Coilover damper settings

deanb90 · Postby **deanb90** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 8:57 pm

I have been playing around with my coilover damper settings on my NC, i have 32 way adjustable BC BR's. The place that i had them installed set them on 12Front 8Rear. In general, do you usually have the rear a little softer for better all round performance/grip etc?

I have searched the net for some setting but surprisingly there isn't much at all. Sorry if this has been covered (tried searching)

Postby **NitroDann** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 9:27 pm

You need to go to a place where you can drive slalom. Set both evenly, and soften whichever end needs more grip on the direction change. Thats the most basic way to get the damper settings even.

Dann

davekmoore · Postby **davekmoore** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 9:33 pm

No instructions with mine either. I generally run the fronts stiffer than the rears. This seems to work well in avoiding understeer and adding more control of the oversteer, helped by an LSD and more chassis stiffening than a stiff thing. All of this only on a track day, of course. Never on a road.

Sailor · Postby **Sailor** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:57 am

For road the setting is entirely your preference.
Just drive the car and if you thing if you're getting a ride that makes you wince on any half decent bump, then it's probably too hard.
Springs are there for a reason, the damper needs to let the spring do its work

I'm running 22F and 24R with my 32 point Ohlins for the road, stiffen them up a bit if I'm on smooth highways.
The recommended starting point for them is 12 all around
Track is very different when I go up to 4 front and 6 rear (still sorting that)

Charlie Brown · Postby **Charlie Brown** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 8:43 am

Find the worst piece of your local roads for bumps, as your test road.

Set the front and rear at full soft and drive down this road. Note how much the car bounces up and down. Then go 5 clicks harder and drive the road again noting the difference in bounce and rebound. Then go another 5 clicks harder and do the drive again noting the change. At some stage the car will get skittish as the settings are too firm.

Now you understand what damping does go back to full soft and increase the settings until you just remove the rebound from the springs while driving up and down your test road. This should then be your setting for general road use. You may find you need to fine tune it a bit as you become use to the way the car behaves. I still fiddle with my settings after 2 years, currently on about 5 from full soft.

You will probably find that the best rear setting is couple of clicks softer than the front. This is because the rear spring rates are softer and there is slightly less weight over the rear wheels.

Another tip is to make sure you have the correct preload on your springs. Too little and you'll hit the bump stops. Too much and you loose droop.