So, like everything i do with my car, taking the front shocks out of the car took 5 hours, went to bed, woke up and started taking the springs off the shocks and re assembling the shocks together with my sprint springs.

First problem encountered was that the spring wasnt resting where the oem spring was resting, i tried pulling and tugging and pushing and it was NOT HAVING ANY OF IT! It wasnt going to go into position.



so i thought about it, and hoped that when i released the spring using the compressor tool that its own generated force would push it self into where it was supposed to be. Well that didnt happen, although it did move itself about 1/4 of an inch down.



So i hoped that the weight of the car would push it down into position.. NOPE.. Preloaded and got this scary result.



So i hoped for the third and final time that i just needed to drive around the block, go over some potholes to get it to get it in there.

Kinda worked for the right side, but not really, (sorry no pictures)

Im almost positive that the spring went in the right direction, I looked underneath of the oem spring and it had similar wear patterns to the sprint spring so thats why its going in at the right direction... but i could be wrong thinking about it now.

just some information:
1. the set came with 2 different springs, tall springs and shorter ones, i used the taller springs for the front.
2. i didnt cut any of the bumpstops.
3. using oem 2008 40th anny bilstein shocks



My questions are....
Is this okay to keep this way?
Will it ever go into position?
has this happened to anyone else before?
Did this happen because i am using the 40th anniversary bilstein shock?(previous spring owner had them on d-specs.)


Im going to my mechanic to do my rears and see what he says about the fronts, if they are wrong then oh well, all i wasted was my time and ill have him do both fronts and rears.

ON A POSITIVE NOTE... i have moar low, and i just baaaarely scrape coming out of my driveway on an angle.

 

Looks deformed to me. I didn't compress it as low on the coil as you did in the first two pics, I used the center of the spring. How many miles on those shocks? Even with my tanabe springs I hardly need to compress them cant imagine needing it for the sprint ones.

Btw you need/should to cut the bump stops. Leave like an inch is what koni suggest.

 

Changed the title of the Post.

RX8Club Rules of Conduct:

 

It seems like the spring is wound too tight on the last coil to work. I'm not sure about the non bilstein struts whether the perch is aluminum or not. If so, they may be designed to work on those struts only.

 

if i remember correctly from my various readings, the longer springs go in the rear....

 

Bilsteins have 33k miles on them, springs have around 20k.

Can anyone confirm if the longer ones go in the rear? Please?

My mechanic said he could heat up the coil to make it seat properly if needed.

Spring install is happening in about an hour, any and all help appreciated! I dont want to pay him to have to re do it and pay him again.

 

Thanks

 

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-do-yourself-forum-73/diy-lowering-springs-install-23403/

post 3 step 14 says the longer ones go in the rear...

 

Oh my... Do not let him do that.

 

you have the springs on backwards. Almost all aftermarket springs are marked with an f and an r in the part number. Way to go.


It took 5 hours to get the front shocks off? Really? You must be doing something else wrong too.

 

+1 on backwards springs, that pic shows FAR too much binding for a front spring

 

When in doubt, go through the install in your head and look for assumptions. That's where you f*** up 99% of the time.

 

it took forever i work very slowly and didnt have any air tools so i was just using ratchets.

everything takes me forever, 5 hours to pull the radio, 5 hours to swap an exhaust, 9 hours to lower the power seat mod.

1.5minutes to do the airbox mod that one was easy as pie.

thanks everyone for letting me know that they are on backwards i r dumb dumb

 

you must take a beer break after every half turn of a bolt.

 

oh god, id be dead

no, when it comes to automotive crap i usually try EVERYTHING that doesnt work first and look at it confused, say to myself, okay last try, i know this is impossible because it shouldnt work like this and presto it works.

makes no sense. Once i do it once though i can fly through it.

I honestly have no idea how you guys work so fast, either you know what you are doing or my internal logic is really messed up. I mean, i never tried to fit a square block into a triangular hole as a child

 

Is counting the number of coils an accurate way to tell if springs are backwards ??

For example, in this pic the rear springs should have 9 coils ?? Do all springs have the same number of coils ??

 

or we follow a DIY if we have no idea what to do

 

i average about 3 hours for a spring install with hand tools. There really isn't much to it, but i spent most of my youth in a garage working on cars with my old man. The DIY for the spring install is pretty comprehensive though. Should make it pretty quick and easy.

No and no. But 90% of the aftermarket springs are just like the stocks where the rear bottom coil is a smaller diameter than the front so they'll only fit on one way. Also 90% of them have an f and an r in the part number on the spring so you know which one goes where. Some of them even have a color swatch on the fronts and a different on the backs.

 

yeah i followed Robin Yangs spring install guide

Front:http://www.hi-impact.org/ryang/modif...ock_front.html
Rear:http://www.hi-impact.org/ryang/modif...hock_rear.html

the thing is, it does a great job of telling you what bolts to remove but when it comes to something like taking out the shock, theres a specific way you need to take it out. IIRC putting the shock in goes something like... put lower end through loose upper control arm behind sway bar, swivel to the right, push down, turn, fit in hole on top, adjust bottom. this is what worked for me.

Im 19 and this is the first ive ever worked on a car so that has something to do with it i guess. Though i have to admit even though it took forever, i had a lot of fun doing it.

Its pretty funny, i read that DIY on the tanabe spring install, but i mixed them up yesterday, i thought the longer ones went on the rear.

 

I have a feeling my springs were installed backwards cause the fronts are "SLIGHTLY" higher than the rears.

Ive attached pic. I only took pic of front spring (note that this was when the car was still on the lift)


PS Sorry to hijack but i think this may help eric with his problem

 

I dunno man, where did you get the springs? Either they are on backwards and you have the wrong springs. My vote is that they are on backwards.

 

your thought was correct but you follow thru with the wrong action??

this could be why it takes you forever to do anything

 

so im pretty enraged right now and need to blow off some steam.

i brought my car to the shop. i told them to take the front springs and put them on the back, and take off the back oem and put the sprint springs on the rear. his rate is $95 an hour but it was alot for a kid so he put it to $75.

He looked it up online and it said it would take 5.2 hours of labor, during the install that started at 2:30pm, he started working on it, then the engine swap that was happening next to my car one of the guys lost some tranny bolts and spent 3 hours looking for them.

after about 15minutes he continues working on my car and tells another guy to keep looking for the bolts.

30 min pass by worth of working and then another guys pulls up and he walks over and starts diagnosing the shitty hondas problem, 45 minutes pass by and he comes back.

basically... it takes him 3 hours from 2:30 to 5:36 NOT including the 45 minutes and 15minutes he spent NOT working on my car. incase you cant do math its $225 for 3 hours.

when i went to pay he said it was $390 and i was like whaaat? you guys started at 2:30 not 12:00.. i watched you first start the car. He then said oh no well its a flat rate, im giving you a discount of $75 instead of $95, and that they were required to charge you a flat rate because if i had all rusted bolts and it took 9 hours to complete then they would still charge the flat rate, i said thats fine but it took you LESS time, 2.2 hours LESS they said it didnt matter.

when i brought my exhaust in to them, it took 45 min and he charged me a fraction of the 95 his usual rate. so i figured he would do the same here. The 5.2 hours was a estimate. NOPE now its a flat rate all of a sudden.

so i said hey how about you charge me for the actual 3 hours and charge me $95 an hour, then he said no its the flat rate of $390.

this is complete bull ****, Rotary-Rx8 was charged $200 for his spring install. it should have costed me $225.

i was taken advantage of because im just a kid. Im not taking my car there anymore. I wish i knew he would charge me a flat rate no matter how long it took, i would have went elsewhere, first time ive seen him with a ramrod up his *** and acting this bitchy.

i bring my car there, my mom brings hers, my brother brings his, my brother referrs his friends there and his girfriend goes to the same shop.

i know it may not seem like much, and unfortunately im going to use the statement all of you guys hate "i am a college student with little to no money" i spend 20hours a week in classes and atleast 20-35 working on projects for class, im majoring in industrial design. I know i shouldnt have gotten this car if i have no money but im making it work and doing all of the required maintenance, i dont eat breakfast or lunch to be able to save money.

whatever, its done. Im looking into other shops in the area, one that wont rip me off. Hopefully he gets a hole through his direzza in his evo, so he wastes that money he ripped off of me. I was talking to one of his workers and i asked if i could rent him out for less than what the shop charges and he said yeah, hes only making $8.00 an hour, so i will be stealing his work.

sorry for the volume of novels i wrote here.

 

Cool story bro. Quit modding a car you can't afford

 

^Lol.

Agreed.