cheap lowering???

[clear]

i had someone asking me about those $5 clamps that hold the springs compressed that you can buy at advance auto. they lower or raise your car up to two inches. i dont think its a good idea, maybe not even safe. they pretty much just draw to coils on the spings and hold them tight. any thoughts on these. im very skeptical and told the guy so. although i got to thinking about it and really are the so bad?

[Predator Bird]

tell your friend not to bother w/ those. i actually put 2 clamps on my rear driver side spring b/c it sits a little higher than the passenger side, but the clamps didn't even fix it. i decided to just leave them on since they were already there. about 5 months later i was getting my car worked on and when it was on the lift i looked under the car and one of the clamps was broken off. i went ahead and just took the other off. i don't think they will lower the car much and they'll probably break off after a few months.

[mcjoslyn]

Spring clamps/separators are a bad idea. They restrict motion and travel. The cheapest way possible to lower your car is to actually take the spring out and cut off a piece. This lowers the vehicle without changing the spring rate. Obviously you need to cut off the same amount on both sides and you are limiting the amount of supension travel by doing that, but this is a trick that has been around for a long long time. By the way, don't do this with progressive rate springs because they are wound differently.