has anybody ever tried compressing the springs while still installed on the vehicle? Thinking about trying this to switch to a lower setting on my koni sports shocks.

 

one better than that you can actually just remove the nut at the top of the strut assembly when the car is fully on the ground. and then remove the six nuts that hold the top hat to the chassis and when you lift the car off the ground, the spring and strut will seperate from each other and car.

Kinda hard to explain and I probably wouldn't do it if you not experienced with suspension work but I did this multiple times on my RSX when swapping springs out I didn't like. Its nice and quick if you know what your doing because the weight of the car is acting as the spring compressor.

If it doesn't make sense then just remove the whole assembly and then put the spring compressor on. There's no room in the wheel well to put a spring compressor on before removing it.


Edit - I didn't read the whole post - why would you need to do this to change the shock setting? I've never had these but is this true?

 

Didn't think of that.. good idea. Thanks!

Can you actually jack the car up enough to pull the spring off? I don't need to do this, obviously, but just curious.

 

not enough to get the whole spring out and leave the shock in there somewhere. It just saves you a bolt load of wrenching on a spring compressor after you pull it out.

 

Yeah, didn't think so. Thanks again.. that's going to save me a lot of time.

Just saw your edit to the first response you made.. yes, the Koni Sport shocks are height adjustable. There are rings around the shock at different height levels that a ring washer type thing fits in to. This acts as the resting point for the spring perch. Obviously it's not as adjustable as a coilover system would be since the height adjustments notches cannot be moved. There's a good amount of adjustment though. There are 2 notches on the front shocks and 4 on the rear.

 

My 2010 RDX made the clunking noise in the rear for years. Searched all these forums and followed all advice. Changed the Rear shocks, changed the end links, changed the plastic piece under the springs, and still no resolve Finally purchased the Progress sway bar with urethane bushings. The issue was resolved and vehicle handling was improved drastically. Should have done this mod the day I bought the car. Now it's got a blown head gasket, so Im shopping for a replacement.

 

I did this with my OEM Type S springs and Koni Yellows (2 slots front, 3 slots rear) a few years ago when I put the car back to stock height for my wife.
For the fronts I had to remove the entire assembly but didn't need to remove the top hat, just compressed the spring ALOT and moved the circlip.
For the rears I was able to compress the springs with the whole assembly still on the car.