2 cut or not 2 cut???

[mr_sikma]

What does everyone think?

QUESTION: Is it safe to cut your original springs to make your car lower???

[Kinks]

only if it's a show car that never gets driven on the road, only on and off the trailer!

cut springs are dodgy.

[YBS1OW]

IVE DONE MINE. DODGY TO THE MAX, BUT IM STILL ALIVE. AND TRUST ME. IVE BEEN ON A 4WD TRACK IN MY LOWERED GEM (NOT ON PURPOSE) AND IVE HAD NO DRAMAS. BUT ITS STILL ALOT BETTER TO GET PROPPER LOWERED SPRINGS, NO QUESTION.

[Matty]

Within moderation I think there should be nothing wrong. But by that I mean 1 coil or less. Not enough to significantly change the spring rate or the ride height/remaining shock travel. I am thinking of cutting my rear springs by maybe 0.5-1 coil to take about 10mm out of the ride height (make the car sit level again)

[tandy ass]

Dont forget that cutting a spring increases its firmness so the spring/shock ratio will be out of whack.

Taking 20% off a spring (probably 1.5 turns) will make it 20% harder resulting in quite mismatched shocks and a notably poorer handling ability of the car.

[racedriver]

As a general rule when you by lowered springs they have a higher spring rate anyway so I can't see the difference.
Any excessive lowering of a car is going to affect the traction for the worse, wether it is cut or bought springs. Some cars can benefit if they have really crap suspension that changes camber too much with body roll, dive or squat otherwise you will most likely loose traction, especially under braking. You can compensate for this with stickier tyres.

[RX22NV]

I wouldn't cut standard springs. Cutting lowered/sports springs is ok, as mentioned before the spring rate is different

[Datman]

I can't believe that people cut springs. When you consider the amount of money most of us spend on cars, a new set of springs is cheap as.

The key though is matching springs with shocks, this is where it can get more expensive, but I would guess that the guys who are cutting springs are'nt replacing their shocks either.

But hey, if you like a bit of danger - chop them low, leave the standard well worn shocks in and go for a drive down Parramatta rd. The challenge will be simply staying in one lane!

Datman

:D

[Group3JDatsun]

As long as you know what you're doing, I see no problem. Gasp....I've done it to the rears in my race car. Why, I hear the cries? OMG NO!!!
Answer: I wanted the rears to another 20mm lower and I wanted the poundage uped slightly. Why pay another $300 for the same result?? The springs are no weaker and they perform better. As long as you calculate the increase in poundage vs the decrease in height and consider this in the suspension as a package - if it matches do it. If all you're doing is "slamming" your car and you choose not to use your head, then probably not a good idea.

Bozz,

Taking 20% off a spring (probably 1.5 turns) will make it 20% harder resulting in quite mismatched shocks and a notably poorer handling ability of the car.

Your right......half the spring, double the poundage. But the number of turns vs the % increase is soley dependant on the individual spring. My motorsport springs have something like 20 turns, hence 1.5 turns is bugger all....

[Powerslidemike]

One thing you have to watch for if you do cut the springs. Make sure the springs won't fall out of their seats when the suspension tops out. I've been airbourne more than once so it's something I like to check.

I had a problem on my VR Clubsport when changing to Koni adjustables on the front. Someone had already put a Pedders setup through the whole car. I found out while trying to get the shockers into the pedders struts that the stroke of the pedders shockers was shorter than the Koni's. This meant that the lowered Pedders springs would fall out when the new shock was topped out.
Spent nearly 2 days modifiying the struts to get the shockers to sit lower in them to fix the problem.
Oh well the end result was well worth it.

My 2c worth.