Lowering Metro by 1.5" good or bad?

[fairdinkumfrankies]

I just snagged a 1999 Chevy Metro 1.0 three cyl with 130K miles. The question is would purchasing a lowering set of springs help with improving efficiency? The kit says it will lower the car by 1.5".

Second question is would going with Ford Escort 15"X5" aluminum wheels and LRR 145/65 15 tires help vs. the stock steel wheels and 155/80 13" tires.

I like the garden edging air dam idea. That may be my first mod. I am very excited now that I have dropped the big 3.8L Chrysler Town and Country that I was driving 50 miles per day. I expect that I will triple my mileage with no effort a tall. The van was getting an average of 18.5 mpg this Winter. 21.9 during the Summer. You Metro guys are smashing that by a long shot.

Thanks for any input!

Neal

[Jim-Bob]

The biggest problem with lowering a Metro is that you run out of suspension travel pretty quickly. Inadequate travel can make for some very spooky handling when you hit a bump while turning. What happens is that the suspension hits the stop and makes the spring rate infinite. This will cause the wheel to lose contact with the road as the tire will skip off the pavement. The Metro is already a pretty spooky handling little car as-is. I don't know that I would want to introduce any more possible negatives into the equation. It may well work for a small gain in fuel economy, but all of that economy is a moot point if you get into an accident. Plus, do you REALLY want to be any lower than the bumpers of other cars than you are already? You have a collision interface problem stock. Lowering the car will likely take the bumper and frame rails out of the crumple equation in an impact with a modern car, not to mention an SUV.

Why then ( you might be asking) can people get away with lowering Civics and still maintain good handling? it all comes down to the motion ratio of the strut to that of the wheel. As the motion ratio of a pure Mac Phearson strut front suspension is 1:1, it is very limited in how much lowering it can take without special struts that change the amount of travel they have. On a double wishbone Civic though, the motion ratio is not 1:1 The strut moves LESS than the rate of the wheel because it acts on a point that is inboard of the lower ball joint by a few inches. This means that it loses less range than a Metro when you lower it.

[fairdinkumfrankies]

Some things to think about! Best gains in your opinion are from which mod? I got lots of practice with the pulse and glide with my old Prizm 5-spd. Now that you are saying that lowering the car is bad, the air dam now looks like a good idea. Belly pan might be cool also but I don't have a place to work on the car or lift it.

[fairdinkumfrankies]

Is the cold air intake good or bad? Would warming the intake charge be a solid idea or am I trying too hard?

[Jim-Bob]

Well, probably the best mod you could do would be to put in a taller final drive ratio. If memory serves, you have the worst final drive of all Metros with a 4.33:1. The lowest stock ratio is 3.54 and comes in certain 4 cylinder 5 speed cars. For the highway, that will be your best bet. It should also help the exhaust valves run cooler and lengthen their life. Burnt exhaust valves are the #1 killer of the Suzuki G10. Stainless steel valves are available from 3 Tech and should be considered mandatory whenever you have the head rebuilt. 3 Tech also has a fuel economy head package with a ported head, higher compression and a special economy cam grind. It is said to be worth 3-7 MPG depending on who you ask. I actually have them doing a head for me right now and will be building a new engine for one of my Metros once I get it back. I would also consider something like a Scangauge to help you learn to drive it better.

I don't have too many answers just yet though as I am only on my second day of driving a Metro and mine is used primarily for city driving. I only paid $250 for mine so as you can probably imagine it needs a bit of sorting before I will be able to get any real numbers out of it.

As a new Metro owner, I suggest you check out a few marque-specific forums like Geometroforum.com or teamswift.com. There are specific quirks these cars have and you would do well to learn about them. I also think you should buy a set of factory service manuals off of E-bay. They aren't that expensive and will be invaluable as you sort your car out.

[mcrews]

if you are doing highway driving a taller tire wheel combination will lower the rpms at cruise. That's the name of the game. dont go overboard. your looking to increase the diameter by 3-7%. Tirerack dot com can give you alot for specs on tires. Also remember that there is a wieght issue. (previuos posts) each puond over factory is 4 times when it is rolling. so there is more wear on the brakes etc. of course your driving easy.
And the higher psi is a less forgiving ride.

[mcrews]

I personally would not use lowering springs. too much for too little. why give up a relatively comfortable ride when an air dam and coroplast underbelly gives you the same results for $60.....

[Ryland]

Every metro of that age is starting to rust around the suspension, lowering the car will put more stress on the unibody and could total the car because the parts of the suspension mounts that fail are not replaceable.
To get better mileage a gearing change and a cam change to the XFI (62mpg version of the metro) cam (or cam regrind) would be the best use of your money for improved mileage.

[Johnny Mullet]

Just drive it as is with stock tires.

[fairdinkumfrankies]

Sounds like the air dam and some under body smoothing war within my abilities. Trannies and cams are beyond my range. We have no where to do such work and I can run up a bill larger than what I paid for this rig. I like the sound of all of it

The skinny tires on 15" rims was my thought of reducing the drag whilst trolling the highway. My commute will be 55% highway, 30% secondaries, and 15% stop and go.

Thanks for the input. I will be looking over the air dam information and shooting to do something in Feb. I will have a month of learning the new car and its quirks. Right night the shifter seems a bit stiff and slow to move into the gears. I don't know what would cause that. My old Prizm had a light shifter and was a joy to row. Not so with this one.

Neal