Welding springs?

[mintyfresh]

I know theres the whole 'to cut or not to cut' debate with springs but my mates dad (whos an engineer) gave his two cents on the matter the other day and said instead of cutting the springs shorter, a safer way would be to compress the springs with a spring compressor and weld a couple of the rings together thus shortening them.

I was just wondering, would this actually work?

 

[Alienfish360]

This is a ludicrous idea imo. Worse than cutting them I reckon. You're gonna have to get total penetration and clean them up perfectly, then there's the problems of protecting the weld from rust and road grime.

2 Most important parts of a car, Brakes and Suspension, your life, other road user's lives and the life of pedestrians relies on these, don't put any at risk by trying to save a few quid here and there.

 

[jim_bling]

omg i cant believe i have just read that

 

[ollyc98]

Lol, weld snaps and ping! It's as bad as those spring clamps

 

[frank]

It's as bad as those spring clamps

what these :wasntme:
http://www.micra.org.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=13568&stc=1&d=1253553932

 

[jim_bling]

hahaha stop it frank ya killing me

 

[Alienfish360]

Anybody ever been driving a car at motorway speeds when a spring has failed and snapped?

It's not nice! Not as severe as if you lose a tyre but if the swerve catchers a biker or another car it can turn pretty nasty!

When the car was then towed back, the garage (as it was under warranty) had said we was quite lucky as it's common for a broken spring to fall into the wheel causing just 1 wheel to lock up.

Any guesses for the nationality of the car that was less than 18 months old at the time?

 

[jim_bling]

wasnt french was it

 

[Seb_]

Xd

 

[martinb]

wasnt french was it

That's exactly what i thought.!

Seriously mate,just save your penny's and buy mph's 55mm lowering springs.safe and excellent mate

 

[ollyc98]

Any guesses for the nationality of the car that was less than 18 months old at the time?

I would've said korean or similar

 

[tiny big]

on other cars we used to put the spring under some compression and heat the spring until cherry red which due to the compression pressure caused the springs to shorten .Its a trial and error method to get the springs the same length +you need a mother of a burning/heat oxy setup to get enough heat into all the spring.

 

[markbognor]

Heat - enough to melt the metal, eg gas cutting or welding, is a bad thing for springs. It changes the properties of the metal which can cause the spring to be weaker and more likely to break in the areas they were heated.

 

[Alexx117]

actually no heating up the springs under compression and letting them cool naturally, stress relieves them its used in machining to take the hard surfaces off items such as conrods and pistons so they can be worked after rough machining. So after heating it up and stress relieving it, it should in theory be just as strong and maybe stiffer? as for the welding, big NO.

 

[Alienfish360]

People's right it was French

Citroen Xsara VTR

 

[imp124]

just got some lowering springs, put it on the insurance and there we go no problems

 

[Baz]

YEEEEEEEEEEEE HAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Welding springs???? these recessionary times are tough but not that tough

 

[NeX]

YEEEEEEEEEEEE HAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Welding springs???? these recessionary times are tough but not that tough

lol yea desperate mesures,

if you cant afford lowering springs, save your pennies till you can, simple as.

 

[mintyfresh]

Just to clarify, im not even considering this i just wondered 'in theory'

i cant even lower my car cause dad wont let me (N)

 

[funky2nite]

Just to clarify, im not even considering this i just wondered 'in theory'

i cant even lower my car cause dad wont let me (N)

dad's right mate....unless you wanna go the way these guys are saying..