and lowest i had them.. and still had thread to go lower
[/QUOTE]

Geez U R scrapping the asphalt

 

lol ya, it was not very drivable. even at the ride height inn the other pictures part of my exhaust got ripped off by traffic spikes (and yes, i was going over them correctly) so i guess the next thing im doing is getting exhaust..

 

Still no luck determining the stock spring rates. Sewell says that Lexus won't tell the dealers what the stock spring rates are. Didn't know it was such a secret lol.
Anyway, the softest rates I could find on coilovers are 10k front (megan street lp) and 7k rear(JIC flt-tar vip). Can I assume that aftermarket coilovers would not be softer than stock and therefore stock rates must be 10k/7k or less?
Just to muddy the waters, gixxer-drew uses 8.9k front and 4.5k rear (if my math is correct) on his setup for the SC400 and claims stock like ride.
Maybe one of you guys that have replaced your stock springs and have them laying around could compress them with a known weight and measure the amount of compression. Sorry if I'm getting too geeky here, but I would love to solve this "mystery".

 

moot point.

anything lower than stock height should have higher than stock spring rates to compensate for damper travel and/or less ground clearance.

everything aftermarket is going to have higher than stock rates. coilovers are significantly stiffer because of the perfomance nature and possibility of extreme drops.

just to put you in the ball park on your quest for answers, the tanabe df210 springs (closest to oem at 10-15% stiffer) are 6.3k f/3.0k r.

 

Thanks for the great info. I couldn't find the tanabe spring rate because I was looking at their coilovers instead of separate springs.
I'm on stock springs now and have less than 5 1/4" of ground clearance. Original specs are listed as 5 1/2" so the springs may have settled over the years.
I drive a winding canyon road that's often strewn with rocks so I don't want to go more than 1" lower.
Tanabes sound good but I didn't see a coilover application for the LS400.

 

there's a balance here:

1) ride height
2) ride comfort
3) performance

what are your goals?

 

since we on teh topic of coilovers, which one would u guys pick bettween megans and Tien Cs ? everyone here says megans rides nice kinda liek oem feel + its only around 800 vs tien where is super smooth but if ride very low it bottom out alot. my goal is to retain as much comfort with 19's and as possible and lowered about 1 - 1.5 inch from tire to fender.

thanks

 

1) performance
2) weight
3) ride comfort

The ride on the LS is so good that it can be degraded quite a bit before it becomes too harsh for me. I find my stock 2002 WRX to be comfortable, but a stock STI I drove was too harsh for my taste, to give you a frame of reference.

 

what year is your ls?

*edit - nm... i see it's a 95. i think my recommendation for you as far as coilovers go would be tein cs. relatively low spring rate, tein quality, and seeing as you are not looking for an aggresive drop they seem to fit the bill. i wouldn't count out a spring/shock combo either.

 

Good suggestion - not sure about "tein quality" though.
tein - 1 year warranty
bilstein - lifetime

 

that's pretty standard when comparing coilovers to aftermarket shocks.

i think the h&r/bilstein (top perch) combo might be right up your alley as well if you're not set on running coilovers.

 

Not familiar with that setup - who carries them?

 

it is the same setup as steveski on the first page, however putting the spring perch on the first (of 2) settings will yield closer to a 1 inch drop vs. his ~2" drop.

i know tirerack.com carries both h&r and bilstein.

 

Thanks, I'll check it out.

 

the biggest problem is that the bilsteins, same as pretty much every other spring/strut combo for hte LS, has no adjustable damping, and are full stroke shocks, which basically means the lower you go, the crappier the ride becomes. that's why the Megans and JICs work so well, they're full tap coils, which letts you adjust ride height separately from preload.

imho, buying new bilsteins+springs compared to a new set of megans is an easy choice. megans win.

the problem with the tein is that A-you can't go as low, B-it is NOT a full-tap coilover, the lower you go, the worse the ride, and C- it costs a lot more.