I'm about to order my H&R's next week and I was wondering if I should cut off one of the coils on the front and leave the back alone since I want to have a low and slight rake to my V940.

what say you?

 

I've only seen nasty stuff on youtube regarding cutting coils but I don't know crap about suspension other than replacing oe stuff.....I would not like the snow plow look...but rather an even stock or lowered height....

 

Ok. thanks.

more replies please

 

I don't mess with perfection. All you are gonna do is create problems for yourself and destroy the car. 99% of the time are see mods, I wish they had left things alone. If it's not OEM, I don't do it.

 

If you really absolutely must, use lowering springs, don't cut down stock ones. when you use a shorter spring, you have less room to travel, but the vehicle weighs as much, you need to use a stiffer spring. or you risk the vehicle bottoming out and bending stuff thats not supposed to bend.

when you use lowering springs, you also should use suitable shocks/struts. the stock shocks are 'boge automatic' which have dynamic damping based on how much travel. if you shorten the spring then the shock is running at a lower point, and this automatic damping won't work right. most folks recommend sport shocks like Bilstein HD, or Konas, for lowered cars as along with the stiffer spring you need a matching higher damping rate.

 

Over on this forum... at least on the 200/700/900 side of things... we seem to be kind of sticks in the mud, and don't like lowering these cars (I'm afraid I agree). But I run into a lot more of that sort of talk whenever I wander around the turbobrick's forum. Just a thought.

I'd look around The performance and suspension section: performance & suspension - Turbobricks Forums (

 

I totally understand you guys for wanting to keep the standard ride height, but I've lowered every car I ever had and these cars are great overall vehicles and I want that in a lower stance. You gotta admit, the volvo is probably the coolest and straightest design of all high end cars and fortunately for me I can get that and have that lowered look that I like. but if you guys can forgive me, I plan to own a LOT of these cars over time. I already set a goal of 4, I have 2 now. looking at a 240 coupe now for #3. Look at the bright side, the new generation is locked in on the old"grandma car, trust me....lol..these cars are cool!

 

well, then, as I said, you need shorter springs with a stiffer spring rate, and you need different shocks as the stock boge/sachs automatics will not work right if they aren't 'centered' as designed.

IPD USA is the goto place for suspension mods for Volvos.

 

For what I understood, He meant to say, even when he gets the Shorter springs, he was thinking in cutting one coil turn or maybe two, to create a rake looks. I never cut a turn on new springs before, but I've seen it done before. the best bet is to build a coil over on your own, and then adjust the system to your needs. ( best bet) Now...IPD springs will lower your car 1.7 front and 1.5 rear. it will give a slight rake look, but I don't really know how low the car will look overall. ( wait 3 months til springs settle too ) If combining shocks for a clean job, I'd go with Koni, They don't have Bilstein sports for 240 volvos ( I looked and looked) Im not sure if Bilies HD's will handle dramatically lowered cars.

 

for RWD volvos, the good performance-oriented choices are Bilstein HD or Koni. the konis have adjustable damping, so you can tune them.

 

Or! You could bag it.. just sayin' haha

 

 

scrape many driveways with that? :-/

 

What springs are those? on what shocks?
Im looking at IPD's combo Konis. or B&G with billies, or Konis. I thought of baggin, but that would be too much money, overkill for what I need the car for. I have a project E30 in the shop as we speak.

 

Previous owner cut springs on stock shocks.

The suspension is all very tired, only had the car a few weeks and been slowly fixing things, waiting for a few more paychecks before I put new springs and shocks on.

I think it will be raised a little bit by going to "super low" springs, planning to use King springs at the moment.

For shocks I'm not sure if I'll just go OEM replacement or if I should get aftermarket shocks.
Never really does more than catch the mudflaps a bit. I think the headers cop a bit when the front wheels drop over larger speed bumps, and the center muffler scrapes lightly on some driveways that are steep going down.

Not really a problem though, this is definitely as low as I would have any car though, because this is just getting on the point of not being a daily driver.

Another 2-3cm lower and trips would seriously need to be planned out... As is, this will go anywhere, even had it to a national park which was about 35km each way of dirt road.

 

OEM shocks are NOT suitable for lowering applications. they are 'automatics' that have valving that adjusts itself to the amount of travel. lower the springs, and the shocks aren't moving through their mid range, and don't dampen properly.

 

Yeah, that didn't help me. I can just imagine more Volvo's out there lowered. Just what I was hoping for.

One thing you also need consider is it moves your roll center in the front down (since it's a McPherson strut design), and if you lower the back it moves it up and you need an adjustable track rod (panhard) to get the car to track straight. That puts more torsional stress on the frame of the car since the position of the roll center of the suspension systems relative to the center of mass of the car causes torque while cornering and results in body roll. That's one reason why I keep it stock. The other is I like how my car doesn't scrape the ground coming in and out of the driveway, while everyone else does.

If you must, do it right and consider modifying the front geometry. This is supposed to help with that: 240 Quick Steer Roll Correction - Kaplhenke Racing. I have no actual experience, but it makes good sense to me.

 

Thats just overkill for the 240 ( except if you're really racing ) I've lowered my bmw e30 and the handling is great. I've lowered many cars, and it inproves the handling. Now, if you live in an area that have many holes on the ground, and horrible asphault, then I'd keep it stock. People lower their cars for looks more than anything, they're not going to be stressing the car racing with it.