offsidewing
New LVC Member
Good Evening Everyone,
This is my first post! I bought my father's pristine 2002 LSE V8 about a month ago. It's Silver Birch Metallic, Dark Grey Wheels, no spoiler, moonroof. It has 87k miles on it and it's had every bit of maintence, including replacing 6 ignition coils, since day one. With the exception of the grey paint flaking off the center of all four wheels, the car looks like it's just 4 or 5 years old. This is going to be my daily commuter for a couple years.
I want to lower the car with Eibach Springs (read - take out some of the fender gap). Since the wheels are flaking, I was considering buying some 18X8 anthracite wheels , 40mm offset, and probably w/ 235/45R18 all season rubber. With the 2002 LSE comes the lower side skirts, front facia, and rear bumper cover and I'm worried about scraping/rubbing. I don't have my heart set on the wheel/tire size. After searching 50 different pages of threads, found only one published pic of an LS speced out the way I am considering.
Two Questions:
1. Suspension - the struts are the original. How quickly do you wear out the OEM sport struts once you put the Eibach springs on? Having 87k miles on these already, am I better off ordering new OEM sport front and euro/sport rear struts to put on the car with the springs? Or can I get another 20-30k miles on the original struts with the Eibach springs? Second question - how bad, if at all, does the LSE front facia scrape when you lower it with Eibachs?
2. Wheel Combo - I am just looking for the right combo of wheel and tire size to soak up the fender gap with the Eibachs, I don't want the car to look slammed. 235/35R19 on an 8-wide inch wheel seem popular but peeps are lamenting speedbumps and driveways on the 19 inch wheel. 235/45R18 seem to be the next size up from stock. The wheels I like are in this size, 18x8, and the 235/45 tire size is about same ride height. See a couple guys doing 255/40R18 too. Does the Eibachs and 235/45R18 take up most of the gap?
Thanks all
This is my first post! I bought my father's pristine 2002 LSE V8 about a month ago. It's Silver Birch Metallic, Dark Grey Wheels, no spoiler, moonroof. It has 87k miles on it and it's had every bit of maintence, including replacing 6 ignition coils, since day one. With the exception of the grey paint flaking off the center of all four wheels, the car looks like it's just 4 or 5 years old. This is going to be my daily commuter for a couple years.
I want to lower the car with Eibach Springs (read - take out some of the fender gap). Since the wheels are flaking, I was considering buying some 18X8 anthracite wheels , 40mm offset, and probably w/ 235/45R18 all season rubber. With the 2002 LSE comes the lower side skirts, front facia, and rear bumper cover and I'm worried about scraping/rubbing. I don't have my heart set on the wheel/tire size. After searching 50 different pages of threads, found only one published pic of an LS speced out the way I am considering.
Two Questions:
1. Suspension - the struts are the original. How quickly do you wear out the OEM sport struts once you put the Eibach springs on? Having 87k miles on these already, am I better off ordering new OEM sport front and euro/sport rear struts to put on the car with the springs? Or can I get another 20-30k miles on the original struts with the Eibach springs? Second question - how bad, if at all, does the LSE front facia scrape when you lower it with Eibachs?
2. Wheel Combo - I am just looking for the right combo of wheel and tire size to soak up the fender gap with the Eibachs, I don't want the car to look slammed. 235/35R19 on an 8-wide inch wheel seem popular but peeps are lamenting speedbumps and driveways on the 19 inch wheel. 235/45R18 seem to be the next size up from stock. The wheels I like are in this size, 18x8, and the 235/45 tire size is about same ride height. See a couple guys doing 255/40R18 too. Does the Eibachs and 235/45R18 take up most of the gap?
Thanks all
