Citroen C4 Aircross Coilovers

Kit prices vary enormously by brand and by what the car is for, and our network can source across that range. What is more predictable is the labour: allow three to four hours for the fitment plus a full geometry alignment afterwards, and treat the alignment as part of the job rather than an optional extra. Lowering a car changes camber and toe, and driving away without setting them will destroy a set of tyres in a few thousand kilometres. Send the VIN and tell us what the car is used for.

Oil on the damper body, knocking over bumps, ride height that has settled unevenly side to side, and a car that keeps moving after a bump instead of settling once. On lowered C2 and C4 setups the top mount bearings take more load at a worse angle than standard and wear noticeably faster, so a squeak or notchiness on lock is worth investigating early. A bounce test at each corner plus a look for leaks diagnoses most of it in minutes.

60,000 to 100,000 km of street use is a fair expectation, and considerably less on a car that sees track days. Our surfaces shorten seal life, and coastal humidity is a specific problem for coilovers because the threaded body and locking collars corrode — at which point the height is no longer adjustable without a fight. Cleaning and greasing the threads once a year is the single maintenance job that keeps a kit usable.

Check three things in this order. Top mount bearings, which take the most abuse on a lowered car. The perch collars, which work loose if they were not locked properly at fitment. And the spring seating itself — on an aggressively lowered setup the spring can go slack at full droop and reseat with a knock. All three are visible with the car on a hoist, so this is a diagnosis rather than a guess.

Kits exist for most of the range that people modify: C1, C2, C3, C4, Xsara and C5. The performance variants and the DS3 have the widest choice simply because more of them get modified. Two cars are worth flagging as exceptions — the C5 with Hydractive hydraulic suspension and the C5 Aircross with Progressive Hydraulic Cushion dampers are not conventional strut cars, and coilover conversions for them are specialist territory rather than an off-the-shelf kit. Tell us the exact model and we will check.