Just Purchased H&R Sport Springs
- Thread starter Darkhorse
- Start date
The rear install is cake, but you do need a floor jack. You jack up the rear and put it on stands. Take off the rear wheels. Then put the jack under the lower A-arm and remove the bolt for the shock. Lower the jack and the spring drops out. Put it back the reverse way.
The fronts are a bit harder. Jack the front and put on stands. Remove wheels. Remove the ARB links. Unclip the brake lines. Remove the bolt from the pinch clamp at the bottom of the strut. Here's a trick: put the bolt back in from the other side with a piece of scrap metal in the slot and tighten; this opens the pinch a little bit to make it easy to slide off. You should be able to push the spindle down off the bottom of the strut. Now remove the bolts at the top of the strut and the whole strut will come out.
Now that you have the struts off you need to replace the springs. To do this yourself you need a spring compressor which you can rent or borrow, but probably you are better off taking the struts to a shop that has the right tools. It will take them about 15 minutes and shouldn't be more than $20 or so.
The fronts are a bit harder. Jack the front and put on stands. Remove wheels. Remove the ARB links. Unclip the brake lines. Remove the bolt from the pinch clamp at the bottom of the strut. Here's a trick: put the bolt back in from the other side with a piece of scrap metal in the slot and tighten; this opens the pinch a little bit to make it easy to slide off. You should be able to push the spindle down off the bottom of the strut. Now remove the bolts at the top of the strut and the whole strut will come out.
Now that you have the struts off you need to replace the springs. To do this yourself you need a spring compressor which you can rent or borrow, but probably you are better off taking the struts to a shop that has the right tools. It will take them about 15 minutes and shouldn't be more than $20 or so.
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03.5-dc-speed
Member
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- 09 mazdaspeed 3
you can rent some compressors from autozone for 20 bucks and its fairly easy. me and my friend did that when we lowered his srt4 and a typeR teg and a civic. its not too difficult.
Nismothecat
Member
- :
- 08 Mazdaspeed3
dont pay for a spring install, thats a waste of money. its not very hard to do yourself. you can rent spring compressors or buy them at Harbour Freight for 20 bucks. plus you can save the extra cash for some more fun mods.
if your near Long Beach Ca ill even help you.
if your near Long Beach Ca ill even help you.
yeah, i've done a few spring installs with the spring compressors from autozone. and my last install i helped out with, we ended up just taking the fronts to a nearby shop and they knocked it out in 15-20 min....and all the guy wanted for payment was a 6-pack of beer. and CHEAP Keystone(or something like that) beer at that.... it was definitely worth it to prevent the headache and body ache of sitting there compressing and uncompressing the springs......
He will need an alignment, maybe, as those springs are a pretty significant lowering I hear. Is that true folks? I know my Cobbs stayed within camber spec at an alleged 1" lower than stock though, when I took mine in for alignment. I have read that more than one inch he might need it done though?
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would also like to know. If I dont go with HR springs I will go with Dropzone at 1.4 drop front and rear. Wondering as well if an alignment would be necessary. I guess driving it after to see if you tweaked it left/right would probably tell you right away if one is needed.
The old mazdaspeed protege springs could be compressed by hand...
Just place a hand either side and push down they compressed enough to undo the centre nut with an impact and didnt spring hard at all you just let it up nice and slow...if you can make it go down just bypshing on it you can hold it...pssshhh who needs a spring compressor?
Just place a hand either side and push down they compressed enough to undo the centre nut with an impact and didnt spring hard at all you just let it up nice and slow...if you can make it go down just bypshing on it you can hold it...pssshhh who needs a spring compressor?
bykeryder4life
Member
for the HR springs your gonna need an alignment and some rear camber plates maybe even front too but im not sure. all springs on the market except cobbs need a set of camber plates even the MS ones come with them and its a 30mm drop.
I dropped my wife's Jetta 2 inches over a year ago, the inside of the tires still look great and there are no aftermarket camber arms/plates on there. When I lowered my 350z 1.5 inches the tires wore out in the center like crazy and you could see the camber in the rear. I guess this would be a car specific thing.
