VilleS2K

Long story short. I had Swift Sport Mach springs and now have Tein S-Tech springs on stock shocks on my AP1. The rear has always felt great, but with both springs, the front felt "floaty" around corners and didn't seem to drop enough (closer to 1/2" than 1"). So I conducted some research and learned about preloading the control arm bushings (namely from this thread). I started to think that my mechanic didn't do this upon installation, so I took my car to a wheel/tire/suspension shop familiar with S2000s. Took them less than an hour, and I noticed a drastic, immediate difference! First, the car sits a half inch lower in the front and looks great (rear was OK, as you don't have to take off the control arms when installing springs, so the rear bushings stay in place). Second, that "floaty" feeling is gone, and the car feels planted in the front.

Moral of the story. If you had springs (or even coilovers I suppose) installed and aren't sure if the bushings were preloaded, or if the car feels "floaty," go do this ASAP. It makes a major difference to appearance and handling.

PS - I know this is suspension 101 to some of you guys, but I thought this might benefit the novices out there.

///RS-2000

Good info. This tends to get overlooked a lot. Since it's such a small step.

VilleS2K

Yep, small step for a big change. And I bet there are quite a few owners that modified their suspension without preloading the bushings. That was me for a while.

hai1206vn

Another huge benefit is all bushings will last much longer, since they aren't twisted at static height.