springs or drop

[shackmgr6073]

Hey, new to this thing but I have a 02 Protege LX. I have added a cold air intake and a magnaflo exhaust. Also have 18" rims. I want to lower the car, but need to know if I should buy performance springs or cut them. Any feed back would help. Thanx

[ZoomZoom]

You should buy performance springs, cutting your stock springs is not a good idea. They are engineered to work with the stock suspension and cutting the coils will alter their characteristics, usually in an unpredictable way which could lead to future problems and/or failure, not to mention poor handleing. Aftermarket springs are designed to not only lower the car, but make it handle better and be more responsive to steering input. I am sure others will say the same, although just cutting the springs may give you the look you want, the car will not be the same. Good luck with whatever you choose.

peace
Griff

[spoolinmp3]

You should buy performance springs, cutting your stock springs is not a good idea. They are engineered to work with the stock suspension and cutting the coils will alter their characteristics, usually in an unpredictable way which could lead to future problems and/or failure, not to mention poor handleing. Aftermarket springs are designed to not only lower the car, but make it handle better and be more responsive to steering input. I am sure others will say the same, although just cutting the springs may give you the look you want, the car will not be the same. Good luck with whatever you choose.

ditto;)

[jonlisle20]

Definitely DO NOT CUT THE SPRINGS! It will cause more harm then good. Once you cut them, your spring rate goes out the window and it will negatively affect your shocks/struts. Besides you don't really want to bounce around every time you hit a bump now do you? The only positive thing is that you can cut them for free. However you will probably be spending it in the future to fix your car. If you weigh the pros and cons you'll see they're not worth it.

But hey........what ever floats your boat. ;)

[zoompr5man]

BUY SPRINGS! TRUST ME, i'm rockin' 17'z w/eibach 1.5" drop....VERY VERY NICE!!!

[shackmgr6073]

thanks. Do you guys know of any good simulator software that will show what different length of drops would look like the the Protege. I don't know how much I should go down, and how much is too much:wtf:

[zoompr5man]

Well depending on what your planning on doing with your rims. If you keep your stock you can drop pretty low, my friend has stock and he's down 2.5" and its nice as hell, the ride is alittle bumpy due to the factory struts are shot to sh*t, but he can run like 130mph and it glides! I have 17" rims w/a 40 offset & the tires have a 45 profile, on my car + 1.5" drop and my factory struts are fine.... So good luck on what you want to do!

[savaho]

Hey if you're interested you can bid on my coilovers. These run $349 mostly everywhere on the net and at stores but they're currently only $197.50 on ebay. There's only 1 hour left. With these coilovers you can lower your car 1-3" all the way around.