heating my springs

[FireFighter]

I have a friend who had this guys do it and it lowered his car about 1.5''s for 80 bucks so I am doing it soon. You can't feel any differnce in the ride.

[MEAN 98]

i hear they will bottom out and ride like sh@$

[viper98885]

This is about the worst thing you could possibly do to your springs. All of the suspension geometry in the spring will go to sh!t and the car will ride like crap.

[IBJanky]

For the love of God... DO NOT DO IT!

That's the worst thing you could do to your car.

Trust us on this one, we're saving you from a lot of trouble in the future.

[Only4U]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by FireFighter:
I have a friend who had this guys do it and it lowered his car about 1.5''s for 80 bucks so I am doing it soon. You can't feel any differnce in the ride.<hr></blockquote>

buy some v8 rear springs, for cheap that is, and put them on the rear. that will drop the rear about 1" and put it on the same level as the front, looks just as good, and way cheaper than a lowering kit, and damn knows it will be better than heating your freaking springs.

strange thing is...the 98+ use those same springs in the rear as the z28 or TA, but for some reason, it dropped my rear end a whole lot more than the 98+--i guess maybe it has something to do with the spring rate in the front or something. but you have a 97 (same as i), so i can guarantee you it will look nice!

[ December 15, 2002: Message edited by: Only4U ]</p>

[shortdog273]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by FireFighter:
I have a friend who had this guys do it and it lowered his car about 1.5''s for 80 bucks so I am doing it soon. You can't feel any differnce in the ride.<hr></blockquote>

LMAOO [img]graemlins/omg.gif[/img]

[FireFighter]

how will this hurt my car and save me from trouble? marc's car looks great and rides just the same as mine and his have been done for 6 months and no problems but scraping. this will be done thursday unless u come up with a good reason and prove me wrong about his car.

[slacker69]

The springs will break man its basic chemisty when u heat up metal properties they become weaker so one time when u are going over a train track or something the springs could just snap in half. Not cool man i dont suggest it at all hell compared to cutting springs this is 80 times worse.

[Dojo2000]

To each their own.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>http://www.tercelonline.com/board/vi...d.php?tid=2194
This method will stress the spring heavily by compressing it all the way. This is no place for cheap compressors. As you heat steel, it's yield strength will weaken. With a little luck the 450 degree oven temperature will weaken the steel till the spring sags/shortens. When it cools, the metal strength is fully restored. If you get the metal to hot like the guys do with torches, the molecule structure of the steel will change. This poor method will leave the spring permanently weakened and will most likely continue to sag. This is why torching your springs got such a bad rap and for a good reason. However anytime you mention heating the springs, people reflex back to the stereo type of this hurting the spring. However, every engineering table I have seen, does not show any steel structural change till you get to near double 450 degrees. Torching takes it to about triple this temperature. Ouch!

This method came from HP book's "How to make your car Handle". This book is main stream on everything. So far it has never steered me wrong. Pun intended. I have yet to try sagging a spring in the oven because in the past the springs were a bit soft so I cut them. In the next few months, I plan to try the oven method and see how it does. My current car is stiff enough. It tends to skip a little on rough turns. If anything, it needs to be softer.

Look at dirt bikes. How often do you ever hear of them messing with the springs with the exception of setting the ride height. Never unless someone is extremely fast or weigh outside 95th percentile. The rest go straight for the shocks to tune. Offroaders learned this in the 70's. Indy learned it in the early 90's. Lol! Springs hold up the car. Use them to set the ride height and rarely do you need to mess with them. Tune with swaybars, shocks, and other stuff. Most of the spring sales are a poor investment for the money. This is why I am a bit down on spending good money on them. Resetting your ride height can easily be done for pennies Vs high dollar aftermarket people promising the world.<hr></blockquote>

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>http://members.rogers.com/hondaprelude/suspension.htm
)"Heating" the spring so that the coils collapse actually anneals the spring temper of the steel. This causes the heated part of the spring to fatigue prematurely. Because heating can cause sagging or actual snapping of the coils, excessive tire wear is often only a prelude to more serious damage down the road. There you have it. Folks like Eibach and others offer an array of lowering kit, specifically designed for your car. Any suspension or wheel and tire shop can install these kits. Most are priced from $100 and up, depending on the level of sophistication and quality of parts.
<hr></blockquote>

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=heating+car+springs

The point is heating the springs tends to change the properties of the [metal]springs and thereby changes the handling characteristics of them. Weakens the metal = more travel = bounce around like ricers. My 0.02 cents.

[nikon]

if yor still going through with it make sure to get your tires aligned ;) I still think your gonna boiunce around like a ricer [img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img]

[FireFighter]

not going to bounce at all I have been in a 97 camaro with this done. this wasn't the response i expected but i will decide sooner or later what to do. thansk for the input guys.

[nikon]

results can vary....he may mess up and hold the torch a little too long and your sol....still up to you, my friend did it to his 300ZX and it ride like crap...dont expect to get the same handling out of your car either

[12secondv6]

Dojo said it all in his links
If that is not enough proof then I do not know what is
Don't do it

[FireFighter]

its been done. looks great and rides better than before. I will be getting new shocks soon so it doesn't bother me.

[MEAN 98]

you should be ashamed that you went against everyones advice!!! j/k (what have you got to lose ,stock springs) i should have did that.. the prokit only lowered mine 3/4 of an inch... spent $230. didn't even use the front springs... i got the biggest drop when i took that rubber spacer out...... lots of luck