cutting springs

[deemoE36]

my mate had them cut on his xr3, 3 mths after they became all soft , every little bumw would make the car bottom out, scrape the wheels
it just makes ur drive imposible, after that ull need new springs

[vee_dub]

Please, don't cut the spring. Either spend some money to get proper springs. It's your life, it's stuffed up rebounds rate, stiffness and strenght. For sure it will damage ur strut and shock.

$500 can seriously get yourself some nice H&Rs springs and Eibach one.
King springs, from my friend's experience it tend to sag in 2 years, depends how u drive it.

Here's the pic of my spring and strut, the coil at the bottom is closely packed and compressed. and standard one is more separated.



Cheer,
Fred.

[dvw16v]

NEVER and i mean never cut springs i made that mistake once on my old vl turbo then hit a bump spring popped out of place and punctured the tyre wasnt good had to get towed home as stereo took up all space in boot no room for spare anyway morale of story is never butcher your springs if money is an issue get them reset to ride height and firmness you want will cost approx 150-200 completed i know a person in prestons in syd who manufactures and supplies springs for pedders that also specialises in reseting springs ill try find his number if u want but definetly the way to go on a tight budget

[GoLfMan]

dont worry mate im over the should i cut the springs stage... im thinking more coilovers or forking out for good suspension

[Golf Loon]

dvw16v give me that number for the guy in Prestons. I`m nearby and it`ll come in useful oneday. I lost your number, did you sort your clock issues?

[DVR68U]

yeah loon then pass on the no. to me
cheers boys

[gotrice]

I have a set of lowered springs that you could have if your interested. I got rid of them coz the ride was a bit too harsh (Yeah I am old!!!) but if you wat them let me know.

eggers6@gmail.com

[mollins]

I know everyone has different opinions on this but i just thought i'd just speak from my experience...

Ive cut springs on mk1s many times and never had any issues... the main problem is that the standard springs in the mk1s are so soft, that when cut, they bottom out a lot more. I cut a coil and a half off the front and back of a 2dr earlier this year and found great improvements in handling due to lower center of gravity and thus a reduction in roll through tight bends.

If you do decide to give them the chop, start small, half a coil at a time, then if you think you want to take off more, just drive on them for a week or so as they will take a bit to settle. Also, make sure that you dont go too low or you'll mess up your suspension geometry. The wishbones should sit close to horizontal with the car on the ground (also watch out for sump bumps!).

(i know this is also a topic of much debate, but i use a grinder, hacksaws will hardly scratch a spring and take way too long, and the heat in the spring would only approach eutectoid temp right at the grind, which is what you might expect. the heat concentration will decrease by the quadruple of the distance away from the cut (roughly) so any heat from the grinding will not effect the rest of the spring at all. )

As someone mentioned before, the preload stops the spring from coming away from the spring cups, and if the springs are cut enough, they will do this, but i have never cut one enough to allow it to actually fall out sideways when the car is jacked up or in the air.... and it was tested!.. my cousin jumped the 2dr over a cattle grid (on a private road of course) and the springs were fine! (although he did land sump first on a rock, and needed a new sump and oil pickup!)

thats what i think anyway

mike

(please note, all this only applys to mk1s, i know nothing about the standard spring rates or suspension geometry of the mk2s and 3s, and they are also much heavier!)

[gldgti]

i can vouch for everything mollins says.

also, i have to say that cutting springs as a rule is not a great idea. BUT with all due respect, its a worthy way to make good a suspension in certain circumstances.

those fo you who drive mk2's, 3's and anything else, sure, by some new springs. your cars are too fat and heavy to take a standard rate spring chop. but adjusting the height of an already lowered car with hard springs is no real problem, provided you use some commonsense.

likewise, im not at all surprised that a vl common-door had bad spring experiences. (commodores typically have small suspension travel anyway)

[Oneofthegreats]

Manafacturers spend millions of dollar's in testing & development to get the spring, dampening, suspension geometry & all the other variables right!
This also includes the aftermarket industry too!

I don't recommend chopped springs at all as it stuff's up the variable spring rate's & the suspension doesn't/can't do the job it was designed for & feels crap. I know as I have seen it more times than Elvis has had hits & I have them in my own car, which If I could go back, I wouldn't have chopped them.
Originally I had a full set of Jamex springs & dampers. Awesome setup!(No coilovers back then).
The front dampers had a shorter body size of about 1.5-2" shorter than the original's which still gave the total travel but was lower because of the body height. Then I drove through a cutout in the road during the westgate roadworks with nowhere to go( a 3-4" drop to gravel then back up 3-4". Road work pricks!) & blew the valving out.
I then installed the original damper body's & installed Koni adjustable insert's as that's all I could afford at the time, but it sat up an extra 1.5-2" at the front & looked stupid. So I took to the springs to rectify the height & in the process I only have approx 1-1.5" inch of travel & I had to wire tie the springs to the spring seat so they wouldn't drop out.
Over big bump's it still smashes & bottom's out & feels bouncy. When other people drive they say "this thing stick's like s%#t to a blanket" but it couldn't be further from the truth. It feels crap.
If you don't need to or have to, Dont do it!

I don't know how you can say the MK2 is fat & heavy it is only approx 50-100kg heavier. A full tank of fuel's weight. Jee, that's a whale.
I weighed my MK1 with half a tank of fuel with my in it & it came up 1000kg on a public weigh bridge & my mum's MK2 with half a tank & it came up 30kg more!