6G Celicas Forums

As of this morning the car seems to have settled a bit lower. The fender/wheel gap is slightly smaller than shown in the pictures.

Next on the list is bigger tires. I hate the look of mine after seeing samir's pictures

No problem, and thanks.

i would NOT suggest any parking lot stunts to settle the springs, mine settled just fine with just normal driving and the weight of the car being on them, they will continue to settle and give you a better drop, have no fear, just give it time..




It is always recommended to use a spring compressor to remove and install strut springs. It is extremely dangerous, trust me, those things are under an extreme amount of tension, you might be lucky if the springs are old and not as strong as they were, but they can cause you some serious bodily injury if they go flying.

There is no reason not to use one either, Autozone provides them free of charge as a rental, pay a deposit and bring it back to them when you are done, and you get every penny back.

That's because you're doing it wrong

You aren't really doing it wrong, but there is a better way. If you can, but your car completely up on jack stands, or get a couple of extra tires when you take your springs off. Lay the spring/strut assembly down flat, and put the tires on each side of the assembly, on all four sides. Obviously you have to leave enough room at the top of your assembly to get your impact or whatever in between the assembly and the tire, but that's a given. Stand on the two side tires so if anything kicks, the assembly doesn't go anywhere. Whenever you get the nut loose, instead of getting thrown, your impact and nut will kick into the tire you put in the way, and everything goes smoothly and harmlessly.

Oh, if Autozone rents them for free, I'll go that route.

Orrr... just rent/buy the tool and do it the right way, which is 100% safe?

Just sayin...

That works too, and beats 100% free Autozone will rent you the spring compressor and return your money when you bring it back, which is free as well, but I live half an hour away from Autozone and most of the time, I am working on my car at night, and I got tired of renting the compressor after the 2nd time I worked on my suspension. Lol. More than likely a bad idea, but the tires work just as well.

This post has been edited by richee3: Oct 24, 2009 - 8:10 PM

yea thats really a big gap. I would get lower springs or coilovers and drop it lower. your profile is too skinny, been there done that, you should have gone 225/40. or 215/45. big tires won't look good at that height, you need to drop it lower. imagine your car height is still high from the drop and then you put bigger tires and makes your car more higher, you need to compensate a bigger tire with a lower drop unless you dont mind your car higher. for your springs you should have gotten Intrax or TRD. I even tried them both on blown struts and they were pretty good even with 205/40

This post has been edited by trdproven: Oct 26, 2009 - 1:36 AM

The megans are supposed to have a lower drop compared to the trd springs.
Megan Racing: 1.6" front and 1.4" rear
TRD: 1.5" front 1.0" rear
Intrax: 1.75" front and rear

I also paid about half for the megans than what I would have paid for any other brand.

I wouldn't want any lower than what I have now. I already trashed my left side skirt when slowly pulling into a parking lot at an angle, and I scrape every time I slowly go over a speed bump.

The springs have settled a bit lower than what is shown in the current pictures.

ok, those specs are deceiving, they look no where near the 1.6 drop from your pic. but yea saving is not the goal unless saving doesnt have any sacrifices or downsides.

can you post pics of the car settled now??

The specs checked out right on samir's car. Look at his pictures.

Saving is definitely the goal if you are a poor college student earning minimum wage and paying $700 a month in rent like me

If saving isn't the goal then why are you driving around in an old celica? Go buy something newer and nicer.

The reason I bought the megans is because a couple people on the site bought them and had nothing but good things to say about them. I'm not trying to cut corners like you make it seem like I'm doing. I did the entire job correctly and didn't skip out on any parts.

@terbear: check out the official post a pic section under multimedia. I posted a couple pics there.

I never said you cut corners, but how do you say it, there are better stuff out there for your money. There is nothing wrong with megan products, its just that there are better springs than that for almost the same money. but yea, you have no idea, how much I've spent in my car in the last few years, check my profile. I've changed almost every bolt, bracket, panel, to get it almost mintly restored. This year I spent almost 10,000 alone. 3 paint jobs, 3 suspensions, etc. Plus I live in the pacific islands so shipping most of the time is at least three times than the mainland. and I just to let you know i do have 2 other cars that are new. and I am planning on an SUV and I got my gf a 7th gen. You need to learn that cars are not about age, 6gcs are nicer than a lot of the newer cars thats why I stuck with it. In fact, if the 6gc came out right now, Id buy it all over again. Ive been around the block here for quite a while, I'm trying to tell you how to spend your money wisely. bang for your buck. Oh new doesn't mean better, trust me.

thats like saying youd rather get an rx8 over an FD rx7, haha.

This post has been edited by trdproven: Oct 27, 2009 - 6:36 PM

Thanks for the advice

When I am done with school I have pretty big plans for my car, and will probably end up putting as much money into it as you have.

I disagree with you about the 6gc being nicer than alot of newer cars. There are dozens of cars I would rather have (if I had the money for a car over $5k) but I love my celica and it looks like a million bucks since it is in pretty much perfect condition, almost straight off the showroom floor (that's what happens when you buy a car from an old lady who kept it in her garage and had not driven it for 4 years. arthritis + stickshift = no go). I do respect your opinion though, seeing as you have one of the nicest cars on the site.

Right now though I am just trying to get by and survive, while still having a pretty good car. When it has a 3mz-fe under the hood hopefully it will be a great car. :]

To tproven, which other springs are in Megan's range? They're definitely the cheapest I've seen.

And Leonard, are the springs real harsh, and are you noticing more drop now?

At first I was surprised at how firm the ride was and hated it, but now I don't really notice it anymore. I guess I have just gotten used to it.

And yeah they have settled a bit lower, although not as low as I would have liked.

This pretty much sums it up:

Okay...I'm a little put off by the harsh ride. Not that I would necessarily mind, it's just hard to gauge what is hard for some and bone-jarring for others...know what I mean?

Yeah I know exactly what you mean. I was worried about the same thing.

Here's a better reference for the drop.

before:


after:

I can't get over that stance though...wow. Especially the front. 20 MM spacers right?

Right now I only have 20 mm spacers in the rear. I bought just rears because of the celi's big rear fender haunches, and I figured it would make it look more aggressive from behind.

The front is still mad tucked, but you can only really tell if the wheels are pointed perfectly straight since the car is lower now. At the moment I'm debating whether or not I should get front spacers too.

in that pic, my trd drop looked lower than that which was only a 1" drop supposedly. I had the same tires and rim size.
although some cars do look better which are prolly only the EVO, STI, Z which is not that many but even a gt4 front end can match up to those real easy, A fixed up celica gets more respect than many of the newer cars because of its rarity and uniqueness. More people go up to me at meets than all the other cars that you may be referring to. It actually gets them interested in celicas because no one thought they had so much JDM parts for it. I'm actually looking for another celica to turbo. and make that straight performance with maybe a gt4 front haha.

This post has been edited by trdproven: Oct 27, 2009 - 10:22 PM