Yesterday I tried to raise my car back to somewhat factory height, and thats whete it gets confusing. The manual states to adjust height by the lower mount ( which means the bolt and nut need to be removed so that the entire assembly drops loose and and twisting the lower shock body up for lowering down for raising, all that makes sense. But I did it with the lower shock body attached , using a spanner wrench twisting counter clockwise and for some reason it did not feel natural , it was almost as if I was compressing the spring ,is this the proper way to adjust the height on D2 co's ? Ive read many articles including the owners manual which state to adjust through bottom and not touching the spring perches. Am I missing something here ?
Another thing my front height from level ground to center of fender arch is 26 3/8" on both sides even, and my coilover treads have only about another 1" to go lower which is somewhere around 25-1/4" lowest ?!

Partysan7 wrote:Yesterday I tried to raise my car back to somewhat factory height, and thats whete it gets confusing. The manual states to adjust height by the lower mount ( which means the bolt and nut need to be removed so that the entire assembly drops loose and and twisting the lower shock body up for lowering down for raising, all that makes sense. But I did it with the lower shock body attached , using a spanner wrench twisting counter clockwise and for some reason it did not feel natural , it was almost as if I was compressing the spring ,is this the proper way to adjust the height on D2 co's ? Ive read many articles including the owners manual which state to adjust through bottom and not touching the spring perches. Am I missing something here ?
Another thing my front height from level ground to center of fender arch is 26 3/8" on both sides even, and my coilover treads have only about another 1" to go lower which is somewhere around 25-1/4" lowest ?!

Hey man did you get sorted out there? Sorry I missed your post. You were actually raising the car by compressing the spring! Not good at all. Reset the preload like my installation post and then when you want to raise the car remove the bottom bolt and rotate just the bottom body. One thing I did prior to installation which I didn't post was apply grease to the treads on the shock body. Aluminum to aluminum oxidizes pretty badly almost like welding.

Review of D2's to Date

First of all the roads in our city are getting worst so keep that in mind while reading my review. It's been just over 8 months since installation and the following are the pros and cons of D2's

Pros
- Earlier I had mentioned that my tuner said the D2 shocks loose their seals in cold weather. Well with the polar vortex in full swing I don't think it could get any colder. The shocks appear to be holding their seals without issue.
- No suspension specific noises generated just yet.
- Handling is still great. No more bouncy feeling unless I drive over wavy roads.

Cons
- This isn't a specific hit against D2 rather stiffer suspensions in general. I noticed quite a bit more internal trim panels becoming loose and rattling due to the rigid suspension settings 26f/25r.
- When hitting pot holes or sunken manhole covers I hear a louder than usual thud out of the rear. It sounds almost as if the rear end is loose at some point. Anyway too cold to get under the car to check things out now.
- My front sway bar end links are shot. It may just be age so will be replacing with Energy suspension units this spring.

The Bottom Line
Coilovers are a great option to make any car look cool and the adjust-ability makes it even more appealing. If you're planning on installing them onto a daily driver and your roads are bad, reconsider replacing your worn out shocks struts with the OEM or equivalent suspension instead.

Update on my D2 coilovers

The roads in our city are not being fixed rather just patch jobs to fill in the gaping pot holes. Where the frig do my tax dollars go?!?!

Anyway I was becoming more and more frustrated by the roughness of the ride and I began grinding my teeth when driving. I decided screw this I'm not going to suffer for the sake of making the car look lower and saving maybe 0.5 MPG in fuel due to less drag. I spent a day and lifted the car back to just slightly under factory spec and set the D2's to 0 out of 36! (you read that right, zero). Contrary to many speculations or beliefs out there setting the D2's to zero does not make them flimsy and bottom out. It actually appears to create a sort of decrease in the rebound effect of the shock itself. There are three pronounced differences I noticed while driving on those same roads with my D2's at zero compared with various settings last of which were 20f/20r;
1. Smoother overall driving experience with harsh hits damped better than before and when required minimizing of the cars bouncy feeling when driving on bucking roads.
2. A more compliant drive with the body of the car keeping a more neutral stance even while driving over these wavy and rough roads.
3. A decrease in suspension noises generated and transferred to the cabin.

It's been a bit over a week since this change so there may be an adverse effect to this, however so far I am enjoying the ride MUCH more. I even noticed there wasn't much more body roll while cornering at this setting.

IMHO I believe the piston part of the D2's are actually designed to function well by allowing the gas to pass through the valves at a normal rate at setting zero while closing for sudden hits preventing too much travel too quickly. The knob settings 0-36 simply close the valves off so they no longer function properly rather just reducing the amount of gas which passes creating a stiffer ride.
Although this may be something that you are looking for when your in VIP stance it's not ideal in my opinion for a daily driver.

Any update on your new found settings? Or feedback from anyone else who might know specific negatives about svard75's settings?

TDot wrote:Any update on your new found settings? Or feedback from anyone else who might know specific negatives about svard75's settings?

Oops forgot to update. I went back to 30 all around as i began noticing high speed cornering was unstable at zero. I am also noticing that 30 one year later is like 25 brand new.

Bottom line, the reality on using coilovers is it will be a stiffer ride unless progressive springs are used. Ive always used springs with new shocks/struts and have been very happy with them. If you want a smoother feel use springs if you want that gokart feel along with the harshness go coilovers.

Maybe I just forgot how stock felt...but my BC's (although a pain to install because they aren't a true coilover system) ride the same as stock (on the softest setting). The only thing I don't like about them is they are somewhat noisy now (small pops when turning extreme left or right in parking lots, etc. - might be spring binding but everything is tight so F it)...and the install was a PITA.

D2's should be very close to the BC's in comfort...so it should still be pretty comfortable. My car is actually a bit 'bouncy' on dips, etc.

Hey all. Update on my D2s. For several months now I've been struggling driving over our wonderfully pitted streets and began noticing an increase in bounce without damping. This would be two years into a set of D2s. This past weekend I decided I had enough and swapped them out for stock. The D2s were in horrible shape. Please keep in mind I live in Toronto where the streets are salted 6 months of the year. The D2s coil over body's were so severly corroded that height adjustments were impossible. And the springs coating was completely gone. They were pure flaky rust. The coil overs were done and I wasn't prepared to replace the shocks at $130 each just to continue my brain shaking experience for another 2 years.

Let me tell you guys since replacing with stock I haven't been happier. The car rides super smooth and feels like it should. No problem cornering in a spirited fashion. Yes the 4x4 look is back but after watching the MCM beast they created it looks kinda cool.

Cheers and apologies for not being so active here. Hope all is well.

dang that sucks, did you ever try to rinse the undercarriage after snow season?

I rinse the undercarriage at least once a week with the carwash pressure washer during the winter season. My BC's held up pretty well for the most part, although I never had the intention of changing the ride height after setting it...so I couldn't care less if the threads were bad or not. Just wanted to make sure I didn't have a blown coilover from dirt/salt eating through, etc.

I used standard car washes during the year and I do understand fixing the coil over height once. In my case the shocks were blown and were no longer damping. Replacing the shocks with corroded threads would have been a real challenge. And the springs eek! I wish I had taken pictures or a movie.

Sorry to resurrect this thread, I just installed my front K-Sport Coilovers which look (and probably are) the same as the D2's. I did the pre-load and Set the lower mount to 3.75" from the bottom of the Bottom collar to the top of the Top collar. My car is sitting WAY too low right now as you can see (disregard the ugly bumper and wheels - got the car for a low price).

My concern is, I am going to raise the car another 1" or so and adjust my camber (I also installed the SPC Extreme adjustable arms) - Will I be running into issues with the amount of thread (or lack thereof) inside the lower mount? As it stands, it seems like these were not made long enough for our cars, even with all the adjustability in the height. What are you guys running for height of the shock in the front?