I installed my H&R Sport springs a week ago and it seemed that the front lowered but the rear didn't lower the .25" less than the front did. I have about a 2.5 finger gap in the back and a little less than a finger gap in the front. I also have AGX's for struts. Just wondering if i should expect the rear to settle or lower more with time. If anyone has pictures of there H&R sports on a DC i'd love to see it. Thanks

i've searched this topic but it seems that many people have different drops with these springs and there aren't many pictures posted.

 

anyone?

 

Sorry to say but that's the way it is. Mine did the exact same thing. Lucky for me I also installed Koni Sport shocks which have limited amount of spring perch adjustment, so I was able to bring the rear down a bit more to match the front.

H&R Sport springs are crap IMHO... the front is much too soft for the amount that it drops the car, and then the uneven drop problem that you are also experiencing.

Here's a pic from the day after I installed my stuff 4 years ago. It's kinda small but you can barely see how it has that RWD drag race stance. This was before I adjusted the rear shock's spring perch:

 

if i ran 205/50/15s do you think that would fill the gap more than my current 195/55/15s. i want to get the Azenis in the future

edit: your car looks good though. i think i might have to get used to it.

 

is your rear gutted?

 

Nope, you're looking at 205/50 in that pic.

Another option would be to cut off a couple of dead coils from the back springs. Now before anybody gets too alarmed at what I just said, remember that dead coils are just that, dead, and if you lose one or two, it will have no effect on spring rate whatsoever.

If you consider this, though, check to see if the end of the spring with dead coils has the end of the coil flattened. I can't remember which end of the rear springs is the softer progressive end, but if it has the end of the coil flattened like stock springs, you can't cut off anything because it won't sit right on the spring perch/top hat.

 

yes my rear is gutted, and i did bring that idea up to a friend too about cutting the spring a little

 

It's not a big deal as long as you understand what happens when you shorten a spring. When you shorten a spring, you increase the spring rate, because there are fewer coils, and so when you compress the spring a certain amount, each individual coil has to twist more than when you had more coils, and so it takes more force to compress the spring the same amount as before. I remember reading an issue of Sport Compact Car a few years ago where they took a set of Eibach ERS coilover springs for one of their project cars, and shortened (cut) two of the springs to a specific length in order to "tune" the spring's rate, because the rate they were after for their particular car wasn't available.

When ricers back in the day (and some even today) cut stock springs and use them with stock shocks, it ends up being really crappy because the stock shocks weren't designed to operate with the range that they are with the shorter springs, and also because they can't handle the cut springs' increased spring rate. With quality aftermarket shocks, it wouldn't be such a big deal.

Now on a progressive-rate spring, there are typically coils spaced really close together on one end. This part of the spring has a soft rate and H&R even states that it's meant as a "helper spring" as it were, to help keep the spring in place even at full droop. When there is a load on the spring, those coils just bunch together and touch each other, which makes them "dead", meaning they aren't contributing anything to the spring's overall spring rate. They're already fully compressed, and no amount of load can compress them any more. So, if you were to lose 1 or 2 of those dead coils, it's not going to affect the spring's overall loaded rate at all, and will only reduce your ride height another 1/2 to 3/4", or whatever the diameter of the spring wire is.

It's not hard to do with a Dremel and a reinforced cutting wheel. Just be sure to spray a little paint on the end of the coil so that it doesn't rust.

 

im not sure if im going to do that yet, but it is an idea

 

Yeah well, the uneven ride height bugged the hell outta me. Integras ride higher in the back stock, and the uneven H&R drop just made it worse.

Last year I sold my Ground Controls and put my factory springs back onto my Koni shocks. I couldn't bear the thought of stock ride height, so I set the spring perches on the shocks to the lowest setting all around. Even still, it sat way high in the back (1 finger gap in front, 3 in back). Cutting the factory springs was not an option, so I ended up scoring a set of factory ITR springs and installing only the rear ones, keeping my original factory springs in front (hence my signature ), which makes the height almost even all around, still just a touch higher in back.

 

well thanks for the picture and info, if anyone else has a pic of there car on the sports i'd be glad to see it