New guy here, I picked up my 05 AWD earlier this year. The stance has always bugged me. I'm an old school hot rodder at heart but the 300 was never ment to have the raked stance of yore.
A quick check with a tape measure showed the following distance to the top of the fender well.
Front 30.25" Rear 31.5"
Gap 2.25" 3.5"
With the stock 225/60/18 which are 28" tall you end up with the gaps listed above.
Being the hands on kind of guy that I am, I decided to dig into the rear suspension and see why it was higher than the RWD models. When I pulled the rear springs I quickly found that there is very little difference from the RWD models. In fact they are identical right down to the springs which had a tag with big "RWD" lettering on them. I checked out the front springs and sure enough they had "AWD" on them. My best guess is that the huge by large spring isolaters are responsible for the ride height difference. The lower isolator looked like a spring isolator should and was about 1/4" thick. The upper isolator was at least 5/8" thick.
I then replaced both the upper and lower spring isolators with a length of 5/8" heater hose slipped over about half a coil. This will ensure no squeeking problems on down the road. With the rear suspension buttoned back up I was greeted with an 1.5" drop. The new ride height is right at 30". This is slightly lower than the front and is hardly noticable at all. Although I may replace one of the front isolators with the heater hose to get about a 1/2" drop.
The rear wheel well gap is now even all the way around the tire. This is really what I'm after as I'm not interested in that "slammed" look.
Can some one with a RWD 300c take some measurements of their fender well height? I would be interested in the specs for the SRT8 guys as well. What I would like to do is get an idea of what kind of wheel travel the chrysler engineers were going for with different spring and shock rates. I plan on figuring out what the stock spring rates are for various models and coming up with a plan to swap in some stiffer springs to allow a lower drop if thats your goal.
I've found that eibach has a very flawed design plan when it comes to choosing spring rates. Which is probably why several people are reporting limited shock life with them. I believe with the right factory springs cut to the proper length I should be able to come up with a cheap DIY lowering kit that any one can do themselfs. Before you guys jump to conclusions let me say that I'm more than qualified to do this and I'll walk everyone through my thought process as I do it. For a little background on me check out my introductory post in the newbi section.
I'll get some pics up, I do like some rake, which is why I want to lower the front about 1/2". But the AWD has a crap load more than necesary. Plus the natural body lines of the car give you that raked stance. Just compare the front windows to the rears.
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Posts: 22,026
Quote:
Originally Posted by AWD_Guy
Before you guys jump to conclusions let me say that I'm more than qualified to do this and I'll walk everyone through my thought process as I do it. For a little background on me check out my introductory post in the newbi section.
I just noticed this portion of your post! Please get some step by step pics as you go along. This would be a great DIY How-To post!!!
Location: Why I'm at www.300cforums.com of course!
Posts: 22,026
And yet on the other hand, I think the base models look good slammed, especially when demolded. I don't know why that is, but it seems to look good to me. Funny how the different models all have their own look, yet it's the same car...humm.
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SO WHAT?
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