lowering springs - why are they compressed?
 

so i was looking at my rear tein s.tech springs through my wheels and noticed that the first 3 or so rings were sitting on top of eachother. now i know that the weight of the car compresses the springs a bit and that this is normal for the progressive springs (someone mentioned this was normal on the tanabe's and tein's; which is why they have the plastic sleaves), but why do they manufacture them so that the springs sit on one another? seems silly and prone towards squeeking (mine have started to squeek a bit when stepping into the rear seat - not noticable when driving) when you could just make springs that would not compress that much under normal weight...

anyone have some info???

it's to keep the springs from falling out of the back of your car when the rear suspension arms are at their full travel - remember that these are *lowering* springs, and as such the overall height needs to be shorter than the stock springs.

if you just had shorter springs than when the suspension was at full travel the springs could fall out the spring perches - and that would suuuuck!

so with the extra coils, the overall height of the pring is lower, when they are compressed, but as the arm goes down, those compressed coils expand and keep enough pressure on the suspension assembly to keep it in its place in the perches.



- Brian

[edited for more details]

thanks brian, that helps explain.
i guess what i'm wondering is why can't they just make it so all of the coils compress a little (and yet still stay apart), instead of the first 3 colapsing on eachother? i guess they wouldn't be progressive then, but it seems like it would be less prone "squeekage".

how long have you had yours? mine have been on for a couple of weeks now, and i haven't noticed any squeaking or moaning more than stock.

about 3 months now... i think the squeek is inevitable -- nothing much can be done about coils stacked on top of eachother. it's not that bad - and not noticable while driving which is the key.