Thinking about cutting a coil off my springs on my 93 245 to lower the car a bit and increase the effective spring rate for better handling. Can anyone pass along the benefit of their experience? Advice? Thanks.

I've heard good and bad things about cutting springs, if you do it to the front, you SHOULD do it to the back (assuming the springs are good like they should be), basically it will sorta keep the springs "balenced" with eachother. The next problem is that some springs will actually break because of the increased strain on each coil.....never heard of it happen on a volvo tho.... I know a guy that cut his original springs, lowering the car 10mm (cut a few rounds i imagine) and he said the springs were WAAAAYYY too springy, i mean, he reckons the front was real hard....I've got lowering springs on at the moment, and the car looks unlevel. I think the front is supposed to sit slightly lower than the back (measured from the floor, i.e. wheel should be same distance from wheel arch). But because of the weight of my stereo the rear is too low :o( Basically i have to get the springs re-set....Re-setting is the best idea. Speak to a spring expert and they'd be able to do it for you.....it's the smarter way, but only lowers the car, doesn't actually change the spring rate. The company i bought my lowering springs off "DO NOT recommend cutting springs, as it is an unsafe activity and could cause the spring to collapse", basically.....Oh well........Anyways, hope this helps,

Az

I think it varies a lot from car to car, and by how it's done.

If you cut springs on a car with progressive-wound springs, and you cut off the nice stiff springs at one end, then yes, your car will be lower, with soft boing-y springs that bottom out a lot.

If you cut the springs with a torch, then you've just reheated the heat-treated spring steel, and changed it's charactoristics, so anything goes...

If you cut a coil off a car like a BMW that only had like 4 coils to begin with, you've removed 25%! of the spring!

The Volvo front coils are not progessivly wound, they're very tall (by car standards), and if you don't use heat (I used a dremel, took 10 minutes per side) your should be good to go... (providing you use your head! don't take off half the spring and expect to have a racecar!)

Just my $.02.... :)

-Paul Demeo

1990 780T

I cut the front springs on my 780. One coil only, from the bottom, with a dremel. Took about 10 minutes. Can't recommend it enough, it's where the car should have sat to begin with, if you ask me! I decided to do it on a whim while changing shocks, and I was sick of cranking on the spring compressor...

I would not recommend doing this without changing shocks, even if it's new stock shocks. I put IPD lowering coils on a friend's 740, and the shocks went south in about a month, I don't think they liked the change in ride height so late in their life...

I did nothing special to the spring, just made sure that the end still lined up with the "step" in seat...

-Paul Demeo

1990 780T

Cutting them definitly lowers the car.. I took a coil off the back and probably a coil and a half off the front. But I did it when i put in new shocks, so i can't say how much stiffer they were by themselves. Ride is nice tho, you just hafta be careful where you drive ;)

Did you do anything special to the top of the spring (i.e. where you cut it?) Did you cut it with any kind of taper/angle, or just a straight, clean cut?