i cut the bottom of the springs. as long as your struts are good, your springs will not come out of place.
I didn't had squeaky springs either. if it happens you just grab a piece of hose about the same size of the spring and wrap it on the area that is squeaking.

i know its ghetto but it works. lmao.gif

edit: yes, the spring is going to be kinda slanted or not seated properly when the spring is not compressed, but it seats properly when the car is on the ground.

I even have cut springs on my mercedes. haha.gif and to the astonishment of a lot of people here, it's pretty common on the MB tuning crowd. hehe specially outside US.

 

fing02.gif DANG now THAT'S some redneck engineering... why didn't I think of that?

Garden hose: Cheap, Tough, Durable...

I'm frikken not about to replace my spring perches every other year, but inspecting/replacing some garden hose I can make part of the ol' PM schedule. Check oil, check springs, check brakes... Done!

I'm back to wanting to do it again. laugh.gif

If I decide, after selling my parts car, that I hate it, I know I can always buy some pretty stock springs from a certain member here, anyway! lmao.gif

 

Great success! laugh.gif C'est un fait accompli!

I went and did it. And it's an unqualified success so far (if I suddenly stop posting, you may assume the long-term testing has ended badly wink1.gif )

I dropped $50 for a deposit on a spring compressor at Advance Auto Parts in Pflugerville, took it home, and went to town. Because I really needed at least one more spring compressor (see below) and I was using a dremel with a fiberglass-reinforced cut-off wheel, it took just under an hour and a half for each spring, from jack-up to jack-down. So I was working from about 20:00 to 23:00, with a break for brisket sadwiches in the middle.

First, I pulled the strut out and marked the cut-line. I wanted the spring to sit smack in the same spot on the perch, so I just made a line even with the stock end of the spring.


Cut carefully. The spring compressor I rented has a goober'd thread on the screw, right where you need another 1/2" of compression, so I couldn't pull all the tension off the spring. That means there is a considerable amount of stored energy in that last coil, and quite some tension on the whole thing. BE FRIKKEN CAREFUL!

I cut and cut and cut and finally the REALLY nervous part came: it was cut far enough for the stored energy to break the spring with no further cutting.


I learned from the first spring what to do on the second. I cut the same cut-line again, so that the spring would have enough of a gap to pop out the side when it popped all the way apart. The first time, I had to struggle with the end of the spring to get it out of the perch to dress it after releasing tension and realizing the end was going to chew through the rubber and steel of the perch. The second one, I cut the thing again and finally it popped:


Do NOT hold the spring near the cut. I was holding the end of the screw on the compressor and it still startled me pretty good when it popped completely apart... the whole strut jumped. The spring can't go anywhere but it can hurt you if you put your finger in its way when it wants to move. Thanks God I didn't even come close to getting hurt during the entire time I was working on this project.

The gray, dull-looking part on the left is what was not yet cut when the spring broke itself.


This was necessary, a bit of prying on the cut-off coil. You can't just pull it out off the strut because the gap between the ends is too small. Pry the cutoff coil out so there is an accessible loop and cut it in half. Then pull out the two semicircular cut-off pieces. Some prying on the spring will be required to loosen them enough to pull out. Then you need to use the screwdriver again to pull the spring back into position. I had to release the compressor and rotate the strut some (it rotated by itself during the cutting of the cut-off coil). Release the compressor slowly and pry with the screwdriver to try to get it in position on the perch. You will have difficulty if you don't have the proper spring compressor...


This improvised spring compressor helped pull the spring back into position (make sure it is well-anchored before tightening, lest it pop off and send the clamp flying! )


I couldn't get a good shot of the end of the coil after it was dressed (free camera, who's complaining? ). I ended up using a small grinding wheel and rounding off the bottom and sides of the end of the spring so it wouldn't chew up the perch. I then inserted a half-thickness of coolant hose, about 1" x 5/8", under the rubber, to give the end of the spring something to smash into, if it was going to smash through the stock rubber piece.

The end of the spring is pushing into the perch with a good deal of force, even with the strut at maximum extension out of the car. The opposite side coil is even better-seated.



I reinstalled the strut, remounted the wheel and let the jack down (blessings upon the inventor of the hydraulic floor jack, and yes I used a jackstand for safety) and got another surprise. The strut had hyperextended and BANGED back into place when I let each side down. I jacked one side back up until the wheel was rotating free, and let it back down: no bang that time, good to go.

My main concern with this operation was that the end of the spring would be seated poorly in the bottom perch. With the weight of the car on the spring, it smooshed down nicely,and there is more spring laying in the perch than I thought there would be. I'm going to call it safe-enough for driving on, especially after ScoupeLS went around with 2 coils cut without problems (thanks for chiming in, and that car looks nice). If I were going for lowering, I would maybe consider cutting off another coil. I was going for leveling after removing the transaxle's weight and that's what I got so I'm done for now.

Test drive: a little more firm, but not unpleasantly so.

Measurements: Rear (still stock springs) 24-5/8" left and right. Front (with stock springs): about 24-3/4" (BOO! ) Front (with 1 coil cut): Right (engine side) 23-7/8", Left (trans. side, no driver in the chair): 24-1/8". With a driver, probably it will sit about level.

We are pleased. fing02.gif

 

are those measurements to the top of the wheel well? Post pix of the car and how it sits.

 

Congrats on doing it and not ending up in a hospital. The dangers of doing this kind of work, ON the car especially, negate any minor gains. I mean good lord, if you are that cheap folks, sell the damned car and get one that rides how you want from the start. You can get QUALITY springs like the Vogtlands for what, under $200 SHIPPED?!?!?

What's a finger worth?

What's an eye worth? (ever had one of those dremel disks break on ya?)

When you consider that you can turn around and sell the shitty stock springs for $30 to $50, it's even cheaper.

I've been watching this all along, and cringing the entire time, but I can't hold it back anymore, cutting your springs is retarded. "Old Hot Rodders" did it, and do it, because all of their stuff is custom and they can't exactly go get 1 off springs made for their ride at a reasonable price. My dad is a 60's/70's muscle car fanatic, and he even told me that they'd only heat or cut their springs if they were desparate, because at the beginning of the era aftermarket suspension parts were kinda rare. Of course, those guys didn't exactly care about lowering their cars much either like we do today. For stiffness, they'd make spacers to put in the springs, which of course you can find at any auto store now.

Nothing against Stocker here, he's a great guy and actually trying new things with a new frame of mind, and I like that, but this should be a very last resort, for very frugal tuners. Save up some money, stop buying beer for a couple of weeks or cut out a Value Meal a week for 4 months, and buy some quality/PROVEN springs.

 

yes that's at the top of the wheelwell, sorry. I'll try to remember to post a photo after I wash the car... it's been, oh, about a year or two tongue.gif

RED ZMAN, I appreciate your concern but have a different perspective and risk tolerance level. Also I am WAY better with tools and mechanical items than your average bear. I *did* get a car that rode at the proper height... then I put a much-lighter manual transaxle in the front and the front end popped up and looked dumb. Fingers: out of the way of danger, only, always. Eyes: Impact-resistant eye protection the whole time, PLUS I hate to put so much as an arm in the plane of rotation of the cutting wheel. Yes I have had them break on me, especially the non-reinforced type, lots of times. The reinforced ones are MUCH better about that. And of course more expensive. And of course I had to have one roll and land under where my knee was about to be and break last night. sad.gif

As far as budget, some of us have to stretch a little farther than others... until the parts car is sold, my allowance is cut off (by me) to the point that I can't even afford ammunition to go shooting. 02.gif

 

I understand that my man, but most of the folks on this site who would do this are young, inexperienced and impressionable teens tuning their first car. They'll run out and start cutting at a spring being held by a C clamp with a hacksaw blade and no saw frame!

The idiocy I've seen of cheap people here my man, would astound you.

How about the guy that painted his interior, baby blue and MOPAR green, and had overspray on his entire windshield? That's just an example of the young trying to get by with the cheap, and it's not a good mix.

You are older, and a bit more experienced, you know the risks and take them. That's not as bad, but when Johnny11069 gets in the hospital because a non reinforced dremel disk blew through his eye, or gets a thumb pinched off by a spring, or doesn't do it as nicely as you did and bounces his happy ass off into a ditch just on his test drive, that's what we are looking out for.

Kudos on the effort.

 

There is that, but this gene pool ain't cleaning itself.
(thanks for the kudos)

You can't fix stupid but sometimes it can be deflected. Some people who were considering cutting their springs will see this thread and figure out either that they don't want to do it, or that they need a couple more tools.

Tools required:
Mechanical Inclination/common sense
Dremel with fiber-reinforced cutoff wheel and grinding wheel (hacksaw would maybe work, maybe not. larger cutoff wheel probably wouldn't fit)
Spring compressor(s) (C-clamps are squirrely, and not to be trusted for primary spring compressing duties)
Flat screwdriver
Good set of ratchets/sockets
Torque wrench
Jackstands
Jack
Sharp knife

That is about a bare minimum tool list. If you don't have all of it and try this mod, you are asking for trouble (even more so than just doing this mod)

If you screw this up, your car will be undrivable. Not unsafe to drive, not able to drive, even to the parts store to get another spring or strut.

IF YOU DO THIS WRONG YOU CAN LOSE A FINGER, A HAND, AN EYE, OR A LIFE. IF YOU DON'T THINK YOU CAN DO IT THEN DON'T!

 

My car washing schedule is "never" so I never took an "after" photo but I didn't forget that I said I would do. My #2 (5 y.o. son) and I washed the Buick for mothers day and gave the Hyundai a quick rinse @ the same time. Behold! The cut-one-coil stance of DEATH!!!!!1!!



It is very slightly nose-down as mentioned previously, and looks close to dead-level.

+6 months and no problems. If you can manage this without personal injury, I'm going to call this mod Officially Safe (with a slight chance of Death).

********

The keen observer will note a tinted rear window and missing door trim, as well as a crushed rocker panel. The rocker is courtesy of a recently-fell-off-a-camel immigrant in a borrowed car, and the door is from my parts car, replacing the old door which looked about like the rocker panel. The insurance money went toward the credit card. tongue.gif

 

^great job stocker. your neighbors must be really lucky, probably have you on quickdial. have you tried slaloming and doing some testing in parking lots and such? i think even the eibach springs are just too hard, they should be a little softer.


HAHA same with my dad's elantra. it's such a beater but drives great.