K-Bob
New member
SHORT TAKE: these improve both ride and handling with almost no penalty
Installed Pro-kit springs at 3850 miles. Have 700 miles on the springs as of this review.
Car: 2017 LT sedan with base FE1 suspension. Base wheels and tires. Kept the stock dampers. Only change was the springs.
Rough estimate of initial drop was -1.2" measured at the wheel gap, avg of the four (bad method, I know).
After several weeks of settling I compared it to a stock 2017 LS sedan:
Drop at nose = 1.4" (measured at spoiler lip and at top of license bracket)
Drop at tail = 2.5" (measured at underbody lip behind gas tank and at top of bowtie)
Average overall drop = 1.8"
My car is very noticeably lower than the stock one. See pics below.
Only caveat is that the drivers side sits 0.2”- 0.25” lower than the right side. Not enough to notice when casually looking at the car or driving it, but it is a bit uneven when you really look closely.
Did an alignment (after 600 miles) against the FE3 specs. All it needed was a toe adjustment. The camber is high, but still in the green. Camber = -1.4 left, -1.0 right. The tech and I agreed it would not be worth the PITA to adjust the camber.
How does it drive? The Eibach Pro-kit definitely improved the handling. Surprisingly, the ride improved as well.
In my initial review of my Sonic I complained about the poor handling dynamics of the stock suspension. The Eibachs fix the deficiencies and bring the car up to the level it should have been out of the box.
The car no longer porpoises over brick streets. Brake dive has been greatly reduced, and rebound oversteer has been eliminated. Overall there is less of that bouncy, too-tall tippy feeling. Where before on a back road I was unable to push it because it was positively scary, it is now competent and gives no surprises at all. The steering also is less darty with a surer sense of straight-ahead. I think maybe this is because of the increased camber.
I was worried about how the springs would affect the ride, but they actually improved the ride. It's still plenty soft (it even seems easier to jounce than it was before), and with the elimination of the negative handling artifacts, the ride is actually smoother and calmer. It is not harsh or sportcar-like at all. This means it still dives and squats and leans, but it does these in proper moderation. It just feels like a normal modern car now.
Negatives? The only negative I can think of is the limited ground clearance, especially in the front. There is only like 4" of clearance for the chin spoiler. It scrapes fairly easily. It now scrapes on a turn-in I use frequently. I have driven 3 other cars through there and this is the first time I have ever scraped. I have to drive through there at idle now. I expect snow may be somewhat problematic (will have to see). And of course I will have to take gravel roads very very slowly.
Basically I just pretend I'm driving a Corvette and I have no real problems. Although just today I unexpectedly scraped in a place I totally didn't think I would. Luckily have only scraped the rubber spoiler so far, so have incurred no damage even though it felt like I scraped pretty hard.
Installation was straightforward and Eibach included all the front and rear bumpstops too. A nice Saturday job.
I would recommend this mod to anybody with a Sonic with the base suspension.
Link to before and after pics.
Installed Pro-kit springs at 3850 miles. Have 700 miles on the springs as of this review.
Car: 2017 LT sedan with base FE1 suspension. Base wheels and tires. Kept the stock dampers. Only change was the springs.
Rough estimate of initial drop was -1.2" measured at the wheel gap, avg of the four (bad method, I know).
After several weeks of settling I compared it to a stock 2017 LS sedan:
Drop at nose = 1.4" (measured at spoiler lip and at top of license bracket)
Drop at tail = 2.5" (measured at underbody lip behind gas tank and at top of bowtie)
Average overall drop = 1.8"
My car is very noticeably lower than the stock one. See pics below.
Only caveat is that the drivers side sits 0.2”- 0.25” lower than the right side. Not enough to notice when casually looking at the car or driving it, but it is a bit uneven when you really look closely.
Did an alignment (after 600 miles) against the FE3 specs. All it needed was a toe adjustment. The camber is high, but still in the green. Camber = -1.4 left, -1.0 right. The tech and I agreed it would not be worth the PITA to adjust the camber.
How does it drive? The Eibach Pro-kit definitely improved the handling. Surprisingly, the ride improved as well.
In my initial review of my Sonic I complained about the poor handling dynamics of the stock suspension. The Eibachs fix the deficiencies and bring the car up to the level it should have been out of the box.
The car no longer porpoises over brick streets. Brake dive has been greatly reduced, and rebound oversteer has been eliminated. Overall there is less of that bouncy, too-tall tippy feeling. Where before on a back road I was unable to push it because it was positively scary, it is now competent and gives no surprises at all. The steering also is less darty with a surer sense of straight-ahead. I think maybe this is because of the increased camber.
I was worried about how the springs would affect the ride, but they actually improved the ride. It's still plenty soft (it even seems easier to jounce than it was before), and with the elimination of the negative handling artifacts, the ride is actually smoother and calmer. It is not harsh or sportcar-like at all. This means it still dives and squats and leans, but it does these in proper moderation. It just feels like a normal modern car now.
Negatives? The only negative I can think of is the limited ground clearance, especially in the front. There is only like 4" of clearance for the chin spoiler. It scrapes fairly easily. It now scrapes on a turn-in I use frequently. I have driven 3 other cars through there and this is the first time I have ever scraped. I have to drive through there at idle now. I expect snow may be somewhat problematic (will have to see). And of course I will have to take gravel roads very very slowly.
Basically I just pretend I'm driving a Corvette and I have no real problems. Although just today I unexpectedly scraped in a place I totally didn't think I would. Luckily have only scraped the rubber spoiler so far, so have incurred no damage even though it felt like I scraped pretty hard.
Installation was straightforward and Eibach included all the front and rear bumpstops too. A nice Saturday job.
I would recommend this mod to anybody with a Sonic with the base suspension.
Link to before and after pics.