Lowering springs upside down

[zsdom]

I've just fitted some lowering springs on my car and whilst at the last stage & putting the wheels back on I noticed a little arrow indicating the direction of spring installation which was facing down.

Do you reckon this'll be a problem or can I get away with it.

The car was a right PITA to fit them so I'd rather avoid that hassle again

[GreenV8S]

I can't imagine why the orientiation of the spring would make any difference to anything except aesthetics.

[zsdom]

Ahhh rude words!

Taking the front shocks off involved lots of swear words, tea, oxy-acetaline, penerating fluids, angle grinders & wishing I hadnt bothered

Round 2 it is then……

[aka_kerrly]

Your car needs to come back apart.

this pic gives you an idea of how having a spring upside down prevents it sitting flush on the top mount . Often there is a specific groove on the shock body that the first spring sits in which once fully located levels the spring.


Good luck!

[Piersman2]

dibbers006 said:

GreenV8S said:

I can't imagine why the orientiation of the spring would make any difference to anything except aesthetics.

LINK

Nothing relevant to the question in that link. A spring , whether it be progressive or not, is fixed between two points and will compress consistently when squeezed, why would it being upside down effect that?

I can envision there might be an argument to say that if the 'soft' part of a progressive spring is pointing down it may soak up little bumps without transferring so much shock into the upper part of the spring, but in the real world if the spring were mounted upside down with the soft part at the top the spring would still compress the same overall, but there would be more mass being deflected during bumps.

I suspect the real reason for the arrow is that modern progressive springs have some wierd and wonderful spring coils and shapes, and I suspect many have different size final loops at either end with specific shapes to fit into the struts mounts top and bottom correctly.

Certainly the last few springs I've swapped over the last few years have been a PITA to compress and get aligned becuase they are such weird shapes now. I'm pretty sure plenty are probably designed to fit specifically with differing top and bottom end loops.

ETA: Gone are the good old days where lowering your car consisted of cutting a loop off the springs, I remember doing that to an old Vauxhall Cavalier in my younger days. Sawing through 4 high tensile metal springs took forever with a hand saw, really hard work in fact!

Edited by Piersman2 on Sunday 3rd July 23:16

[Krikkit]

zsdom said:

Ahhh rude words!

Taking the front shocks off involved lots of swear words, tea, oxy-acetaline, penerating fluids, angle grinders & wishing I hadnt bothered

Round 2 it is then……

Surely now it'll be nice and easy, as you've already removed all the crust?

[PhillipM]

Really gonna depend on the car and the springs, some are directional, some aren't.

Although I suspect if they have a down arrow on them you know the answer...

[SlimJim16v]

Surely if the top and bottom spring cups were different then the springs wouldn't fit properly the wrong way. Unless it was "fk it, that'll do'.

[zsdom]

All sorted, still took 3 hours, never again!

Thanks to everyone for their help

[IainWhy]

dibbers006 said:

Springs are progressive.

You'll be crashing everywhere over the smallest bumps as they will be too stiff.

You already know the answer unfortunately.

Just for the record this is not correct.

A dual rate spring works in any orientation, which way up it is makes absolutely no difference what so ever.

Think about the orientation of a proper coilover, the position of the helper ot tender in the stack makes no difference to the compression point of the main.

Any orientation will be about the location of the coil in the cup or the diameter. eg en e36 evo uses a taper spring to prevent contact with the body due to the camber on the topmount.