OEM length or shorter-travel shocks/struts for a car with lowered suspension?

Question

When lowering a car on lowering springs or coilover sleeves (any lowering without a matched shock/strut provided by the spring manufacturer), should I also try to source a shorter length shock?

Seems like going with an OEM replacement would result in a shock that's always in an already-compressed state, and therefore less functional than a shock permitted to move through the full range.

But maybe I'm overthinking this. A shorter shock probably has a shorter stroke length, too, which may make the difference between the two negligible.

Is there a best practice here? Recently came up because of a lack of off-the-shelf options for my project car.

Answer 1

The short answer is, it depends. Most spring manufacturers will specify if their springs are designed to work with OEM or uprated shock absorbers. For example on my old VW Bora, I fitted a set of H&R -35mm lowering springs specifically because they were the only ones I could find that were TUV approved for use with standard shocks.

You may also find that certain spring setups work better with shortened (polybush, etc) bump stops. It's also possible to switch out components such as top-mounts with more appropriate items.

Your best bet is to speak to resellers or manufacturers and ask them directly. The rule of thumb is that more extreme amounts of lowering will almost certainly require replacements of the shockers with performance units.