Quick question to those of you who have the H&R Lowering Springs fitted to their F430. My car is currently at the local Dealer have it's service and some other work carried out. Amongst these jobs are the installation of said Springs for a 20mm drop with Suspension and Geometry set up. Obviously these are supposed to drop the car by around 30mm, but that is a little too low for my liking and want ti to be 20mm lower overall After installing the Springs and finding it sat on it's belly they started to wind the Platforms up, but stopped when they noticed the softer coils of the Springs were "spring bound" or completely compressed (see pics). At this point they stopped proceedings to try to ascertain whether this is normal. I have read a few threads on here regarding these springs and everyone seems to be happy with them, included the set up I am after (20mm lower over stock So my my question to you chaps that have these springs is, is this normal ? Are the softer coils supposed to fully compress as if they are "helper springs" ? Have e-mailed H&R (or the dealer has) and as yet have no answer from them. So any pointers from you chaps would be great P.S. These are the correct Springs for this car with the correct part numbers marked on the Springs Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Cannot help with the H&Rs, but if what you wanted was a 20 mm lower, that is within the limits of the stock springs. Max lowering with OEM springs is 15-20 mm, so that can always be a fall back position. Those H&R springs would not do much damping with half the coils resting on each other.
I've had H&R's in about 6 cars and I have always loved them. I initially lowered my 430 by going 11 turns and I was happy with the look. Unfortunately the car bottomed out a few times and it did not feel very agile. I then decided to get the H&R's. The car seems to be agile but the set up is way too low in my opinion thus I am unhappy. The Novitec springs are double the price and I believe 30mm which equates to 1.18 and H&R is 1.2, essentially the same. To my knowledge the only other option available to achieve a nice ride height and improved handling is to do a coilover set up with Moton or another brand and that is $5000 to $10,000
...there is a whole spectrum of spring lengths and spring rates you could use in the car. My springs are only 6" long, and then have helpers and spacers, and never fully compress - there really isn't much travel. I don't know how they built the h&r, but probably part of that spring is working as a helper and adding a bit of preload.
Yes, that is my understanding. The close coils work as the helper, then you set your ride height by increasing or decreasing the "pre-load". I guess the dealer wants to be 100% sure taking into account their commitment to duty of care. I have noticed Novitec's springs are of a similar design, as are those of one or two other manufactures (might even come out of the same factory !). I was just interested to hear comments form those that already have these springs fitted. Having read several threads on the subject, yes you can stick with the stock springs and go down by approx 20mm, however you do run the risk of grounding and scraping as the stock springs can be a little on soft side. I chose the H&R's based on what I read from others who have done this. Their findings being that using them and setting the height they wanted (20mm lower in this case) gave them exactly what they wanted. That being a nice lower stance (without going to low), a good ride and reduced, if any, bottoming out. Anyway, thank you for your input chaps. If anyone else has any options or experience with this set up then please share. In fact it would be great to get some pics to see how the springs look with the car on the ground. Turning the front wheels on lock would probably be easiest ! Thanks again
Heres mine...Went an extra turn to compress the front springs to increase height Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
H&R springs installed plus three additional adjustments and I got it where I wanted it. FYI,3" from top of wheel to bottom of fender arch front and rear and 3 1/4" ground clearance. Rarely scrapes the skid plates. Image Unavailable, Please Login
After installing the springs I adjusted the height to get the look I wanted. At first it was way to low, scraped everything, raised it all around, lowered the back, then raised the front. I did a thread on this awhile ago, it would be helpful if owners would state the ride height of the car in inches or mm or cm from the ground or wheel to fender arch and include a picture rather than how much it was lowered (to what from what?) My car was adjusted by the PO so I had no idea what it was originally I can only say it is where I want it to be now. My $.02
Okay thanks...I suppose then you went 3 turns tighter (compressing the spring) thus raising the height. I went 1 turn extra. Is the front very stiff now?
I had my indie shop do the install and adjustments so I don't know how many turns, I just told them the end result I wanted. I could tell the difference in stiffness between the stock and H&R springs when I first switched but I am used to it now.
Just to follow up on this. Didn't like the H&R's, so got the dealer to install Scud Springs and Nylon Scud Seats (stock are rubber) then set the whole thing up to Scud Spec. Just picked it up today and it's absolutely perfect and exactly what I wanted. Should have gone with the Scud Springs from the start ! Pics to follow.........
Did they have a set of Scud springs from another installation? They seem pretty pricey at ~$2,000/spring on Ricambi. I'm interested in the nylon Scud spring seats though. Was that part # 177688 (upper) and 169684 (lower)?
I went with the Steel versions. Ordered direct form the factory. The part numbers for the Spacers on my invoice are: Lower: 181408 Upper: 245623
So how low or high is it? Measuring from the top of the wheel to the bottom of the fender arch, how many inches front and rear?
Interesting, it looks like those might be 360 Challenge (race car, not stradale) parts based on Ricambi's site. 360 Challenge - 181409 (upper) $57.90 [this Part # was superseded by 245623], 181408 (lower) $54.24 360 stradale, 360 modena, 430 scuderia, 430 - 177688 (upper) $8.64, 169684 (lower) $13.67
