If I were to change lowering springs out of a car, is it true that you don't need a spring compressor to remove the lowering springs from the shock assembly? Thanks

 

They are not necessary.

but then again, neither is a seat belt.

You can do it if you want to risk losing some fingers, losing an eye, or causing other damage.

I HIGHLY recommend AGAINST it.

You can rent a spring compressor from many different hardware/car acessory stores. Call around, some may be free to rent (may require a deposite)

 

my spring compressor cost $12

you can rent them for free from autozone.


you can lose a finger and break a rib if you like as well.

Mike an Jon, dont let this thread get carried away like the last time someone asked this...


this could KILL you if you dont respect it..

 

I had one break on me and the spring shot up in the air. Dumbass, I'm doing it in the evening, look up to see where the hell the spring went, sun blinds me, and the fvcking spring nails me on the shoulder! OUCH!

 

better than the eye. but you should have used them as a pair like you're supposed to :nono:

 

i actualy found them to be more annoying... and dangerous. ito have had them come apart.. i just pop them ON the car... no trouble.. no danger..

 

man u dun need it, i lowerd bout 6 cars already and each time i lowered, i used my own technique to uncompress and it aint even dangerous either. i put the spring shock combo up against a wall or somethign solid, then put a tire behind and have a friend step on the tire and then unscrew the nut. comes out no prob and no pop, too easy. but if u wanna be carefull, cant blame u.

late

 

This is what I do also. But I'm not going to promote using the wrong procedure. Unless you've seen it done this way, I wouldn't try it.

 

Just buy the damn spring compressor retard. Hell, I have seen guys work on cars all day with just jacks holding the car up. I also know guys that swap motors solo. Sure it might be okay but if you make it a habit of working on cars that way, you will eventually hurt yourself. My uncle used to work on his work truck with just a 5 ton jack holding it and one summer he was replacing a tranny and the jack went and nearly killed him. Luckily he was paying attention and rolled off the creeper and only suffered a broken rib. Had it been a car, it most likely would have killed him but since it was a ford dually it was high enough for him to fit between the ground and the bottom of the truck. Now he uses jack stands everytime (or my aunt will kick his ass).

 

why oh why do you guys keep telling poeple it can be done without the compressor. I just don't get it. No offense to sirDANG but for all you guys know he is a 15 year old farsighted burnout with half an arm. Keep your irresponsible ways to your self. the springs are compressed to hold a 2000 pound vehicle and your releasing all that energy in a milisecond. people have died, people are amputies, and you guys just don't understand.

Now to the question. Honestly the easiest thing I can tell you to do is take out the entire shock/spring assembly and bring it in to a shop. (Meineke, Sears, Whoever) The little spring compressors take for ever to mess with and sometimes hit the bump stops and take it from me after you've compressed and decompressed a spring 5 times to have it hit the bumpstop no matter what you will want to just leave the car in the air.

The shops have a huge machine that will take like two seconds. Don't call and ask...I called once to get a stripped nut removed and the guy says "yeh just bring it on down". I did and sat there watching them phuck around in the shop for 15 minutes, get it off, hand me the shock and say "You may not want to use this again and that will be $20" I almost spit in his face. The trick is you go up to ONE of the guys in the garage and tell him you'll give him $__ amount of cash to decompress em for you. You may spend $25 altogether but it will be alot less of a pain in the ass. Then when you install lowering springs you can pretty much just have a friend lean on the upper mount while you put on the nut.

myself, I use the free rented ones from autozone but have had to use the above method at times.