True story

Straight from a domestic parts manufacturer

 

wow they must make parts for ford ,

Cutting springs is a BIG no no, besides the fact that the spring rate is different and your shocks will suffer more of a pounding there is a high chance of cracking over time.

 

Cutting springs doesn't always increase the spring rate. I agree that it would increase it on a stock spring, but most lowering springs have a very soft set of coils that are effectively helper springs. Cutting them doesn't increase the spring rate at all.

 

cool, didn't know that. I figured that most after market springs are progressive so chopping those would throw everything out of wack.

 

yeah

But this is from the company that makes them and Ford guys swear by it

Cobras running 9's so I guess anything that works

 

I agree I thought about getting cut springs but then I realized that We all drive expensive rides not $10k honda's. I had chopped springs on my integra and it was bouncy as hell!!!

 

WOW!! It's been a long time I heard someone say, cutting the springs.

My 2 cents...the only time I suggest anyone to cut the springs is on an old car and/or car that has no aftermarket coilover suspension available.

Please DO NOT cut corners by cutting the springs. The result will be like having a facelift done at Disneyland, and Mickey Mouse is the plastic surgeon. I don't think you want to be walking around with a tail and with two big ears.

 

I bought eibach pro kit and I was comparing it to stock springs and there wasn't much of a difference just by looking. yeah i know you cannot just look at it and compare but i choose to take the more aggressive route and didn't want to pay for coils so I cut mines. I cut just one coil on each spring. I cannot tell you what the ride quality is because i haven't ridden in one without the cut coils but mines seems pretty smooth. I know the spring rate will be screwed up but it's already screwed up putting racing springs with stock shocks. I see no side effects such as it not sitting properly on the shocks. There are no weird noise and i'm not using silencer. I have been riding on these cut springs for about 5k miles now. Knock on wood I hope to NOT have any problems.

P.S. I'm NOT promoting that you should cut your springs. GOOO COILOVERS.

 

Sorry, but yes, it always increases the spring rate. It's totally not intuitive until you consider what a spring is - it's a coiled torsion bar. The coiling process just simplifies packaging. So, if you cut a rod you are using as a spring, the spring's rate increases every time no matter what.

I think it's pretty funny so many people here are opposed to cutting. There's no reason you can't cut the spring, but you need to be cognizant of what you intend to achieve by cutting, and how it will affect the rest of the system. If you have a decent belt sander you can easily flatten the end of the spring to match any mounting system. The only real no-no is heating the springs. If you're going to cut them, use a sawzall, not a torch. Measure the length of the spring, calculate how much to cut to get the rate you want, cut it, and test. I personally wouldn't cut more than 5% of the length because it's easier to get a different spring than to try and get more than a 5% increase, but all this talk about cheesy and "wrong" is just being snobbish.

 

People are surprised to hear that cutting springs is not uncommon as part of suspension mods on Mercedes CLS cars.

 

lol, you bumped a year and a half old thread to say that?

 

Nice flashback, but it does help clear-up some old-school assumed knowledge on the topic.

 

u could afford the boost...now u can afford the coils too

 

I once cut springs one a 89 cougar. Granted I was 17 and didnt know any better. Knowing what I know now, I would not cut springs again.

 

10 seconds into reading your post, I was so disappointed about how much you failed at reading my post. Then it clicked about the torsion bar thing, and I realized that I was wrong. It's a shame that "solid intuition" so often leads to misunderstanding. Thanks for clearing that up!