# How Low is TOO Low?



## kyle_battle (Oct 8, 2006)

Ok so ive been hearing that its REALLY bad to lower my 99 sentra more than 1.5 inches.. thus is why its only at about 1.25 in front and .75 in the rear.. but it sucks because i love the "tucked" look and in order to get that look would need to lower it at least 2.5 in front and 2 in the rear.. i really don't want to blow my 900$ set-up by dropping it to far.. soooo help? please?


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## RallyBob (Nov 29, 2005)

kyle_battle said:


> Ok so ive been hearing that its REALLY bad to lower my 99 sentra more than 1.5 inches.. thus is why its only at about 1.25 in front and .75 in the rear.. but it sucks because i love the "tucked" look and in order to get that look would need to lower it at least 2.5 in front and 2 in the rear.. i really don't want to blow my 900$ set-up by dropping it to far.. soooo help? please?


It's bad for multiple reasons. Your car already has relatively little suspension travel, about 7" total in front. At static (stock) ride height, you're looking at maybe 3.5" of compression travel and 3.5" of droop travel. So lowering the car by 1.5" leaves you with 2" of compression travel up front, and any further travel than this results in the suspension bottoming out. This is BAD for a myriad of reasons, but any time you go to an infinite spring rate handling will very suddenly change (always for the worse), as well a bottoming suspension can result in blown struts and broken suspension parts, and even in some cases a damaged strut tower (the unibody of the car itself).

The other thing to consider is the changes on the geometry. Bump steer goes to hell in a hurry at this point (compression of the suspension results in the steering toeing-out by itself). The roll center is also moved lower which means that you are actually softening the suspension's motions via leverage (even though you have stiffer springs), and you are also losing negative camber throughout this vertical travel. And at a certain point in over-lowering a Sentra, the half-shafts can literally fall out of the transaxle case thanks to over-extending their available travel.

So while making you car very low via springs may _look_ cool, it's actually the antithesis of performance. The car handles worse, ride quality suffers, and damage may occur to numerous components. 

Yes, your car *could* be severely lowered and performance *can* be enhanced in fact, but you're talking about a lot of custom fabrications and relocation of suspension components to do so safely.

HTH, 
Bob


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## kyle_battle (Oct 8, 2006)

Thanks =] I was hoping that someone that actually knew what they where talking about would post a response and i got what i wanted haha.. but thanks for the detailed description.. i was already pretty sure it was gonna do alot of damage but i just wanted to make sure how bad it would be.. and you definitively put it in perspective haha! thanks again!


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## Rouge Payne (Dec 8, 2008)

you should look into air suspension! you can lower your car for the look, yet rise it to drive safely


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