Lowering springs how to fit them?

alexm

Club Member (Trial)
Well my springs came to day and im confused on what to do.. haha there is no D.I.Y for it or anything if i new how to do it i would make a D.I.Y so if some could tell me or show pics would be helpfull thanks. I kinda know for the rear you get into the boot and undo the bolt things on the side and it drops it :S but not that sure so.. HELP ! :D haha
 
i would take the fronts to a garage and tell them to fit them. thats all i do (my uncle works in a garage so get him to do it for free) :D rears are half an hour job with my experiance.
 
I've never had to take them to a garage all you need as spring compressors and some dog leg spanners are handy aswell.
 
quicker to take em to a garage and they are a hasstle todo lol...i really cba with them :p dont mind fitting em to the car though.
 
big props to a guy nammed craig who wrote this for me!! hope it helps ya a bit. :D

Now then pal, this is how to lower a nissan micra.


First of all i started with the back of the car, get a decent jack and lift up one corner of the car as if to simply change the wheel, take of the wheel and put it to a side.
Now you need to open up your boot and take of the strut top bolt covers, these are little plastic cones which cover a bolt, a nut and a rubber bush, there is one at each side of your boot. Once these are removed you can unwind the nut on the side you have jacked up ONLY, but in order to do this you have to stop the damper from spinning with the nut, on my car i used a 6mm open head spanner to hold the flast spot on the top! You will see wat i mean by all this when u have a look!
Once you have undone the nut the suspension will drop to the floor, and u can remove the old spring and replace it with the new improved one. Once the spring is in place correctly you can place another car jack under the rear brake hub and start to lift it up untill the suspension spring is set in the correct place and the damper has gone back in the hole from where it came.
Once the bolt appears in the boot again you can put the rubber bush back on followed by the nut and then proceed with tightening it all back up.
Repaet this with the other side and the back of your car will be lowered. But make sure whilst doing all this everything is going back the way it came of and any bolt un-tightened is correctly tighten back up. If you do not do this the results could be fatal ! ! ! !


Now for the front,

In order to do the front you will need spring compressors, it cant be done with out them!! You can get these from most car spare stores, they cost no more £30. But make sure you get ones which will fit the front springs for the micra cos they are alot thinner springs then other car makes such as vauxhall and citreon!

Once you got everything, jack up the front like you did with the back, take the wheel of and open the bonnet up. Get the other car jack and place under brake disc or bottom ball joint,
Take the spring compressers and put on on the left hand side and one on the right hand side of the spring. Make sure they wil not make contact with the body, or any other part of the car.
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Now i know i sound like your mum but if you get this bit wrong it can end up nasty, whilst using the compressers, you have to tighten em up equally at each side because if one side slips of the spring it can be very painful. At my mates old college some kid was using em and didnt tighten em up correctly and it nearly took of his jaw!! Just a little warning there pal ! ! ! ! !
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Anyway carrying on, lol, once you have compressed the spring enough so there is a gap between the spring and the strut, you and undo the nut on top of the strut found in the engine bay.
On the strut top there is 3 nuts, 2 of them on outer metal work and 1 larger onein the centre of a rubber bush, This is the one you need to undo first of all, this nut and bolt works the same as the rear one, u will need the 6mm spanner again. Once this is undone, take of the 2 outer nuts, remove the jack from under the brake disc/ ball joint and remove from top everything of the strut, be sure to keep it all in the same order, if u get any of the parts mixed up at any pint, you can buy a haynes manual or look on the internet for a detailed image of the front strut.
Now take the spring compressors of the old spring being carefull to do it properly, And the exactly how you had them on the old spring, put them on the new spring, whilst taking em of the old spring look at the spring and see where it coils up and ends, you should use that as a marker to get the compressers on the new spring exactly how you had them on the old one.
Once you got the new spring compressed put it back on the strut and begin the put the parts taken of back on in the order thay came of. The will be a groove in the top and the bottom of tghe strut and this is where the spring HAS to sit in, the top groove is rotational and can be spun around untill it is the right spot.
When it is all back in the correct order put the central nut in the rubber bush and tighten correctly and remove spring compressers safely, the move the strut back into place and put the 2 outer nuts on tightley. Repeat this on the other side and ur micra will be 35mm lower than b4 ! ! ! !

All of the above is just as detailed as i can produce from my head, if you get stuck at any point do not try to guess or bodge job anything into place, cos all it takes is for it all to collapse whilst ur travelling at speed and it will be nasty, the best thing to do is to do it with a mate whos has done it b4, and knows wat there looking at.
 
Fotr me the easiest place to jact the rear of the car up is the toeing eye and it frees the rear axle,
loosen wheel nuts first,

put in gear and wedge bricks under front wheel

jack it up,

take wheels off

loosen rear dampers and remove bolt (both sides) 2 x 17mm sockets/spanner

Get a mate to stand on rear drum while you yank the rear spring out.

Put lower spring in

fasten up dampers

put wheels on

lower off jack and nip wheel bolts with breaker bar or socket.

Fronts i would take to a garage as you need spring clamps and correct tools ect. - not as task to do if your not confident you can do it. garage should charge you £30 -40 labour
 
I want to edit this, you dont need spring comperssers for this atall, and its a simple job. I posted that above as someone wrote it for me ages ago, but u dont need any special tools just some inititive! :D and dont pay a garage to do it. its just wasting money and you atleast learn something if you do it yourself!!! :D
 
Doing the fronts are harder as its hard to get the into the top mount with out using a swan neck spanner and even when get it near the top its hard to get off as it will just spin without mole grips or the correct size spanner. so as the nut get to the top you cant grip it no more to loosen the bolt and i wouldnt advise clampint the damper shaft inside the spring withmole grip as it wills core the shaft!.

I should know ive just fitted my coilovers but i have a rattle gun which took the nut off in seconds without spring compressors so unless you have a £300 rattle lying round it will more than likely require spring compressors if you dont want to hurt your self.

if you dont know what your doing take it to the garage for the sake of £30 - 40 and alot less hassle
 
I agree, spring compressors do make it easier, but there arnt vital. Ive just changed my springs and all i needed was spanners sockets a hammer and a jack. :D
 
I agree, spring compressors do make it easier, but there arnt vital. Ive just changed my springs and all i needed was spanners sockets a hammer and a jack. :D

i find it a lot easier to release the front springs by jacking the car up/off them,(without using compressors) but unless you can assemble the lowered springs without compressors (eg, suzuki ones) then lowering the car down to compress the springs is a bit hit-n-miss when assembling the plastic thrust bearing properly fwn
 
no man, lol, it no a drop shot :D, if you use the chassi where tha shocky goes into as a pushing point and jack the bottom of the shocky up it compresses everything for you all you need to do is bolt it all up. I know its not the best way but it works.

I want coilies , there on the hitlist! :D
 
i just used 5 cable ties on the front springs whilst the car was on the floor, then when the strut was removed the spring fell out.... but dont cut the cable ties off again..lol "BOING!!"
 
yeh, lol, the BOING bit is the best fun, I just unscrewed the bolt at the top of the strut nice n slowly with my foot holding the bottom and when it gets to the last thread it springs off, I nearly put a hole in the outside bins. :D , all guud fun.
 
the other method is to undo it with the strut still on the car, basicaly using the weight of the car as a spring compressor...
 
thinking of lowering my Si micra but, this may sound blonde, but i cant see any springs on the rear dampers. where are they?
 
ah, that makes sense. cheers dude, i'll hv anova look for em 2moz. nyc car btw, ive got a black 1.3 SI. is urs black, it looks black in ur avatar. do u know what the best product is to make it nyc n black n shiny? :D
xx
 
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