Ok guys heres the deal,i came accross another set of stock mazda 3 coil springs, so i decided im going to lower the car by cutting the coils. put them in and see just how low i wanna go.no big deal to me i work at a performance shop and have access to a lift and every tool known to man. my question is has anyone done this? if so how much did you cut and how big was your drop? any info would help.

 

I havent done it before but just remember, by cutting the shocks you will be making your ride less smooth and you will feel the little bumbs in the road more than you would with the regular sized shocks, so just keep that in mind.

New shocks will give you a better feel and will be able to lower the car as well, edilbrock makes some nice shock kits for the mazda 3

 

That's not a safe way to lower your car and it will ride like crap. Our springs have dual closed ends, so when you cut one end off it won't fit right into the upper/lower coil pockets.

If you're trying to find the cheap way out, you'd probably be better off heating them with a torch (also not recommended, but I've seen it done) to get them to relax a bit. Start with trying to get a single coil to collapse, make sure you're heating for an equal amount of time on each spring and you need to have the weight of the car on the suspension to take the slack out of the spring as it heats up.

Do yourself a favor and get some aftermarket drop springs. They aren't that expensive and your car will actually handle better, not just be lower.

Shocks don't lower a car, they only provide the damping force to keep the spring from resonating. Too stiff a shock and it rides like crap, too soft and you're bobbing like Uncle Buck.

 

yeah after looking into the springs some more i notcied the double closed ends which means exactly what u said they wont fit right at all.what springs drop the 3 hatchback the most, i wanna go as low as possible.

 

Your best bet is a coil-over set-up, they'd be adjustable and I think you can drop the car 1-3 inches (although I hardly think it would be driveable at that height.) I believe the Tein S-techs are the biggest drop out there for a stand-alone spring. You could also adjust them to accommodate the weight of stereo equip etc (If you are looking for the biggest drop, I assume you're more into the looks than the performance.)

I've got Eibach pro-kits on my car (1.0" front, 1.2" rear) and I think it's a perfect balance of performance and looks.