Hello to all. Here's my story...I have wanted to lower my C5 because I hate the 4x4 look they come from the factory with. I followed all the advice on this forum and lowered her all the way down on stock bolts. It really didn't make much difference, esp. in the front. It only dropped about 3/8" in the front with the stock bolts turned all the way down. Today I am attempting to replace the front bolts with a set of C6 bolts in order to get a little more drop. In order to do this i have to drop the lower a-arm so that i can get the stock bolt out. The lower shock mount bolts came out easy but when I went to remove the lower ball-joint bolt, the nut turns freely along with the bolt! With the advice of a mechanic friend I went and got a set of "crow's feet" and wedged one in betwen the ball-joint and the a-arm and the d*** bolt/nut still turn freely together! My mechanic friend is coming over tonight after work to see if he can do any better. Thanks for listening. Has anybody else had this sort of probelm?

 

Interesting....I lowered mine on stock bolts, and the front lowered quite a bit. The rear is where I could use a bit more drop. This I think is the common/expected outcome of lowering on stock bolts.

I guess my first question would be did you drive the car much after putting it back on the ground after adjustment? Mine took a few days to settle fully.

 

It's been since maybe March/April since I lowered on stock bolts. Only a couple hundred miles since she is not a DD. But I am going after the look of some other forum members rides that switched to the C6 front bolts and longer rears. It's this d*** ball joint removal that's kicking my butt.

 

Depending on your oem suspension, maximum drop on oem bolts/bushings should be about 3/4" once you allow it to settle. It took mine about 100 miles of varied driving before it remained constant. I still had to make minor adjustments to level both front and rear equally on either side.
Some have reported less with their sport suspension, others have reported more w/o sport suspension. I got exactly 3/4". If you look at the amount of available threads on both the front and rear adjustment bolts, that is what you should realize.
At just 3/4" drop, I have to be very careful going over speed bumps, road kill and other road debris.

 

That's a great looking Z16 hotwheels57! Your stance looks great! I felt that mine with the base suspension had settled as much as i was going to get. I have 265/35/18's on the front and had over 3 inches of space between the front tires and fenders. Made the wheels look too small. Hopefully with these C6 front bolts i will get it right where i want it. If I can ever get the ball joint bolt free i will be home free!

 

Have you tried using a floor jack to tension the ball joint/ steering knuckle?

 

What type of suspension do you have?? Mine has the magnetic ride (F55). The same thing happened to mine at first, then I noticed the idiots who prepped the car at the dealer had not removed the plastic supports that go on each shock from the factory. These come on F55 equiped cars to protect the shocks in transsport.

 

I have a floor jack releasing some of the spring pressure...where would I place it to do what you are mentioning? Thanks in advance for your help!

 

I have the base setup (FE3 I think it's called). The lower shock mount bolts came out with no problem.

 

The plastic piece I am actually talking about you cannot see from just looking at the shock. Look at the shock, raise the top plastic dust boot & see if there is anything at the top of the strut (it looks like a white piece of plastic & is about 3 inches tall), this has happened to quite a few people. Hope it helps & good luck!

PS You have to jack one wheel at a time to check each, or if you have a lift (4 post, not a drive on) you can do the whole car.

Mike

 

You need to hold the top of the bolt with an allen key. You can also use an impact gun without the allen key and it should pop right off. Don't ask me how I know

 

You need to hold the top of the bolt with an allen key. You can also use an impact gun without the allen key and it should pop right off. Don't ask me how I know

You are correct...I beleive an 8mm box end wrench will work also to hold the stud.

 

He is correct,using hand tools you have got to insert a allen wrench into the top of the threaded part that the nut screws onto and hold that from spinning,Good luck!

 

He's talking about the ball joint stud. The only way to hold it is the allen key through the top of the bolt. No way to grab the threaded bolt with a wrench as it is only open on top and then fully threaded.

 

dropped mine on stock bolts no prob and it looked much better sorry your having problems good luck

 

Problem solved! My mechanic friend stopped by after work with this idea and a pry bar to loosen the control arm and in about 35-40 minutes we were done with both sides. The second side went much faster than the first, something to be said for a practice run! I will do the rears with the longer bolts tomorrow and after a nice ride and a little settling will post some pics. Thanks again for all the advice guys!

 

drive it around for a while.. it will settle more in a few days...

also, cut the bushings.. there are 3 notches.. i cut 2 out.. about 1" drop all around.

before lowering:


after lowering:

 

Having a bunch of experience with this I would not go to low unless you plan to change out the shocks for Bilstiens or something. Your handling will suffer with shorter travel.

 

i plan on going lowered on stock bolts eventually

 

To really get it down you need to cut the bushings.