When levelling suspension, should you.......

[skinnyman9000 0]

1) Ensure that all the 4 coilovers are at the same height, i.e all dropped by 60mm.

2) Ensure that the car is sitting level, as in the front and rear of the side skirt is the same level off the ground, even if this means the front and rear struts are set at different heights?

 

Im looking at my alignment and camber done 2nite or tomorrow morning, but i want to fully set the car up correctly before i have this done. At the minute the rear of the car seems bouncy, and the front is down about 20mm further than the rears, but the car is sitting level. However this is no use to me because i dont know if the car sat level on standard suspension as i did not check. Would lowering the front AND the rear by 60mm, and then getting geometry done, improve the bouncy rear end?

 

Any help is welcome, as always.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

A bouncy rear end suggests pitching from either mismatched spring rates (front to rear), incorrectly adjusted dampers or shudder the thought, worn dampers!. Are your dampers adjustable for rebound and / or bump?

 

I would personally set the rear to be 15mm lower than the front.

 

As for levelling, I tend to use fixed points on the floorpan, such as the wishbone bolts to the floor and the rear axle mounts to the floor. You can pretty much guarantee these points will be 100% accurate and uniform on both sides otherwise the car would crab down the road like a cut and shut. Wings and panels may not be so accurate on both sides.

[skinnyman9000 0]

The coilovers are brand new, so wont be worn, and unfortunately they're £300 Vmaxx jobbies, so there is no damping adjustment on them, they are what they are, which is annoying.

 

Sounds like the rear needs dropping a fair bit then

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yeah wind the back down, the reduced travel may well sort some of the bounciness....

[skinnyman9000 0]

Yeah wind the back down, the reduced travel may well sort some of the bounciness....

 

Nice one.

 

I'll give this a go tomorrow then take it for a blast

[KipVR 1]

Do you know anyone with some car scales and a gyro set up (eg.Exact 6000)? It is the only way to proper way to set a car up to be honest, and you do end up winding the back down to get a more even weight distribution as C'wire says.

 

If you do do it, put a weight on the drivers seat to simulate the driver.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yeah I have the offside about 5mm higher than the nearside to account for driver weight. Looks uneven when parked up, but I know when I'm in it, it's level :D

 

Regarding corner weighting, there's little gain on a car with a solid rear axle tbh. I discussed it with Stealth Racing years ago when they used to prep the Vento Cup challenge race cars. They tried corner weighting and it made no difference.

 

On a car like the MK5 with independant arms all round, it can and does give good results.

[KipVR 1]

They take the guesswork out of the equasion and give you exact weight distribution figures etc that combined with a gyro help set up a car. That's worth it in my opinion. Espicially if you wan't to make a changes and want to keep set up points of reference, for that they are brilliant, Tbeam or not!

[skinnyman9000 0]

Well ive now lowered the backs again, they're now down 15mm further than the fronts. I'll admit its not as bad as it was, but still not mega impressed. Im yet to have the alignment and camber done due to still playing around with the setup.

 

I think what im going to do is get it booked in at Midland VW on payday. Get them to give the setup a once over, ensuring everything is as it should be, then have the alignment and tracking done. If its simply a case of cheapo coilovers then i'll just deal with it until the spring time.