Detailed writup on how to drop your 05 stang cutting the stock springs

Just got done cutting my stock springs and figured I’d do a writeup on it. I’ve received so much good info from these forums I felt I should give something back so here goes.

Front springs:

-First thing is to jack up both sides of the front and remove the tires. If you don’t jack up both sides you’ll have a hard time removing the ball joint connected to the struts.
-Next remove the bolt securing the brake line to the strut. Its behind the strut and number 1 in the picture.
-Then remove the two 18mm bolts at the bottom of the strut (number 2 in pic). Be careful because the rotor assembly will fall freely forward now pulling on the brake line. I secured mine up with a piece of bungie cable.
-Next remove the 18mm bolt connecting the ball joint to the strut(number 3 in pic).



This is how it should look now:



-Next you need to remove the 4 bolts holding the strut in place. Make sure to hold the strut in place when removing these bolts because it will fall freely from under the car when they are out.



-Remove the strut assembly and sit it on the ground.



-Now you will need to compress the spring with a Macpherson strut compressor. I had one but you can rent them for free from many auto parts stores.
-After its compressed remove the bolt at the top of the strut and remove the upper strut plate. Handle the upper strut plate with care because it can come apart easily and it will be a major pain to put all the bearings and stuff back together if it does. I learned the hard way.
-Take out the stock spring.



-Cut one coil from the BOTTOM of the stock spring. I used a dremel and it took about 3-4 mins to cut it off no problem.




-Put the cut spring back into the strut assembly but don’t put it at the stopper at the bottom. Put the end of the spring against the wall at the bottom of the spring perch that is a couple inches before the stop. Otherwise the spring will move when you are installing the upper strut plate and tightening the upper retaining nut. Sorry forgot to take a picture of this step.
-Install the upper strut plate and tighten the bolt. You wont need to compress the spring to get it back in. Just push down on the top of the strut plate and you should be able to get the bolt started.
-Install the strut back into the car.
-Install all the bolts you removed earlier in reverse order.
-Install the tire and that’s it. Repeat for the other side.

Backs:
-The backs are really a piece of cake compared to the fronts so I didn’t take pictures of it.
-Raise the car up and put it on jack stands.
-While on jack stands put a floor jack under the differential and remove the lower bolts from shocks and the lower sway bar bolt on both sides at the same time.
-Slowly lower the jack. The shocks should now be connected at the top only.
-Place a jack under the passenger side where the shock connected to and raise it up until the car is about to lift off the jack stand.
-You can now pull the spring out of the drivers side. The spring may need some coaxing with a pry bar but no big deal.
-Cut however much you want off the rear springs from the TOP. I cut off 1 ½ coils and it’s perfect to me. The back is about ½” higher then the front with 1 ½ coils and that’s what I wanted. 2 coils off should make it even.
-Install the cut spring back into the car.
-Lower the jack and repeat on the other side.
-Once your done place the jack back on the differential and raise it up so you can reconnect the shocks and sway bars.
-Remove jack stands and put your car on the ground.

That’s it. Hope this writeup is helpful to many people. I highly recommend this mod. My car looks and handles much better now and best of all the mod is free.

Here’s some pics of how she sits now. Enjoy!

Ive agreed with you on some stuff youve posted on forums, but I know that car has to ride like s*** now. It doesnt ride that great stock, nor with my Eibachs on it. Spring cutting always has and always will be a bad idea. You change the rate of the spring, the load tolerances, and a bunch of other bad stuff. A set of Eibachs can be had for $200! Youre right the install is very easy on this car, with the back being exceptionally easy. Your pictures and descriptions are phenomenal, and I know you worked hard on the posting. I wish I knew how to do that, I could have shown the ProCharger install. I just think spring cutting is a bad idea, I know from experience. Peace.

Thanks for the write up! It will also help those who are replacing their springs and struts.

Regards,
Toby

You guys do know there is a Technical Write Up forum in S197 section, right? My write up on installing Eibachs is in there

http://forums.stangnet.com/forumdis...&pp=35&sort=lastpost&order=desc&daysprune=365

Nolyaw, actually is doesn't ride bad at all. It's a little stiffer but that's to be expected. It has a lot less body roll going hard into corners now and I couldn't be happier with it.

gp001, sorry didn't see that section. Nice writeup you did too.

Not to flame but you are endangering not only yourself but others on the road. I've have heard stories of ghetto Civics doing this and when they took a corner at high speed they crashed.

Remember aftermarket companies increase spring rate to compensate for lowering the car. this creates a balanced "engineered" suspension.
What your doing is ghetto and is for looks only. Your ride in the twistes will worsen and could be dangerous. Plus if you did get into an accident and an insurance guy sees cut springs, good like with the claim.

I'm just trying to help. Please get some eibichs or steeda's

Everybody on the internet is an expert

These are the things to go for when you upgrade your springs. In actual fact, it's difficult not to get progressive springs when you upgrade - most of the aftermarket manufacturers make them like this. Most factory-fit car springs are normally wound. That is to say that their coil pitch stays the same all the way up the spring. If you get progressively wound springs, the coil pitch gets tighter the closer to the top of the spring you get. This has the effect of giving the spring increasing resistance, the more it is compressed.
The spring constant (stiffness) of a coil spring equals:
k = compression / force = D^4 * G / (64*N*R^3)
where D is the wire diameter, G an elastic material property, N the number of coils in the spring, and R the radius of the spring.
So increasing the number of coils decreases the stiffness of the spring. Thus, a progressive spring is progressive because the two parts are compressed equally until the tightly wound part locks up, effectively shortening the spring and reducing its compliance.
So for normal driving, you'll be using mostly the upper 3 or 4 'tight' winds to soak up the average bumps and potholes. When you get into harder driving, like cornering at speed for example, because the springs are being compressed more, they resist more. The effect is to reduce the suspension travel at the top end resulting in less body roll, and better road-holding. Invariably, the fact that the springs are progressively wound is what accounts for the lowering factor. The springs aren't made shorter - they're just wound differently. Of course the material that aftermarket springs are made of is usually a higher grade than factory spec simply because it's going to be expected to handle more loads.


Your getto civics have no springs!!!! Have you ever seen them bouncing down the street. They ride on the bump stops. Cutting springs was a common thing just 15 years ago. There is nothing wrong with it. Read the above....

My big question. Doesn't this void your warranty. I talked with my service manager about lowering the car and he said don't do it unless you can live without a warranty. Comments??

First, agreed..spring cutting of constant rate springs has been done for years, and if done properly, there is no problem.

I am glad to see someone give this a shot. Nice work. I am impressed. Not many folks have the nuts to try that now-a-days....

Stan..as for the warranty. No..It does not void the complete 3-36 warranty. The Magnusson-Moss Act protects the overall vehicle warranty; however, if there is a subsequent failure of a suspension component relative to the springs, then the dealership has to prove the modification of the spring caused substantial damage and was the extenuating factor that caused the failure. Most will replace, instead of fight it.

Thanks again for the tech write-up. Nice Job! Haven't seen cut springs since my pop's 32 Ford Custom!

Jennifer

( The springs aren't made shorter - they're just wound differently.)

funny my steeda springs were about 2 inches shorter in the front

also when i lowered mine the camber was off have you checked that?

My dealer seemed pretty adamant about it. Sounds like it could be a fight, though, if there was damage.
I wonder if it is really worth it.

lagamm, please don't come here telling me I'm endangering the lives of others. If done properly there is no problem with cutting a straight rate spring.

stanmckinney, yeah you can have the warranty voided for any suspension component that fails as a result of the spring but the other parts of the car are still covered. If the dealer you go to wants to try and void the complete warranty because of some springs then you need to find a new dealer.

Well, you are missing two nuts, along with two cylinders

Not quite. Assuming that nothing is compromised except for the length of the spring, cutting it will cause you to bottom out the suspension sooner and harder.

What is the point anyway? Unless you have seriously over-extended yourself, you should be able to afford properly engineered lowering springs, should be about one third of one monthly payment on the car. Why risk compromising one of the most important pieces on the car?

I'm sorry! some of my info might have been not totally correct and anyone who knows me would say that i'm the 1st to admit that i'm wrong.

as for you warrenty, My car has ehbach pro kit on it. Not a huge drop. I drove into my dealer to get some oil filters and a manager came out and asked about me lowering my car and 17" aftermarket rims. I thought he was being cool and the next thing you know hes telling me any problems with brgs, suspention, rattles or alignment issues, that they would not cover the warrenty cause of my aftermarket wheels and springs. Then he went inside and flagged my VIN with these mods so every other dealer would know about them.
Sure you could yell at them about what ever law you want but unless you got a mod friendly dealer or are willing to go to court you SOL.


As for cutting your spring, Do what you want but it's still Ghetto. LOL!

well since you havent over-extended yourself It would be nice if you bought him some springs!!! anyways the aftermarket springs are shorter also even tho they are not constant rate springs they too will bottom also.....

You are incorrect. Aftermarket lowering springs use higher rates, so that by the time the suspension is compressed to near bottoming out, the spring rate is as high or higher than stock.

No matter whether you like the cutting of the springs or not, I think it is a great write up. There are a lot of things people do to their cars that others hate, and I think this write up shows something that can be done on a budget. Each of us decides what we want and what we are willing to do individually. How many people will make mods which hurt the performance of the car? A lot I bet. So what?

Nice job on the write up!

Mike Elia
05 GT lime

Removing an active coil (or any part of) increases the spring rate.
So, effectively, he has a higher rate, shorter spring. Same as aftermarket except its not progressive. Might not be a perfect/ tuned suspension but its plenty good enough for everyday street use.
Nothing ghetto about that, probably has about the same distance from the rubber bumpers as an aftermarket setup. Aftermarket springs exist mainly because most people are too dumb to do it themselves.

Good jod dude !

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