Just cut my springs!

[Pimp27]

Makinwaves and I just cut the stock springs on my car. It looks really tight! Only one thing wrong, they make weird noises when I turn, and the rear just makes creeking noises when I am just driving down the road. Is it just the springs settling in? Or could something be wrong?

Eric

------------------
00' ZX3
Eibach Springs
Bassani Exhaust
Sony cdx-m750
Limo tint
Yellow Motorsport Wires
Ford Racing UDP
Ford Racing Cam Gears

16.184@85.56

[bugeyesurfer]

did you heat the springs up?? my friend cut the springs on his acura with a torch, his car would creek also. he never had any other probs.

[icemanZX3]

cutting the stock springs is bad news. The springs have a preset tension or load on them and if you mess that up your ride will be totally f**ked. Not to mention that it will most likely decrease the life of the shocks, since the ride is much more harsh.

IMHO, I would've just saved up for some aftermarket lowering springs.

------------------



Iceman Zx3
2000 Twilight Blue ZX3
Automatic,APC clear bumper lenses, APC hyperwhite headlamps,Piaa sidemarker bulbs,Bi Hybrid blue dome light,Bi hybrid hyperwhite reverse lights, window tint 20% all around 35% on doors,Indiglo gauges,Billet shift knob, H&R Springs,Focussport wires,Focussport stress bar, mesh grille,Sony Xplod CDX-M600 head unit, Xplod faceplate.

mods in near future: Esslinger air intake, AFX UDP,optima yellow top battery and a thermal cat back and maybe a girlfriend."

[monkeyman28]

Wow, you're a lot more braver than I am. I noticed that your sig says eibach springs. Do you have these, and haven't put them on yet? I hope you change them soon, cause cutting your springs is bad. But you probably are aware of this.

[focusZoomin]

cutting springs... bad idea. i mean, hell, it's your car, so do what you wish, but it really screws your suspension. should've just gone with a lower sport spring. or coilovers or something.

------------------
T. Lowe : TEAM Mid-Atlantic
INFINITY Sport Tuned Performance
Proud customer of: Modern Performance
focusZoomin@infinityx.cjb.net

[Pimp27]

Actually, the ride is pretty good. I just have to go slow over the bumps! I have eibach's on for about 4 months, and they weren't low enough for me!

The creaking is geetting less and less.

I think though, if I get aftermarket wheels and tires, I will switch back to the eibachs because I think tire helps out a lot when I hit bumps. And with like 40 series tires I will be bottoming out all the time!

Eric

------------------
00' ZX3
Eibach Springs
Bassani Exhaust
Sony cdx-m750
Limo tint
Yellow Motorsport Wires
Ford Racing UDP
Ford Racing Cam Gears

16.184@85.56

[P-51]

Oh gawd!

[clkZX3]

cutting the stock springs was a bad idea, don't know if you were trying to save a buck but it will cost you more in the end. First off, if you used a torch...bad bad bad, heating up the spring changes the dynamics and causes it to weaken, second, cutting the spring weakens it, it will start to sag after a while,and they will have to be replaced, I can appreciate you trying to make your ride look good, but do it right the first time and you will save parts and money. Just trying to help.

[Pimp27]

actually, like I said before, Makinwaves helped me with the install. He said before he got hydrolics on his car he had cut springs. He had no problem with them. Yes, eventually down the road they might weaken, or somthing else might come up. That's why I have the eibachs to back me up. We had the install down on all 4 wheels done in about 1 1/2 hours. So, it is not like it took that long.

Eric

------------------
00' ZX3
Eibach Springs
Bassani Exhaust
Sony cdx-m750
Limo tint
Yellow Motorsport Wires
Ford Racing UDP
Ford Racing Cam Gears

16.184@85.56

[Bobby]

Speaking from experience....I used to race super stock and cut a set of springs because I didn't have the money to do it right and tech inspection in those days didn't really care. I heard one of them break just before it sent me into the wall.
Just be careful till you can get them replaced.

[mY sHoE]

go go go i think ive been saying if your going to cut your springs you better go with eibach much better on corners also tuff you are a brave guy i kept my original springs just incase i had trouble are for down the road now you have to go and buy some new stock ones for way more eeeeeehhhhhhhhh also what was the drop on the cut?

[zx3t-foci]

Cutting a spring is 50 times better than heating the SOB's

------------------
First god created beer, then he rested and told the misses to finish up and that is why we have problems around the world today.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

HEY JUST SOME ADVICE TO U GHETTO SPRING CUTTERS ....I HAD A NISSAN ALTIMA
I ORDERED EIBACHS ...DIDNT SEE A DIFERENCE THEN I WAS LIKE *** THIS I GOT EM CHOPPED
LIKE 2 COILS ...MY **** WAS SLAMED LOOKED DOPE BUT IT BOUNCED AN ONLY GOT WORSE FRM THERE ...U GUYS HAVE BRAND NEW RIDES DO IT THE RIGHT WAY SAVE A LITTLE AN GET SOME SPRINGS OR COILOVERS ...MY CAR IS ALL **** UP I LEARNED MY LESSON NOW I GOTTA NEW ZX3 AN I AM GONNA DO IT THE RIGHT WAY ...WITH SOME SPRINGS NO CUTTING THATS CRAAAAZY ...LATA jOEY

[ZX3 Rally]

God, people cut the springs on their Geo Trackers. Don't start doing it with the Foci.

[Daniel]

Wow, how cheezy. You'll kill your dampers, you'll bottom out a lot and you'll wallow around like a drunken rhinocerous. Great job!

Seriously, put your Eibachs back on! Who wants a ghetto Focus?

------------------
Daniel
Calgary, Alberta
Malibu Blue ZX-3

[Pimp27]

Actually I put my eibachs back on! The ride is much better. I was bottoming out the shocks to much. I think that if I did it with a spring that had a higher spring rate, it would work a lot better. But, for now I am going to leave the eibachs on.

Eric

------------------
00' ZX3
Eibach Springs
Bassani Exhaust
Sony cdx-m750
Limo tint
Yellow Motorsport Wires
Ford Racing UDP
Ford Racing Cam Gears

16.184@85.56

[MakinWavesWagon]

Wow. A lot of you people just don't know do you.

Ok here's the deal. When you cut springs, you want to make sure that you cut the bumpstop as well. A lot of people just don't do it and it causes tons of problems. You bottom out earlier, you bounce around a lot, and overall it sucks.

Second, we cut them with a die grinder, and the springs he had in there were from my wagon. Any additional bouncing MAY have been because we were working with two different spring rates. The car did not bounce anywhere near as bad as you guys are probably thinking -- it wasn't a rocking chair going down the road. However, when you do cut springs, you are going to hear some odd noises when you are first breaking in the suspension, because the strut has to collapse around the coil, then the coil has to settle in.

Will it bounce? Probably. Will it ride harshly? No more harshly than it would if you had coilovers at the same height. There are tons of other things we could have done to Eric's car to get it to ride better, but we never did them, since I knew from personal experience that the ride wouldn't be that bad. Like Eric said, I had them on my wagon for a long time and I was ok. However Eric is a newcomer to the scene, so his idea of what rides well and my idea are two different things. I personally thought the Eibachs rode like ****, and I know this because I watched his car bounce as we cruised to Cali for the G2g.

One last thing: I don't think there are too many people out there who know suspension as well as I do, have had as much experience working on them as I have, nor have worked on a Focus as much as I have. It took Eric 4 hours or so to lower his Focus. It took me an hour and a half AND we pulled out the rear springs twice. I have pulled apart my suspension multiple times for the cut coils, for the hydraulics, and for the bushings. Before some of you speak you should really think about what you're saying, because ignorance is not necessarily bliss.

Don't EVER call me a "Ghetto Spring Cutter" -- I could have made your Altima ride like a DREAM.

Sorry for my rant, but this is what I've been expecting from the list for a while. I was wondering when I was going to get bashed for my expertise, and I thought meeting that dick at the G2G was the last of it. Guess I was wrong.

------------------
Kevin Whipps
2k Focus Wagon
///Relaxed Atmosphere

[hotrodkris]

FYI: Eibach will have their Sportlines in this month--they're an almost 2" drop, and they're also working on coil-overs (which on other cars, are some of the best riding ones around)

------------------
hotrodkris
EggYolk Yellow ZX3
Kaminari, 18" TSW's, Yokohamas, Eibach, Morette, SSB, Magnaflow, JBA, Wet Works Garage

[P-51]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>One last thing: I don't think there are too many people out there who know suspension as well as I do, have had as much experience working on them as I have, nor have worked on a Focus as much as I have. It took Eric 4 hours or so to lower his Focus. It took me an hour and a half AND we pulled out the rear springs twice. I have pulled apart my suspension multiple times for the cut coils, for the hydraulics, and for the bushings. Before some of you speak you should really think about what you're saying, because ignorance is not necessarily bliss. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Ok, I got a BIG problem with this!

You don't know crap.

The fact that you lower your Focus as much as you do, and that you cut springs proves this.

You have obviously never heard the terms "Roll camber coefficient" or "Loss of camber gain".

You probably don't know what a roll center is either, or why a low RC is bad, or why lowering your car is bad for RC.

Nor do you know how much cutting coils increases the spring rate. Do you know how the equation for springs rate as it relates to Coil ID, wire thickness, and number of active coils? No.

If you did know these things, you wouldn't be doing that crap to your car.

Your car won't handle for ****. Sorry, I gotta be blunt.

If you like show cars, that's fine. But don't come on here and tell people that cutting springs is good for cars, or that lowering your car 3" is good for handling.

I'll say it again: You may know how to make a good "show car" and that's fine but you don't know anything about how suspensions really work, or how to make a car handle.

Sorry for *my* rant. I won't allow people to come on here and pretend like they know how suspensions work when they really don't, and confuse people on what is good for a suspension.

[MakinWavesWagon]

Maybe you should re-read my post. I never said it was better for handling, I said it was better for ride quality. Ride quality does not usually equate to handling, being that you would want a stiffer ride for tossing the car through corners, etc. However I build show cars. I've cut hundreds of coils with ZERO problems. I never claim the car will handle better, but 9 times out of 10 it rides better than it would with a lowered spring PLUS it gets lower.

As for your statement about me lowering my Focus too much... Jealous that coilovers won't make your car look as good as mine? How come you're the first person out there that has told me that my car is "Too low" SCREW THAT. I'll lower my car as low as I f*ckin want to no matter what some poser racer says. Hell I'm working on making the thing lower!

Finally I'd just like to point out that I like my cars low. I've never wanted it for handling. If someone out there has a problem with that, I'll give them my address so they can come over and kiss my ass.


------------------
Kevin Whipps
2k Focus Wagon
///Relaxed Atmosphere

[sit'n'on_chrome]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MakinWavesWagon:
If someone out there has a problem with that, I'll give them my address so they can come over and kiss my ass.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

uh i love your car kev . its simply awesome so i aint knockin for your drop but you still might wanna post the adress so i can snag your wheels in the darkness of the night

ninja vanish &lt;&lt;all but smoke is to be seen&gt;&gt;

skillz to snag dem wheelz j/k
major props on the SLAMMED pumkin wagon .

[bsc]

Im with Mr. Makin Waves, i too had cut springs on my foci before the hydros and had no prob for 3 months, it rode fine, and definately handled better then stock from my experience. i had a 3.5 inch drop with the springs and that was still WAY!!!! to high for me.

[P-51]

I did read your post. I was responding directly to this statement:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>One last thing: I don't think there are too many people out there who know suspension as well as I do, have had as much experience working on them as I have, <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

As to the jealous comment, I shouldn't even dignify such drivel with a response. Why would I want to modify my car in such a way as to make it handle like a walrus that's been sniffing gasoline? And about the poser racer remark. Sorry dude, I DO RACE. Here's me in my Mustang:



I don't have any pictures of my Focus on the track yet, you'll see them this summer.

I really don't care if you like to lower your car more. I never commented on it before because it's none of my business. But as soon as you come on here and recommend that this is a good thing for otheres to do to their cars, now I gotta respond.

Even this guy Pimp27 says he likes his Eibachs better.

[MakinWavesWagon]

Goodie for you -- you race your car. I couldn't give a **** less. Fact of the matter is 90 percent of the people who are doing this stuff don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. Now thats fine -- they're learning. However when people talk **** about it thats a whole other issue.

&lt;snip&gt;
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One last thing: I don't think there are too many people out there who know suspension as well as I do, have had as much experience working on them as I have,
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As to the jealous comment, I shouldn't even dignify such drivel with a response. Why would I want to modify my car in such a way as to make it handle like a walrus that's been sniffing gasoline? And about the poser racer remark. Sorry dude, I DO RACE. Here's me in my Mustang:
&lt;end snip&gt;

Ok, I do know suspension better. However, my point is that if you're looking for LOW NOT HANDLING, then cut the ****ers. If you aren't then go buy some springs. Hell why not look like every other Focus out there right? With the same bodykit, the same 1.5" Eibach drop and the same old car. **** that. I'm all about being different.

I build my cars for LOW not HANDLING. Still want that address?



------------------
Kevin Whipps
2k Focus Wagon
///Relaxed Atmosphere

[bsc]

mustang HAHA heres me in my race car




[This message has been edited by bsc (edited 02-21-2001).]