I'm completely a NewB to coilover settings. Planning on getting a set in the spring. Never had coilover so just wondering how are coilovers adjust. Besides the locking perches for ride height adjustments. For example, a megan 32 way adjustable coilover. I'm sure the 32 is divided into 3 groups:street, aggressive, and track(something like that). Anyways, say I want it in street mode. How do I adjust to that? or i'm going to the track. How do i adjust to track mode?
its 32 clicks of adjustment, not 32-way adjustment. They're typically adjusted with a knob or allen key on either the top or bottom of the damper (depending on if its an inverted damper or not). Settings wise... usually a trial and error process. I don't know much more than that, never had to do it yet.
Is there a reason you need a coilover setup vs a shock/spring combo? It sounds like you might be throwing a lot of money at something you're not going to use anywhere near the extent of its capabilities.
Exactly. Either way, if he is actually going to go to the track, the 1st thing he'd want to do is upgrade the pos brakes on those cars anyways.
true, I use to have AGX+SPT springs on my 02 WRx but it seems like its not stiff enought for me. Especially, I want ride height adjustable. My SPT springs are a bit soft for me. I wont track my car but I found that most of the time I need stiffer springs. So pretty much something stiffer with ride height adjustable. Also getting sway bars.
So look for a set of RCE Yellows and Tokico D-Specs. That'll take care of your "stiffness problem". And how many times do you really plan on doing height adjustments/corner weighting? What exactly are you looking to get out of the car by going to stiffer springs? Stiffer does not mean better in many cases, and I would be willing to bet that you're not getting anywhere the limits of your handling on the street (and if you are, you need to be smacked with a crowbar). Otherwise, stick with your AGXs and get a set of Ground Control sleeves. Custom spring rates and lengths.
trying to get rid of body roll. Usually when I turn(agressive) I can still feel body rolls like dead struts. Even with my old set-up. So i'm thinking swaybars and stiffer springs. Height adjusting, pretty much during winter or when I know I'm going to go off roading(rarely)
What sways are you running? If you're running stock sways then I wouldn't be surprised you're getting roll. New sways and links would make a world of difference.
You need to cornerweight and align every time you mess with the height of the car, so it isn't like you can just give it a couple cranks and be ready for winter/summer.
I love my RCE yellows, they are awesome. Also they are definitely coming off the car before I sell (if I do) so that I can throw them on the next GD I get.
+1, and often times the highest setting on a coilover is still lower than stock. And like Jason said, changing rideheight means at bare minimum a full alignment. Cornerwieght if you are pickey. Tom and Brian hit very good points. Also, body roll is not necessarily your enemy. Weight transfer can be a good thing too. It all depends on what kind of tires you intend to run. If your car had zero body roll on tires that you most likely will run, you are actually hurting you handling. Suspension design revolves significantly around your tires and you should be basing spring rate decisions on them. Then you go from there.
I'm a bit surprise. There's more to learn for me. As of now, I'm running oem handling including wheels. If I were to run a set up for a long time with out adjusting anything, it will be my 17" Rota's w/Potenza tires and thinking about upgrading handling, sway bars and suspension. Its my daily driver so I'm not that picky about each thing. Just want it a bit more agressive then stock. You guys think I should just get AGX with my SPT springs+swaybars and call it a day?
I actually do this, but i'm a nerd with too much time on my hands. If you're going to be raising and lowering for winter, (as in leaveing teh coilovers on), you want something stainless. Too many coilovers come out of a winter seized up because of salt. Unless you know specifically why you want coilovers (I got mine because of track days and auto-x and wanted the adjustablity), get shocks and springs. "Stiff" isn't better either, especially not on anything but but new highway. Too stiff on a rough surface leads to loss of traction. get sways and see what happens.
Remember, if you're getting sways to upgrade the links as well. Those stiff new sways won't do much if you've still got the flexy stock endlinks. Whiteline for sways, Kartboy for links. I ran a 22-24mm adj on the front and a 20-24mm on the rear on my wagon with very good results. Both were set at full stiff.
Was looking at the Perrin Swaybars, "If" i can get the 22mm and 25mm kit at the same price should I go for the 25mm or 22mm is big enought? Both packages comes with endlinks.
stiffer the spring rates you intent to run, the stiffer the sidewall and tread block you need. coilovers, expect to run a nice set of summer only's like RE070s or RE01Rs, seriously. otherwise you are pushing your tires beyond their capabilities and you are just compromising traction with false suspension (that is, the tires doing what the springs should)
I personally don't know of specific references for various vehicles. That is just my experience with designing the suspension for the formula car I helped get started at UMD. There is a fair amount of reading material out there that is good. Stuff from Carrol Smith (Design To Win, Engineer To Win, Tune To Win, etc.) is very good. There are several other books out there on suspension design. This website (http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets.html) has a ton of great info as well. Also, I should actually apologize for saying tires determine spring rate. You are trying to set your car's natural frequency with the springs, but tires are one of the biggest factors if you aren't getting into the serious nitty-gritty. Basically, unless your car is spending its life on R-compound tires, super uber stiff is not in your best interest if you are going for more grip. For example, my beater wagon with mushy stock suspension has waaaaaay more grip in the snow than my sedan ever did with fairly stiff H&R coilovers, and this is on the same set of winter tires. Suspension is a pretty complex balancing act, or compromise, between dozens of factors and design components. Mitchell software helps a lot though. I'd like to see what the OEM's are using...
I know this is off the beaten path a little but would removing the swaybar links on a car with stiff suspension help in winter months? Hypothetically?
I think I am feeling this, especially below 25mph. My new springs seem too stiff for the rest of my vehicle. I've been adjusting the dampening on my D-Specs and nothing seems right - its all just different types of bad. If I could go back a month, I would've gone with just sways & links and some rubber bits and held out longer before buying struts and springs - until I knew what the heck I needed. I was also trying to eliminate roll (along with lots of other mushing feeling) and jumped ahead of myself, which is going to end up costing me a couple hundred bucks and leave me with a not so hot setup until I can fix it.
Quite frankly, you should have good rubber before you mess with teh suspension. You will never get as good an improvement from your cars as you will from tires. I have a reasonably high end suspension setup (racecomp and cobb sways), corner balanced with a good setup in etrms of hieght and damping, with a good alignment, but none of that made as much difference as my Dunlop Z1s or Re-01Rs.
+1. It works the same way with brakes. Pads will be the largest improvement, and everything else has ever limited returns.
