Jim
I wanted a very minor lowering kit for my 2003 TB, When I first got the TB, I was going to do the 2/3 Belltech kit with new shocks and 22's on it. I’ve owned my TB for about 6 months and things have changed so much since the beginning.
My TB has 96k miles on it now, it’s getting close to the 100k mark and after tabbing up the amount I would put into it with what I wanted to do in the beginning, it doesn't make sense to dump that much into it at those miles.
The reason why I say this, is I was chasing a stall issue on my TB and I’ve replaced parts that prob didn’t need to be replaced and I am still experiencing a stall issue on the vehicle. The other reason is the TB sucks for gas mileage, there is nothing that can be done to fix this. I’ve thought of making the TB lighter by removing the front drive shaft (I don’t use my 4WD at all), rear hitch (Don’t tow), getting light rims (the cost just doesn’t justify) to see if gas mileage would improve, but I am thinking it won’t matter.
So I went a different route with my lowering intentions.
I scored on a brand new 1.5/3 inch McGaughy's Lowering kit for $130 shipped on EBay. I installed the rear coils (They’ve settled a bit more since the pic was taken) and the ugly rake that I had before is gone, it really looks good and the front well I like the height but want a .5inch lowering. Since I have 1.5 inch front lowering coils, I’ve decided on the
Belltech 9510 - 1" Street Performance Lift and Lowering Shock Absorber Set, I intend to lift the front by 1” and since I have 1.5” lowering coils, it should level out and I should get my .5” lowering on the front, which won’t require the front modified A arms since there is no drastic lowering.
The stock suspension is horrible on these Trailblazers, I’ve noticed since I have the rear coils changed out that my stock fronts are bouncy, and jarring over bumps. The black blistens are also shot, which show when the road isn’t smooth.
I can’t wait to put on the new shocks and front coils, it really should improve the ride to my liking.
Since the car is lowered, I’ve decided to keep the 16” rims, was going 18” but again more cost into a vehicle that is almost 100k miles.
It currently has 245/75/16s and I can feel these tires, they just feel heavy. I am going to go 255/60/16 to take some of the heavy feeling off and hopefully get at least 1 mpg savings, but who knows. I don’t mind the gap either, I’ve been noticing the factory TB has gaps on the fender.
This is my alternative to lowering the TB, keeping my costs under $700 vs $2k+ on the parts I wanted to get.