ds08tf
12-12-2012, 10:56 PM
Sooo, I recently upgraded my suspension from sportlines to kw variant 2 coils with swift springs for the front as opposed to kw ones.
Another member on the forum (Peterm15) with decidedly more experience offered to help me with the install. He was awesome, very thorough and a terrific host and helped me learn a lot and it was fun too. Now he had installed different coilovers that aren't dampening adjustable and were a little different so we had a few difficulties with a few discrepancies between them and also we had trouble because every %&$(*^ bolt was seized onto my car and literally it took ages to get some of them off One of the collars was also extremely seized to the front strut and cross threaded. Took a while to get it all the way up and off and back on.
Anywhoo, we eventually did get them on. Ok...
POIs
1. Two of the allen screws for the rear passenger side base are missing, I tried to pick up other ones from CT but the closest they had were too long. It was running on the guys car before like that and he said it should be fine...
2. These are supposed to have 15000 km on them max
3. He was running the coil-overs WITHOUT ANY helper springs although he did include them in the box shipped. Apparently because he wanted to go lower.. :S
4. I'm fairly low at both front and back Probably 1 finger gap at rear and half finger at front on 17's with 205 regular oem wheels.
Now a couple concerns/questions...
1. When you pull out or push in on the rear struts (off the car no springs on them) they slide out /in but they have no recoil whatsoever. My stock struts are out normally and if I push them in they slowly recoil back to where they were originally... I BELIEVE after much attempted research and after talking with Peter that this is because the dampening on them is max stiff. But I'm really not sure... Just curious what you think?
2. I have a ticking sound coming from my right rear(?), I believe, side. It only occurs when moving at relatively fast speeds, doesn't matter if I'm turning or straight. Probably kicks in around low 3rd gear and fades out about cruising 5th. Still audible but quieter. I'm jacking it all up tomorrow and tightening everything but it worries me.
3. There is a loud CLUNK sound when the cars left front wheel goes over a medium or larger bump. I can feel the clutch pedal jar with the impact through the floor. If I had to guess I'd say it's the strut bottoming out. Impact is much more jarring than it should be.
4. The drivers side is definitely not quite as low as the passenger side... not 100000% sure but I checked a few times and it seemed maybe a 1/4 of an inch difference.
So my main questions are... Are the struts normal to not recoil like that? Do any of these noises sound really bad? From what I've read tightening everything up to torque spec fixes it in a lot of cases. Is all you have to do to adjust the dampening use an allen key on the bottom of the shocks?? Left for softer right for harder? Should I be going softer or stiffer? I believe it's max stiff... so probably softer. And besides ebay (I checked home depot/lowes/ctire) where can I pick up those allen bolts in an automotive size specifically for that and are they really super necessary? Lastly that's as low as possible right now in the rear and while it's low enough for me I thought I'd be able to lower... am I wrong?
That's about it.... sorry for the novel... feel free to answer any part or just make fun or comment! Also before you ream me and tell me to use the search function I have been looking this stuff up for like 5 hours over two days. Not to mention the search function on TM3 leaves much to be desired... I still used it and google and other forums EXTENSIVELY and while I have a good idea for many things I wanted to use this forum as a sounding board for my questions. Thanks
Cheers
Thanks again to Peter!
Another member on the forum (Peterm15) with decidedly more experience offered to help me with the install. He was awesome, very thorough and a terrific host and helped me learn a lot and it was fun too. Now he had installed different coilovers that aren't dampening adjustable and were a little different so we had a few difficulties with a few discrepancies between them and also we had trouble because every %&$(*^ bolt was seized onto my car and literally it took ages to get some of them off One of the collars was also extremely seized to the front strut and cross threaded. Took a while to get it all the way up and off and back on.
Anywhoo, we eventually did get them on. Ok...
POIs
1. Two of the allen screws for the rear passenger side base are missing, I tried to pick up other ones from CT but the closest they had were too long. It was running on the guys car before like that and he said it should be fine...
2. These are supposed to have 15000 km on them max
3. He was running the coil-overs WITHOUT ANY helper springs although he did include them in the box shipped. Apparently because he wanted to go lower.. :S
4. I'm fairly low at both front and back Probably 1 finger gap at rear and half finger at front on 17's with 205 regular oem wheels.
Now a couple concerns/questions...
1. When you pull out or push in on the rear struts (off the car no springs on them) they slide out /in but they have no recoil whatsoever. My stock struts are out normally and if I push them in they slowly recoil back to where they were originally... I BELIEVE after much attempted research and after talking with Peter that this is because the dampening on them is max stiff. But I'm really not sure... Just curious what you think?
2. I have a ticking sound coming from my right rear(?), I believe, side. It only occurs when moving at relatively fast speeds, doesn't matter if I'm turning or straight. Probably kicks in around low 3rd gear and fades out about cruising 5th. Still audible but quieter. I'm jacking it all up tomorrow and tightening everything but it worries me.
3. There is a loud CLUNK sound when the cars left front wheel goes over a medium or larger bump. I can feel the clutch pedal jar with the impact through the floor. If I had to guess I'd say it's the strut bottoming out. Impact is much more jarring than it should be.
4. The drivers side is definitely not quite as low as the passenger side... not 100000% sure but I checked a few times and it seemed maybe a 1/4 of an inch difference.
So my main questions are... Are the struts normal to not recoil like that? Do any of these noises sound really bad? From what I've read tightening everything up to torque spec fixes it in a lot of cases. Is all you have to do to adjust the dampening use an allen key on the bottom of the shocks?? Left for softer right for harder? Should I be going softer or stiffer? I believe it's max stiff... so probably softer. And besides ebay (I checked home depot/lowes/ctire) where can I pick up those allen bolts in an automotive size specifically for that and are they really super necessary? Lastly that's as low as possible right now in the rear and while it's low enough for me I thought I'd be able to lower... am I wrong?
That's about it.... sorry for the novel... feel free to answer any part or just make fun or comment! Also before you ream me and tell me to use the search function I have been looking this stuff up for like 5 hours over two days. Not to mention the search function on TM3 leaves much to be desired... I still used it and google and other forums EXTENSIVELY and while I have a good idea for many things I wanted to use this forum as a sounding board for my questions. Thanks
Cheers
Thanks again to Peter!