that sounds sorta spooky.

you are not actually changing the suspension any by cutting the spring, all you are doing is moving the suspension further into its travel.

so the suspension will STILL run through its available mechanical travel at the exact same point, so it still needs the bumpstop to stop it when it runs out.

cutting the bumpstop will allow the suspension to travel FURTHER than the designers intended, possibly to the point where something is damaged.


sure, trimming a bit off the bumpstop will most likely be no problem whatsoever, but I would want to look at what happens at the extreme limit of bump travel to make sure that mazda didn't design in a bit of ugliness that the stock bumpstop protects you from.

 

just think of it from a design stand point.

 

Honegod, everything you've said above applies equally to aftermarket lower springs, so while you may be correct, it's still not an argument against cutting springs.

No matter how you lower your car, lowering it too much will have negative repercussions.

 

absolutely true

rereading my first post I can see that it looks like I was saying that you were wrong, and that is NOT what I was after. it looked to me that you were seeing Dyre
as saying that cutting springs was bad when he was just pointing out a couple factors in this specific case that SHOULD be taken into consideration.

I am all FOR cutting springs, as long as it is done for the right reasons and done properly so as to achieve specific goals.

as, for example, you did with your cosmo.

Quote:

No matter how you lower your car, lowering it too much will have negative repercussions.

again, absolutely.

the essential trick lies in determining exactly where 'too much' starts.

"spooky" in my post means something that needs to be CAREFULLY looked at and considered in detail because of the potential for non obvious failure modes.

 

I'm gonna cut a coil and a 1/2 off my springs. I've done it before and i'm used to a rough ride. I had coilovers in my accord and that was pretty rough. I am willing to sacrafice ride quality for a lower stance....

 

... this is like a topic off of club Si...

Get the right springs for the car, that way you don't end up crashed on the side of the road because your springs were so out of proportion to the actual weight of the car that you managed to get a nice ossilation going. I have a Mk III and if those are the springs your talking about then thier is no way they are going to fit into either the front or rear tower , never mind the spring cap and spring perch. Save you smokes and beer money ( or your **** money , whatever) and get a set of real springs, $340 buys a set of eibach pro-kit springs.

 

I can't beleve this is even being asked or talked about. How sick!! Cutting your springs , ANY springs is like drilling holse in your cats, insted of replacing them with a REAL exhaust. If you can't aford to do it right, don't do it at all! The day, the cutting of springs is acceptable in the RX-7 world, is the day I will burn all of mine to the gound and get it all on tape.

 

I fear the sickness is all in you, not in the topic at hand.

visualise, if you would, an antisway bar.
the expensive adjustable kind where the drop links clamp onto the bar so the lever arm can be lengthened or shortened by sliding the drop link mount nearer or further from the bars pivot point.

you slide the mount clamp all the way toward the pivot to stiffen the bar.
you like it there.
since you no longer need the excess bar sticking out of the drop link clamp, you cut it off.

this is EXACTLY the thought process of cutting springs that I find entirely admirable, and in no way sick.


will you burn your cars when somebody puts a chrome chain steering wheel in his 7 ?

 

you can cut a dead coil...anything else is trouble...dead coils have no wind and no compression, as kevin said earlier you can cut these for a little more lowering but past that you play with the springs rate which is not only dangerous but will lead to a car that is completely unbalanced. get GC coilovers, $400 with wuality eibach springs in your choice of any rate imaginable

 

sorry to resurect this topic, but im very curious. i was considering taking a coil off of my stockies to round out the cars height.. i have newer dampeners, and figure.. can it hurt to take a single coil off?

ive brought this up in a couple forums, and done some searches.. its strange that some forums reccomend it when replacements arent readily available, and the general concensus seems that losing a single coil cant hurt ride quality. im being honest here, my car rides high, and i want to take a very little amount of height off to round off the fender gap, ive heard reccomendations to go by half coils when removing springs to keep proper spring balance from side to side of the car..

any one have experience.. personal experience in a similar situation?

 

Ok i did end up cutting mine..I took a coil and a half off all around...rode fine but i still ended up buying aftermarket springs...

 

and the aftermarket springs felt better than cut stocks? what brand did you go with?

 

B+G...they rule.....

 

like i said im looking for similar to stock springrate, but im more concerned with dampeners. i figured change the dampeners and cut alil off the top on the springs.