It worked

[Gee-Otto]

Well thanks for the strut/shock advice but I asked a mechanic who has a GA GT a 01 and he cut his springs to lower it so i asked to see his car and it looked really nice and he said it didnt affect the lateral handling of the car any. he said that the reason ppl denounce it is b/c so many ppl have done it wrong but if you know your stuff you can make it work. What do you, the GA onwers member think ? While ime still hunting down a set of springs i do ponder about going this route ? My only concern is travel will there be enough suspension travel to accomodate normal driving ?

[ancona46]

dont be cheap just buy springs or you will regret it when something breaks

[DomestikDemon]

Yea, he told you wrong Im sorry man. If you modify the spring, you will modify the "springy" characteristics of the spring. AKA- its gonna handle like shit afterwords.:eek:

If you've really got your heart set on it though, I have only one question- Ya got an angle grinder?:laughat:

[Gee-Otto]

Oh NONONONO I know better than to cut springs im just sayin in my talks about parts and getting it done the part guy had his done that way. Yes the less turns in the spring the less springy but that is with a major removal of material he only lowered it about 1.5 in the front and 1.2 in the rear. Ive spotted a set of Struts and springs to match for about $300 total !!! yeah from the place called Global Part Liquidators i got two KYB struts and shocks and a set of intrax springs i believe. thanks to all who gave suggestions

[Dave C]

when you buy lowering springs, they are often more stiff than your stock springs. because they are lower, they are closer to the bump stops. if you hit a hard bump and the springs are stock stiffness then you are going to have the same travel distance as normal. this will result in crashing into the bump stops, which will break (maybe not the first time, but eventually) because they aren't designed for such a load. now you can cut your springs and your car will still drive (possibly not as safely), but no way in hell would I let anyone do that to my car.

[Brandon]

i bought a set of lowering springs for 110 off these boards... just got to keep your eyes open... i wasnt really prepared at the time, but it all worked out!

[nineteen88ga]

He claims it dosen't hurt the vehicles handling? Take his car and an identical with perofrmance lowering springs, put them both on a road course and see what happens...if he can keep it on the track.

[Matt95GT]

I would pass on taking my car to this mechanic. It may come back with duct tape and ziptie repairs.



Originally posted by Dave C
when you buy lowering springs, they are often more stiff than your stock springs. because they are lower, they are closer to the bump stops. if you hit a hard bump and the springs are stock stiffness then you are going to have the same travel distance as normal.

Actually, the spring rate of the stock springs is altered when you cut them, but cutting them makes spring rates unpredictable. Each of the 4 may have different rates after being cut - not a good thing.

[Dave C]

Isn't a spring rate a property of the material and geometry? The section that still survives after cutting should have the same spring rate as it did before, you would just lose whatever was cut off? This would account for the inconsistancy between all four spring if they are variable rate springs... so that is the defined spring rate?

[bballr4567]

Nope Dave. When something is tempered (I think that is what they do with the springs) it retains that shape. Its not like a regular spring. Its like the trunk rod things that open the trunk. Someone posted about three weeks back that one broke and it lost all its spring.

I guess that is as best as I can explain it. lol

[Colin]

Originally posted by Dave C
Isn't a spring rate a property of the material and geometry? The section that still survives after cutting should have the same spring rate as it did before, you would just lose whatever was cut off? NO , when you shorten a spring by 'some' amount and NOT change the wire gage diameter the rate goes up because the rate is a function of the diameter of the wire times its length ..... ;)