Cut springs

[MarkSubi]

Has anybody on here cut their springs and is so how different was the ride and how long did the stock shocks last?

is this a serious question?

[MarkSubi]

yes I have no money for coils or springs right now and want to lower my leggy.

youre going to blow your struts within weeks of cutting your springs... not to mention its dangerous as hell, then what? you'll be car-less

save up $500, buy some new springs and struts and save your self from walking everywhere

[Grafton]

cutting spings is bad mmmkay, you shouldn't cut your springs mmmmkay

seriously cutting springs is a horrible idea, if you don't have the cash to do it correctly right now don't do it right now. save up till you can do it right
if you take apart your suspension you will need an alignment and if you cant get springs i am betting you don't have the cash to spend on a good 4 wheel alignment

to my knowledge there was only one person here on sl-i that cut his springs, but he was a ricer who street raced and that never finished anything he started because he didn't start it right

to my knowledge there was only one person here on sl-i that cut his springs, but he was a ricer who street raced and that never finished anything he started because he didn't start it right


:smt024

Limprengzacy front clip anyone?

[aurelius]

There is a proper way to do this. That I don't know of...

You can compress your springs a certain safe amount. This way you don't lose coils.

I think the method is something like:
- Weigh the spring and spring compressor (relaxed)
- Compress the coil with the spring compressor
- Heat coil evenly
- Weigh the coil and see if it weighs the same as it was relaxed
- If not, repeat heat again
- Otherwise slowly decompress the spring (shouldn't move if done correctly)

Never tried it, just a word of mouth. I'm not responsible for the consequences.

[Grafton]

There is a proper way to do this. That I don't know of...

You can compress your springs a certain safe amount. This way you don't lose coils.

I think the method is something like:
- Weigh the spring and spring compressor (relaxed)
- Compress the coil with the spring compressor
- Heat coil evenly
- Weigh the coil and see if it weighs the same as it was relaxed
- If not, repeat heat again
- Otherwise slowly decompress the spring (shouldn't move if done correctly)

Never tried it, just a word of mouth. I'm not responsible for the consequences.

that is better than cutting the springs, but still has a large capacity to go wrong i've seen warped springs where people did this with the spring on the car

[chuckthefuk]

"aurelius" method does work and I have seen this setup last some time but you will run into one of the following problems:

1) When you heat up the spring and apply the spring compressor you "may" snap/break a coil and lose an eye or damage something around you.

2) If successful you "may" have the unpleasant experience of one of the coils snap/breaking while driving. This will destroy your tire/rim/shock body/shock dust boot.

3) Your struts will start leaking after a week or two.

You have to understand that the way a lowering spring functions is to have more coils with a lower stance. This increases rigidity and falls within a safe spring rate/load.

A stock spring has 4-5 coils and is over 12" tall. A lowering spring can have up to 9 coils and be less then 12" tall.

Cutting a stock spring and reducing the coils is the ultimate fail. Heating the coil up and lowering the over height of the spring is not as bad as it sounds but for the amount of time and effort needed to do this you might as well buy used wrx lowering springs off NASIOC or Ebay.

Just my $0.02
-Chuck

[jospgut]

if you cut your springs, thats a first step to be a ricer, lol, bad way to go!

[legacy98gt]

yeah i used to have a honda the previous owner cut the srings it was crap i dont now the other method of heating them and shrinking them but i would just get some cheap used stuff and if you dont have enough money for cheap used stuff you shouldnt be doing this stuff cause you gona fuck your struts and gona have to buy new ones witch is way more then just buying some cheap used stuff, or buy some of these http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/95-96-97 ... ccessories (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/95-96-97-98-99-Subaru-Legacy-Lowering-Coilovers-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem2c5471898fQQitemZ190395287951QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories) then tell us how they turn out im still waiting for someone to try them

[MarkSubi]

That doesn't look like a legit seller to me.

[MarkSubi]

I was never truly planning on cutting my springs, I was just asked that question to see what the out come of that question was going to be.

[rougeben83]

Heating springs also changes the spring rate to an unknown amount, since you'll be doing this in an uncontrolled environment, you'll end up with 4 springs that have 4 different spring rates...but then again if you thought cutting springs was a good idea in the first place, then the actual handling of the car doesnt really matter to you, does it?

[impreza_GC8]

Why not cut the springs, it will have the desired effect.

[ouch1011]

Heating the springs changes the elastic nature of the spring and makes it a lot more likely to break as it flexes, which is obviously very, very dangerous.

The only acceptable way to lower a car is with proper lowering springs. Any other way is unsafe.

[impreza_GC8]

Cutting springs was very commonplace back in the day. It was the only way to lower cars back then. I think some modern springs have more coils at the bottom than at the top, but if its a equally spaced spring I really think it makes no difference.