Eibach Pro-Kit Springs and Sway Bar Review w/ pics

[Zotto]

Was that just springs?

you have the link?

 

[Kamauxx]

Was that just springs?

you have the link?

Yes, springs alone. Just search Google for Kia Stinger Eibach springs. I'm sure you'll pull up some results.

 

[Zotto]

Yup around $328 Canadian, sounds about right.

 

[xot1]

I got mine on eBay for $240 with free shipping.

Did you pay for the install? or did you do it in your garage?

 

[Kamauxx]

Did you pay for the install? or did you do it in your garage?

I'm having them installed Monday.

 

[mandasol]

I had my springs installed by a tire shop for $300, plus an extra $79 for alignment. A few weeks later I had a mechanic that works on hod rods and imports install the front and rear bars for $200.

If you have the right tools you could do it yourself in your garage, but it looked like a major PITA to me. Car has to be lifted and wheels removed, and access is real tight to the bolts.

 

[xot1]

I had my springs installed by a tire shop for $300, plus an extra $79 for alignment. A few weeks later I had a mechanic that works on hod rods and imports install the front and rear bars for $200.
If you have the right tools you could do it yourself in your garage, but it looked like a major PITA to me. Car has to be lifted and wheels removed, and access is real tight to the bolts.

Here, they charge around 550usd for both bars with install cost included so I thought it was excessive when I saw that the bars cost only 250. But now I see that it is about the same! (I thought the install was cheaper)

 

[Ozstung]

I had my springs installed by a tire shop for $300, plus an extra $79 for alignment. A few weeks later I had a mechanic that works on hod rods and imports install the front and rear bars for $200.

If you have the right tools you could do it yourself in your garage, but it looked like a major PITA to me. Car has to be lifted and wheels removed, and access is real tight to the bolts.

That's about $515 Aud springs and alignment. Just had mine installed and a alignment- $550 included tax.

 

[Mr Skillet]

did the shop remove the spring isolator (the "sleeve" of extra material on the 1st coil of the factory springs) and install this on the eibach springs

 

[Ozstung]

did the shop remove the spring isolator (the "sleeve" of extra material on the 1st coil of the factory springs) and install this on the eibach springs

Personally I didn't have my head under there when he was doing it. I was conducting some retail therapy many miles away.

 

[kevin]

This ended up being way longer than I was expecting but I know a lot of people are looking at these mods and I wanted to answer as many questions as possible.

Last week I was able to have the Eibach Pro-Kit Springs, and Front and Rear Swaybars installed.

First I want to thank Jeremy Sexton from Car Mods America for getting me the parts. I was having trouble finding all the parts in stock and made a post of FB and he reached out and got me set up with everything at a great price. They are still setting up their website with parts but you can reach out to him at Jeremy@carmodsamerica.com

I also want to thank Vinnie from Vinnie's Exotics in Baton Rouge. He took a break from working on Ferraris, Bentleys and Porsches to work on my Kia. Luckily he saw my Stinger at the detail shop around the corner from his shop a few months ago and then bought his wife an AWD GT1.

Springs: The springs are listed by Eibach as being for the AWD Stinger. However I confirmed with Eibach that they fit and function fine on the RWD car. As of a couple weeks ago they were in the process of updating their documentation, but it looks like the website still hasn't been updated.

The ride is firmer however it is not harsh. My previous car was on fully adjustable H&R Coils at about 75% firmness, this is no where near that harsh. But it is a sportier ride and moves a bit away from the GT style.

The biggest difference is the "float" over bumps is pretty much eliminated. Previously when the car would hit a bump the spring/shock would compress then bounce 2-3 times to help reduce the impact of the bump which felt like "float". The bounce has been reduced.

Also on hard acceleration and braking the pitching back and forth has been eliminated. This makes having to brake and turn (i.e. evasive maneuvers) feel much more under control. Hard acceleration has lost some of the squat then go feeling, it just goes.

Drop Measurement - this is a ground to fender measurement with a 1/2 tank of gas.
Rear:27.5"
Rear: 26.5"
Overal: 1" (1.125” after settling, see update below)

Front:27.375"
Front: 26.5"
Overall:0.875" (1” after settling, see update below)

The drop is sufficient enough to make a difference, however it does not look obviously lowered. Its a good look if you are not trying to draw more attention than just people admiring how good the car looks.

Update: The car dropped another 1/8” front and rear after 2+ weeks and 300-400 miles.

Eibach Pro-Kit Springs and Sway Bar Review w/ pics

Sway Bars: The rear sway bar is a pretty straight forward install, remove the end link, remove the mounting bracket, slide sway bar out from the side. This can probably be done on jack stands by just taking the wheels off. The most difficult part looked to be getting to the drivers side mounting bracket because of the fuel lines. Just use a small ratchet and you'll be good.

I had the rear bar set at the soft setting to start. Switching to the harder setting is easy, remove the bolt to the end link and move to the harder setting. This might be able to be done without taking the wheel off which would make changes at the track very easy.

Overall the car is very flat now in the corners. As much as the the Stinger got praise for its handling in early reviews it leaned quite a bit in the corners. That has pretty much been eliminated at this point.

One change that Im not sure if is due to the Springs or the Sways or a combination of both, is that previously going around corners with bumps the car felt unsettled. Now the car had no issues.

Overall Impressions: Ive had Springs/Coils and Sways on every car Ive owned so I knew I would be happy with this modification and it did not disappoint. It may take away a bit from the pure GT style but in o way is the car uncomfortable. It even got the wife seal of approval, as we were in the car this weekend she asked if I was happy with the changes and I asked her if she could tell a difference "feels the same to me".

The only issue I have now is the headlights are aimed too low, which is common after changing the suspension. I'll just need to adjust the headlights up slightly.

Alignment: Obviously once you change the springs an alignment is needed. If you have a Firestone near you I would suggest buying their Lifetime Alignment. Its $180 if you buy it online and gets you free alignments for the life of the car. Basically if you get 3 alignments its paid for itself.

I ran into an issue with Firestone not having the alignment specs for the Stinger yet. Surprisingly the Kia dealer didn't either. Luckily this post here had alignment specs (thanks @Killa200) and I was able to give these to Firestone and they got everything straightened out. The rear toe was really bad so Im glad I went the next day after install. Ill get it checked again in about 300 miles once the springs have settled a bit more.

Now for the pics

TLDR: Buy Springs and Sways, you won't be sad

 

[kevin]

I had a simple question, I am contemplating this mod kit as well... as I to have always used Eibach Springs and have been really impressed!! The rear bar is probably gonna give you the most bang for buck seat of the pants real corner carving enhancements! My question is this, how easy is it to adjust the LED headlights on it? Not even sure that a 1 inch drop is even gonna be significant to make an adjustment??? Thanks in advance for the in depth review!!

 

[DaJackson]

I had a simple question, I am contemplating this mod kit as well... as I to have always used Eibach Springs and have been really impressed!! The rear bar is probably gonna give you the most bang for buck seat of the pants real corner carving enhancements! My question is this, how easy is it to adjust the LED headlights on it? Not even sure that a 1 inch drop is even gonna be significant to make an adjustment??? Thanks in advance for the in depth review!!

Actually the headlights dropped quite a bit for me. Adjusting it is easy, a bolt on the back of the headlight. Search for a “headlight adjustment” thread with a post from me and I have a detailed write up on how to do it.

 

[kevin]

Thank you sir! Is the ride stiffer then the car in Sport Mode? I also can feel the difference between Comfort and Sport, there is not only a stiffer feel, but a rebound change. I don’t know why people say they can’t feel it. It’s very prodiminant to me. My only other concern is getting into my driveway! It’s really close with another 1’ + drop. Does anyone have any suggestions to over come the set back of the driveway? Don’t want to tear up the under side of the front spoiler.

 

[Dochidalgo]

I had a simple question, I am contemplating this mod kit as well... as I to have always used Eibach Springs and have been really impressed!! The rear bar is probably gonna give you the most bang for buck seat of the pants real corner carving enhancements! My question is this, how easy is it to adjust the LED headlights on it? Not even sure that a 1 inch drop is even gonna be significant to make an adjustment??? Thanks in advance for the in depth review!!

The same questions I asked...the first one with confusing answers, and maybe I'm wrong with the conclusions. The second one, I asked a precise questions about headlights beam measurerements but I got 2 answers (one of them from a fellow member of another forum) . Said the above..

1) Installing the front and rear sway bars...excellent suspension performance..in AWD and RWD cars...no doubt about it...
The front rear bar alone is recommended in RWD cars. But others recommended the rear sway bar in RWD cars...so ???
After the springs install, I realized that the car do not need the sway bars IMHO, I got the confidence and stability to take the curves and corners.
2) The first day after I installed the springs I did not any beam pattern change, in fact the Dynamic low beam assist compensated the dropped beam on one ocassion. But, I had to adjust the beam manually like DaJackson described in his post.
But I had to know this measure...

Headlights center beam height
https://www.stingerforum.org/forum/threads/2221-Headlights-center-beam-height

3) Personally, I feel less float and more firm the suspension performance in confort mode but even more in sport mode.
4) My car drops 2.54 cm front and 3 cm rear...


Hope these help you...

 

[Mr Skillet]

Actually the headlights dropped quite a bit for me. Adjusting it is easy, a bolt on the back of the headlight. Search for a “headlight adjustment” thread with a post from me and I have a detailed write up on how to do it.

I removed one of the airboxes, but realized that a skinny long Phillips screw driver does the job just as well.

 

[DaJackson]

I removed one of the airboxes, but realized that a skinny long Phillips screw driver does the job just as well.

If you can get that to work good for you, I couldn’t get any movement that way.

 

[Rango]

I'm installing Eibach springs and both front and rear sway bars in three days. Gonna set the sways on the "comfort" setting as they have 2 settings to choose from. My question. I have a GT2 with self leveling headlights on start up. Wouldn't this leveling feature compensate for the direction of my beams after install of the springs?

 

[Mr Skillet]

If you can get that to work good for you, I couldn’t get any movement that way.

With the airbox off, I was watching the bolt movement as I turned the screw driver, but I needed half a dozen rotations before there was a visible movement of the light beam. I had to try a few screw drivers before I got one that can reach the geared teeth on the backside of the bolt.

 

[kevin]

how long is the install on the front bar and the front springs on the rwd model??