If you’re in a position where you’re trying to determine whether lowering springs or springrates coilovers are your best option – don’t worry, as you’re certainly not the first. The truth is that the best option will very much depend on your needs.

The questions you should be asking yourself are; are you looking to lower your ride height? Do you want to be able to adjust the height of your car? And do you need your shocks to have compression and rebound adjustment? The answers to these questions will give you your answer.

Springrates Coilovers v Lowering Springs – What do they do?

In reality, all lowering springs do is lower your ride, which means that they don’t provide any ability to adjust your shocks. Once they’re installed, you can’t adjust their height and the drop they offer is invariably pre-set. Unlike springrates coilovers, you would have to install another set of lowering springs if you want your right set at a different height.

That said, lowering springs are able to be used in conjunction with both custom performance and factory stock shocks. However, they’re not guaranteed to be a good match

Lowering springs can be used with factory stock shocks or with custom performance shocks. However, the springs you buy might not be a good match for your shocks. Like most drivers, you buy shocks from one brand and springs from another. Most likely you ran into the problem where the spring is too stiff on the shock. The result is a car that is low, but the handling is worse than before the spring installation. This will also shorten the lifespan of your shocks.

Coilovers solve most of the problems lowering springs present. For starters, the coil spring and the best struts are made to perfectly fit each other.  That alone improves handling significantly. Moreover, coilover allow height adjustments and improve the rebound on the shock.