Mod Description

The engine bay is quite restrictive so lowering the engine a bit can help a lot.

Mod Details

PremiumYes Difficulty Mod ID1099 Creditevilution For Linkhttps://evilution.co.uk/mod/lowering-the-engine-roadster.htm Copy to Clipboard

The Quick And Cheating Way

Most of the time you’ll want to lower the right side of the engine, doing this allows you to gain access to the pulleys, tensioners and belts. You can also change the alternator and waterpump.

Remove the rear panels, Jack the rear of the car up, remove the wheel and remove the wheel arch liner.

The belts have a protective cover held in with a pair of slide out clips. There is one of these located on each side of the suspension spring cup.

Using a pair of pliers, wiggle and pull and they will slide out, the guard will come loose.

Remove the bolts from the X frame on either side and remove it from the car. The lower E18 bolt is 100Nm on refitting.

Place the head of a trolley jack under the gearbox housing and take the weight.

Underneath the X frame you will find 2 bolts for the engine mount, remove them.

Now as you take the weight off of the jack, the engine will move down.

The movement is happily taken up by the other 2 engine mounts. If you require it to drop a bit further, loosen the other mount bolts slightly.

With the jack lowered fully you should get about 8 inches of clearance on the belt side.

It is better to lower the engine instead of the entire cradle as it means there is less weight being lowered, the wheel does not move down when the engine is lowered and most importantly, the brake lines do not twist or skew. The cradle should only be lowered when using the proper drop bolts.

The Smart Official Way

This is what smart does at the dealer.

What you will need is Smart part number 450 589 00 62 00 (lowering pins).
However, you can now buy copies, or we started making them in small quantities for sale on SmartMods. Click.

If they don’t have stock, you can get a kit on Amazon. Click here to buy this kit.

You have 2 lengths of bolt, partially threaded with all the same thread.