KW Coilover Settings and Review
 

I thought I start a KW Settings guide and ride review as a guide.
Ill start:

Kevin: Set at half way settings on compression/rebound. 1/2" drop front and rear. Very compliant ride for day to day driving with being 1 to 2 turns stiff as you feel the little bumps on irregular roads compared to oem. At highway speeds, it does bounce a little or starts to get unsettled, but never unnerving or feel lost on control. Good setting for spirited day to day driver. Lower ride height would be perfect by going 1" drop compared to my 1/2" drop due to my driveways incline (I was scraping rear Fast Intentions cannisters).
05.08.2010: lowered front 1/4" more and went +10 on the rebound on the front. Much better feel and steering response. Will have to see how the ride is at freeways speed. Didnt adjust the rear rebound till I find out how to get to the top adjuster (behind the panel, and that the rubber top boot is there too).

RobiSpec's review:
Quote:
Originally Posted by de_dust http://www.the370z.com/images/buttons/viewpost.gif
yo u mentioned that the robispec 370z is running kw v3 with straight rate springs. so just to clarify that means you got rid of the progressive spring rate? what did u end up having set the compression and rebound of ur kw's at?

I kept the compression as dynoed in the middle (one turn) from full stiff the rebound I added a .25 turn to the stock settings....front and rear. This is giving a Smooooth ride and the car is so low that we aren't having any wallowing issues...

Just as an aside, the 370z chassis is not designed for the coil spring to load the SHOCK tower.... and in the interest of giving some usable room under the hatch they have also removed the reinforcement found in the 350.....the Aluminum tube is for side impact only...and putting a coilover on the rear also kills one inch of tire/wheel clearance (12" is a bit much I guess) But the boosted boys will need all the room they can find...lol. Soooo until the Robispec 370 is caged..and we reinforce the shock tower to take the loads, I will keep the stock spring location....(it doesn't look like the 370 will coil bind out like the 350 did...) so it looks safe.
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Bump from hell, I know there is more v3 owners but wondering what people are running for day to day and the track setup, I know each person has there own preference but I think it would be a good place to start for some at least.

I'd like to know this too. Would like to adjust my KW's again soon.

I'm just running the settings that came from KW, anything I could do to make them perform better? Car is my DD

I have a 2005 Subaru Sti now with race coilovers that have stiff springs.
You'll just have to drive and adjust till you find something you can live with day to day.

Another person's settings might not be to your liking...

I am well aware, all I was doing was bumping the thread to see what people are running.. for their setup...

Not my first time around V3's so I'm hoping it won't take long to dial them.

I'm about to install the KW's tomorrow... Any tips for a good setting to start with? I'm using the Z as a daily driver and I'm not going to track it - actually I just only want to lower it and keep the behaviour of the factory-suspension.

Just install them & lower to your liking, u will love them :tup:

Ok, KW V3 were installed yesterday, lowered the car ca. 15mm front, 13 mm rear.
Fine adjusted setting: (front & rear) rebound +11, compression +1 (default value, front & rear). Gives a very smooth drive, yet very connected feeling to the road, perfect for (me) daily driving. Switching front rebound to +9, rear to +10 gives a feeling of even more connection to the road at the cost of comfort.

what are the settings on the kw v3s right out of the box?

Standard settings are rebound +9 front/rear compression +1 (one turn from full hard).

Just finished hard driving on the Autobahn with my settings from the post above... Since my car has a few mods I can state the coilover a very convenient ride up to 280 km/h, riding it a little rude while at lower speed feels veeeery connected to the road. Almost no swinging to the sideways (hope you understand what I mean), very stable, very straight driving yet only a fair loss of convenience compared to the factory spring/damper. The car now loves fast driven curves and fast steering from side to side...

Thank you for that!

Kw's are awesome because you can change compression and rebound settings individually.

Could some of you take pics of your rides at the settings you prefer?

I'm definitely getting a set but wanted to see if I'll have enough clearance for the ridiculous speed bumps at my apartments.

Here you are... It's my car at the AmiStyle fair in Leipzig Germany. ;)

Just installed a set of kw variant 3 on my nismo edition 370z. What are the recommended adjustments to make the ride comfortable? also does the car have to be lower at the front than the back? since the car is a rear wheel drive?

you want more comfortable than stock springs/struts?

if so, here is what i did. follow instructions, and turn all valves to hardest setting. then from there:

front/rear:
rebound - 9 clicks open (this should be what comes set from the factory)
compression - 1.5 turns open (this is a half turn softer from factory)

try this first, it should be relatively softer than the factory settings. if its not soft enough, open the rebound 1 more click open. as for the rear being higher than the front. its not necessary...but i have my rear maybe 1-2cm higher than the front, i like the aggressive look :tiphat:




on topic with the thread, im running the following:

front:
rebound - 8 clicks open
compression - 1 turn open (factory)

rear:
rebound - 7 clicks open
compression - 1 turn open

i figured, the stock nismo setup has a stiffer rear, so i adjusted it to be similar. sure enough, ride quality is definitely on par with the stiff stock nismo suspension, ill probably soften the rebound back to 9 front, 8 rear

Thanks for the quick response. Whats the best way to adjust the coilover height so that all 4 sides are equal in height? it was equal when i had it adjusted suddenly the rear dropped 5mm each. Is there a tool or a way to measure the height of the vehicle precisely and adjust the coilover?

***IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A PROPER WAY TO SECURE YOUR VEHICLE WHILE IT IS SUSPENDED TAKE IT TO A SHOP AND HAVE IT DONE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO YOU OR YOUR CAR****

***DO NOT AND I MEAN DO NOT USE THE WIDOW MAKER... AKA THE JACK IN THE TRUNK UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD.***

Use a tape measure, get the measurement now, and see how much it needs to go up, i would measure from the ground through the middle of the wheel to the high point of the arch.

Losen rear wheels

Put on Jack stands

Take off rear wheels, after you have secured it on jacks.

now grab the wench like thing that came with your V3's

Get comfty...

spray down the collar threads to clean it

For the front you will need the 2mm allen key to loosen the collar, this gets spun up to raise the car and down to go down.

for the rear use some muscle and crank on the collar so the collar goes down and the car goes up, might be a bit of trial and error, but it isn't that complicated. Move the colar the distance of height you want...

Put the wheels back on make sure they are snug, put it on the ground, and then tighten them to their proper torque spec.

go for a drive to let them re settle, and measure and see if it is where you want.

Hope this helps. :tup:

anyone have odd noises coming from their coils? im hearing a metal-metal noise coming from my rear dampers, however ive checked and double checked the top hat bolts, damper mount bolts (the 2 facing down) and where the bottom damper is mounted to the car. i hear it clearly from inside only when its cold, once it sits in the parking lot at work, the noise is gone!

@chops: Completely off-topic, but it can be that your coils have not been placed correctly, that is slipping forth & back from a notch in which the coil oughto be placed.
Hope you understand what I mean...

Bump! News anyone? Improved/adjusted settings or something?

I just installed KW V3's today. I have the dampers set in the middle of the range. The car is 1 & 7/8" lower in the front and 1 & 3/4" lower in the rear than stock. I think it may have settled slightly after driving. I also replaced the stock nismo sways with Whitelines, front and rear (these are set full stiff). My first impressions: The cornering feels dramatically better than stock, zero roll... Also I think ride quality is actually improved, the chassis feels more settled over stutter bumps and re-balances instantly after going through big dips and ridges. Certainly a more confident feel going into and accelerating out of corners. No rubbing issues until I filled up the fuel tank and had a friend of mine in the passenger seat (he's around 300 lbs and I'm about 180). I drove quickly over some railroad tracks with this added weight and one of the tires scuffed the fender liner slightly. Because of this, I may dial the ride height up a little, or just ban heavier people from riding with me. :)

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I just installed mine and used the suggested settings as stated above from KW. Car feels awesome, even on these crap roads here in South Belgium. I am hearing some clunking noises from the front though. I'll need to double check everything next week. I took some pics and will post up in the suspension forum soon.

be careful being this low...im this low, and if you hit a bump hard enough since our nismo's have a different bumper, the wheel will actually hit the bumper. enough hits and the bumper starts to indent. after a while, the indents will start to crack the paint and plastic bumper. mine are already indented, hence why i've raised it a bit. ive personally seen a nismo with the paint completely cracked already :shakes head:

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/7613/dentl.png

itll start to dent in the area of the red circle. keep an eye out!

@ZInferno: Congrats to your KW! But your front is too low imho. Driving fast press the car down additionally (aerodynamics). Driving over small a small wrinkle or something will let your car hit the ground...or the fender, as you already mentioned.
Keep in mind that the car will settle after a certain period of time to max 5-6 mm front/rear. My car setttled about 5 mm front/rear. I don't have an actual photo to compare with the one taken on the Leipzig fair (suspension was built in 2 days before photo was taken). There's less room now between fender/tire. ;)

Did you guys install these yourself? If not, how much did the install run you at your local shop? Just trying to get a ballpark. Would thses be a good mod for autox? Anyone here autox?

I know it's an old thread... But for Nismo owners who have kws on their cars, what are the ideal ride height for the lowered look while not hit or rub the front bumper too much?

Anyone have any further input or changes (since its been a couple years haha)? About to install my V3s and was checking if there where any newer findings. Also was wondering what are peoples style of driving (Events/sported daily driving) and the settings they are using?

Thought I'd try and refresh this thread. Does anyone else have some settings they would like to share?

I am getting mine installed in about 3 weeks and would like to see as many settings and reviews of those setting as possible to.

Thanks fellas

I installed mine about a year ago now. On the track at raceway park I set the fronts at 16clicks of compression (almost full hard) and rebound at 6 clicks. The rears were set to 12 clicks of compression and rebound also at 6 clicks. I have whiteline swaybars set to full hard in the front and full soft in the rear to eliminate under steer. I've stepped up to a much wider tire now so I will have to make some adjustments at the next event. Street driving I leave the rebound alone and keep 9 clicks of hardness front and rear.