Suspension lower on one side??

[wun911]

Finally finished installing my coilovers.

But drivers side is sitting much lower (3 cm) than the pasenger side (car is empty)?

FFG says they use lead for body filler???

(Yes I tightened all bolts while the car was on ramps and all to the correct torque specs)

1 So is it normal that the driver side is 3cm lower than the passenger side?

2 Whats more important equal spring travel on all four shocks or equal ride height on all four corners?

[stevesports]

What is important is that the spring rates match the ride height and damper rates. I would check these for the spring that you have put in. You might have put the wrong coil-over on the wrong corner of the corner.

i.e: Put the left rear coilover on the front right wheel.

[Adam_NAclubman]

You'd have to be a total tard to get them mixed up front to back, theyre completely different sizes.

Mine also sits lower on the drivers side, was like that before coilovers and after, which is kind of annoying as half my justification for buying them was that I thought my springs had sagged... Set them up so both pairs (front and rear) had the preload and the ride height set the same... Drivers side is still lower

[Hellmun]

When I did my ride heights I made my driver side about 2mm higher than my passenger side. When I took it for an alignment he said it was perfect when it was measured with one person sitting in the car who was about 80kg's. So he only charged me for the alignment and not the ride height combo. I would've expected some more sag on the driver side, Force = mass * acceleration and the mass is always on the driver side more.

[Scoota]

Hey wun911, I have some ideas... I'm no expert but I have been putting a fair bit of thought into spring and shock setup lately, so here's my two-bobs worth...

1. Is your shed floor flat? Lumpy concrete could introduce possibly a centimetre of difference at one corner of the car if it's really bad. Unlikely, but possible.

2. Confirm your measurements. Look for sources of error in your method of measurement. If possible ensure that your ride height measurement is vertical and true, not on an angle from the guard lip to the wheel centre. This can be one source of measurement error. I sit the body of my measuring tape on the floor, extend the tape up to meet the guard lip (perfectly vertical), then use a ruler to extend a line out from the hub-centre to meet the measuring tape. I found it useful to mark a point/line on the guard that is vertically directly above the hub-centre - I used duct tape. I also marked the centre of the hub with a pen. This will increase measurement repeatability.

3. Is it possible that your guards are shaped slightly differently at the lip, giving different results left & right? My next peice of advice may determine whether that is the case.

4. Measure the amount of actual wheel travel (spring compression) on each damper/spring at static ride height. You could do this by first jacking the wheels off the ground to get the shocks fully extended. Measure hub-centre to guard lip with the shocks fully extended on each damper/spring. (This is your reference point. From this reference point you can work out how much each damper has travelled, and whether one side is actually travelling more than the other.) Then bring the car down onto the shocks. Bounce the car up and down a few times to settle it. You should bounce it from the middle of the car at the front, then from the middle of the car at the rear. The settling point of each damper could influence your measurements to some degree (not sure how much). If you want to get really padantic then you could also roll the car forwards and backwards a few times - this will relax the sideways preload in the tyre wall (probably not necessary). Then take the hub-centre to guard lip measurements again. Subtract the second number from the first to determine how much each wheel has actually travelled.

The measurements of ride height may differ from left to right, but the amounts of wheel travel should be very similar if your weight distribution left to right is even. Front left wheel travel should be the same as front right wheel travel. Rear left wheel travel should be the same as rear right wheel travel.

5. Confirm these measurements. There's no point jumping to conclusions from one set of numbers. Bounce the car at both ends and do the measurements again. Subtract these from your full-extension measurements. Are the results consistent?

If you are seeing 3cm difference in the amount of WHEEL TRAVEL on the left and right sides, then you need to ask some more questions...

Let us know how you go with the wheel travel measurements. I can possibly offer some more advice about what to do next.

I will say it again, I'm no expert, but I have spent some time pondering these issues recently. To my understanding, the only way to accurately set the spring preload on a set of coil-overs is to do it by measuring the load that is being carried by each tyre - corner-weighting the car.
The best starting point for coil-overs is to have the two fronts set-up with identical preload, and the two rears set-up with identical preload, which I am sure you have done. In theory, if your weight distribution is good, and the spring preloads left/right are the same, then you should get identical wheel travel measurements at static ride height on the left and right sides.

Shouldn't you...?

I hope that helps....

[manga_blue]

All good points by Scoota there.

I have adjustables on mine. The car is dead level on a flat, level floor. This means that the bottoms of the sills are at the same height all round, except drivers side is 3mm highr to counter my weight. To get this the heights of the spring perches are a bit different on each wheel - maybe up to 15mm variation between them.

That's pretty normal and it's just accommodating variations in the way the springs settled, twists in the car over time, variations in weight distribution, etc.

[stevesports]

Wun, i remember you bought these second hand, could it be that one of them are broken?

[wun911]

Problems were human error turning spring perch the wrong way and an uneven driveway. I should have dríven it to let it settle more etc. Thanks for the help scoota.

Corner weight of NB8B with a 70 kg driver sitting in the driver's seat

Front drivers: 319 kg
Front passenger: 293 kg

Rear drivers: 278 kg
Rear passenger: 255 kg

49.9% cross weight

Total weight is 1146 kg
Fuel half tank
No spare, no jack, no tools, no tow hooks etc.

To gain 50.0% cross weight ride height has changed slightly (measured bottom of 16\" OEM rim to bottom of mud-guard)

Front drivers: 534
Front passenger: 535

Rear drivers: 543
Rear passenger: 545

Alignment specs

Front:
camber -1 deg
caster 5.5 deg
Tow 0

Rear:
camber -1.5 deg
Tow 1 mm in (each side)




The drive has changed noticeably, I can feel the bumps a lot more. For example I feel tram tracks feel through the seat and though the searing. (I guess its like receiving more information from the road). It does feel more composed going over a dip at high speed (It used to bounce around after a dip). VRN has increased noticeably. Cornering is responsive and predictable. Its all good now...

Today is 6-01-09

My experience with the previous alignment are: when I lose controll of the car on the track, (once during a sweeper and once in the middle of a corner). I always felt the rear lose grip 1st and then I spun usually a full 180 or 360 off the track. For daily driving it was a good alignment there was no signs of any uneven wear. I think the excessive amout of rear tow in did help improve the cars stability around the S shaped sweepers.

I have done about 170,000 km, and finally I got rid of the crapyear Eagle F1s and I got new rubber RE001 so I went to get an alignment. I find my driving style after doing track has changed a bit and I have chosen to perform a more a more agressive alignment based on lannys alignment specs; more negative camber on both from and rear wheels. My choice is mainly due to the amout of time I have been spending at Wunton. Thus far I still feel the car can overstear a bit tail happy im still on stock sways, and I have made the rear suspension fully soft in an effort to induce more grip.

Next time I take it to the shop I should bring a 60 kg ballast like some lead weights they do not allow peoples in the car as a balast while the car is in the air in the middle of an alignment. For reference it takes about 30-40k km before the alignment specs become totally out of whack maybe I should try to do alignments every 30k. Please note results are displayed as degrees and minuites not degress with decimals.

[Scoota]

Hey wun, no sweat. I'm glad to hear that you got it sorted. That sounds like a really sweet setup. I wish I had such detailed info on my setup.

I'm jealous now... Coil-overs are still on my shopping list!