has anyone done this and how is the ride? i'm doing all 4 next week at maximum tuning. i have H&R w/ tokkico set up and there is still a 3 finger gap. i'm just afraid if i have 4 ppl in the car and hit a bump/ will i bottom out?

thanks/ search does not work for me. thanks

 

Please don't cut H&R's. You only have about 5 - 6 coils to begin with up front. Take one away and the spring rate will shoot up by probably 20%. Plus you'll come down a good amount more. The Maxima doesn't have much suspension travel when it's dropped to begin with. Take even more away and your riding on bump stops. Put 4 people in it after you do that and.. Your in for a he11 of a ride.

 

1 coil will greatly lower the car in the front, it won't bottom out, but you'll want aftermarket shocks as well. The ride will get a lot worse, not bouncy just harsh over bumps.

You need to decide whether looks or ride is more important. Handling will improve a little on even surfaces but will be unpredictable during cornering.

ST makes good springs for cutting because they're linear rate.

Good luck, people cut springs all the time, it's not a big deal, just know that the more you cut the worse the ride gets.

 

Sure alot of people cut springs. Does that make any less safe? Nope. Get into an accident and if a failed spring is found to be at fault, guess who is responsible? Clue. Not your insurance company. You had better bet the insurance company will look for ANY excuse NOT to cover you.

The reason why the ride gets ALOT worse even with "only" one spring is because if you cut off 1 of the 5 springs, that's about 25% of the total spring. If it's 1 of 6, that's about 16-17% of the total spring. That's is xx% less that is supporting a 3000lb+ car + any active suspension dynamics when running though corners.

Looks vs safety? Your choice

 

I wouldn't worry about a cut spring failing, I'd worry more about someoen not installing a spring correctly or not tightening the bolts. The safety issue will come into play in A) an excessively lowered car may have problems over bumps in a way that you have to go so slow over bumps and railroad crossings that it is unsafe for traffic.

B) Someone is trying to kill you and you can't get out of the parking lot fast enough to save your life.

C) if driving at the limit on surface streets any little bump can drastically affect the way your car's suspension works. Suspension is supposed to move, too stiff suspension can result in worse handling.

D) Insurance companies will be hard pressed to prove that a spring caused an accident, the investigation would cost them a fortune, they'd more easily look at things like, does his headlights work, etc.

E) If you have 5 people in your cut springed car it'll ride like crap and no one will want to ride with you which defeats the purpose of having a Maxima. Also, with a full load the cars rear end will bottom out and your exhaust will scrape on everything (not safe).

 

I'D worry about safety. I guess you don't. The safety issue comes into play the second you install chopped springs on the car.



What the hell are you talking about?



Correct. The suspension is supposed to work within the limits of it's design. These limits are DRASTICLY changed the second someone chops off coils off something designed to support 3000+ lbs. ie.. cutting off 25% off the spring. 25% less spring to support the car. Good huh?



Inspect car, car has a broken spring, not that hard to see, insurance claim denied = you are now personally responsible for your car and personally repsonsible for paying for any medical that you have caused. Gee doesn't the insurance typcially cover 500,000 / 1 million in liability? Last time I checked, I didn't have that much on my dresser.

Either take your chances at changing the millions in R&D from the spring company, just do it right the first time or live with the drop. The first choice doesn't really appeal to me at all.

 

don't do it

 

Disclaimer: Please note maxima.org is not responsible for any information given in this thread by Brian V that may cause death or harm to anyone.

 

I second that, you want a lower ride, go with the Sprints.

 

Well hell then don't install aftermarket springs at all, if an insurance company really wants they can blame all the fault on the fact that the spring was not original equipment and the car wasn't the height it was supposed to be. Spring companies do not spend a million dollars on r&d for a spring for the Maxima, Nissan spends that much and changing that one part makes the rest of the suspension not work like designed.

All afermakret springs are shorter and stiffer, that right there woul be enough for an insurance company to refuse payment, and it'd be hard for them to prove that the spring was broken before the accident anyways, if you hit a curb who knows what damage could've been caused from that, and it'd be hard to prove you hit the curb because the spring was there.

Jeff is right, it is possible for them to revoke your claim because of this, but he's making it sound like it's going to happen all the time. Did you know driving with a broken turn signal or even driving with clear corners is enough to deny a claim in today's world. If the insurance company throws enough money at an investigation they'll find something wrong.

 

Not the same. If the part failed and you didn't modify it, you can claim it on the manufactuer. If you modify a part yourself, YOU are repsonsible.



Nope again, some springs are shorter but only the ones YOU CUT are dangerous. Ah how many of us could even DRIVE on a broken spring? Your wheel should be shoved up against the wheelwell. Again not valid.

Correct? But why expose yourself to unecessary risk just for the sake of looks? Especially when SAFER AND MORE TECHNICALLY CORRECT OPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE? Thing is when I see a bulb out or if my lense is cracked, I fix it asap. Not the same as this person's desire to chop his springs. Why? Because he wants to perform this unsafe mod w/ no desire to fix this unsafe condition. Again not a valid arguement.

 

Consider that even stock, the Maxima only has 3.5" or so suspension travel in the front. H&Rs reduce that down to 2". Cut another coil and you're down to 1.25" or so. Your wheel can only move up 1.25" before you have NO more travel, ie the car is riding directly on the wheel with no suspension.

Maybe that doesn't sound bad to you for some inexplicable reason, so here's a fun condition to ponder if you're considering chopping off "just one coil" from the front:
Say you're rounding a corner at a fasty 60 mph, almost at the limit of the car. The car is leaning slightly so the outside front suspension is compressed, say 1". You only have 0.25" of compression left. Now the outside front tire hits an irregularity in the road surface that's say 0.5" elevated off the pavement. That bump takes away ALL your suspension travel AND forces that corner of the car to move up an additional 0.25" VIOLENTLY because there is NO travel. When this happens, that tire experiences an INSTANTANEOUS loss of traction. This 60 mph corner you were taken was almost at the limit, and now is instantly above above the limit. What happens now is ugly, really ugly. The front of the car loses it and begins a slide outward. You are going off the road or even worse, sliding across oncoming lanes of traffic. Not pretty.

Springs are designed to always allow enough travel that sitations like the one above are nearly impossible to get into. Lowering springs quite frankly are more dangerous than stock sptings in that they do bring you closer to that sort of situation, but they are at least engineered with some consideration for these affects. They have additional stiffness to reduce body roll so the car maintains it's travel to some degree so the car stays away from the zero-travel "zone". When you go off on your own by chopping off "just one coil" and reduce suspension travel by literally 33% or so, you have BLOWN AWAY the engineered safety margin of the spring and you push the car into an unsafe handling regime.

You have to engineer the stiffnes and travel of the spring TOGETHER.

 

I respect your opinion, but slightly disagree. I do not think that installing cut springs means you have broken springs. You have a liklihood of having broken modififed springs or not properly installed ones as well. A properly installed cut spring should not pop off or break, it will as you said create excessive negative effects when cornering and hitting bumps, but cornering and hitting bumps in any suspension causes negative effects on the suspension. I think you increase your chances of keeping control of the car in hard cornering with cut springs, but if you rear end someone I don't think the insurance company can prove that a spring was at fault, and if they could they most likely would be able to prove that true on having an uncut spring.

Kevin - it's not quite as simple as you state, there's a lot more that happens when you cut a spring, the spring is wound a certain way and when it is modified it doesn't displace the weight properly. It's not as simple as just less travel, although less travel generally means worse ride, but my mom's truck has 3 times the travel of a stock maxima and the maxima rides better.

 

Cutting springs is SO safe that there is a consumer alert to the fact.

http://members.rogers.com/hondaprelude/suspension.htm

 

Thanks for setting me straight on the technical reasons why cutting springs is OK.

 

who would have thunk it this was especially funny, "a properly installed cut spring"

 

Cut springs opens you up to being liable if that cut spring is the cause of the accident. Just as simple as that. And the dangers of cut springs is NOT limited to the installation of the spring(although it is a problem in itself). So again, not a valid argument.

Yes, you are correct. There is ALOT more happening to cut springs than just spring travel. I pointed out many and Keven added to them. And it looks like you just reinforced our statements.

Again, comparing a TRUCK'S ride to a maxima is NOT a valid statement. The truck's ride is harsh because the payload rating is probably 1.5 to 2 times higher. Thus the suspension is designed to accomodate those loads. BUT YOU KNEW THAT RIGHT?

 

Cutting H&R's is a no no , just PM emax and ask him how it went...

 

I spoke with a representive from Eibach on this matter:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....utting+springs

All in all, if your spring hasn't 'failed' for a long time after being cut, chances are it's not going to.

And when and if it does fail, you guys are infering the repercussion to be massive! I don't think so...you will still have traction and still have enough steering control to safely pull over. That is IF the spring colapses.

I've had mine cut (1 coil)for 80K miles now and haven't had any issues at all. You have to remember, spring manufacturers build springs with high tolerances...possibly twice that of what a stock car can do to those springs.

So, if you cut, don't do more than one coil and expect a rough ride with the slim chance of the spring collapsing if not properly maintained (washing etc.) And if it does fail, it's probably going to be less scary than a flat tire.

 

God I'm glad I'm not the only one that believes in wheel travel, not cutting springs, etc. I get ripped on all the time for a saying a car is TOO LOW and that there isn't a benefit to lowering when you're so close to bottoming out. I was beginning to think I was the one that was crazy.


Dave

 

Not to mention the odd suspension geometry the car now has w/ severly lowred springs. Bump oversteer anyone?

 

I don't think you should cut the H&R's.. There already soft as it is. Talk to John he cut his Eibach's and it's definitely a lot rougher ride now

 

You should get in touch with Anthony (ny96max).

IIRC, he has cut H&Rs and had nothing but good things to say about them.

-Nick

 

i had mine cut about almost a year ago to the day. I noticed NO difference in ride quality what so ever! The car with 18's on it has a 100% even drop, 2 finger front and back, thats even with a loaded trunk of stereo crap.

i have no idea where some of these guys get theses crazy senerios from

anyways its not gonna matter cause come the spring im gonna be switchin over to either Sprints(cutting rear down 2 coils) or Intrax(cuttin front down one coil) with new Tokico Aluminas.

Ant

 

Yeah the ride and geometery sucks but I don't really feel you too much on the safety issue. Although too far cut, improperly cut, improperly installed, etc can cause a safety problem, one coil cut will most likely not cause a problem.

Your SCC article said nothing about cutting springs being a safety issue, it just said it's hard on the components of the car and can result in poor handling characteristics, which is something I never denied. You posted that article stating it's a safety concern, I read through it and didn't get that out of it.

PS - all manufacturers of springs would prefer you not cut your stock springs so they can have your business, and they're rather you not cut their springs because they don't want to be liable for your mess up and they don't want people getting the wrong idea. For instance if you cut your eibachs and you drive around with your friends and you tell them you have eibachs, they're going to associate the trashy ride with eibachs and not the fact that they're cut eibachs (they probably won't know what that means anyways).

Long story short from my point of view (I respect other's opinions but this is honestly how I feel):

If you want a slammed ride and can't afford coil-overs cut a good set of aftermarket springs 1 coil. Know that in doing so your ride will go to complete crap. Also know that your car will have decreased clearance over bumps, and know that packing your car full of passengers is going to cause frequent bottom outs and a horrible ride.

Also, if you want the best handling I would advise not to cut your springs as it will cause adverse affects on your handling especially on uneven/bumpy surfaces.

Also, if you cut your springs you will be throwing your car through a lot more stress (body, interior parts, suspensions components, etc.). Your carn will more quickly develop rattles and it's overall integrity will be lost at a much higher rate.

Hope this helps.

In defense of cut springs: I've ridden in slammed cars with cut H&R's and slammed cars with coil-overs both cattman and ground control, and to be frankly honest they all rode like crap and really couldn't tell much of a difference other then the cattmans handled better then the other two, but the GC's and the cut h&r's literally were unnoticable in their differences. Thus, most of the harsh ride is coming from the lack of travel and grossly increased spring rate.

 

Are you paralysed, how can you not feel it. Everyone always tells me, "these springs rule, I can't feel a difference." Then I get in their car and I'm like wtf are you talking about?

It's harder to notice as the driver, either that or you live in the world of PERFECT roads that are completely level with no imperfections. If the ladder is the case tell me where I want to move there.

 

I have GC's and tokicos on my 5th gen....i did tons of modifications to the set up...BUT NOW....i have no complaints on the ride or handling.....it rides fine....i live in atlanta....

 

How low are you through?

 

Rob looks like he's pretty low, but he does live in Atlanta. I go to Atlanta every year and I can tell you that most of the roads there are in very good shape. They've got a great climate that isn't tough on roads. They have a stiff clay soil, get consistent rain, and it rarely goes below 30s in the winter (no ice). For us unlucky saps that live in climates like the midwest and northeastern portions of the country, our roads are subjected to a much more severe climate. We have droughts, we have snow, we have ice, we have sand, we have salt, we have heat waves followed by week long rain storms. All this attributes to the fact the be get more potholes, pavement breaks, and pavement heaves because of huge and quick climatic shifts. Ice is probably the single biggest cause of poor roads. It goes into small cracks then expands and breaks the road.

The best/worst roads I've driven on that I can remember are (best to worst):

1) Florida - excellent
2) Georgia/Tennessee - good, Atlanta -really good, lots of new roads
3) Louisiana - okay, (New Orleans - bad)
4) New Jersey - really not too bad, lots of dips though
5) New York - not too good
6) Texas - not good, choppy
6) Arkansas - bad, choppy, pavement breaks
7) Kansas City - bad, potholes, dips, heaves
8) Chicago - bad, potholes, dips, heaves
7) Missouri - horrible (St. Louis- the worst)


Dave

 

Take the advice from me I cut many springs for people, dont cut those H&Rs just get sprints or intrax. With intrax you can cut a coil in the front and youll be fine. Sell the HRs to a wuzzy who wants a cush ride, no drop and get some sprints and youll be a happy max owner. Cutting springs is a taboo, I dont know why. My springs are cut in front only and I had quite a few picky people say is too low but dont say it rides like crap. I got a set of sprints in the closet but I love my intrax so I may be giving those to my little brother when he buys his max.

Bottom line get sprints.


One more thing New Orleans roads are sh!tty as f*ck. Cumalot and Mardigrasmax can vouch for that.

 

I wouldnt cut the H&Rs i agree with Jay on that one sprints can be cut and still rid decently, iv riden in a 97 alti with cut sprints and it rode almost like it did when they werent cut

 

How much did you cut off? front/back

 

ummmmm...i have like one finger wheel gap all around...i am pretty low.....i guess i am like 5 inches off the ground up front.....JAY 25 has rode in my car...ask him....it rides fine....the roads in atl are very good though....i live in a suburb of atlanta....

albert

 

I dont see what is so hard to understand. If you want to go lower,you buy the correct springs. A lowering spring will automatically reduce spring travel but it makes up for that with stiffness. It does not require amount of travel a soft OEM spring would need. Cutting even a single coil off any type of spring (OEM or aftermarket) however takes away from suspension travel that spring was designed and engineered to have. What sort of logic puts any kind of positive spin on that? It looks good and is cheap do not count.

 

i had one coil off each spring cut.

Ant

 

any aftermarket spring will make your car obviously ride harsher. My car does ride harsher than stock, i NEVER said it rides the same as stock... i wanna make that point very very clear!! What i did say is that the ride quality did NOT change after i had my H&R cut.

And as far as road conditions, you should come for a ride with me one day here in NY. Then you can tell me how bad you guys down south have it.

Ant

 

I think you can sell those H&R's for more than you paid for them. They seem to be the "oh mighty" of all springs around the forums. Im surprised they arent sold out. I have cut maxspeeds, but I am switching to Sprints that are going on real soon(tired of looking at them in my room).

Jaime your car doesnt ride bad. Mine isnt that bad either. Its a topic that everybody wants to argue about. One last thing, I am riding on the bumpstops since I have a low, cut, aftermarket spring. Yeh right. I have more than the 0.5 suspension travel that somebody told me I have

 

Sprints ride good Intrax ride good

Dave

 

H&R's are worth their weight in gold!!Everybody run out and pick up a set while you still can.


If you dont want a harsh ride stick with stock.

 

This whole suspension post is all opinions and some are facts.
Is your car, if you want to cut them by all means do it, just drive with sense thats my final advice to you and only cut one coil off. Some people buy the H&Rs becuase we have alot of bias Jack**** who post the BS becuase they live in a sh!tty enviroment and have no life complaining.

I got talked out cutting my intrax. I ordered sprints and were out of stock for a very very long time. I called many many places and no one had any in stock. One day I got tired of that d_am wheel gap and hacked away in 5 mins, reinstalled and 25mins later was the happiest .org member. Now if Sprints ride so sh!tty one of you bias clowns why were they out of stock for almost a year?
Thats why I cut my front coils