I just picked up my drop springs and figure I ask about instilling them. First question is are there any special tools needed(spring compressor)? the back springs, if I take out the bolt holding in the back shock does the entire arm drop and the spring come out? I would have a jack stand under the car and a jack under the arm and lower it slowly. For the front, is all that is holding the top part is that one 17mm bolt? Just drop that one bolt and take out the 2 that are bolted to the arm? Ill be doing this at my dads friends house, he knows what he's doing just figure I ask for pointers to save some time. Maybe this could be a sticky?
Yes, you need a 19mm offset box wrench and a 6mm allen wrench for the top nuts on the front struts, a 22mm 1/2 drive socket and wrench for the bolts on the wheel arms, and a torque wrench to torque the nuts properly when re-assembling everything. And yes, a spring compressor for the front struts as well. A full-sized floor jack is almost a necessity, I couldn't imagine doing the job with one of those mini-floor jacks with a short handle. Short jack stands are needed, I had some big ones that were too tall to fit under the car even when jacked up... that should be most of the important parts you need.
You need to use the 19mm and the allen wrench together to get tha top bolt off from the strut, the allen wrench holds the shaft still while you undo the nut. The wrench MUST be an offset style wrench, because the nut is recessed down in a "cup" on the strut tower. It's a PTA to get those nuts off, probably the worst part of the whole ordeal, other than cranking the spring compressor to get the struts apart...
And you are correct, when you unbolt the support arms on the rear wheels, the rear springs just basically fall out. those are a piece of cake.
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Loosen nut at the top of the strut with the car on the ground. It makes it easier since the weight of the car helps keep the strut from turning. You don't need to take it off yet just loosen it. Once both are loose then jack the car up and start working.
I guess the set of springs you purchased did not come with any instructions... here are a couple of links I used to help me install my springs, the first instructions are for TRD springs on the xD, the second is for Tanabe springs on a Yaris, which is basically the same thing:
Generally, if you're only dropping your car about an inch, such as with TRD springs, you don't need to cut the stops on the stock shocks... if you're dropping more than that, then take an inch off the stops, or basically cut them in half.
As far as rim sizes go, it all depends on the offset - there are guys running up to 9" wide wheels on the rear of the xD... just gotta get the wheels centered in the wheel well with the proper wheel offset. Tire sizes are kinda a moot point, because you buy the tire to the same overall diameter as the stock tires, no matter if you are buying 15" or 19" rims - unless you want to go to the expense of recalibrating the speedo after putting a larger or smaller diameter tires on your car. The larger the rim size, the lower the profile (height) of the tire you put on it, so that the the outside diameter (or circumference) of the tire stays as close to stock as possible.
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"The Cylons look like us now... they're not just frakkin' Toasters anymore..."
Tire sizes are kinda a moot point, because you buy the tire to the same overall diameter as the stock tires, no matter if you are buying 15" or 19" rims - unless you want to go to the expense of recalibrating the speedo after putting a larger or smaller diameter tires on your car. The larger the rim size, the lower the profile (height) of the tire you put on it, so that the the outside diameter (or circumference) of the tire stays as close to stock as possible.
Just to take this point and add a little note to it for your reference.
if you try to run 15's like Jonas (on scionlife) and myself (and probably a few others), 225/50/15 is one of the only decent sizes that even comes close to the proper overall diameter for our cars, and its still 5-6% smaller leaving you at about 5mph's too fast on your speedo. IMO its just something you get used to, used a gps to give me an idea of how much my speedo differs and you adapt it, no reason to recal anything except for mileage accuracies.
Yeah, my other vehicle is a Dodge Ram 4x4, I put oversized all-terrain tires on the stock rims that are about 2" larger in diameter than the stock tires. It throws my speedometer off by 17%, at highway speeds my truck's speedometer is about 7-8 mph on the low side - like you said, you get used to the discrepancy... one positive for having larger tires is that your odometer doesn't register as many miles as you have actually traveled - a plus if you ever resell the vehicle, lol...
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"The Cylons look like us now... they're not just frakkin' Toasters anymore..."
I currently am running gts rims. I have 55 series tires in the front, the overall diameter of the tire is not that off from stock, should I go to a 60 series?
I might stay with 16's and run a 205 55 16, the difference in height is around 1% and the tires themselves are usually cheaper since they're a more popular size.
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