More springs installed backwards?

Mathew · Post by **Mathew** » Fri Aug 24, 2001 8:45 am

It was with great interest that I read about the person whose suspension problem turned out to be a case of springs installed at the wrong end of her car. Over a year ago I purchased some second hand lowered springs for my 1990 mx5 and had them installed by a local firm. When I went to pick it up I was dismayed to find that the springs had lowered the front of the car by about 50mm, but at the back by only about 10mm. I joked with them as to whether they had them around the correct way and they assured me that they did. I kicked myself for being a tightass and not buying a new set of springs (with a more even drop) and left it at that, but there has always been a nagging voice in the back of my head wondering if they really were in the wrong way. So, what I am leading up to is... IS THERE ANY WAY I CAN VISUALLY CONFIRM THAT MY SPRINGS ARE IN THE WRONG WAY? (other than the fact that the cars butt it in the air while the nose is ripping out cats-eyes!) I have a hoist that I can !
gain access to, but I remember that there was no writing on the springs to indicate which end they should go on. Two of them were noticably longer, whereas the springs that were removed were all similar (I think!).Any help here would be appreciated before I approach the shop to try and get them to correct the problem. My shocks are getting rather worn out so I was thinking of getting them replaced at the same time.

Cheers
Matt Avery ('IMBECL')
Deep Video Imaging Ltd
mailto:matt@deepvideo.com
www.actualdepth.com

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Ray · Post by **Ray** » Sun Aug 26, 2001 9:10 am

Mathew
The longer springs go on the REAR and should have approx 8 coils and should be around
2inches(50mm)taller, the FRONT springs have approx 6 coils, its quite easy to lean
under the car to roughly count the coils, some lowering springs may have an extra
coil depending on who the manufacturer is, be interested to know when you bought
them being they were second hand, how did you know they were lowering springs?
consider upgrading your shocks when replacing, maybe go for Koni's, a lot of club
members are now using these including myself, get back to this list if you need any
more help, there's a lot of helpful info here.
Ray

It was with great interest that I read about the person whose suspension problem

turned out to be a case of springs installed at the wrong end of her car. Over a
year ago I purchased some second hand lowered springs for my 1990 mx5 and had them
installed by a local firm. When I went to pick it up I was dismayed to find that
the springs had lowered the front of the car by about 50mm, but at the back by only
about 10mm. I joked with them as to whether they had them around the correct way
and they assured me

gain access to, but I remember that there was no writing on the springs to indicate

which end they should go on. Two of them were noticably longer, whereas the springs
that were removed were all similar (I think!).Any help here would be appreciated
before I approach the shop to try and get them to correct the problem. My shocks
are getting rather worn out so I was thinking of getting them replaced at the same
time.
[...]

Post by **zorruno** » Mon Aug 27, 2001 9:50 am

Many people run the Konis and stock springs... mind you, springs are not
that expensive compared to the price of new shocks (Konis are around $1000
per set)

Love my Konis...

Bugger!! It appears my springs are in their correct locations after all.

It was just a case of dodgy springs, not dodgy installation. I think I'll
just fork out for some new ones when I get some new shocks (I think I'll go
with some Koni's). It just goes to show that when you try to take the cheap
option it always ends up costing you more than if you did it properly in the
first place. Thanks for the help Ray.

Kevin & Gina O'Brien · Post by **Kevin & Gina O'Brien** » Mon Aug 27, 2001 11:42 am

Can you tell me model, type, number of the Konis reccomended for 92 MX5
Kevan