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Spring Rates

93 accord

93 accord

The 4th gen'er
Messages
2,098
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Location
Midlands
Car
1993 Accord CB3
I have been discussing this on another forum, thought it would be good info for here also.

Basically, its the very basic fundamentals of working out spring rate. (prerequisite is you know the stock spring rate.)

So for example if your looking into a 2" drop and want to know what springs to run.

As a rule of thumb, you want to increase the spring rate to "counter" the loss in suspension travel.

So for example: say the stock travel is 8" with a stock 225lb spring
with 2" drop you now have 6" to work with.

so you want to know how many pounds per inch,
225lb/8"=28lb/in X2 (2" drop)= 56lb increase from stock which = 281lb spring.

This is works out to be 25% increase in spring rate.

which is exactly what 2" is of 8", 25%.

But this is still a soft spring in reality, and you can run upto double that rate but then youd would need to look into dampers, which im not covering.

Hopefully this is helpful/understandable

(this ***umes no change in dampers rates)
 
thanks for the helpfull info marcus, very usefull since im in process of lowering the car on coilovers..... :)
 
Hang fire, i never said i was chopping springs!

Im merely saying that for a "rough" guide to knowing what spring rate you want for the desired drop. Then once thats set, you can match the dampers to the rates.
 
you have to go back to fundamentals here. what is the suspention for?..............................to keep your tyres in contact with the road!. a change of spring load/rate will afftect the dampers (dampening) effect. otherwise the bounce created from the spring allone would cause the tyre to leave the road surface and contrary to belief that lowering a car improves handling it may make handling worse under certain circumstances and certainly affect comfort. this is why a full shock and spring kit is allways the best option. this is unless you are just wanting your car to look slammed and sod the ride quality. if you are going to spend time working out load rate you have got to factor in the dampening allso. interesting all the same though
 
i had a peugeot 306 which i slammed 60mm at the front and 90mm at the rear.......on standard shocks! i went through 3 droplinks, 2 lower ball joints and both front shockers were beginging to leak. at this point i was so sick of the s**** ride and the fact i hit my subframe every 5 mins on speedbumps i bought a full spax 30mm shocker kit and had the tortion bar rased to match.
 
Yup lowering incorrectly can hamper handling. But in most cases only on bumpy roads. Lowering the car, adds negative camber which is good for handling upto a point, and lowering centre of gravity and roll centre.

You cannot get great handling without reducing ride quality to some degree. Its just not possible. Either its stock for comfort, or racing coilovers for slammed handling.

Yes CJ i for one can say for sure, it stresses other components, namley bushes, ball joints and CV joints.

Just depends what your after from your car.
 
I did it with a Clio. Bodykit, respray in Jaguar pearlescent black, exhaust, lowered, alloys etc. One of the senior officers in the job asked who had recovered a "boy racer" car to the station and I had to point out it was mine :lol:
 
Paul the Bobby said:
I did it with a Clio. Bodykit, respray in Jaguar pearlescent black, exhaust, lowered, alloys etc. One of the senior officers in the job asked who had recovered a "boy racer" car to the station and I had to point out it was mine :lol:
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haha great story!


Beefy, 90mm out back, thats hardcore!
 
Pepster said:
:lol: I bet you didnt come to work in it again.
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I went from that to a very sheddy £200 Clio diesel for 6 months to get my 4 years no claims and then bought a Seat Lepn Cupra R. The Clio was probably the worst car I've owned, it sucked in air when standing so was a pain to start, the heater didn't work, the brakes didn't pull straight and when it accelerated I could hide cars in the smoke it produced. I missed it when I sold it though and got my £200 back. Oh and the drivers door and seat didn't match.
 
Pepster said:
you and your French car experiences they are legendary or what!!
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When I said to my dad "I need a cheap £200 car to run around in for a few months. I don't care what it looks like but needs 12 months MoT". He certainly ticked all boxes. I still wonder how it passed the emissions tests, the probe must have been up another car. Anything above stopped and it would bellow out fumes.
 
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