, even though your struts will last longer when not excessively lowered, the main thing is that most coilovers use high springrates to begin with. So even if you leave the car at stock height, it can get bouncy. The cause for bounciness is the shock not being able to handle the spring ie: the spring is too strong for the shock.

I'm sure that you could find a set of springs that lower to your liking. And at that height, most springs are not very stiff so your shocks won't die nearly as fast as with coilovers. Maybe you could find an alternative to coilovers like eibach sportlines or something ..?

 

I heard the eibachs still leave a pretty hefty fender gap in the front tho..? but that would be cheaper.

 

I'm not a big fan of lowering it either, but I'd like to point out that if you order the coilover spring perches and the springs directly from Ground Control, you can talk to them and discuss exactly what you want to achieve, and they'll probably be able to send you the proper length and rate spring for that. They stock many many Eibach springs and will happily ship whatever rate and length you decide on.

If you order it through a third party, you're going to get whatever GC has determined to be their "off-the-shelf" package, and that might not suit your needs.

As for ruining the stock Subaru struts...unless you put on substantially higher spring rates, and/or lower it excessively, I wouldn't worry about it too much (though I'd still worry a little). Subaru struts are pretty tough, and the cars are intentionally sold with a relatively stiff-strut/soft-spring combination, compared to other cars.

Otherwise, I'd agree with everything caterpill says. GC is a pretty good company; give 'em a call.

 

awesome. thanks guys, i will call them asap!

 

i have kyb agx shocks and eibach springs, and i was thinking about going with the ground control coilovers to replace the eibach springs, think my agx shocks could handle them?

 

Depends on what spring rate you've got. Since you've already got Eibach springs,
you can save yourself a bunch just by purchasing the adjustable-height perches.
The Ground Control coilover kit is no more than a set of perches and Eibachs springs.

 

Will those perches fit other springs too? for example, the tein s-techs? I'm just curious.

 

where do i get perches?