There are dead coils in a lowering spring that are intended to bind(fully compress) under load. If you put a very short spring(free length) in the car, it could come loose when the suspension goes into full droop. There is still load on the spring even when the wheels are off the ground. that is why you have to lower the control arm with a jack to release the spring from the perch.

 

Yup^^^

Progressive rate springs have some coils that stack on top of each other and others that leave space in between. It's completely normal.

Linear rate springs have the same gap between each coil typically.

Tokico HP's are a great damper but when i switched to bilstein HD's, i noticed a HUGE improvement over the Tokico HP's...

If i were you i would throw in the springs and the HP's and see how it rides. Don't mess with anything else besides an alignment 2 weeks after install

 

Thanks! But what I was worried about is that the whole spring was compressed and none of the coils had space between them, even with the wheels off the ground. Is that normal or should I expect a little space between them?

 

What happened to those springs to make them do that?! There should definitely be space between the coils! That's why your ride was so bad! You were riding essentially on a solid beam.

 

That's exactly what I thought, I have no idea and the shop couldn't tell me either (i went to 3 different shops including ford). This wasn't even after a long time either, this was 2 days after. The only thing I can imagine was a bad set of shocks and struts? When I first got them they were tough but after I removed the tokico hp's from the car I noticed I could compress them with just medium arm strength (I'm not like the hulk or anything). So I was blaming the shocks, but the shops were saying that the spring was supposed to be like that. Only thing I can think of besides that is maybe the springs had a bad composite mixture from the factory. After a year of laying on my floor the springs have uncoiled now which is why I'm a bit afraid of trying them again.

 

This doesn't make sense...

First off, the spring is what controls the height of your ride. Shocks and struts may alter ride height SLIGHTLY due to added compression, but you're car doesn't sit on the ground bc of a bad damper....

My tokico HP's were very hard to push in (the shocks were obviously easier to push), but the bilsteins were a little harder to push in than those. I'm a pretty damn strong kid and those things were giving me trouble. All of those dampers took my body weight to compress...

As for ALL of the coils being stacked on each other, that's not right. I know that the H&R SS have a LOT of coils stacked on top of each other, but there are still a few that do not touch. So maybe you didn't quite get a view of all of the spring? I couldn't imagine you getting a bad batch of springs...

This is what your springs shouldn look like...
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=H%26R...w=1024&bih=571

Looking at the picture, the top few coils of each spring will compress and the lower coils will have space between them.

It should look something like this...
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=progr...1&tx=30&ty=212

 

You may of said this earlier hp but what shock and strut combo you like better? HP's or bilsteins?

 

Bilsteins by far. When i installed them, i was amazed at how much more i felt the road. Yet comfort increased drastically as well... Feel the road more AND increase comfort?! You would think it was impossible right? haha

Also my steering felt more "crisp" for lack of a better word.

I am thoroughly pleased with my bilsteins (although i've grown used to them after a while). Nothing like the first few drives with them on though!

Oh yeah and handling improved as well... I just feel more overall grip and have been able to take some turns quite a bit faster...

 

I used Bilstein HD's and ford racing c springs afterwards and they were much better. And yeah I believe something was wrong with my set of tokico HP's then because I could compress all the shocks with just arm strength and no body weight. Think i'll give the ol HR another try and pair with tokico d specs. My bilsteins are still on my old 2000.

 

I noticed you said the shocks were easier to push in, then something is defintely wrong with my HP struts because I could push those in easily with little arm strength