Uneven Springs

by **andrewt** » Mon May 03, 2010 6:34 pm

Hi Guys,

so i just picked up my car from the mechanic today. he put in the springs i bought from hotwire.

the reason why i changed them was cause the rears were sagging.

now that i have the car at home, i ve noticed that the right side was lower then the left. both front and rears?

any idea why this has happened? is it normal? did my mechanic do a bad job?>

by **teK--** » Mon May 03, 2010 6:48 pm

How much are they out by?

Make sure the spring is rotated so that the end of the bottom coil is hard up against the notch on the spring perch. Also how much have you driven since the springs are in? Sometimes it can take up to 100Kms for them to properly jounce into place.

Other thing also, is have you checked your tyre pressures are even? If your wheel alignment is out (particularly camber if you are lowering) then it can give the impression of ride height difference as well.

Failing all these avenues you may have bought sagged springs.

by **andrewt** » Mon May 03, 2010 7:02 pm

dont say that !! haha i bought it off someone on the forum...i didnt know that someone would do it to me.

well...i just got it back so it would be less than 100kms.

i was thinking, the fact that i was sitting on the the right side it went down abit but who knows.

i guess ill pump my tires tomorow and double check with the mechanic

by **teK--** » Mon May 03, 2010 7:10 pm

You're not measuring the height with you sitting in the seat are you???

Check the things I suggested. Tyre pressures should be checked after the car has been sitting overnight.

All springs do sag over time depending on the way in which they are used and also how good they were in the first place. Do they have witness marks along the coils? This would suggest that they have been binding which quickly weakens and sags springs.

by **andrewt** » Mon May 03, 2010 7:27 pm

nah, im outside.

yeah ill check it tomorow.

the springs were scratched and had marks on them.

i think hotwire sold me dud springs.

i hope its not gonna sag, cause the rears were sagged before...i dont like the lebo look

by **smythie** » Tue May 04, 2010 9:08 am

andrewt wrote:i think hotwire sold me dud springs.

Pretty harsh. Especially about a guy who has done nothing but add to this forum. Don't know him personally but I would seriously doubt he would sell a dud to anyone in here. In addition I don't recall any photos of his car before he sold the springs being canted over to the right.

A couple of questions for you: Did your mechanic put the springs in correctly? Could he have put (for example) the rear springs in the right hand side and the fronts in the left hand side?

by **Hotwire** » Tue May 04, 2010 10:25 am

Andrew;

As I stated in my for sale add, the springs were sold exactly as I bought them - never fitted to my car, however they were fitted to Adhars car for approximately 25,000kms from memory. When I asked for the height measurements, Andrews car sat about 5mm higher on the drivers side from memory, something K-Mac must have done to compensate for driver weight. 5mm is negligible and could not be seen by the naked eye - if you have gap different to this, I would question the installation.

To say that I sold you dud springs is very unfair. They were sold exactly as is - second hand springs that you saw photo's HOW they would make your car sit.

**EDIT**
Just went back through PM's, they were only 15,000kms old, so sagging is definitely not an issue here. manufacturing maybe, but hey they are $200 2nd hand K-Macs, NOT New $600 swift springs or Teins

by **adhar** » Tue May 04, 2010 7:23 pm

Thought i'd ad my 2cents.
I believe Lee never got to installing these springs so he can only go by the information that i provided him.

I ran them in my car for about 15000 km's. Never had any issues apart from getting a bit bumpy as my stock shock absorbers were a bit old. Replaced shocks at 125000 km's and it was much better!

I also had a quick look at PM's between Lee and myself and these were the measurements i gave him.

Lee, i measured on flat concrete of garage.
Centre of hub to guard.

FL 345 mm FR 340 mm
RL 350 mm RR 345 mm

So it was actually 5mm lower on the drivers side. You will find (especially with cheap springs) that they all sag over time. I almost never have passengers, and even though i'm not actually that heavy, just a driver will cause some sag. I recommend that you swap and left and right sides around, and your weight will eventually compensate for the sag.

This is a custom height spring as i explained to Lee.

I ordered 30mm lower in front, 10mm lower in rear, but it was more like 25mm/5mm in real life.

You will find most other springs you buy off the shelf will make the car look very low in the rear and give you a huge fender gap still in the front (even though the sill is level the arches look uneven). You don't buy Kmac springs for extreme performance, they are an adequate spring and increase cosmetics nicely for a good price. They were the 3rd set of Kmac springs i bought. I wouldn't keep buying them for different cars if i didn't think they served their purpose.

I just think its a bit unfair to bag out Lee in a public forum. He's a nice guy and i'm sure would have been interested to hear your thoughts before posting.

Feel free to PM me if you have any queries about the springs.

Cheers,
Andrew

by **Arith** » Tue May 04, 2010 7:37 pm

smythie wrote:
andrewt wrote:i think hotwire sold me dud springs.
Pretty harsh.

If Hotwire were a newbie I wouldn't have issue. But he's quite a veteran, so let's try to solve things in private via PM if possible before we publicly denounce the person or their product (something I learned the hard way a few years ago!). Especially when one hasn't tried all the suggestions posted up by members here in attempts to resolve the issue.

by **Subie Boy** » Tue May 04, 2010 8:53 pm

I agree with above, I think this is best done via PM! I, too have learned this the hard way few years back when I first joined up!

by **andrewt** » Wed May 05, 2010 8:05 am

nah everything is okay, im happy with them hotwire. its a tad lower on the right but oh well. they are alot better than the ones i had on before.

i apologize to you hotwire,

by **Hotwire** » Wed May 05, 2010 8:41 am

andrewt wrote:nah everything is okay, im happy with them hotwire. its a tad lower on the right but oh well. they are alot better than the ones i had on before.

i apologize to you hotwire,

Apology accepted :wink: