When should I replace factory springs?1

[jayrod1980]

My ‘16 ST has close to 60k miles and I’m thinking about replacing the struts and shocks with Bilstein B6s. Due to my 17 inch wheels and tire combo, I don’t want to reduce right height at all, but the stock struts have terrible damping when the car isn’t fully loaded with people.

If I go with the Bilstein B6s, can I reuse my OR springs, or should they be replaced? This car has mostly lived in Vegas the whole time, which is very dry and has pretty nice roads overall. I have little to no corrosion anywhere on the car. I just didn’t know if my springs were worn out enough at their current mileage to warrant replacing.

I’m guessing I should get some powerflex pads for the rears and some new OE top hats for the front when I do the install? Also, has anyone compressed these springs before? I had a really hard time trying to compress the springs with rental tools on my wife’s F-150 when I leveled it. However, those springs are heavy duty and much bigger than the Fiesta’s. I ended up having to have a shop use a wall mount compressor when I leveled it with Bilsteins. Just trying to gauge the effort required, and I want to make sure I can get it all done right in one go.

Thanks in advance for any tips or answers.

 

[Ford ST]

Yes you can reuse the springs that's what the majority do.
Absolutely no need to replace the springs.

60,000 is not that much you could put new shocks on it and be perfectly fine.

Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

 

[apt77]

Yes, do the rear pads but for the fronts I would just change out the bearing. Ford has designed top hat and bearing as two separate components. No need to change the top hat as there is no wear components.

 

[Intuit]

What Ford ST just said. Also, be sure not to skip getting an alignment done after the work.

 

[Sakel]

The stock springs aren't bad to compress either, I used the rental tools no problem when I installed lowering springs

 

[jayrod1980]

Thanks for the replies!