I was never happy with how high the car sat so it was time to drop it. I purchased an Eibach Sportline System Plus. This kit comes with lowering springs, shocks, and sway bars. It is intended to drop the vehicle 1.2" from the stock height.

Starting it off

I had to remove the tower strut that I had recently installed. I then replaced the shock mounting bolts loosely so the shock would not fall out when I lowered the lower control arm. The car was placed on jacks stands to allow access to the components and the tires were removed.

Front Suspension

I first removed the front sway bar. This was a simple process of removing the lower sway bar links, removing the heat shields around the sway bar mounts, removing the clamps around the sway bar bushings, and dropping the sway bar.

I then removed the front shock tower assemblies by

1. Remove lower shock bolt
2. Remove upper control arm ball joint nut
3. Use a pit-man arm puller to separate ball joint from the steering knuckle
4. Remove the three top shock mounting nuts
5. Push the lower control arm down enough to remove the shock assembly.
6. Remove the sway bar link from the shock

The next step was to remove the springs from the assemblies. I used a spring compressor to compress the stock spring. I then used an impact gun to loosen the top cap retaining bolt. The shaft will spin once its loosened off a bit so I had to use a 18mm box end wrench on the nut and an 8mm wrench to hold the shaft while removing the nut.

The new spring was then installed and the top cap replaced. I decided to loosely assemble to shock and do the final tightening of the center nut after the car was under its own weight.

The shock assemblies were re-installed in the car along with the new sway bar. The Eibach sway bar has two positions. I choose to use the outer most hole that would correspond to the least aggressive setting.

The lower shock bolt can not be tightened until the car is under its own weight so that was left for last.

Rear Suspension

For the rear you have to lower the rear carriage that holds the entire rear suspension to the vehicle. In order for this to be lowered the exhaust has to be lowered. Since I was replacing the entire exhaust system I simply removed the stock exhaust from the vehicle.

The carriage is held by 4 large bolts but before they can be removed the differential must be supported by a floor jack. The steps are then

1. Remove bolt holding break line clamp to the vehicle. This is to allow enough slack in the lines when the carriage is lowered.
2. Remove two upper shock bolts
3. Remove lower shock bolt
4. Remove sway bar link from sway bar
5. Remove the 4 carriage retaining bolts
6. Lower the floor jack to lower the carriage 5 inches or so
7. Remove springs and shocks from vehicle.
8. Remove the two sway bar bushing clamps
9. Remove sway bar from vehicle. This is a little tricky to get out but is possible.

The new springs, shocks, and sway bar were installed, carriage raised, and carriage bolts replaced. The sway bar links were re-attached, upper shock bolts replaced. The lower shock bolt is to be tightened when the vehicle is under its own weight but it did not look possible to get a torque wrench on the bots with the tires on. I decided to use a floor jack to raise the lower control arm to where I though it would sit and then tightened the lower shock bolt.

Finishing it off

The tires were re-installed, jack stands removed, and the car place and all fours. I needed to drop the vehicle on to four by fours to give me enough room to get the jack out from under the car. The front lower shock bolts were then torqued to spec and the shock top cap nut tightened down. Th strut brace was also re-installed.