Old Man Emu Lift Kit

After lot of research and chatting to other Jimny owners on Instagram I chose the Old Man Emu 40mm lift. My goal was to stiffen the ride and reduce the head wobble that the stock suspension has. I wanted to improve was the road manners, especially under load.

Obviously off road capability improves with better suspension as well as the overall stance of the car, but unlike most people that to me is an added bonus.

The stock suspension gets a rough time from reviewers and I’ve always felt like they’re overreacting to how terrifying the Jimny is to drive. That said, it’s hardly perfect and I was generally sitting at 60 mph with the camping set up on the car. This felt ok to me.

Frankly, I’d have thought twice about adding a lift if I never ran with a camper setup or did zero off roading, not that I go crazy anyway.

Purchase

I went with Storm Customs to order the lift kit. They helped a lot with good advice on what I should do for my specific circumstances. A massive plus point for me was their willingness to let me demo what their Jimny feels like with the kit installed. Big thanks to Mike who took time out of his weekend to accommodate me.

Mike performed some manoeuvres in his Jimny I wouldn’t have dreamt of doing with the stock set up. An excellent demonstration to justify the benefits of the install.

Here’s the exact kit I went with:

• Front Coil Spring Pair: 3144 
• Front Shocks Pair: 60154 
• Rear Coil Spring Pair: 3146
• Rear Shocks Pair: 60155
• Rear Panhard Rod Bracket and bump stop extensions FK96
• Headlight Level Sensor Bracket FK97 
• Castor Correction Bushes OMECA001
• Extended brake hose
• 10mm spring spacers.

I also bought 30mm wheel spacers from Jimnybits.com.

Installation

Storm Customs did the install, they even let me film some of it 🙂 hopefully I didn’t get too much in the way. Being a non mechanical kinda guy it was interesting to see the attention to detail that went into installing it. They have a few little mods up their sleeve after already fitting this suspension to a few Jimny’s. They know what they’re doing.

This video timestamps direct to the clip from the install.

Result

Ok so it feels like there’s little difference at normal town speeds 20-30mph but most noticeably there’s far less body roll when cornering and on roundabouts. That’s probably quite obvious to you but we think it’s great. We definitely feel the additional height and the car isn’t able to be wobbled by coughing at a red light 😉. It’s as comfortable as the stock suspension around town, which I always liked anyway.

The big ticket improvement is on the motorway! It’s completely transformed the ride. We are far more confident riding down the motorway at 65-70 mph with the full camping set up loaded up top. A total win. This justifies the cost and a worthwhile addition to the Jimny in my book.

So far on the small amount of off road driving I’ve done I’ve noticed I can ride a faster than I would have. It eats up the terrain a lot smoother. Excited for the next green laning trip where I get to experience more challenging trails.

All in all, this is the best upgrade I’ve made to the Jimny and my wife agrees as it’s boosted her confidence driving it too, albeit just around town 😉

Happy to answer any questions from a layman’s perspective, just comment below. For any technical questions I’d recommend giving Andy a call at Storm Customs on 01482 666 491 or email sales@stormcustoms.com.