Hey guys, I've had the T1R S-Coil V2's on my car since the day I bought it, and have about 21,000KM on the car.

I've just moved to another province and I need to get my car through an inspection to register it here. The guy at the shop said my lowering springs, were "just sitting there" when the car was on the lift. He told me that they are supposed to be connected to the car at the top and bottom.

From pictures I've seen on here I think the spring "just sitting there" is all part of the design?

Can anyone confirm that the stock rear springs don't have any sort of attachment at the top or bottom.

I'm gong to look at another guys stock fit today to try and see, but I think the guy at the shop didn't know jack shit about fits and just saw the aftermarket springs and red flagged it.

Thanks,

-Matt

 

I think what he means is that with the suspension in 'full droop' (as it would be if the car was on a lift with the wheels hanging down) the springs are no longer in contact with the spring seats. This would be a potentially dangerous situation and it is feasible that it would cause a car to fail inspection.

Lowering springs usually have several very closely spaced coils to compensate for this; when the car is at rest the coils are actually touching and doing nothing, but when the suspension droops the coils separate and keep the spring in contact with the seats.

As long as the springs are in contact with the seats you are okay, in my opinion, even if the mechanic can reach in and rotate them easily. However if the springs are not touching the seats at both ends, and the mechanic can demonstrate that to you, then he's correct and you need to get new springs.

My $0.02US.

 

the only attachment it has are the little rubber bushings that go on the top and bottom. it secures the springs in through that way. I'm sure you have them on or else they'll probably make a nasty sound rubbing against the metal.

 

i suggest you put your stockers on and get the car passed, then
put your coilovers back on again.

your sus sounds like it's missing a helper spring you'd find on most
kits that use the spring preload as height adjusters. might be just
a design 'flaw' on your system.


as far as my EnduraTechs, the springs are still connected to the
mounts at full droop.

 

Umm... yeah those are fully adjustable coilovers and it seems like you got you've got no preload setting if the springs are not touching the seats when at "full droop", this is potentially dangerous and valid grounds for not passing inspection. Imagine your car goves over a big elevation change on the highway at 70mph and for example, your rear suspension fully extends and one of those springs falls off. Safe to say, really bad things will happen.

To fix this, just lift your car up on some jack stands or on a lift so that the suspension fully extends and adjust the pre-load until the seats are fully touching your springs and you're set. Preload on coilovers is ajusted by unlocking and ajusting the spring seats themselves and then locking them back into place by torquing both rings against eachother.

Edit: While your at it adjusting the preload, "give" your suspension a little bit of preload by adjusting the setting a bit past the point where the seats touch the spring when fully extended.

 

so he's going to have this gigangous rake on his car but thats okay
to pass inspections?

 

Umm... no... Thats how yo set your preload, period. When you have stock struts with lowering springs the preload on them is set so that they at least rest on the seats when its fully extended, you have to do the same if you have fully adjustable coilovers. Of course, this would be more apparent in the rear suspension of our cars where the preload has to be set according to the ride-height set by adjusting the struts.

 

there isn't a locking of the rear springs, however there is a hump at the top which holds the spring in the spring pouch. the springs shouldn't rotate as well, because at the bottom rubber mount there is a little nipple sticking out of the pouch, to prevent any rotation. so if the car was lifted, the rear axle will drop slightly, but definatly not to the degree where the rear springs would pop off.

 

i know how to set preload. some suspension are designed like that
where the preload is used to set the ride height.

on the T1R's it appears he's lowered past the full extension of the
springs...but if that's where he wants the ride height to be, that's
where the ride height will be.

i thought you were talking about just 'raising' the rear where the coil
was loose from the mounts to make the spring contact the mounts.

then you end up with a nice werd super rake.

 

Ah jejeje of course...

 

this is confusing me... didn't smatts say he has the T1R S-coil V2s?? Those aren't coilovers. So i don't know why we got on the Coilover tangent?

I could see the mechanics perspective. The damper travel is much longer than the springs, especially with a super stiff lowering spring as the S-coils. So they would be sitting on the lower perch but below the top perch. I would've thought T1R had thought of this whilst designing the V2s. But in any case, don't move the springs whatsoever when the car is on the lift. I haven't seen our perches but most have indentions so the coil only fits a certain way to keep it from spinning. Correct me if i'm wrong tho.

 

that's exactly what i was thinking. the rear T1R springs are just shorter in height that the stock ones, so they don't wedge themselves into the seats as well as the OEM springs when the rear suspension is fully dropped from the body; this seems like a justified reason for it to fail an inspection =(