Spring Cutting

[hou-tex-six]

I dont know about anybody elses car, but mine sits really high in the rear. Ive looked at other cars and they arent as bad, but a lot of times the rear still sits unevenly high as compared to the front. Anyways, I decided to go ahead and cut the rear springs one coil to see what happened. Took me and a couple friends exactly 47 minutes to do it, start to finish, so pretty easy. Put it back down, and it looks pretty damn good. I was suprised to notice that the driver side actually measured 1/2 higher that the passenger before the cutting, at 29 inches to the fender well i think. Anyways, it lowered the rear 1/2 inch on both sides. I have noticed no difference in the ride at all. So im gonna wait to see if over a week or so they drop anymore. right now they look about just right. Hopefully this might help somebody if your thinking about doing it. Oh and for anybody who wants to talk some smack about this being a ricer mod...blah blah blah, you can eat my a** and not bother responding.

Cp

[NBMA4V6]

yeah i told these rice boys ;) that it would take forever and i thught it would but we got it done with very little effort and wouldnt have broke a sweat....very easy and his car looks great now.. i plan on doing mine after i get the dealer to fix the grinding coming from the rear shocks/ springs

[AZv6camaro]

is it possible to cut all four springs and have a good lowered look to it? or will it fvck it up sumhow? cuz i really want to lower my car, but im short on funds to do it with. :(

[The Sandman]

Moving to Suspension.

[MustangEater8251]

not sure but don't 4th gens have progressive rate springs?

So by cutting htem you could cause the car to drop even farther then expected, and effectively diminish the spring rate even more then expected on a normal spring?

I guess it mshould be ok, if you keep it small, but cutting much more i would start to get worried.

[hou-tex-six]

Im pretty shure they are not progessive rate. But yeah i would not cut any more cause they will just be too short and will probably affect the camber or something. I would not cut my rears any more, nor would i mess with the front ones, just seems liek too much going on up there to be messing around with them.

Cp

[pgriffith]

You think if you cut the springs you would bounce all over christ and creation like those integra's and civics do? I wouldnt want that. I say if your gonna drop it do it right.

[NBMA4V6]

there was absolutly no ride quality difference with the springs cut...

[pgriffith]

got pics?

[MustangEater8251]

If they are non progressice rate ones i wouldn't thin it would affect ti too much.

jsut be careful every "swirl" what would you call it? you cut that much of the springs spring rate off.

you cut 2 swirls out of 15, that makes the spring rate 13.3% less effective. I do not know the exact spring rate but lets say 300 lbs. is stock it would change it to 260 lbs. if you did the example I listed above, assuming they are not progressive rate springs.

So not only is your spring physically shorter, it squashes more. You probable did enough to keep the ride difference unnoticeable, but I would be careful if you start "slamming" the car like 2 in. Then you kill your ride.

What every you do do not do the heat with a blowtorch trick to help "compress" the spring permanently while it is on the car.

keep trying to see the point of where it becomes a problem, i am sure you cna pick up some extra stock v6 srpings for like $50 maybe even alot less.

[V6Bob]

"you cut 2 swirls out of 15, that makes the spring rate 13.3% less effective. I do not know the exact spring rate but lets say 300 lbs. is stock it would change it to 260 lbs"

Actually, it's the reverse. Cutting a spring makes it stiffer. There's a formula, but the easier way to see it is to realize a coil spring is just a torsion bar wrapped in a circle. Make it shorter and it becomes stiffer. In the example above, cutting the spring raises the rate from 300 to 335 or so.

[hou-tex-six]

Well like i said, what i cut is about the most that i think should be cut. Then again im no expert. I can take some pics, but let me see where i have a good side view before pic. I still dont see why the spring rate would change throughout the spring just because its shorter? I think it would stay the same rate, just less spring, but then again, like I said, im no expert. It took 45 minutes, a hacksaw, a jack, jackstands, and some basic tools and made my car look much better. In fact i drove on the freeway today and no difference at higher speeds either. Definately think its a better idea than removing the rubber peice on top of the spring like somebody just posted, thats just asking for squeaks and noises which i already have plenty of. But anywyas, like they used to say on TV, dont take my word for it...but dont blame me if you mess up your car either.

[V6Bob]

"I still dont see why the spring rate would change throughout the spring just because its shorter? I think it would stay the same rate, just less spring"

Let me try one more time, and see if I can be clearer. Put 100 lb. of force on a 10 inch long spring, rated 100 lbs. The spring twists 1 inch. Each inch of the spring twists one-tenth of an inch. Now make it a 5 inch spring. The same force is applied to the spring and each inch of the spring still twists one-tenth of an inch. But the whole spring now only twists 1/2 inch, so the spring rate has gone up to 200 lbs.

I'll quit, now. :D

[Redsix]

I've heard nothing good about cutting springs. Do it the right way and buy some lowering springs! ;) The look wont be worth it when your car feels like azz.

[ July 19, 2002: Message edited by: Redsix ]</p>

[hou-tex-six]

well tanks there big guy.....my car dosent feel like azzz, so I guess we did it right. Anywho, i think its worth the 45 mins. Im done here too

Cp