Lift Kit? Sports suspension too low

wilhelm101

New member
Hi all possibly a stupid question but here it goes-

Can I just put a 1inch body lift kit on my sports suspension?

I bought a nice ST185 (205 motor garet turbo) the guy I bought it off said the suspension is wound up to it highest point, think he was setting it up for a track car eventually.

I want to be able to do a bit of dirt roads without worrying about smashing the front mount intercooler. Its not super low but the intercooler is the lowest point on the front and im already struggling with a few parking garages.

Will this totally ruin the suspension set up? I figure I'm going to get a but more body roll but aren't doing anything competitve in it.

Any input would be much appreciated.

Cheers!
 

underscore

Well-known member
First off you can't do a "body lift" to anything with a unibody. That means most things made in the last 40 years except most trucks and some SUVs. You can do a spacer lift, there's generally 2 ways to do them. The first puts a spacer between the strut top mount and the mounting point on the body, this will raise the vehicle but it will drive and handle the exact same as it did originally. The second is to put a spacer between the strut top or bottom mount, and the spring. This will also raise the vehicle but by increasing the preload on the spring it will stiffen the suspension and reduce the amount of extension left in the struts before hitting their limits.

Tl;dr - get spacers that go on top of the strut mounts and the car will ride the same but sit higher.
 

flyingdutchman

New member
If you really wanted to you could make a body lift for the Celica.
You'd need a custom passenger and driver side motor and transmission mount, and then put spacers on the strut tops and all the subframe mounts.
I'd expect some problems with hoses in the engine bay, maybe driveshaft angles, and probably a few other bits here and there.

But spacers on top of the struts will work just fine and be way less work for mild lifts. Big spacers will start screwing with your static camber and axleshaft angles, and I think you'd get interference between the tie rod and the unibody.

Anyway, do the spacers between the body and the top of the strut, you might need longer bolts for the struts.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
Top