Lowering Spring question
 

I was planning on buying the H&R springs for my car: http://www.americanmuscle.com/h-r-sp...ngs-96-04.html

I don't know much about springs and lowering cars, does anyone know about how much a shop should charge me for installing these? Also, is it necessary, like it says on the page, to replace the spring isolators on my car if it only has 30k miles?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

I would go ahead and replace the iso's nonetheless, no matter what the mileage is. You're changing the springs they're a part of so change them anyways.

H&R springs are my personal favorite. I'd say somewhere around 200-300 for an install....

It's easy to do yourself though. Just requires you to jack the car up and get the factory springs out and replaced.

wow, so around 450 to 550 for everything? jeesh good thing im a college student without that much money

Yea, literally if you could get maybe one or two friends to help out you could do it yourself no problem. It's tasky, but you can definitely do it yourself without dieing.

I replaced my springs myself, wasnt too hard at all. I had never done any suspension work before myself neither did the guy that helped me. We just got out there and took our time and took it one spring at a time. The rears are pretty damn easy really, the fronts were a little more involved but wasnt hard. If you decide to do it let me know I will post up all the lil tricks to make this easy as pie.

Yeah I havn't ordered them yet or anything, I was just wondering cuz i dont have many tools or anything...

hey silverbullet do you have any other pictures of your car you can send/e-mail me? because i was looking at those rims and i'd like to see what they look like on my car, since its the same color and all.

I did the springs myself in a parking lot at my college with a jack and two jackstands.

Sure do! Will be glad to be a pic whore here for ya! LOL


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Those look sweet with silver, are those 18's?

yeah 18x9 hypercoated FR500s, im looking to switch em out to black chrome as soon as my money gets right. That shouldnt take too long at all though.

No, you don't have to replace the isolators unless they are worn through which they probably are not. The Mustang shop I used to work out of charged $150 labor to change all four springs and it could be done in less than an hour with a lift and air tools.
If you do it yourself, take a look at the "Guy tries to remove spring and gets pinky chopped off" thread for inspiration to not screw up.

Wrong. The factory isolators are rubber versus the replacements are polyurethane which is a much better upgrade, although many people don't even use them because it keeps the car from lowering more.

Also, the thread about the guy chopping off his pinky is because he is a fucking idiot.

Follow the rules and don't stick your finger in any holes that they shouldn't be in. (That's a life rule in general, and you know what I'm talking about)

It is super easy. Find a guide online and just follow it nice and slow. Look at it this way. You try and it doesn't work just put it back together and take it to the shop. At least you can say you tried.

You'll never learn unless you try.

Don't worry about the isolators they are going to be fine. Even on older mustangs like foxbodys that I have swapped springs on the iso's were fine. Save your money on that. If your getting into cars now, then this would be a good beginner mod to learn how to do. There are many write up's and swapping springs and I think you should do it yourself. With nothing more then a simple set of hand tools and one jack and jackstand (more jackstands make it easier) and a spring compressor that you can rent from any parts store for free, and you can swap your springs yourself. Its pretty easy really.

Ok thanks for the advice everyone, and not gonna lie when i read the post about the guy getting his pinky amputated i was like "wow how ironic". Until i read what he did and thats the dumbest thing...

The only tools you needs are a ratchet, sockets (21mm, 15mm, and 16mm are the sizes I believe), wrenches (I think 24mm for the strut nuts), tie rod separator (get the c-clamp style one if you can, pickle forks like to break the boots), torque wrench (20-100 ft*lb should be all you need), BMF screw driver or pry bar, 1.5 ton jack or better, and same for jack stands. Note if you are going to be doing a good bit of work yourself now on, invest in quality, made in USA tools. SK has some great hand tools and it's cheap on Amazon. As for jack/jack stands, stay far away from Crapsman. A great cheap one is Norco (though you'll have to find a local dealer). OTC is also good for stands at least, but I haven't tried their jacks.

no need for a spring compressor, just go slow and be careful when letting control arms down. then make sure car is high enough to get front control arms all the way down (close to 90 degrees) when putting new springs in.

if your shocks aren't gone already, they probably will be soon. i did mine with 25K and one of the rear shocks was completely flat dead. i know that's just more money but unfortunately probably true.

No way in hell my stock springs would come out without a spring compressor compressor.

Mine came out pretty dang easy w/o one.

As far as the other guy saying that all these other tools are needed, they are not. I done mine with a basic set of hand tools, pry bar, and jack (s) and jack stands. It really wasnt hard either.

If you are referring to me, my elbows would beg to differ to not use a tie rod separator and you need a torque wrench (they are specified ratings for a reason). Those are the two tools needs needed besides the basic tools I listed.

i left the castle nut on the tie rod and gave a good smack with a small sledge to knock them loose.

i lowered my control with a hydraulic jack under the ball joint. i also disconnected my strut by the lower two bolts. i didnt mess with the top strut nut.

That must be where were all differ. I dropped mine out with the whole top of the strut coming off.

i'm sure it would of been easier that way but i didnt want my alignment plates getting moved out of place.

i also changed my struts a week later and ended up getting a new alignment after that. so, i did a lot of unnecessary rework.

yeah Spike, that definitely would make a difference. i did springs/struts/shocks/cc plates all at once.

I plan on doing this lowering spring swap as well with my '99 v6 mustang. I just have a question about my flowmaster exhaust. If I lower it, anyone have any problem with hump over the axle hitting the axle because of it being lowered?

No because there is this thing about the rear end called a snubber that stops how high up the rear end can do so it doesn't bang the body and exhaust.

Awesome! Thanks.

Either you are lucky or I'm unlucky because my tie-rod would always barely pop using a pickle fork.

As for the strut, I use that method too. Makes it so that you stay in one area and don't have to constantly watch and hold the piston to make sure it doesn't hit anything. I never understood why some people prefer disconnecting it from the top.

I have a quick and easy way to do front springs that is foolproof, and there's no spring compressor required, nor is it dangerous without one, and it will be quick and easy, and you won't have to move the caster camber plates.

Place the car very high on jackstands......as high as possible.
Using a floorjack, jack up the control arm under the balljoint enough to take the pressure off of it.
Loosen, but do not remove, the lower control arm mounting bolts to the K-Member (to take pressure off the bushings)
Take your brake caliper off, and hang it where it's out of the way
Take the ABS sensor wire out of the clamps so that there's plenty of slack in it.
Take the 2 lower bolts out of the strut
Lower the floor jack slowly, and pull it out of the way.
Take the spring out, it won't have any pressure on it at this point at all.
You may have to press down slightly on the lower control arm to get the factory spring out, but no big deal.

The only thing to be careful of doing it this way is that you don't allow the brake rotor and spindle to put too much pressure on the lower ball joints. No big deal though, if you've got 2 people, it's really quick and easy, and best of all, safe.....

I did my springs without any help (probably stupid) and it was easy. My suggestion is to borrow a spring compressor from autozone. I thought i could do it without the compressor but i could not get the spring back on without it so i had to borrow a car to go get the compressor. It's an easy install but a little time consuming, it took me about two hours by myself.

So basically, just get a spring compressor. It's free so why not, it's much safer