Ignoring all the "are springs under compression or not" discussion, if you do use a compressor use it wisely. Please don't press your luck being dumb. A friend of mine was kicking his compressed springs all over the place. why risk it?

 

wow, you must have some pretty dumb friends...

 

if the front springs are under compression, such as stock ones, i found it easy to jack the car up, put it on stands, remove the wheel, and place a jack under the control arm, below the strut. i then stood in the front of the car and removed the top bolt holding hte strut assembly together. from there i slowly lowered the jack, controlling the decompressing spring. nothing popped out, and i was able to remove the front springs without any problems.

 

Yeah, but his friend is even worse. His friend totalled his Bimmer, then fixed it, then blew pistons through his hood because he didn't modify at all for the nos, then worked on my friend's car while he was gone and cut the axles with a Sawz-All to get the tranny out, and also cut the downpipe somehow. He's not getting anywhere near my ride! He wouldn't anyway because he hates Hondas....but we all know how smart he is....

 

How can you lose your hands w/o using a compressor? I mean you can stay safe by using common sense.