hello club 323f this is my first post here I hope you guys can help me since I feel a bit uneasy these couple of days.

a few weeks ago I went to a local tunning shop and ordered a lowering spring+dampers kit from weitec for my car.
2 weeks later the package arrived, I went to the shop and they installed the front springs, when they tried to install the rear springs they found out they doesnt fit and that their has been a mistake.
I assume they probably got a 323f BJ springs in mistake since my car is 98 and mazda changed the model that year.

after that they sent me on without changing the front springs back to stock ones(and told me it will take 10 days to order the right springs).
since the rear now is at stock height and the front is lowered the car is even lower then it should be.
the ride is horrible I can barely go over speed bumps at 10kmh without having my front touch the ground.

I am afraid that even after installing the normal lowering springs the car will still be too low to live with.

does anyone have experience with having the car lowered by 40mm ?
can you go over speed bumps ?

some roads around my home are pretty bad I am afraid the car will be too hard to live with.

the shop told me they can still cancel the order if I want and return me all my money so I am really anxious right now about what to do.


thanks in advance, ~ran.

They should not have sent the car out on 2 pairs of odd springs. Lazy.

Lowering by 35-40mm will be fine for most roads I'd say, but not with only the front lowered, due to the angle, the front of your car will be much lower than it will be with level suspension

Just tell them to put it right. They made the mistake, they got the wrong springs, they should put it back to stock at the front until they have the full set of correct ones.

thanks for the fast answer.

I forgot to mention my car is a 98 BA 323f 1.8 engine running on 14 inch wheels.
will it be high enugh even on 14 inch wheels ?

my other option other then the weitec lowering springs is buying 4 kyb excel g dampers and running them with my stock 14 year springs.

You'll be fine on the standard 14inch wheels, but as Marc said - with just the front lowered, the front bumper will be much lower than it should be, so it will catch everything.

Once you're lowered all round, you'll catch things much less, but do take into account that you are lowered - you won't be able to just bomb it over speed bumps like some yobs do round here - they're designed to slow you down, so slow down!

The garage should have fitted your standard ones onto the front... however, just chuck some compost bags or cement bags in the boot to lower the back

Before we get carried away with wheel sizes being fine, lets not forget that tyre sidewall profile ismwhat will reall govern yourmride height

My car is a really good example of this, I usually have 17 inch wheels with 215 40R17 tyreson the car, the overall circumference of these is greater than the origional tyres by about 5%, therefore the ground clearance is slightly higher than standard, high enough to be able to not have to creep over speed humps.

At the moment I'm running 15 inch wheels with 195 50R15 tyres, pretty much the same as the origonal tyres on the 13 inch alloys the car came with, with these on I have to slow more for speed humps or I just scrape the ZXi splitter a little bit

Before anyone says it, yes I know that almost all F's that came with 15 inch alloys are fitted with 195 15R55 tyres, this is actually an incorrect fitment. [color=#FF0000]*actually not true, my bad, I did try a massive post to explain TWICE, but got logged out before posting both times, nevermind, its a pre/post Ford thing basically!![/color]

Having said all this, Marc is right, they should not have let you drive the car like they have, I'd be asking for the cost of the scratchs being repaired.

Just to say as well, my car is lowered 40mm, has been for 10 years, never had any real issues at all, I also as I mentioned have aV6 splitter fitted, meaning my front is lower than yours will be, don't worry, a 40mm drop is fine and easy to live with day to day

Lastly, what profile are your 14's?

Oh yeah, welcome to the club

if I am not wrong my tire profile is 185/65/14R

You'll be fine with the 185 65R14s

as part of my job i drive on horrendous country roads with more potholes than flat tarmac, and also a lot of country tracks, we also have stupidly high speed bumps all over town too, a 40mm drop is not a problem, even as andy said with the v6 splitter fitted too....ive even had the girlfriend in the front seat and 3 teenages in the back, a full foot of camping gear and an over stuffed roof rack......it was a nervous drive but all was good.
negotiate a very good deal with the garage though for letting the car leave thier shop in that condition though