Poll: lift kit for Toyota Matrix station wagon?

breadplusbutter 4/28/2024 9:33am
4/28/2024 9:33am
breadplusbutter wrote:
Yeah fair enough. These cars rely on compression damping to maintain. Ride height, you’re probably best to replace everything at once, but just springs may help. ...

Yeah fair enough. These cars rely on compression damping to maintain. Ride height, you’re probably best to replace everything at once, but just springs may help. 
 

If your just trying to not scrape the rack/hitch you could pickup a hitch riser or get someone to chop/flip your hitch. 
 

Im sure you’ve picked on it, but I still don’t think strut spacers are a good idea… because this is a bike site, let’s compare them to running a satori heads up steerer extender or flipping your drops upside down for a more comfortable position. 

TEAMROBOT wrote:
I hear you, I guess I don't get why you think strut spacers are a problem. If my wheels and tires aren't heavier, and I just...

I hear you, I guess I don't get why you think strut spacers are a problem. If my wheels and tires aren't heavier, and I just replaced the rear struts three years ago with OEM KYB struts from the dealer, and the previous struts lasted 15 years, it seems like a small body lift in the back with fresh OEM springs should ride very close to stock, just 20mm higher in the back. You mentioned the A-arm and camber problems in your earlier post, but I'm not talking about doing a front lift, so I don't think I'd need to get an alignment. Unlike the front, the rear axles move vertically.

Serious question: help me understand what I'm missing here. Body lifts are super common in truck world. Of course in performance truck world its optimal to replace everything when you're doing a lift (springs, shocks, sway bars, tie rods, axles, A-arms, etc) but that's mega expensive and lots of people are driving around with a one or two inch body lift on their trucks doing fine.

Body lifts in the truck world are popular in the same way gel seat covers are popular in the cycling world. 
 

But you’re not doing a body lift, or the more popular “levelling kit” that many trucks have, you’re doing a strut spacer lift.

When you move your strut assembly down 20mm, you loose 20mm of up-travel, and down-travel. The up travel is obvious, there’s a spacer in the way now, the down travel is limited by your live axle dual trailing arm assembly. Without changing any of the other geometry your “swing” as it works on the axle no longer has the correct geometry. 
 

I won’t claim to be a suspension engineer, but I’ve owned a slew of pretty modified suspension vehicles, both lifts and lowered, and I’ve used spacers before, on that particular car. I’m just trying to warn you it’s a very ghetto way to achieve a bit of height, and is going to have negative ripple affects everywhere. Handling, braking, everything is affected.

How often are you dragging the hitch? Is it causing you to get stuck? It’s the lowest point in the rear, and perfectly fine to drag on the ground. If it’s only a few times a month, just let it hit the ground sometimes. It’s a better choice than hack modifying your car. 
 

I hope I’m not coming across too dickish, not my goal, trying to give you some real world first hand feedback. I’ve been entertained by your internet shenanigans for years! 

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