Hey guys, new IS250 owner here. In fact, I have not had a car in many years. I have been driving trucks for quite a while. Most of them have been 4x4 and lifted up. So lowering is new and a little foreign to me. The last vehicle I had that I lowered was a Ford Lightning truck and I had a complete full suspension put on it. Im not even sure what all was done to be honest..

That being said... I recently purchased a 2007 Lexus IS250 to be a daily driver to save a little on gas.. And, I thought it would be fun to drive and something different.

I swore to myself I wouldnt put a ton of money into this car and "fix it all up"... so Im trying to keep things pretty simple and cheap. I think all I really want to do is mainly a few cosmetic things. (rim color, window tint, ride height).

So i did alot of research and Im going to attempt to plasti dip my rims a dark gun metal grey color to resemble an F sport rim color. Getting windows tinted today... and last thing I want to do is lower it. So here are my questions...

I want to just lower it a little. Not really much at all. I still want to be able to see the entire tire and it not be tucked up under the fender. In fact, maybe even a small gap still. Hoping whatever I do will not sacrifice ride quality since again, this is my daily driver. And realistically, I would hope this wont effect me driving into driveways, speed bumps, etc.

Any advice? I did a little reading and seems like H&R springs are a good option? What about just replacing with stock F Sport springs or something? Anyone have a link on ebay or somewhere of exactly what I would be looking for? Seems as though there are a lot of different Lexus IS springs on ebay. Also... what is a decent price to have these installed at a shop?

again, thanks ahead of time and sorry for the newbie questions.

 

Hi - congrats on the new wheels, I'm sure it will be a nice adjustment for you! I'm by no means an expert on this but I see no one has yet replied so at a minimum, this will serve as a bump to your thread!
My suggestion would be to read through some of the threads in the Suspension/Brakes forum. There really is a ton of valuable info. Personally, I found that I didn't know what I didn't know so just reading through threads helped me get clearer and helped focus my needs better. Best to take your time and research before jumping into it! Best of luck!

 

Here's what a 2IS will look like lowered on H&Rs :



&



BTW, the above owner is also running 15mm spacers; so just keep that in mind.

 

is it possible to lower just the rear to get it level with the front?

 

Don't do that. You never want to mix different springs (stock front + aftermarket rear), this will upset both the geometry and handling characteristics of the suspension big time.

If you want custom height adjustment such as lower on the rear than the front, you can consider coilover. However, I still don't recommend the idea of lower the rear only unless you don't care about handling. It doesn't look good either.

Also, H&R gives you one of the best even drops out there as you can see in the picture.

 

thanks never thought about the handling part.

 

07 IS350 here with just under 83K miles. What is the risk of running new H&R springs on the existing struts? I'm pretty sure they are the original struts.

Not looking to spend money on the install of springs just to have a strut blow in 5k miles...

 

Stock shocks usually go out around 60k to 85k, your shocks are the end of its life. I highly recommend getting all 4 new shocks with your H&R springs. I highly recommend F Sport shocks. I recently installed them as well on my 06 IS350 and handling is so much more firm and smooth in corner. They are specifically designed by Lexus for the IS running on lower springs.