Installing Toyota Matrix spindles is one of the easiest and most effective ways to lift or lower your ride without affecting your ride quality or ability to achieve a proper alignment whatsoever. Since aftermarket spindles simply relocate the spindle pins higher or lower than stock (depending on whether you are lifting or lowering your front end), there is no change in your actual suspension unless, of course, you are also installing coil springs or an adjustable suspension (i.e., hydraulics, coilovers, or airbags).

Spindles are one of our preferred methods of lifting or lowering a vehicle. With no change in ride quality and virtually no downsides to using them, they really are a no-brainer when changing your Toyota Matrix ride height. The only negative effect we've ever encountered has been a small reduction in turning radius with some spindles when using stock-sized wheels on certain vehicles (the backsides of the wheels would hit the back of the lower control arms), but since most of us run plus-sized wheels this usually isn't a concern.

Q: What exactly is a spindle?
A: According to DJM Suspension: "While control arms might be considered the horizontal members of the front end, spindles would be the vertical member that ties the control arms together. Both upper and lower control arms attach themselves through ball joints to the spindle. This is a cast iron part where the machined or steering knuckle is located. The wheel bearings and brake rotors are mounted to the axle, and the spindle also locates the brake caliper and tie rod end (steering). Steering knuckles are found on some late model trucks. They do exactly the same thing as a traditional spindle only there is no axle mounted in them. A hub center which has wheel bearings and wheel mounting hubs integrated together just bolts into the knuckle."

Q: Why buy a spindle?
A: We sell spindles that lower your truck. Dropped spindles are simply spindle castings where the axle (or hub center) is moved up away from the lower ball joint. This lowers your truck by moving your wheel up in the fender well. There is a limit to how far you can move the axle up (you run out of casting), which is why you see most spindle applications drop about 2 inches.

Q: Will drop spindles affect the camber of my tires? Will I need to re-align them?
A: No, one of the beauties of using drop spindles to lower your truck is that they maintain the camber of the wheels since the interact with the control arms the same as the factory spindle does. The only drawback to spindles is that there is only so far you can lower your truck with drop spindles alone. So if you are happy with a moderate drop, then drop spindles are probably the best possible option overall. If you want to get more drop than the drop spindle alone offers, you can add a dropped coil spring to the mix. It accomplishes the purpose of additional lowering, but you lose suspension travel (which reduces ride quality). Lowered coils also have a higher spring rate, (which reduces ride quality) and you usually need to replace your shock absorber with a shorter one (this could reduce ride quality). And all of this costs more. A spindle and spring combination will lower your truck a long way, but pay attention to wheel clearance, alignment, and watch your ride quality. At some point the loss of suspension travel might get too you.