Ok, so I read the FAQ but it all just went right over my head. I'm looking at purchasing a 2003 Accord at a good price, but it's been lowered. Now I don't know anything about this kind of stuff so I need some help. It says it has: *19" premium wheels with 40 series performance tires
*Coil-over adjustable ride struts
I've tried reading up and it sounds like there can be uneven tire wear and other problems but there can also be no problems with lowering. So what should I ask him about the lowering? I don't mind the look of it so if there's not a lot of issues associated with it I wouldn't mind buying it. Also, if it's adjustable, can't I just raise it back to factory height and remove any potential problems that way?

Here's a pic of it

 

You can raise it back to factory height, but I don't think anyone could tell you what that is unless they measure the exact same model. Also, the spring rates are designed to give a decent ride all teh way lowered, so they'll be just as rough as they are fully lowered.

Ask the seller is there is a rear camber kit on the car. The camber and toe are what will cause tire wear and they are usually adjusted back to factory spec after being lowered by getting an alignment. A toe is adjustable from the factory, a rear camber kit needs to be added to adjust the camber.

 

I don't necessarily want to move it back to factory height, I just don't want to deal with crazy tire wear. So if it has a rear camber kit on the car, that's been adjusted back to factory spec, the tires wear like normal?

Also, what about reverting it back to stock? Is it possible to get factory shocks/struts/whatever it is and just have it reverted?

 

Yep, having it adjusted back to factory specs the tires will not wear out like crazy. But, there's sort of a catch, those wheels probably have a "high performance" tire on them and THOSE will wear out faster than a regular passenger car tire. If you look at the car, read the tire sidewalls and check the UTQC rating of the tire. It will say something like "Traction AA Temperature A Treadwear 280". An AA traction rating puts the tires in teh high performance class and the treadwear rating is the how fast the tires wears out compared to the test tire with a value of 100. 280 falls in the middle. Most passenger tires have a treadwear between 400 and 600. You can easily keep the wheels and put a higher treadwear tire on them when the current ones wear out too. For example, I have 18" wheels and no use for high performance tires so I bought Kumho Ecsta LX Platinums for $99/ea and they have a treadwear of 600.

Ask the seller if he has and will included the factory wheels and tires with the car, steel or alloy or whatever.

As far as the suspension goes, the seller may have kept the shocks and springs and you can ask those be included as well. Going back to a stock suspension is easy and a shop shouldn't charge more than $300 to do it.

A rear camber kit is simply an upper control arm with some adjustability in it. If the seller says he has onr installed, you can double check by looking at the wheels. If the wheels tilts in towards the car at an angle, that would tell you there isn't one there or they just installed one and never adjusted it. A wheel with factory camber settings will look vertical, but will tilt in about 1* or so, whereas (depending on how much it's dropped) will tilt in anywhere from 1* to 4*.

Judging by the picture, it doesn't look lowered more than 2 inches and it has a camber kit installed.

EDIT: Ask the seller what brand of coilovers they are. Common, good quality coilovers would be Ground Control (GC), Skunk2, K-Sport, Omni, Function & Form (F1 or F2), Eibach, Tein, AMR, Neuspeed. If they can't produce a name, I'd be a little wary of the quality of the parts. You could even report back what color the springs are and we could match them to a company.

 

Yea, he said it was lowered 2 inches. I would do what you said with the tires if I got it. From what I read 40 series tires are just asking to be decimated by a pot hole so I would put non high performance tires on them but I would need it to be raised to do that judging from the picture.

So basically ask him if he has the original wheels and tires and if so I could just raise it up and put those on and all will be well? It would essentially be the same just with non factory shocks and springs?

And if he doesn't have the factory wheels, I can raise it and put non high performance tires on the 19" inch rims when the ones on it wear down and all will be well again?

And if he has the original shocks and springs I can just have it reverted for not too much and then put regular tires once the high performance wear out?

Thanks for your help.

Here's another angle if this helps

 

Well, I have 225/40/R18 tires on right now and have hit quite a few potholes (I live in MN, they're everywhere), they're actually pretty beefy. It doesn't matter if they're high performance or not, a tire size is a tire size and sticking as close as possible to the same overall diameter as the factory ones will give you the best results.

You wouldn't even have to raise it. Stock wheels will fit in there just fine, I was lowered about 2.5" on 14" steel wheels for a long time before I got alloys. And yes, it would essentially be the same. All 40 series tires are not created equal, it really depends on how wide the tire (first set of numbers) to get an idea of how thick a 40 series would be. My 225/40 is much thicker than, say, a 315/40 you would find on a sports car.

Like I said above, raising the car will have no effect on wheel fitment. I try to explain how big wheels work in relation to stock wheels. I have 18" wheels with 225/40/R18 tires, my stock 15" steel wheels I got with car have 195/65/R15 tires on them. If you rolled them up next to each other, their overall size is exactly the same, meaning they still take up the same amount of space in the wheel well.

You can use this calculator to see what I mean:
http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

Yep.

Here are some pics of my wheels closer up so you can see exactly what I'm talking about.

 

Ok, I emailed him with questions based on what you wrote and this is what he said:

The car was lowered with Tien adjustable coil-over struts. I don't have the factory struts.
The camber was corrected to minimize tire wear issues and keep the wheels straight.
Due to the coil-overs being adjustable, you could easily return the car to factory height and reset the camber at any alignment shop.
the 40-series tires can be replaced with 50s or something else at your preferrence on these wheels.
There are factory wheels available for pretty cheap on Craigslist now and then. I don't have my originals.

So it sounds to me that when I go give it a look tomorrow and I like it, I shouldn't be worried about the lowering because I could either leave it the way it is since the camber was corrected, or if I don't want to buy the expensive tires when it needs new ones I can buy regular tires with more tread?

I wrote back and he added this also:
I've had these tires on for 2 years. They're ZR rated so they're stickier then normal and wear a little more.
Some harder tires will be fine and not be 200/tire like these.

 

Teins are good and have a soft ride, I think you wouldn't mind it.

You can buy tires that are the same size, just not intended for "high performance". You would be looking for a luxury (BMW/Lexus?Acura) OEM tire without all the bells and whistles.

But other than that, everything you said is correct. You could even sell the wheels and buy some stock alloys and break even.

 

Ok, thanks for all the help. Everything sounds good then. I could have just went for a stock one but I need a new car and this one has navigation and everything at a really good price because it has 120,000 miles on it but being an Accord and all and the fact that I only drive 4,000 miles a year, probably less (living a mile from work is beautiful) the mileage isn't really a problem for me.

 

Wow! I racked up 30,000 miles in 12 months of owning my car! Haha. I hope it all works out, it looks pretty good.

Only 120,000 miles? That car isn't even broken in yet!