lets say you have old stock springs that are considered "shot". cutting springs increases their rate, right? so not only would the car be lower but the springs would be tighter and stiffer also right? am i correct in my thinking?
thanks

 

c'mon

 

Technically yes it will be stiffer but not enough.

When you lower a suspension, the most important thing you want to achieve is reduced suspension travel. If the stock suspension compresses 4" when you hit a bump-- when you lower a car lets say 1" and you hit that same bump and compress the 4" you now are actually compresses a full 5" and can ground out and also more importantly cause havoc on your steering geometry because of the angle it now twists upward and shortens your toe setting(this causes the front wheels to fight eachother- a.k.a.-bumpsteer)

When you lower a car correctly, you need to bump up the spring rate to where the car will now only compress preferably about 2-3". this will limit suspension over-travel.

stock springs cut will not bump up the pressure enough/ especially if they are already fatigued.

The #1 mistake most people do when lowering a vehicle is not using a stronger dampening shock. They will generally cut the stock spring and leave the stock shock thus creating the "Dong,dong,dong....down the road they go effect". The spring is not strong enough combined with the lack of compession and rebound forceof the stock shock and the car bottoms out and then bounces back up violenetly.

Heavier # springs require a higher rebound shock to dampen the backlash force of the spring when it unloads after a bump.

It has to be a proper marraige-- stiffer springs with higher compression/rebound shocks.


You can get away with cutting the stock spring maybe a half coil but you should deffinately puchase a good roadrace shock (Koni, Bilstien,etc...) with adjustable compression settings and increase it in proportion to the rebound. This will help act as a stiffer spring and reduce suspension compression.