best coilover settings?

[EK4R]

hi guys.

this is wat i read, is this true ? that harder the damper , better the response, but more bounce on bumps, and lower the damper it grabs onto the road move.

i also need some advice on setting my coilover damper rate. advantages and disadvantages of different damping settings (front harder than rear, rear harder than front) . or is it common just to have both the same rate?

thanks!

btw. its EK4 with Tein Ha. so my spring is abit harder. 8 front, 6 rear.

[ekslut]

Hard to tell you what setup will work best on your car. All depends on your car, its setup, and what the road conditions are like. The best way to set up coilovers I have found is to get out there and have a play with settings and find what works best.

Personally I set the damper a bit harder at the front that at the rear. The front has more weight over it so it needs to be a bit harder than the rear in my opinion. I also like my settings fairly hard, so I usually set the fronts near full stiffness and the rears about mid.

But find somewhere safe and have a play with them. You will find it changes in a big way the way the car handles and how it feels whilst cornering.

[EK4R]

^^ the front is heavier so you set it harder to compensate for the weight so less rebound from the road? and softer at the rear for the opposite reason, so the car is balanced while driving?

[e240]

I do the opposite of Ekslut.

I use spring rates to compensate for the weight rather than damping.

I run a harder spring rate up front, but with softer damping.
This allow's the front to "roll" abit allowing the tyres to work and reducing understeer. Stiffer damping up the rear so encourage the rear to "come around".

Overall damping however, front and rear, is soft enough not to bounce, but hard enough to maintain steering feedback.

If anything to compare by, I run D2 coilovers with a 12f 6r (kg) - Damping 12f, 15r (clicks from the softest)- Any harder and it over and understeers at the same time - LOL

But thats my style of driving.

[SuperDave]

The best way to find out what setup you want is to adjust everything as soft as possible and drive around. Then adjust everything as hard as possible and drive around. This obviously works better with a stopwatch instead of driver feel as to what is faster. Then once that is done, adjust the suspension around and with your knowledge of how the car behaved under full soft and full hard you should be able to tweek it easily. Tire pressures can also influnce the handling a lot, so make sure they are not too low or too high.

[bennjamin]

remember adjusting damper is for dynamic control :)
so , it is still very relvant to your "ideal setup". As said by superdave above , go for a drive on the softest settings ( hit the same corner over and over again etc) and adjust to suit.

A general rule seems to be that the lower you go , the stiffer the spring rate and then the harder the damper setting :)

[ekslut]

^^ the front is heavier so you set it harder to compensate for the weight so less rebound from the road? and softer at the rear for the opposite reason, so the car is balanced while driving?

Not really to compensate for the weight, thats the springs job. But you will find because the front is heavier, your coilovers will use a stiffer spring at the front to compensate for this. Therefore I use a harder damper setting to match the harder spring rate. And the opposite at the rear, I use a softer damper setting to match the softer spring rate.

But as mentioned, play around and find what the best setting is for you and your car. Start off at a neurtal even setting and work your way from there. You will find it can control oversteer/understeer and the way your car behaves whilst cornering.

[integraR]

bump as in i'm curious about coilover setting

[DreadAngel]

Check this out ---> Link (http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/showthread.php?164096-how-much-dampening-is-good)

How you go about finding the right damper and height setting will largely depend on your requirements ;)

One thing to remember that damper settings is affected heavily by several factors:
Application - Street/Touge setup completely different to a track setup, unless you like your car bouncing off imperfections on the road or tearing the steering wheel out of your hand when the road goes a little Australian [shit]...
Car Type - Hatch/Sedan/Coupe affects the weight distribution [Not as big a factor but it still alters the feel somewhat hence alters the damper settings]
Car Weight - Heavier cars require stiffer springs and therefore stiffer dampening to offset the mass of the car
Damper/ Damper Valving Quality - Different valving will produce different results, some dampers perform better with higher spring rates and are valved to accomodate. You will know if the damper's quality is any good especially if its got a 'wide' range of adjustment steps. If you damper doesn't feel much difference say from 1-7 out of 30, then you will know instantly the dampers aren't that great. Quality dampers apart from adjustability must also inspire confidence to push, stiff is great but if you have to lift cause it fails to absorb and allow you to push, your dampers are underdampened for your current setting/setup. Sometimes this happens cause people are pushing the coilovers beyond their spec but sometimes its just the dampers are cheap...
Spring Rate - Stiffer =/= Better... It has to be correct for your car and your application. Complement shocks & spring choice with PU/Hard bushes + correctly chosen swaybars + good tires and you'll have a ride that handles most conditions brilliantly not just on the circuit.

So with everything else kept equal and in good condition, you'll know that the damper is set correctly when:
Your car is absorbing bumps/imperfections allowing you to remain in full control
Responds to your steering input with immediacy [This also achieved with new PU bushes + correct wheel alignment not just some average tyre shop alignment]
Remains stable under acceleration, cornering, braking or combination of all

[curtis265]

epic threadbump guys!

[DreadAngel]

Edited my post...

LOL!!! Look at integraR not me XD