# what happens if i........



## NOS_PSR_NOS (Nov 9, 2004)

see i like doing things do my car that cost nothing just because well i don't plan on keeping my car forever. so the question is to lower my car all i have to do is cut the sprnig and ill be good to go.( i know that if you have lowing springs you should have gas struts) well i just plan on cutting an inch off the spring put i back on the strut and good to go, just wondering what would be some of the side affects. good ol' ghetto mods.


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

If you cut your springs, I will personally drive to Wisconsin and kick your ass.


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## pete? (Jul 6, 2004)

Matt93SE said:


> If you cut your springs, I will personally drive to Wisconsin and kick your ass.


ahhhhhhhahahaha best reply ever. you are going in my sig lol


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## lshadoff (Nov 26, 2002)

NOS_PSR_NOS said:


> see i like doing things do my car that cost nothing just because well i don't plan on keeping my car forever. so the question is to lower my car all i have to do is cut the sprnig and ill be good to go.( i know that if you have lowing springs you should have gas struts) well i just plan on cutting an inch off the spring put i back on the strut and good to go, just wondering what would be some of the side affects. good ol' ghetto mods.


The stock spring rate is pretty low. If you cut off some, it will be even lower. Since there is about 3.5 inches of total travel to start with, you will hit the bump stops on minor irregularities in the road. Maybe all the thumping and banging won't bother you, though.

If you have to do an emergency avoidance manoeuver, the car will behave unpredictably because that is enough to make the springs compress completely and hit the bump stops. Usually this causes a loss of traction and you will skid out of control at a time when you need control the most.

Death is one way to get out of the ghetto.

Lew


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## pete? (Jul 6, 2004)

lshadoff said:


> Death is one way to get out of the ghetto.


whats this? lew made a funny? bravo :thumbup: .along with what lew said, in every day driving it will be very sloppy and roll like crazy through corners, so back it will feel like your flying the car rather than driving it, that may sounds funny but i drove a daddy before and its very unnerving trust me, and hit the bump stops (like lew said) it will feel allot heavier than the car really is. also the reason people lower the car, or the reason people SHOULD lower a car, is for handling purposes, you are completely defeating the point.


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

lshadoff said:


> The stock spring rate is pretty low. If you cut off some, it will be even lower. Since there is about 3.5 inches of total travel to start with, you will hit the bump stops on minor irregularities in the road. Maybe all the thumping and banging won't bother you, though.
> 
> If you have to do an emergency avoidance manoeuver, the car will behave unpredictably because that is enough to make the springs compress completely and hit the bump stops. Usually this causes a loss of traction and you will skid out of control at a time when you need control the most.
> 
> ...


Just one correction, Lew. If you cut off a coil (decrease the number of active coils with all else being equal), it will _increase_ the spring rate. Everything else you said still applies though. Because the stock springs don't have that many coils to start with, cutting one off is going to cause the rate to shoot through the roof and at the same time reduce the total damper travel to nothing.


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## lshadoff (Nov 26, 2002)

ReVerm said:


> Just one correction, Lew. If you cut off a coil (decrease the number of active coils with all else being equal), it will _increase_ the spring rate. Everything else you said still applies though. Because the stock springs don't have that many coils to start with, cutting one off is going to cause the rate to shoot through the roof and at the same time reduce the total damper travel to nothing.


I don't know what I was thinking of. You're absolutely right.

Lew


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

Ummm, you're losing spring TRAVEL, not changing the spring rate. the spring rate is a property of the diameter and stiffness of the wire that the spring is wound from. cutting a few inches off does not change the properties of the rest of the spring.. all it does is shorten the travel.

Of course, that's assuming the springs are linearly wound. If it were a progressively wound spring, that would be different.

nonetheless, cutting springs is BAD.


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## lshadoff (Nov 26, 2002)

Here is a spring design calculator. Change the number of coils from 8 to 6 and the length from 1 to 0.75 (cut off two coils and the spring is shorter) and watch the spring rate go up, all other things being equal.

Lew


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

Hmmm, strange. not what they tought us in physics.... then again, that's why I'm an electrical engineer, not a mechanical.


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

What are the stock spring rates? 100-120lb/in? well, when you bottom out, that spring rate goes all the way up to infinity, (aka, it cannot compress anymore). This transition from 120lbs to infinity causes unpredictable and uncontrolable response. When you cannot compress anymore, it is possible the wheels opposite to the side bottomed out can lift off the ground and flip.

Another way to put it. When you go into a corner springs transfer lateral forces into compression. Stiffer springs take more force to create the same amount of compression, but so long as compression is allowed, you will have no problem maintaining traction at all 4 wheels. When you bottom out, there is no compression allowed. Therefore, if you bottom out in a hard corner, the only way to absorb the lateral force is by you actually going up on 2 wheels.

You cut your springs ---> you bottom out more ---> you end up on the news when your car flips on I-4.


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## p_reed (Jul 5, 2004)

My friend bought an aw11 mr2 with cut springs, and after about 3 months after he bought it the struts gave out in the back and the spring slipped off of the stut and the entire back end was riding just on the struts. every time he hit a bump the back tires would vibrate litterally off the ground. and bark the tires.

FOR SALE: cut aw11 mr2 springs.....cut the right way :thumbup:


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