senor honda

On my 2018 Charger, the ground up to fender lip is 30" from the ground.
I have P215/65/R17 Michelins and 17" x 7" wheels that were on the car new.
Front springs are black with red tags on them. Haven't looked at the back yet.

I'm wondering if I just lucked out.
I haven't looked closely under the car, but I thought about lowering the front (and also the rear) by another 1"without reaching the 28" that you mentioned. I need to find some adjustable control arms front and rear before lowering it.
Any adjustable control arm suggestions?

I like the smaller wheels since they lower the car. Bigger diameter rims interfere with lowering.
I don't mind that people want the "look" of "filling up the wheelwells", but I want good cornering
with a lower car instead.

senor honda

At all 4 corners? Seems odd that it would not have a rake to its stance, even if only a slight one, but I guess that's not all that out of place nowadays...I'm just old-school, I like the look of just a little rake to the car's ride height...I was thinking they stopped using 17" rims and tires back in 2010, but if you have some on yours, then I have been mistaken. I know I haven't seen any newer LXs with 17" wheels in a long time, but then again it seems like everyone has the 20" rims on them lately. I have been thinking I will get some 20" rims eventually for mine (once it is no longer painted like a cop car), but having to shell the cash for both new rims AND tires all at once is going to make me put it off for a while, I can already tell.

I dislike the look of these cars when they have a large gap between the top of the tires and the bottom of the fender well, regardless of the rim size. But once that is dealt with, the look of the wheels and tires on the car is a more nuanced thing for me. I used to not care about what size the rims were, but over time I find myself noticing more and more when an LX with < 20" rims drives by. There is something about the amount of tire that I can see that just draws my eye to them, and that's disconcerting since I have 18" wheels and tires on mine (always have, across 2 Challengers and this Charger).

It's hard to explain, and it's definitely a personal preference thing, but I find now that the look of a 20" rim and tire on these cars is less noticeable when admiring them from afar, and that's basically what I'm looking for (eventually) with mine.Does the tag have a Mopar part number on it, e.g. 4895451AA? That part number is from something else, but any Mopar part number will have the same basic format - 6 to 8 digits followed by 2 capital letters. If you can get the exact part number off one of those springs' tags (it will be the same on all 4), you should be able to look up the springs' spring rate from the factory. And with that info in hand, you can make decisions on any aftermarket (or OEM) lower springs based upon their spring rates and expected ride height drop (assuming you decide to go with some).That's a pretty common suspension mod for the Challengers I know, and it sounds like for these Chargers as well. Most people don't want to go much further than an inch, and as a result, most of the intro-level lowering springs you can find these cars will only drop the ride height about an inch or so when installed.

The Stage 1s I installed on mine are supposed to only drop an inch, and they did just that at first, but once I started in with the el-cheapo struts and shocks, things got muddled and the ride height dropped further than the promised inch. I do think mine is an edge case though, and the Mopar Stage 1s will not normally drop your car more than an inch in most any other circumstances. There are lots of people that have installed them, and I have never heard anyone complain about them, so they are a solid option for a suspension mod IMHO.You don't have to unless the alignment cannot be done and would require such hardware, and from what I understand on the situation, you can get away with an inch to an inch and half drop from OE ride height and still get an alignment done without any extra special hardware.

Now, that assumes the car's original ride height was not already lower than normal (like an SRT or something), and it also assumes that the person doing the alignment is competent and willing to think outside the box when trying to effect the alignment on the car. In other words, even a modest 1" drop could cause your average Firestone or City Garage alignment tech to refuse service saying, "it's way out of spec and there is not enough adjustment room to get it into spec!" But if you have a relationship with the local Dodge house, and their alignment tech is willing to get your car aligned by any means necessary before requiring you to buy more parts, then that same 1" drop could be dealt with by using the alignment specs from an SRT model of the same year, and in some rare cases the engine cradle and/or rear cradle might have to be moved slightly to one side or the other too.

In terms of personal experience, I can offer this:
- on a previous LX (2011 Challenger) that I lowered an inch in the front and an inch and a half in the rear, I was able to get it aligned without any extra hardware. We had to use the SRT specs to do it, but that's it.
- my current situation will probably require some extra hardware at some point, but I have not purchased or installed any just yet. I am not nearly done pulling it apart (especially the struts) and putting it back together, so I figured I would wait to deal with the alignment stuff until I was done taking the front end apart and replacing things. Otherwise I would just have to keep taking it back for another alignment after I got done replacing whatever.
- even though my extreme drop in ride height has thrown off the alignment, it is not so bad that I cannot deal with it for now. I just drove to Atlanta and back on the same tires that the car had when I got it several months ago, and they were definitely worn down from the trip, but they weren't ruined or anything from abnormal wear from the mal-aligned front end.

This is all anecdotal evidence, yes, so please take it for what it's worth as related to any of your future situations.I honestly have none. I have done the minimal amount of research to know what is involved in installing them, but I couldn't even tell you which brands offered them right now. But again, you may not need any. Be sure to investigate further before shelling out the money for them, I would say.The lowered ride height and wheel size certainly help corning, but don't forget about the anti-sway bars as well. Having a thicker set on front and back can make a difference in the really tight curves (taken at excessive speeds ), so they should be on the list of any suspension mods if true cornering superiority are the goal, IMHO.


And with that, I must bid you Mountain Dew. I was supposed to start working on work stuff about 30 minutes ago, yet I'm still on this blasted forum! I swear, if I could just find someone to pay me to hang out on this one and the handful of others I belong to, I would be the best employ in the world!! I would be early every day, leave late, never take vacations, and probably truly try my hardest to get promotions!

Oh well, a man can dream, can't he?!?!

senor honda

There is a viable alternative to replacing the OE springs with an aftermarket set to lower the car's ride height, and I totally spaced on mentioning it in my last post: replacing the OE springs with a set of SRT springs.

I haven't heard of many people doing it in the last few years, but that was all the rage back in 2010-2012 I would say. I even caught the fever and did it to my 2011 Challenger. I was very pleased with the results, I recommend it to anyone looking to lower their LX without going too low (and they don't already have an SRT obviously).

You can probably expect a little over an inch in the rear but right at or a little less than an inch in the front if you were to do this mod. That sounds like what you were looking for instead of the more pronounced drops that the aftermarket springs will get you.

Anyway, just some food for thought. Cheers!