Why not to cut springs

[Limbo]

my friend cut his springs, they use to pop out when they went over speed humps too fast. Then he tells me hes hould of brought new springs.

but he still kept them going for over a year. I guess it depends on how much your chopping but seeing springs are not that expensive i dun see the use

[nobbs]

ive known people who have lowered springs and then cut a coil off to make it slightly lower...its still rides just as if they hadnt chopped them....i know this still doesnt make it right, but yeh thats my 2c hahaha
ive been through the "chopped springs" stage back when i was 17, in school with no job and on my red p's, im glad it was only short (im on coilovers nowadays and i dont think ill ever turn back) and nothing bad happened, but yeh in all honesty spend that extra bit of money to do it right and ur car and ur friends will love u for it

[BlitZ]

LOLL ^^ success story ^^

hahah yeah... works for me too..

1:16x around wakie (EM1).. with single rear coil cut off and jsut konis..on street tyres

[sivic]

Actually i think you are wrong there...
The more coils u chop off the harder the spring.

haha really? you think removing coils will make a spring harder?
look at it this way. every bit of the spring provides some resistance to compression. remove a coil of it and you lose some resistance, thus losing stiffness. when you remove coils off a spring the remaining coils dont magically increase their spring rate lol.
sometimes a spring may appear to become stiffer but all thats happened is the remaining coils have been put under greater load and compressed far more than usual, but all the while the spring rate of each individual coil has remained the same.

all in all its a crap idea IMO

[a.hay]

just my input.. doing anything that may compromise the safety of ANYONE, just to save a few bucks is in my opinion a bad move.

Its not that im saying if you cut your spings you will have an accident, just that driving is already a very dangerous practice, you just have to turn on the news... and by doing something like this your just increasing the risk.
Companies pour endless dollars into R&D, so why challenge that? - their products are the way they are for a reason.

on the off chance that something MAY happen, I would never be able to live with myself knowing I hurt someone else, be it a passenger, another driver or even a pedestrian just to save a little cash. The guy in the above example was lucky considering how much worse things could have turned out.

Im not here to tell you what to do, or say what your doing is bad, you make your own decisions, its just my opinion - cars can be replaced, lives cant. a life is worth so much more that the cost of a set of springs...

[sivic]

amen to that

[BlitZ]

haha really? you think removing coils will make a spring harder?
look at it this way. every bit of the spring provides some resistance to compression. remove a coil of it and you lose some resistance, thus losing stiffness. when you remove coils off a spring the remaining coils dont magically increase their spring rate lol.
sometimes a spring may appear to become stiffer but all thats happened is the remaining coils have been put under greater load and compressed far more than usual, but all the while the spring rate of each individual coil has remained the same.

all in all its a crap idea IMO

sometimes i wonder why i even bother.. ...

say you have 2 springs.. one with 50 coils and one with 25 coils..

each coil takes 10lbs to compress flat...

you apply a load of 5lbs (say it compresses it 5 mm)

50 coil set will compress 50 x 5mm
25 coil set will compress 25 x5mm

therefore more coils will provide more movement and harder springs rate
btw i hope you know springs rate is measured in lbs/inch or kg/mm etc etc

[sivic]

i know how spring rate is measured.
theres a difference between a stiffer spring and a spring which has been compressed to a point where it wont compress any further.
while properly designed, unchopped springs will allow a level of compression for preload, and then also having room for further compression, a chopped spring doesnt have the travel to accomodate for both. the preload on the spring will expend most of the spring's ability to compress further properly handle compression strokes during driving. this in turn causes large problems on the rebound stroke as the lack of preload allows the spring to move on its perch. basically it will bottom out far easier when rebounding. so i guess chopping springs is fine for the fully sick lowered look but for actual practical use is crap.
in any case i cant see how cutting springs can be justified. only reason is to save money. and frankly if you cant afford to do something of this nature properly dont do it at all.

[Slow96GSR]

... In any case i cant see how cutting springs can be justified. only reason is to save money. and frankly if you cant afford to do something of this nature properly dont do it at all.

I agree 100%! It doesn't even save money. In the long run, maybe short run depending on things, there will be damage to the spring and the car. Also this takes time. The same time it takes to swap out to the right spring. Basically doing the same job twice if you are just cutting them for a temporary drop. Then the cost to have someone cut them for you if you can't. So see you could end up spending more, especially if you have to fix the car because the cut springs failed or you crashed the car.

[fatboyz39]

sometimes i wonder why i even bother.. ...

say you have 2 springs.. one with 50 coils and one with 25 coils..

each coil takes 10lbs to compress flat...

you apply a load of 5lbs (say it compresses it 5 mm)

50 coil set will compress 50 x 5mm
25 coil set will compress 25 x5mm

therefore more coils will provide more movement and harder springs rate
btw i hope you know springs rate is measured in lbs/inch or kg/mm etc etc

..
i got 600lb springs in the rear and there's only 4-5coils

[iamhappy46]

EASY LANGUAGE:
cut springs = insurance null & void = big debts for you, as you will be paying for whoever/whatever you smash into

[vtec_jet]

if u cant afford coilovers, and ur springs arent low enough do wat i did . . compress them . .

chopping wuld jus be stoopid imo . .