How often do you adjust your coilovers?

by **shav** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 12:19 pm

This is a question for those who have coilovers fitted.

How often do you adjust your coilovers?

Is it just the dampening you play with or do you find you are adjusting the height as well?

Or do you just set it and forget it?

I ask these questions in the hope that it will help me make up my mind on whether to go coil overs or stick with a static set of after market shocks/springs.

by **Moeeyy_** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:30 pm

I just put in coilovers, and find them great. All I've done so far is, after slamming the car and finding it too low (scrub everywhere), raised it 10cm at the front and made it slightly softer, and im loving it. Changing the dampening isn't too much of a fuss, just pop the hood or go into the boot. You pretty much just adjust it to something you're happy with, and leave it. Allows a lot of flexibility in case you wanna go for spirited drives, or a relaxed cruise.

by **renan_don18** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:39 pm

Adjusted mine a few time since installing it a year and half ago.

1. new wheels
2. defect clearing lol
3. wheels back on and new tyres
4. coz ocd about ride height/fitment

Keeping it at 10cm is pretty good driving in most places. just scrape the front/lip a little at steep ramps and just take big speed humps at an angle. Fiddled with dampening even less, kept it around the middle so it's not too noisy in the cabin but not boaty.

100% happy spending a bit extra on coilovers for the adjustability.

by **shav** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:48 pm

do you guys find it annoying to have to continuously micro adjust everything or dont you mind?

by **renan_don18** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:13 pm

It's worth it in the end. It's simple anyway because you measure how much you want to drop then just adjust the height part by that amount since it doesn't fiddle with the springs. The only tedious part is getting the car onto stands and removing/putting back wheels.

by **Manaz** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:36 pm

It depends what you're aiming for with your suspension.

I've had coilovers on previous cars because my cars have had dual purposes - a daily drive, as well as a car I put onto the track for various events.

Coilovers allow you to relatively easily set or change your ride height, though that wasn't the primary benefit for me (that said, I did an event on grass once, and the ground was a bit uneven, so I raised the ride height to accommodate that, then put it back to stock later). The biggest benefit for me has been damping adjustment (I've never gone with one-way adjustable coilovers), which means that the car can be relatively easily adjusted for damping based on the quality of the surface you'll be driving on. I probably adjusted my suspension once a quarter.

You can roughly (to a point) tune a car's suspension in similar ways with springs/swaybars, but the commitment to each change is higher, as is the cost. Coilovers have a higher initial investment cost, but subsequent changes are much easier and cheaper to make.

If you're just after low and sporty, you can generally achieve that with springs and dampers for a lot less than you'll pay for a set of coilovers with comparable ride quality.

by **bigBADbenny** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:50 pm

Corner weight, setup and alignment was expensive and I was very happy with the results - so I only adjust height by turn if required for eg new tyres. When my Shockworks arrive it will be time to revisit my settings as everything will be different.

Coilovers allow for more extreme width and offset choices for both tyres and rims, ability to tune spring rates and damping, plus a very exacting alignment, the trade off being a shorter service interval.

Alternatively I'd go for custom (comfort or normal) revalved Bilstein struts (or kyb agx etc) with Kings low front/normal rear springs, or Swift, Ion or Eibachs with Whiteline camber caster tops...

by **owen** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 4:05 pm

bigBADbenny wrote:Alternatively I'd go for custom (comfort or normal) revalved Shockworks for the versatility of coilovers without any sacrifice to ride comfort...

Fixed

by **shav** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 11:04 am

Thanks guys.

This is all good info in helping me make a decision.

Ultimately I still want my ride comfort but with enough clearance for speed humps etc and still get great handling and looks.

Tossing up whether or not I'll upgrade my wheels but if I do, I don't want to bother with guard rolling. So offset and camber will be critical with Coil overs.

Not being a mechanic, how hard is it to adjust ride height with these? Is it a matter of remembering how many turns you make on the spindle?

by **Manaz** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 11:20 am

shav wrote:Thanks guys.

This is all good info in helping me make a decision.

Ultimately I still want my ride comfort but with enough clearance for speed humps etc and still get great handling and looks.

Tossing up whether or not I'll upgrade my wheels but if I do, I don't want to bother with guard rolling. So offset and camber will be critical with Coil overs.

Not being a mechanic, how hard is it to adjust ride height with these? Is it a matter of remembering how many turns you make on the spindle?

You don't require coilovers for adjustable camber. Offset is a function of the wheel, not the suspension - coilovers are sometimes (not always) "narrower" than struts/springs and give more internal clearance, but that's generally not where people run into trouble with either wider wheels or wheels with a significantly different offset (generally people aim for wheels that sit wider in the arches, not closer to the suspension).

Adjusting ride height is done with a specific spanner (or two) - and yes, you just count the number of rotations on each one to determine that you've changed the height by the same amount.

by **shav** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 1:27 pm

Manaz wrote:
shav wrote:Thanks guys.

This is all good info in helping me make a decision.

Ultimately I still want my ride comfort but with enough clearance for speed humps etc and still get great handling and looks.

Tossing up whether or not I'll upgrade my wheels but if I do, I don't want to bother with guard rolling. So offset and camber will be critical with Coil overs.

Not being a mechanic, how hard is it to adjust ride height with these? Is it a matter of remembering how many turns you make on the spindle?

You don't require coilovers for adjustable camber. Offset is a function of the wheel, not the suspension - coilovers are sometimes (not always) "narrower" than struts/springs and give more internal clearance, but that's generally not where people run into trouble with either wider wheels or wheels with a significantly different offset (generally people aim for wheels that sit wider in the arches, not closer to the suspension).

Adjusting ride height is done with a specific spanner (or two) - and yes, you just count the number of rotations on each one to determine that you've changed the height by the same amount.

Thanks Rob. Again not being a mechanic I wasnt sure how it was going to work. Appreciate the response.

by **bigBADbenny** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 1:53 pm

Stick with +45 or greater offset and you should be able to get a bit lower w/o rolling the guards

by **bigBADbenny** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 1:58 pm

I'm getting custom valved Shockworks coilovers, they represent amazing value, but if I was ever to downgrade to struts, I'd go for custom (comfort or normal) revalved bilsteins etc as described above...[/quote]

Fixed

by **shav** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 7:17 pm

Cheers Ben. When I get more time I gotta check out the Shockworks thread and see what the hype is about.

Bear in mind Im not into tracking my car. Just looking for versatility for the street while being well mannered.

by **jay.ritchie** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 7:56 pm

shav wrote:Cheers Ben. When I get more time I gotta check out the Shockworks thread and see what the hype is about.

Bear in mind Im not into tracking my car. Just looking for versatility for the street while being well mannered.

10/10 would use Shockworks on a daily set up purely for the comfort factor. Cheap coilovers = cheap ride quality.

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