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Over the weekend I was setting up the BC Racing ER coilovers in my SE.

I want maximum bump travel so am setting the shock body lengths so that the shock reaches full compression just before the tyre makes contact with the car.

My method is:

1. jack up car, disconnect sway bar end links
2. remove nuts attaching coilover top hat to car
3. remove upper control arm bolt (front) or lower control arm bolt (rear)
4. lever coilover out so that top hat can be accessed
5. disassemble coilover and remove spring
6. reassemble coilover
7. put springless coilover back into place, reattach top hat bolts and control arm bolt
8. put wheel/tyre on car
9. jack from wheel/tyre to fully compress shock
10. check clearance around tyre and wheel well
11. release jack, let shock go into full droop again
12. shorten/lengthen shock body depending on amount of clearance from step 10
13. repeat 9 - 12 until desired clearance is achieved
14. put spring back on coilover and install back into place using steps 2 - 7
15. set desired ride height using preload adjustment

One thing I can't do is fully compress the bumpstops in step 9, they are too stiff and the jack will simply move the whole car rather than compress the stop (or so I assume).

So my question is: how much clearance should I leave in step 10? How much further would a fully compressed bump stop allow the wheel to travel?

Worse case is your bumpstop no longer exists, so just set clearances without the bump stop.

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Ahhh yep, that is a very simple solution... I'm obviously not the brightest spark!

Thanks plohl

Yep set without bumpstops.

This is how much I left in mine, the bumpstops fully compressed were 46mm.

So fully compressed is 46mm, how long are they uncompressed do you know?

Not sure, I have it written down at home. The bumpstops are from Fatcat Motorsports so may not be relevant.

No worries, I'll be finishing up the remaining corner (right rear) probably on Wednesday evening so I can measure then.

I just got one corner right then duplicated on the other side. Make sure you keep the measurements so that if you need to put it all back to the same settings.