Best way to lower my honda accord

[BigWilly]

Yo whats up. I gotta 96 honda accord and I wanna lower it. I wanna drop it about 2.5 to 3" and I wanna know the best way to do so..Can I just replace the springs or do I need to do more work? Please reply..I really need to know..Thanks

[neofreak]

define "best"

best for the price
best for performance
best for looks
best for blah blah

[sracer]

Well 3 inches is very low and I wouldn't recommend it. You won't be able to go a lot of places. But its your car so do you you what. If you what to go that low I recommend a Coil-over system. And since you didn't say what type of budget you are on. I'll make a few Suggestion. Both Springs and Coilovers

Ground Control(Coilovers)
Mugen(Springs)
Spoon(Springs)
Neuspeed(Springs)
H&R(Springs)
Skunk2(Coilovers)
Eibach Sportline Springs(1.5-2.5" drop)

Or you can go with other Expensive japanese suspensions like Cusco

[Moparwagonz]

Just make a bunch of fat friends. And give them rides.

[neofreak]

Originally posted by Moparwagonz
Just make a bunch of fat friends. And give them rides.

Or several sacks of rice. ;)

[ceeelle]

just do what a lot of people do - cut a couple of coils off the factory springs, handling be damned! :haha:

[Tercel GTS]

Loan it to a monster truck show, it might be lowered more than 3" when you get it back tho.....

[CoNFuSioUs2002]

heat or cut the springs, if your asking this question that's what u should do.

[Ike]

If you want to go THAT low you might as well install Air Ride... Eventhough its kind of whack for a car but it'll work.

[T_MO]

Originally posted by CoNFuSioUs2002
heat or cut the springs, if your asking this question that's what u should do.
thats my vote. cause its free. may be super ghetto and ride/handle like shit. but its free!

[CoNFuSioUs2002]

Originally posted by T_MO
thats my vote. cause its free. may be super ghetto and ride/handle like shit. but its free! exactly, if the question was what suspension set-up should i get for street/weekend use, that would be a different question, but if you just want a drop cut a few springs or heat them, don't worry about new shocks either, just let them blow.

[turbo2.3]

cutting 1 coil from your springs won't hurt much of anything, so that is going to be the cheapest way to go.

[Buggsy]

Let the air out of the tires. Park in a ditch. Take the wheels off. Jump up and down on the roof until it caves in three inches. Drive under a tractor trailer real fast. Pick one.

[XplicitGST]

Originally posted by turbo2.3
cutting 1 coil from your springs won't hurt much of anything, so that is going to be the cheapest way to go.

Wrong, cutting 1 or even half a coil of the spring will mess it up. It doesnt matter how much you cut its still messing up the spring rate etc for the car. Plus this kid wants 3" lower, 1 spring wont even come close to making his car non functional like he wants.

[entix]

Originally posted by XplicitGST
Wrong, cutting 1 or even half a coil of the spring will mess it up.

wrong, you can cut as much as you please off, its still a spring.

[PC]

sure and to make that spring work you will need to pair up another shock with it cuz your stock shocks wont to anything for it. a cut springs rate will go thru the roof. a normal kyb shock or something may be able to handle a 250lb spring anything over that and you are sucking wind. go ahead and cut away though. a good performance progressive spring maybe 250lb. stock springs are like 120 lb depending on the car.


the best way=== koni 28 series. can you say $950-1200 a corner? thats the "best" way if you ask me. this is touring car stuff you add the springs of your choice and tell koni your specs to build them 3" drop and more with race car handling assured. providing you can keep the geometry semi correct.

dont come bitchin cuz they bounce like crazy either you want it low you need stiff springs and stiff springs will bounce. you can adjust alot of it out but they will bounce.

any more questions?

[XplicitGST]

Originally posted by entix
wrong, you can cut as much as you please off, its still a spring.

lol kids these days. ok if you believe cutting a spring wont change its spring rate etc then cut 3 or 4 off yours and see how your pos rides.

[turbo2.3]

Originally posted by XplicitGST
lol kids these days. ok if you believe cutting a spring wont change its spring rate etc then cut 3 or 4 off yours and see how your pos rides.


Cutiting a coils out will not change the spring rate. Let's say you have a spring, with a spring rate of 250lbs per inch. You cut a coil out. What do you have now? You still have a spring rate of 250lbs per inch. It will always take 250lbs to compress the spring 1 inch unless you are really dumb and do something like heat the springs.

[Jhay3]

Originally posted by turbo2.3
Cutiting a coils out will not change the spring rate. Let's say you have a spring, with a spring rate of 250lbs per inch. You cut a coil out. What do you have now? You still have a spring rate of 250lbs per inch. It will always take 250lbs to compress the spring 1 inch unless you are really dumb and do something like heat the springs.

First off, this is not to argue but tjust to understand your theoy.

If your right, then how come the ride quality of a car changes whenever you cut your springs. I mean, if its still the same spec, given that its just shorter than normal, the performance should be the same as stock. Correct?!......

[Tapeworm]

If i remember my simple harmonic motion correctly, spring rate will remain the same, but the distance the spring can travel will obviously lessen if you cut your springs. Therefore, handling will be effected, the spring will have a shorter distance to travel before it is fully compressed.

Example:

You cut 2 inches off a 6 inch spring. Spring rate is, for the sake of simplicity, 100 lbs/inch. Instead of having to apply 600 pounds of pressure to fully compress the spring, you only have to apply 400 pounds.

[PC]

tapeworm i think you are pretty close. according to these 2 sites the rate will change based on the springs length both free and compressed.


http://www.engineersedge.com/spring_comp_calc.htm

http://www.efunda.com/DesignStandards/springs/spring_calculators.cfm


it doesnt matter cutting a spring will get you lower and it may get you by 90% of the time but those big sharp bumps and dips will make the car bottom where it wouldnt before even with super stiff dampers to compensate. so cuitting springs and or fitting springs from a diff car that are stiffer and cutting them may or may not work. he asked for the "best"way so he wants to spend some $$ on this no need to cut springs. im not saying cutting sprins is absolute taboo like so many will have you believe but its not the "best" thing to do haha. i have had both good luck and bad luck with it. the problem is once a spring is cut its either right or its wrong no going back.


i still thing the koni 28 series are what he wants haha. these are the same thing that truechouice uses in alot fo their custom short stroke stuff. same thing they used on alot of the NATC cars during that series as well.



in the end sad to say its a honda and you can go buy advertised 3 " drop springs right from whomever ready to bolt on.

[turbo2.3]

Yeah that was what I was going to explain. THere is a diffrence between spring rate (how much lbs it takes to compress a spring 1") versus spring load (how many lbs a spring will hold).

For example:

Your spring rate is 100lbs per inch
your spring load is 100lbs per inch

you compress your spring 5 inches, so your spring rate is still 100lbs at 5 inches, but your spring load is 500lbs at 5 inches.

[PC]

i think its best to say that we will reduce load carying capacity with a cut spring and this is a bad thing since it leads to bottoming out over large bumps if you springs wont carry the weight of the car over said bump and many wont. so a cut spring with a damper matched to it will work ok say 90% of the time but the other 10% it will bottom. now this may not be a huge deal on a nice smooth track but on the street it will be. i personally cant stand when you make a quick right turn for the inside wheel to bottom or unsettle the car when going thur dips on the road and most streets have some little drainage dip for water run off. with uncut springs this will unsettle the car with say 1 coil taken off the same spring it will bottom going thru this kind of sucks.

ground controls are cheap enough that i would cut a spring if i had to. a nice GC setup will work fine im sure and if the spring isnt heavy enough its easy to swap a new one on. or if its too heavy you can drop down.

of if you work thru the formulas the rates will change. alot of the end coils are dead coils so it will vary and it may not be much but the reduced load capacity is a bad thing unless you are way oversprung to begin with.

[turbo2.3]

Yeah, the rates do change but I wasn't going to go into all that detail :D Ive cut the front springs on my car (hard to find springs cheap for my car) with no problems (yet).

[PC]

scott-
yeah and we have to consider linear and non linear springs as well. linear springs will stay semi the same. non linear or progressive springs will change drastically. most aftermarket springs are progressive anymore. then it depends to on what you cut off. if they are dead coils then it just leaves the spring loose in the perch. if they are not dead then thigns start changing again haha.

i have had both good and bad luck with cutting springs. i have put springs from other cars on and cut them that did ok.

[tw!nturb0]

i say springs

[PoLiShEd ImAgE]

Blow the POS up.:newbie just playin i hate hondas but the best way to drop a car and not have to worry about scrapping is an air bag style suspension. it adds weight but prevents the damage. i guess it all depends on what you want to do with the car. good luck. my $.02

[Jhay3]

Originally posted by PoLiShEd ImAgE
Blow the POS up.:newbie just playin i hate hondas but the best way to drop a car and not have to worry about scrapping is an air bag style suspension. it adds weight but prevents the damage. i guess it all depends on what you want to do with the car. good luck. my $.02

Airbags are a lot more expensive and the durability of it on a daily driver is far less than a normal spring/shock combo.

I f you're dropping the car to handle better then it shouldn;t be too low that you'll be scrapping all over th place. As gojigen said, get some coilovers. They go for cheap nowadays. You get the quality of what you pay for though......

[SJ NINJATURTLES]

ground controls and koni yellows....

[Pin0yboI]

Originally posted by SJ NINJATURTLES
ground controls and koni yellows....

[hondaracing]

I used tenzo r coilovers on my accord. It is the same model as your and they do a good job:D