HSD TT coilovers (NA6) - review/issues

Jace · Postby **Jace** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 10:01 pm

installed a set on thursday night last week.
pretty much set them low as to start off with. lots of scrape-age that night, and friday night too. got up at 8am on saturday and pulled everything apart again, adjusted everything, leveled it all out and fiddled with the damper settings a bit etc.
today, on the way home from work, i took good notice of everything they were doing. drove along some very wavy, bumpy and unsmooth streets coming home.
stopped and adjusted the front dampers to a 3 (1 being soft, 12 being stiff) down from 8 or 9 i think.
takes the wavy roads (short up and down lumps) a lot nicer with the fronts soft.
the issue i have it that something clunks over larger bumps. i think it's the rear left corner, either the car bottoming out, or the spring bottoming out.
when i got home, i backed the car up onto the wood ramps i made, took off the bootlid, and had a bit of fun standing in the boot bouncing the rear end up and down as forcefully as i could.
i concluded that the spring isn't bottoming out, as i think i had the car bouncing well harder than it ever would on the road.
had a good look at the rear components as well, no obvious signs of anything touching anything else.

in the front i found that the spring seats (the locking collars) were touching the upper control arms, causing minor damage to the upper collar, sort of smooshing the alloy upwards. sounds nastier than it looks.
this annoyed me, because i wanted to have it as slammed as i could. it's raised a fair bit from the initial point, a fair bit more sensible.
but still with this clunking noise!
i'll put the whole car on stands tomorrow night, and inspect everything very thoroughly when i put my new brake pads in.

another, less serious issue, is that my spare wheel will no longer sit where it's supposed to in the boot. the strut top, with the damper adjuster on the very top of it, stops the wheel from being able to go back as far as it should, meaning that the securing hole is offset to the hub hole of the spacesaver wheel. i could tap a new threaded hole, and move the spare out a bit, losing more precious boot space, but allowing clearance for the strut top. a bit frustrating!

overall,i guess i'm happy with my purchase. the ride quality is good. damping changes are noticeable and the ride is only very slightly more severe than stock.
sits at a nice height now, desperately needs wheels to complete the look.
let me know what your thoughts are.

Jeo · Postby **Jeo** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:07 pm

Interested!

Pics?

Jace · Postby **Jace** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 6:47 pm

on their way.

RG.net · Postby **RG.net** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 10:57 am

in the front i found that the spring seats (the locking collars) were touching the upper control arms, causing minor damage to the upper collar, sort of smooshing the alloy upwards. sounds nastier than it looks.
this annoyed me, because i wanted to have it as slammed as i could. it's raised a fair bit from the initial point, a fair bit more sensible.
but still with this clunking noise!
i'll put the whole car on stands tomorrow night, and inspect everything very thoroughly when i put my new brake pads in.

People seem to have a problem with this on BC coilovers (not just MX5's), must be the way they have been setup from factory ... i'm glad the G4's dont do this.

And yes, your due for piccies

f3lix · Postby **f3lix** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 3:23 pm

i finally just got my car back from the shop
i bought hsd hr and at the moment are still sitting at stock height. gonna let the springs settle before adjusting next weekend
when i got it back i took notice of this post and tested out and havent heard anything out of the ordinary at all even when hitting bumps and unavoidable dents in the road

Jeo · Postby **Jeo** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 2:37 pm

IH8 wrote:on their way.

and...

trader · Postby **trader** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:13 pm

IH8 can't comment on suspension but get rid of the spare ie put it under the car - one of the best mods imo.

Jace · Postby **Jace** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:00 am

Jeo wrote:
IH8 wrote:on their way.

and...

...i'm lazy and spend more time driving my car than taking photos of it.

trader wrote:IH8 can't comment on suspension but get rid of the spare ie put it under the car - one of the best mods imo.

isn't an aftermarket, mostly straight through exhaust required for this? it is a mod i plan on doing one day.

the rear end bottoms out a heap. my idea is that the coil is too tight (each spiral being too close to one another) and over medium to big size bumps the spring bottoms itself out. annoying really, the roads here are unforgiving and a whole lot of bump-steer is evident on most of my favourite roads. very harsh and shocking.

i'll get photos... eventually.

Jeo · Postby **Jeo** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:49 am

Don't stress mate, only talking crap

Noodle · Postby **Noodle** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 7:28 pm

Have you tried checking/adjusting your tyre pressures?

I recently thought my dampers were worn out as I kept getting this crashing feeling from the rear when I go over certain types of bumps. It felt as if I was crashing onto my bump stops.

But after I checked my tyre pressures the problem went away. Must have been the tyre's stiffness causing resonance in the spring over certain bumps is my theory.

I have a NA8 on standard suspension at the moment.

Jeo · Postby **Jeo** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 9:00 pm

Pretty sure he has sold the car Noodle.

On the off chance IH8 is still here, did you ever end up getting it sorted?

Adam_NAclubman · Postby **Adam_NAclubman** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 11:19 pm

Put the bolt for the spare through one of the wheel stud holes instead of the centre, it should fit then.

Moving it to under the car does sound good though