Been A while but I'm back

[baxterdan]

Hi everyone, my name is Dan and I have a 2001 Solara SLE auto. Lowered on H&R springs (cut 3/4 coil out of fronts) 18" Giovanni rims, 460,000kms! with original engine and trans. I have been a mechanic for 16 years, have worked at Ford, GM and a small shop but have never driven domestic! I am now self employed as a car dealer. Ill post pics of the car as soon as I figure out how. Dan.

[yaddadaimsayin]

cut springs??

[baxterdan]

Ya, when you lower a Solara gen 1 with just springs the rear wheel arch sits at the top of the tire while the front has a 1" gap. The car is sitting level but due to the body line it lookes funny. 3 series BMW's have a similar body line. So to correct this I cut the front springs until there was no more gap. "They" say that this is a horrible thing to do but I have done it on 3 cars already with no problems (91 Corrado & 87 MR2)

[Toy1mzfe]

I aint tripping off springs.

Did you cut the top or the lower part of the spring? How does it sit?

[GzNutz]

Welcome!

[DSM_Lara]

As we say in Hawaii "E Komo Mai" to Solaraguy.

[baxterdan]

In response to toy1mzfe, It's been a while since i cut them but I cut them where the spring coils are equal length so that once they were cut they would still sit properly into the spring plate on the strut (I beleive it was the top of the spring). It sits great, both fenders cover the top 1/4 inch of the tires which is the same as the rear (i'm running 225/45/18) and the ride is close to stock. The only thing I had to do to compensate was to cut the bump stops other wise I would only have an inch or so of travel.

[NVDIS1]

welcome back

[Jabraltar]

Wow, I think you're by far the closest person on this forum to me. Even though Burlington's like 2 hours from me

[baxterdan]

...ya, seems the car scene is pretty weak up here in Canada. The only advantage we have over our US cousins is that we can get the "Japan only" cars 10 years before they can!! We have right hand drive GTR's, Supra's, MR2"s everyehere! While I'm on that note, anyone know what the Japan version of the Solara is called if there is one?

[CDN_SOL]

There isn't one, the solara is a USDM car only, you wont find them in Japan. Im in Toronto so heres another Canuck, So did u essentially cut one coil from either side of the front springs? cuz i have the same problem on my lara with tein stechs

[baxterdan]

Ya essentially I cut 1 coil out of each. I have had experiences in the past where I have cut 1 coil out (in this case it was an S10) and all of a sudden it was sitting on the bump stops! To do it right I take a quarter out at a time until it is sitting the same as the rear. If you are good with the torch and have ample water available you can do this without taking the struts out. I found the Solara didn't have enough room up top and i had to remove the struts. It took a couple tries but after taking 3/4 of a coil off each side they were sitting level.