c b wrote:rick - no, different guy. i understand cheap coils and clamps are wrong, but there's some people out there and its working for them. just hang on tight when @!#$ decides to go bad...
Or don't cheap out, leave it stock or spend the money and do it right. The people that you hear it working for either drive in areas that have lower speed limits, or are idiots and just think sweet my car is low, it rides awesome and don't know the actual difference of a good suspension. The people that cheap suspension parts didn't work for, you don't hear about them, they are either involved in a fatal accident or just don't talk about there suspension afterwards.
What happens when your stock struts blow? and they don't blow instantly, they will blow over time though, that is probably why these people say coil overs, cutting springs or using these clamps work. The car gets lowered, they have better center of gravity and car rides okay for awhile but over time, the struts slowly start to leak/blow, at that point they slowly get used to the car. The way it feels, feels "normal" to them but in fact the car handles like crap.
2000 Cavalier Z24 5spd - Intake, Dynomax muffler, Hawk Pads, Powerslot rotors, Sportlines/Koni reds, Neon Coil, MSD 8.5 Wires - **SOLD**
2014 Kia Forte Koup SX 6spd - 1.6L Turbo - My new car
2015 Kia Sorento EX V6 AWD - Wifes Car
b coe wrote:look some can say what they want but cutting spirngs are the worse thing. If you clamp them the only thing you loose is travel nothing else! cuttingyou loooes that and the car will bounce. now is it the best way? NO!!! how ever it will work just fine as long as you dont over load your car! What happens if you use clamps? well it lowers the car!!!! simple as that. no rebound no nothing as far as change.. yes its cheep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and so you dont want to do this to lower your car? Fine DONT!!! i dont race it i drive it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You seriously just bumped this ridiclulous thread to make a ridiculous post with a hundred exclaimation points? You're THAT type of fu
cktard?
A bunch of things change if you drive around with your stock springs clamped. Here's the basics:
1) You decrease the available travel, and preload your struts to a range they are not meant to handle (I'm assuming someone stupid enough to clamp their springs isn't smart enough to get proper lowering struts).
2) You DO, in fact, INCREASE your spring rate. By putting your coils into bind, it effectively removes coils from the spring rate equation, thereby increasing rate dramatically. This is how progressive spring rates work. Your factory struts can not handle this, and the car will be less drivable than at stock height. A car will handle better with a higher center of gravity and a more predictable handling characteristic (less bounce going on that changes the geometry of the suspension) than it will with a lower center of gravity and a lot of bounce.
3) These are used in circle track cars to preload springs for track-specific tuning. It is, in fact, made for racing, and NOT STREET DRIVING. You are going to run into far more things that make this a problem on the street than any circle track driver will, not to mention there's an inherent risk in racing that the other people on the road didn't sign up for!
So I love a beater with a heater as much as the next guy, but I have to say that I'm completely surprised to see such bs coming from a group about driving some of the biggest poser tuners in history. Cavs and their siblings are cool, dont get me wrong. Yet they were completely the cheap, cant-afford-an-accord stand in when it comes to tuning. Yes, this is an old thread, I just couldnt stand to see this guy get raked over the coals by all these wish I had an eclipse jackasses. Clamps arent stylish. But they do the job, especially for a budget build. I cant stand to drive stock. It makes my skin crawl. I have several builds going rn, ranging from an 89 s10 ( tbi 4.3, monoleafed and cut ) to 05 g35 rev up coupe ( about 480 hp to the wheels, full tein drop, staggered 19" jnc's) and lets not forget the 93 yj on 35s. Clamps will work as good as cutting or *gulp* heating. Use good quality clamps and put them on right. And to the ultra rad jbody cool kids.....well, there's no such thing. Why give a guy a hard time for following the trail you blazed??
necroposting a thread that was started when these cars where new to complain about how the cars are all cheap garbage now.
Wooowwwww.... lol(?)
also btw. the factory coil-overs in these cars fall apart with-out the right length and tension on the springs, by cutting or clamping them and the springs fall off of the perches.
'cheap' solution or not, it's dangerous to do, the suspension will fall apart thrown the spring into a wheel and it'll look like this in about 150 yards
I miss my Cavalier, even if it made 100 hp on a cold day and had more suspension then it deserved.