Coilover settings

[zenkii]

I personally installed some new megan street coilovers about 2-3 months ago on my s14, my question is why the car is so bouncy even on the softest settings? the car makes spring play clinging noises, also the spring is hanged loose inside of the shocks...

Things i did while installing it and later checked recently:- i might of tighten everything too tight( do not know what is a torque spec nor do i know how to make it into the torque spec)-no blown shocks-tighten the spring /seat locks-used wd-40

More info:- I did not torque to spec....because i do not know what that is -did not get an alignment after installing coilovers-the car hoops and bounces a lot-two finger gap all around

Thanks Nico people

[180fan]

1. when setting the springs, put the perch right up against the spring with zero preload. if you want the car to drop more, get a good set of coils that will adjust at the lower bracket or if you've maxed that out, then you can sag the spring.

2. don't mistaken bounciness for crap for road conditions.

3. if your coils are making noises, you may want to opt for spritzing lube on the upper mount where the pillow ball mount is as well.

If you check out the Ace hardware next to the Domino's on 40th and Noriega in San Francisco, you can find a better lube called triflow. I use it in everything that needs some form of lubing. I've used it safely in firearms to my own stance coils.

[zenkii]

Thanks for the advice, i would like to know if you have any pictures of your suspension setup for a better visual.... i'm not a car expert so i'm basically learning as i go...

[180fan]

I did a review of the stance coilover system on nico a while ago. You can search for "stance coilover" and the pictures should come up as well.

[zenkii]

Alright i just read your whole thread about the stance coilovers, i've noticed something really odd between your stance to my megan coilovers...anyways heres the pictures i pulled up that shows what might of been the bounciness problem:

this is a pic from an s13, but my car is a s14(but pictures are almost exact)Megan

This is your picture from your "stance Coilover review"



The circled part kind of gave me a wtf thought, seemed like your bracket just moved up, could my megan do this?!? because i thought they where solid like that and definatly my rear can't do that....o yeah what is a preload...i'm so noob
Modified by zenkii at 5:33 PM 1/27/2007

[Kckouki]

Hey zenkii, can you get me a pic of your car to show me how it sits ? Im getting ready to buy me some megan's this week and I would like to see how it low some of them are b4 I make a purchase.

[zenkii]

before you get megan, i highly suggest you NOT to get them...it's having too much problems and not as beefy as stance coilovers, invest in some stance or kts without all the little problems/errors that i'm going through... also stance is a plus for including two different sets of springs....people learn from mistakes so thats my advice to you.... i will get some pictures up tomorrow

[180fan]

Hmm, well the lower bracket is gonna be different from maker to maker. I suspect your megan's are just made diferently from the stance in regards to the lower bracket. For example, the stance doesn't have the part for the eccentric bolt for camber adjustment yanno?

[zenkii]

alright what i'm going to hopefully do within this week raise the car back up and setting the spring back up tightly top perch to see if its the drooping/ sagging spring is causing the ride to be so harsh.... this might also be a stupid question but is there anyway to decompress the coilover springs?!?

[180fan]

just turn the lower perch on the spring to loosen it up, not the top one. If the top one turns, that'll be weird.

[zenkii]

i know turning the lower perch loosens or does something to loosen to 2 mid perchs, but my question is how do i decompress the springs itself because they looked pretty compressed and the springs are sagging way too much... don't tell me i the way to fix this is replacement springs

[180fan]

if you look at the coilover, look at the lower perch only. You'll see the lower perch up against the spring. That's all you'll really need, unless you've a reason you're running preload. If that spring is moving up and down the shaft of the coilover, you're gonna sag it. Adjust the height of the coilover with the lower bracket that meets up to the knuckle.

[zenkii]

ummmm quick question, can you explain what is running preload because i just installed it the way it came in and not knowing much about coilover settings.heres a little visual of wtf is going on with them megan coiloversfrontrear

I do not know if the brackets can be adjusted like your stance because i still haven't seen any pictures of other megan users that could raise their megan brackets....i'll have time to mess around with the coilovers on tuesday...

i'm guessing the springs need to be decompressed or something which makes the spring sit firmly against the upper spring seat and sit comfortably on the spring seat..... o ya a little more information about how to add/remove "preload" could better explained whats going on with the harsh a*s ride

[KAT S14]

I hate the KTS coilovers I have on my kouki. I had Megan on my zenki and loved them, wish I would have kept them.

As far as your problem. (Warning: Possible run-on sentence, I'm an engineer so expect poor grammar)

Loosen the nut with the green arrow so the nut with the red arrow can spin freely. Tighten the red arrowed nut so the spring is snug against the top, tightening this more will compress the spring, and increase your spring rate. i.e. K=P/U (K=spring rate, P=load, U=deflection) U is pretty much constant for a set of springs, by compressing the spring P is bigger and since P and K are directly proportional K gets bigger too. P gets bigger because you are adding an initial load (pre-load) + the load applied. K getting bigger means it rides more stiff. So..., once it is snug tighten the green nut to the red so it locks it in place. Adjust your height by loosening the blue nut and spin the whole shaft, and once you have it set tighten the blue nut to lock it in place. Make sure both sides are set the same so your sway bars don't hate you and you're done.

Search might have found this too.

[zenkii]

holy shiznit, i did not know the shaft can be twisted.....omg i been lowering the car the wrong way the whole time....lucky none of the shocks are blown because i have been adjusting height with the spring/seat lock the whole time... thanks for the clearification, is this the same for the rear too because it looks like it won't be able to do the same, i will do this ASAP tomorrow THANKS A LOT

[Kckouki]

Errrrrr..... Pics !!!

[LayNLow240]

the rears are the same way. and damn you for stealing my avatar idea! domokun ftw!

[zenkii]

Alright so i did a little quick fix, but did not know how much i was going to lower the car anyways the front has 2 finger gap and the rear has 3 finger gap...the rear feels more comfortable now since theres no spring gaps and the front is still a bit rough because i don't know when to stop tighting the springs.... i got no pictures after pictures of the ride but some suspension pics

Before





Front after the fix





Rear after fix



This little fix kind of eliminated the clunking sound....i think i might of tighten the front suspension too much gotta go back in to fix it later on this weak or tomorrow... i'll try to get a picture of the whole car next time i fix the car but can some post some pictures of their suspension/ under coilover?

[zenkii]

Alright i had time to fix the coilovers a little bit

Before



After



Alright the car is still bouncy but not as bad as before. The car now sits about 2 finger space for all fenders.. my question is that does new settings need time to settle? does lowering the car too much make the ride super harsh ( rear is close to lowest height setting )? I also got negative camber all around, so does that affect the harsh ride?

[TRBOMOFO]

nice look

does the shocks have a damping knob on the top maybe you should turn the settings to softer or harder if you are not happy with this setting

[zenkii]

They do have damping knob, but even on the softest settings they are bouncy (32 softest and 1 hardest). My current setting is 29 front and 27 rear, can someone give me some info of their settings?

[K]

They do have damping knob, but even on the softest settings they are bouncy (32 softest and 1 hardest). My current setting is 29 front and 27 rear, can someone give me some info of their settings?

Sorry to reply to a three month old post but, i'm not understanding something here.

Since your dampeners job is to control spring oscillations (read "bounciness"), wouldn't you want to set it to a more aggressive setting and not a softer one, to reduce or "dampen" the bounciness?

K