Compressing springs

[Ctyjet]

Just wondering if anyone knows a place that compresses springs in Melbourne preferably s.e suburbs and also a rough price on how much it cost to do.
Cheers

[XDV800]

What are you trying to accomplish exactly?

[Jim Goose]

compress springs??? ummm....

if you want your car lowered you buy lowered springs....

[shedcoupe]

If you're a complete nong (no, not suggesting that ....) the best method is to jack the car up, get out the oxy set, and heat 'em til they're nice and red, and then lower the car to the height you want ......

[EFJay]

Originally Posted by shedcoupe

If you're a complete nong (no, not suggesting that ....) the best method is to jack the car up, get out the oxy set, and heat 'em til they're nice and red, and then lower the car to the height you want ......

LOL we used to do that years ago

[Ctyjet]

I have brought lowered springs still not low enough, was hoping for it to tuck my 20s at the rear so wanna drop it another inch and a bit,
Are there any places??

[XDV800]

Originally Posted by Ctyjet

I have brought lowered springs still not low enough, was hoping for it to tuck my 20s at the rear so wanna drop it another inch and a bit,
Are there any places??

Regardless of what you want to achieve, the fact is you can't compress a spring, and have it come out lower than before. What do you think happens when it's under the car!
Springs are coiled to a spec and are guaranteed to stay that way for a long time.
The only thing to do would be purchase the required height springs.
Or there are dodgy alternatives, as 1 has been suggested already.

[SEZ213]

I assume they're the lowest ones you can get?

From memory (many years ago), the old ruling was a coke can underneath your car is the minimum distance required.

If it's less than that already, I wouldn't bother - you may just become a magnet on wheels...and void any insurance you may possibly have.

If you're still insistent on doing it, perhaps Pedders may be the best place to start? Failing that dependent on where you are - the yellow pages will be your friend. From my little hunt there's one in Moorabbin and one in Dandenong, and Pedders pretty much everywhere. Just understand that they may advise you not to go any lower.

[2011G6E]

...because nothing feels better than a car riding on the bump-stops...and nothing is more fun in that car than hitting a bump mid-corner...that's one way to get the heart racing.

Makes you wonder what excessive lowering does to suspension angles and geometry...well...I know what it does (nothing good), but i sometimes wonder why people put appearance over ride quality and safety...

There's a very good old book everyone should try to track down called "Chassis tuning in theory and practice", which lets you know how it all works and more importantly why it all works like it does...important stuff like roll centers and suspension arm angles and why it's important not to just lower away without considering some rather important points first.

[Samtheband]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

...because nothing feels better than a car riding on the bump-stops...and nothing is more fun in that car than hitting a bump mid-corner...that's one way to get the heart racing.

Makes you wonder what excessive lowering does to suspension angles and geometry...well...I know what it does (nothing good), and i sometimes wonder why people put appearance over ride quality and safety...

Because some people are just plain farking stupid.

[RAREV8]

Originally Posted by Samtheband

Because some people are just plain farking stupid.

Or.....they join a forum in the vain hope of getting some helpful advice, not from some halfwit with a keyboard and nothing constructive to say.

I am quite a bit older than the OP and I joined here in '05 to learn about the x series Fords and was lucky enough to have some fantastic people on here really help me out rather than diss me.
The OP was in another thread where someone else mentioned "compressed springs" so he simply wants to find out about them.

To the OP, as a couple of folk have said, once you have the correct lowered springs for your car, theres nothing much you can do beyond that- its all a bit of a compromise between how the car looks and how the car handles....the latter being quite important both for personal comfort and also safety!

One of my cars is far too low in my books- its nowhere near the bump stops as it has 14" wheels but it tends to catch the crossmember on some things- its legal too, just a bit annoying!

Take it to Pedders or look at the site sponsors as someone suggested and they can give you advice on what you can do.

[tickford2001]

What sort of car is it? Perhaps there might be an adjustable coil over to suit.

Failing that, there are means and ways of making airbags work as an option too.

[JG65TE]

browns springworks in thomastown mate. possibly lipton drive, Its in the same street as the angels clubhouse just not as far around. They will be more than happy to reset your springs. All done professionally, heated clamped to where u want em and cooled properly. Had a set done a coupla years ago thru em

[xisled]

Most suspensions place's would be able to compress the springs. But the problem by the sounds of it, is that you have way to big rims for the panels on the car. Instead of compressing the springs a safer way may be to roll the guards. If you do a YouTube search on rolled guards it will show you what I am talking about. I am at work so I can not get on YouTube.

What rolling the guards does is make the inside of the guards wider so you can fit your tyres under the guards.

IMO cutting or compressing springs can be very dangerous and once they are heated, cut or compressed, the spring it self has changed. I know of an accident that a car ran off the road and hit a tree killing a few people inside. The car hit a bump and because the springs were cut the car bounced and the car lost control and off the road.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by xisled

Most suspensions place's would be able to compress the springs. But the problem by the sounds of it, is that you have way to big rims for the panels on the car. Instead of compressing the springs a safer way may be to roll the guards. If you do a YouTube search on rolled guards it will show you what I am talking about. I am at work so I can not get on YouTube.

I know it was common practice to re-set leaf springs. Had no idea it could be done to coils as well.

If I were to go super low personally, I would use something that was adjustable... if you don't like the result you can just wind them back up again.

[xisled]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

I know it was common practice to re-set leaf springs. Had no idea it could be done to coils as well.

If I were to go super low personally, I would use something that was adjustable... if you don't like the result you can just wind them back up again.

What I have been told they do. Is heat the springs up, strecth them out and then recompress them.

[pottery beige]

five or six bags of concrete stuffed in the boot should do the trick.....

[vibe_xr6]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

five or six bags of concrete stuffed in the boot should do
the trick.....

been there done that, works but i think it makes the car drop some cylinders, well it defiently feels like it

[XRtowcar]

Make sure you ask how they will do them.
Made the mistake of going to Pedders Frankston along time ago with some springs i told them i wanted reset.
Rang two hours later saying they were done.
Cut with a grinder and repainted.

[GreenR]

Is there some sort of conversion to end up with the wanted ride height they use?. So you go in and say I want a 20 mm drop and they can do it exactly.

[mik]

Originally Posted by plarazza

Is there some sort of conversion to end up with the wanted ride height they use?. So you go in and say I want a 20 mm drop and they can do it exactly.

a more expensive option probably, adjustable suspension.
http://www.herrodmotorsport.com.au/H...1/Default.aspx

[kenz]

Originally Posted by mik

a more expensive option probably, adjustable suspension.
http://www.herrodmotorsport.com.au/H...1/Default.aspx

I had compressed springs for a few years without and dramas then changed to tein coilovers

[Ctyjet]

I have khrl-12 in atm it's a bf xr6,just not happy with how it sits atm still got plenty of room to play inside the gaurds and ground clearance it not like it's gonna be sitting on the ground hitting everything just wanting to go maybe another inch or so. Just to tuck a little does anyone know if there's a spring lower than khrl-12s??

[shedcoupe]

Bit of fyi - a few years ago I had some ute rear leaf springs re-set. The guy that did them asked if I usually carried a heavy or light load as he wanted to know how much re-setting to do, and then he suggested that I put a decent weight in the back for a few days after the reset springs went back in, to 'bed' them in. Seemed to know what he was talking about, and the springs were good after the heat-and-cool-properly process.

[MarkAW]

I second the suggestion that you learn what you are doing to the suspension geometry first.

Cars aren't works of art, they are complex machines designed to move at speed over a surface that is not always flat. Stupid changes to the geometry virtually always ends in a reduction of vehicle stability which is only compounded by the personality of the fool who wanted the work - the village idiot who changes things will always be the ones driving in an unsafe manner. 2 + 2 = Accident that kills some poor innocent.

Top Gear had a show a couple of months ago where a modified vehicle (could have been a WRX - forget exactly) actually handled like a bucket of ****. I'm not saying that Top Gear scientifically evaluated the changes or even truely represented the actual condition (they're a TV show - they lie) but the premise is still correct.

If you don't know how ride height change geometry, if you don't understand the metallurgy of springs (and what you do to them when you heat, cut , grind or compress), or have dumb ideas like using pressurised ride levelling shocks as your suspension (what happens when you blow one of the bags at freeway speed ) then leave your suspension alone.

[xisled]

khrl-12s are the lowest off the shelf springs.

Maybe you will have to look at something like Adjustable coil overs as others have mentioned.

[martinijosh]

Almost any suspension shop should be able to re set springs.

[MexicanBatman]

Suspension city

Cos Damien knows what he's doing and wont bugger them...

Cost you under $100 drive in drive out for a pair, takes less than 1hr

I've had more than 20 sets done there over the years never had an issues

[MattSAU2XR8]

You could probably cut them yourself with a grinder, assuming that:
- One end of the spring will work OK if cut, i.e. is not 'flattened off' to sit on flat spring seat, ideally the turn you are cutting will look very similar the one adjacent to it.
- The car is not already too low, or too stiff.

I can't see anything terribly wrong in principle with cutting a spring, this is what spring manufacturers do all day. Although if you are making a spring lower than a Pedders 'superlow' or similar then perhaps you are going overboard - there may not be any suspension travel left to soak up bumps. So perhaps stick to replicating a height that is in fact commercially available.

Assuming you want to lower the car another 25 mm, have a look at the coil closest to the end you are going to cut, while the car is sitting on its wheels, and measure how far apart the coils are. If for example they are 50 mm apart then you need to remove about half a coil.

You can also work out roughly how much stiffer the car will be by counting how many coils the spring has, and then dividing into this the amount of coils you will be removing. Count out how many SPACES there are between the coils and this is roughly equal to the number of working coils. So if the spring has 8 spaces then removing half a coil will make it (0.5 / 8 * 100) = 6 % stiffer. Not a huge deal if this got you the look you were after. Unless the spring you are cutting is already bordering on too stiff - eg. overly stiff rear springs can make cars oversteer too easily which is fun on slow corners but dangerous on flooded highways at night when you are tired.

If you can remove the spring then its pretty easy to slice off half a coil with a grinder and cutting disc, ideally wearing goggles and a face shield and keeping your face to one side of the disc, and then gently tidy up the edges of the cut and repaint the end of the spring.

Having sorted out the cosmetic angle it wouldn't hurt to know whether you have made your car faster around corners or actually made it slower. Get a mate to ride shotgun and time you you drive as fast as you can around an isolated roundabout for at least five or ten laps, preferably one where your speed tops out at about 60 to 80 km/h - not fast enough to have a serious accident if you slide around a bit. Its not unheard of for lowered cars to be slower around corners instead of faster.

Also have a bit of a think whether there is anything under your car that is likely to be damaged if it bottoms out - eg. BF XR8s had plastic auto gearbox sumps, one of which grounded and broke on a road test against an XR6T and a commodore SS.

[XDV800]

+1

Compressing springs is dumb.