Coilover Settings

[VR6 0]

Right, got my coilovers this morning - wahey :)

 

I'm looking for some advice, before I fit them, with regard to the settings.

 

Now I know there probably is no 'perfect' setting, as everybody has their own preferences.

 

What I'm after is - what sort of drop is given by different positions of the threaded collar?

 

Also, what sort of ride do you get from the different damp adjustments?

 

(FK Konigsports btw)

 

Cheers in advance :)

[Mike Edwards 0]

1. Set damping to minimum - the only time you might need more is on a racetrack (or as they wear perhaps).

 

2. Make sure they are adjusted to the same setting side to side

 

3. Fit them and see how it sits.

 

4. Adjust to get desired stance - making very sure that the setting is identical side to side.

[VR6 0]

Ok cheers Mike.

 

How much do they tend to settle after the bedding in period?

 

Unfortunately the biggest speed hump that I have to navigate will dictate the ride height. Although I wouldn't go stupidly low even if there was no such thing as a speed hump (wouldn't that be nice!).

[dubster82 0]

well, alot of people have had to set the rears and the front differently. i did. just leave it to settle for a couple o weeks on minimum, then play with it.

[Ess Three 0]

Best advice I can give is:

 

Set them to minimum as suggested and leave them there for 500 miles or so to let thwe seals bed in.

 

In this period get your ride height sorted (best drive them for a week or so before paying to have the alignment done as they will settle a little!)...ensure your ride height is spot on and the alignment is to your settings.

 

 

To set the front:

Find a decent constant radius tight-ish corner - preferably with a few bumps / undulations.

Pitch into the corner and see what the front end does...if it bounces up and down when the car is cranked over and the suspension loaded up, increase the damping until you control the bouncing...it should be smooth and controlled with very little bouncing, but not solid and harsh.

 

Once the front is set, do the rear:

Note how much you are up from minimum damping on the front and multiply it by 2...ad this to the rear.

Find a nice open but fast corner / roundabout and pitch into it...see how the back feels...if it feels good, leave it.

It it's understeering try increasing the rear from where you last set it.

If it's oversteetring (unlikely) decrease it.

 

 

This works well for standard anti-roll bars and uprated as the damping will most probably be different for both set-ups.

 

 

I would guess you'll end up with around 1/4 turn up from minimum on the front, and around 1/2 on the rear.

 

Don't be afraid to play about...just make a note of your last 'good' settings and revert to that in the event of making a pig's ear of things!

 

 

If you drive on a lot of badly surfaced back roads or do a lot of driving in the rain, you ideally want it to be a soft as you can within these parameters...anyone who tells you you need all the damping cranked up has never driven a properly handling car! It's just not the case!

 

Hope this helps...

[W3RKD 0]

get the car on a set of corner weights this will masivelly improve the car even once used to the coilovers... trust me i know .. had my car done and it really made all the differance .

[VR6 0]

Thanks everyone - especially Ess Three for the write-up. That gives me something to think about.

 

Darren - Would most wheel and tyre centres be able to corner weight or is it a quite specialised thing? Furthermore, what exactly is corner weighting? :lol:

[Henny 0]

get the car on a set of corner weights this will masivelly improve the car even once used to the coilovers... trust me i know .. had my car done and it really made all the differance .

 

Yup, I agree Darren, I was really suprised how much difference it made to the handling of the car when I had mine done... :shock: 8)

 

VR6, Corner weighting tends to be a bit of a specialist thing... I got mine done at a local garage that does race prepping for a load of different types of car (rally, formula ford, racing TTs etc...)

 

Basically they stick a set of scales under each wheel at the same time and then adjust the coilovers until you've got a perfect weight distribution (should be done with you in the drivers seat!) both side to side and front to back... IIRC the perfect distribution on a front wheel drive car is 70/30 front to back (I may be wrong with these figures) I just trusted the guy who did mine 'cos I've known him for years and he's GOOD! 8) Obviously it should be 50/50 side to side :roll: :lol:

[dubster82 0]

but how do they adjust the coilovers to suit? Henny, aren't yours non adjustable damping?

[VR6 0]

I thought it might be quite a specialised process. Unfortunately I think it's unlikely that anywhere will be able to do it over here. Got a few contacts I can try though :)

 

Cheers for the description Henny - that makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Good excuse not to take the missus out as well - upset the balance of the car ;)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Sorry I don't get the corner weighting thing :oops:

 

Is it altering the spring rate at each corner so that wheels press down on the tarmac with the same pressure? Guess you can't do this with regular mcphersons?

 

Kev

[Joe M 0]

I dont think its anything to do with spring rates or damping, its adjusting the ride heights. Making the front a bit higher should move the weight back slightly and vice versa.

[Henny 0]

Yeah, Joe M you've hit the nail right on the head... It's just adjusting the heights of each corner to put the car at a level so that each corner has a certain amount of weight on it... It's nothing to do with the damping rates whatsoever... Mine are non-adjustable for damping, but being a coilover, obviously the height is adjustable! :lol:

 

It's not a massively complex thing to do, but it is somewhat time consuming... I paid about £150 to get mine all set up, and that was a mates rate! :shock:

 

Kev, regular standard struts should already be pretty close to the optimum settings, that's why standard C's handle so well from the factory... 8) It's only when people start trying to get the stance of the car to look the way they want it to and have the asthetics more important to them than the way that the car handles that the handling gets screwed up... :roll: Unfortunately some of the aftermarket spring/shock kits also work on a more asthetic stance than for handling, especially the ones that drop the car right onto it's arse... :?