Coilover Height Difference

[Alexwallace23]

I raised the height of my Z and I am now trying to get all four corners at the same height. Doing this is harder than I thought because raising one coilover affects the others. Right now I am close to even but not quite. Is it ok if the left and right rear are off by 3/16in and the left and right front are off by 1/8in?

I can be a perfectionist at times.

[1slow370]

the heights are less critical than the weight on each corner. A really good way to do it is to get the weight as close to 50/50 as possible before hand by moving stuff like the battery, and cutting as much weight as you can, then slap on the coils and set the heights even, check the corner weights and if you have adjustable bar endlinks use them to shift the weight without effecting the ride height, if you dont then use the coils to set the weights even. remember to throw a ballast in the driver seat that matches your weight before doing it too. Of course thats race car, if not race car it's best to get it corner-weighted on the coils if you track, or just set the heights even enough where they won't rub on you if you just drive normally. start with the dampers in the middle settings and make slight adjustments until it feels/corners the best you can get it, full stiff IS NOT the best handling setting.

[Alexwallace23]

I don't think I will going to the track anytime soon, but thanks for the info. My damper are not set to the stiffest. I have the front set to 3 from stiffest and the rear is set to 6 from stiffest (1-15 scale). So far it feels good. I might reduce the stiffness on the front since I raised the height and I have a bigger gap between the tire and the fenders now.

I tried again to get the height even on the front and the rear. The front is now 1/16in off and the rear is off by 1/8in. I can live with the 1/16 difference in the front but I have a feeling the 2/16 difference in rear is going to annoy me even though you will never know there is a height difference unless you break out the measuring tape. This is one of those things where since I know it's jacked it's going to irritate me.

Originally Posted by 1slow370

the heights are less critical than the weight on each corner. A really good way to do it is to get the weight as close to 50/50 as possible before hand by moving stuff like the battery, and cutting as much weight as you can, then slap on the coils and set the heights even, check the corner weights and if you have adjustable bar endlinks use them to shift the weight without effecting the ride height, if you dont then use the coils to set the weights even. remember to throw a ballast in the driver seat that matches your weight before doing it too. Of course thats race car, if not race car it's best to get it corner-weighted on the coils if you track, or just set the heights even enough where they won't rub on you if you just drive normally. start with the dampers in the middle settings and make slight adjustments until it feels/corners the best you can get it, full stiff IS NOT the best handling setting.

[kenchan]

Originally Posted by Alexwallace23

I raised the height of my Z and I am now trying to get all four corners at the same height. Doing this is harder than I thought because raising one coilover affects the others. Right now I am close to even but not quite. Is it ok if the left and right rear are off by 3/16in and the left and right front are off by 1/8in?

I can be a perfectionist at times.

you'll want to take the car to a shop that can corner balance it if you're a prefectionist.

as far as the height settings per left/right, it is normal to be off since you are corner balancing even if by your eyes. dont worry about the spring seat location itself, concentrate on the left/right and front/rear heights.

remember to unlink your sway bar too. and get adjustables so that it does not force preload after you're done with the setup.

you'll also want to bounce the car to let the suspension seat itself to its working positiong after you make the adjustment. for that, leave your damp setting as soft as possible until you're done with the height.

GL.

[1slow370]

Originally Posted by kenchan

you'll want to take the car to a shop that can corner balance it if you're a prefectionist.

as far as the height settings per left/right, it is normal to be off since you are corner balancing even if by your eyes. dont worry about the spring seat location itself, concentrate on the left/right and front/rear heights.

remember to unlink your sway bar too. and get adjustables so that it does not force preload after you're done with the setup.

you'll also want to bounce the car to let the suspension seat itself to its working positiong after you make the adjustment. for that, leave your damp setting as soft as possible until you're done with the height.

GL.

if you don't have adjustable links don't disconnect the bars, like i said earlier if you do have adjustable links there are two schools of thought, either they can disconnect the links and set the corner weight with the shocks ten set the swaybars up with 0 preload, or they will set the height with the coils and use the sway bar preload to shift the weight so that the heights and weights will be the same. a corner balance with no preload on the bars will have different heights left to right in order to balance the car.

[kenchan]

Originally Posted by 1slow370

if you don't have adjustable links don't disconnect the bars, like i said earlier if you do have adjustable links there are two schools of thought, either they can disconnect the links and set the corner weight with the shocks ten set the swaybars up with 0 preload, or they will set the height with the coils and use the sway bar preload to shift the weight so that the heights and weights will be the same. a corner balance with no preload on the bars will have different heights left to right in order to balance the car.

but he's a perfectionist. that requires adjustable endlinks.


why bother even getting coilovers if youre going to halfarse it like your suggestion.

[alcheng]

Originally Posted by 1slow370

if you don't have adjustable links don't disconnect the bars, like i said earlier if you do have adjustable links there are two schools of thought, either they can disconnect the links and set the corner weight with the shocks ten set the swaybars up with 0 preload, or they will set the height with the coils and use the sway bar preload to shift the weight so that the heights and weights will be the same. a corner balance with no preload on the bars will have different heights left to right in order to balance the car.

you don't adjust an independent suspension when they are not independent.

thus, you disconnect the sway-bar thus there's no connect between the left/right thus adjustment made on one side won't affect the other then you connect the sway AT LAST.

also, as far as I understand, sway bar don't preload unless... the sway bar is tweaked.....

[kenchan]

the swaybar does get twisted out of shape at times.


i mean if you're getting coilovers, getting adjustable endlinks and letting a shop to corner balance is a given.

[1slow370]

Most people that buy coils dont actually track and only care about low, and look a little bit of supposed handeling improvement is just a plus

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[1slow370]

Also the point of adjustable endlinks is to set swaybar preload. Not just to 0 when they say in racing they stiffened up a corner and u see a guy run over in the pit and crank on a nut by the firewall he is changing the swaybar preload to use the bar to increase or decrease rate at that wheel. So when corner wheighting a car once you get the ride height set even and get the front to back axle weights set you can tweak the bar preload to change the side to side weights without affecting ride height as much

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