Suspension Questions??

[amato2]

Hey guys,

I have a Koni yellow sports suspension Package i also have a rear whiteline sway bar. I do have stock wheels though, planning to upgrade very soon

Quick question i am experiening alot of understeer and vagueness in the steering... its not very sharp now i know its not a sports car :p but it was just wondering if there is any way i can reduce this, maybe a front sway bar of maybe just the way in which i have setup the koni's

Any info will help

Thanks

[Kiz_EG6]

Hey guys,

I have a Koni yellow sports suspension Package i also have a rear whiteline sway bar. I do have stock wheels though, planning to upgrade very soon

Quick question i am experiening alot of understeer and vagueness in the steering... its not very sharp now i know its not a sports car :p but it was just wondering if there is any way i can reduce this, maybe a front sway bar of maybe just the way in which i have setup the koni's

Any info will help

Thanks

Try stiffening the damper on your rear, this will make it trail a little more and should imrove understeer a bit, but yes i would suggest a front sway and also running some positive camber and castor on the front wheels!!

[amato2]

Cool thanks for the info ill look into it....

When i was purchasing the rear sway i got a lot of info to say that i should not get a front sway bar can you verify this yeah...

ill try stiffening it up a little bit though and see how that goes

Thanks for the info

[Sydsyd]

u might want to try to pm SiReal, he has the same car as urs, and he'll surely be able to help;)

[SiReal]

hey mate

hmmm i not really a guru on suspension .. but..speaking from personal expereiucne,

Tyres make the BIGGEST difference, well for me anyway. coming from a factory michelin pilot sport 195/60/15 to a yokohama Sdrive 225/45/17, the car very rarely understeers.

I also stiffened up all for shocks so the load is spread evenly on all four wheels, rather than the outer turning wheel. I found that helped a little.

As for Front sway, i havent gotten that far yet. I dont plan to because all my money will be going into a manual daily driver #2 :) :)

Or else you might wanna completely strip out your interior. hahah weight reduction helps.

[JohnL]

Stiffening the front ARB will increase understeer because it will increase the % of total weight transfer that occurs at the front axle line, and decrease it at the rear, so, you'll effectively have more rubber on the road at the rear and less at the front giving more grip at the rear and less at the front (for more grip at an axle line you want to keep the two contact patches at that axle line as equally loaded as posssible).

Do you have actual understeer, or is the car just not very responsive to steering inputs?

If it's just lacking response (or lacking response and understeering), then increasing tyre pressures will help (with a bias to higher front pressures, I'm running 38psi in my front tyres, but 45 in the rear because the rear tyres don't match the front being much softer in the sidewall, if you have matching tyres front and rear then 2 or 3 psi less in the rear wouild be a good starting point), as will stiffening the Konis both front and rear (a little less stiff on the font to minimise transient understeer), and fitting good quality (i.e. rigid) front and rear strut tower braces.

[amato2]

Thanks for all your help guys, i now have all the info i need... ill see how it all goes and get back to you on the difference

Oh and thanx a mill SiReal my CK1 Brova!!!!!!

[beeza]

Make sure the camber is done:
-2.5 degrees front camber, -1.5 degrees rear camber, zero toe.
As per Whiteline's recommendations.

[iced]

first things first what tyres do you use?

8/10 hondas i come across use shithouse tyres and expect to corner.
its a very silly thing to ignore.

[55EXX]

don't worry bout a front sway that will only increase understeer. if its the quick darting through roundabouts that you understeer not higher speed cornering try increasing your front wheels castor angle to increase the contact patch of your front tyres as the cars body weight shifts. white line make kits to do this. buy having the rear sway on the hardest posibble setting will also help by increasing the rear roll resistance and in the short make your car understeer less because there is more wieght on the inside front wheel. and get some good rubber on your wheels!!!!!!!!!

[beeza]

So if through higher speed cornering you understeer should you then use a front sway bar?

[JohnL]

So if through higher speed cornering you understeer should you then use a front sway bar?

No. Increasing front roll stiffness will tend to increase understeer across the board. Keep in mind that understeer (or oversteer) isn't always the fault of the roll couple (front vs rear roll stiffness).

Understeer at racing speeds in very fast corners can be unresponsive to chassis tuning, in which case it's an aerodynamic issue, i.e. the car has a high pressure zone under the front end that is causing front end lift, and you need to lower the car at the front and / or fit an air dam. This isn't an issue for road cars because the speeds aren't nearly high enough to cause this problem, at least I hope they're not high enough...

[beeza]

Cheers John,makes perfect sense to me.I really think I don't need a front sway.I've been thinking whether my car would handle better with it but from what I've learn't it dosen't look like it.

[JohnL]

Cheers John,makes perfect sense to me.I really think I don't need a front sway.I've been thinking whether my car would handle better with it but from what I've learn't it dosen't look like it.

I'm assuming your car actually has a factory front ARB? I'm not familiar with most Honda models, but I do know that some Civics (at least) were sold in the USA with no ARBs whatsoever(!).

If you have no front ARB at all then I'd advise to fit one, but also a fairly stiff rear ARB. If you had only a rear ARB (even a fairly stiff one), then I'd expect too much body roll, even if the roll couple were balanced toward less understeer, i.e. the car may not understeer much but would tend to be unresponsive and lack grip due to the excessive body roll and the 'slowness' of weight transfer and poor 'roll camber' this would create.

[55EXX]

yes if no front sway is fitted and you are going to get a large rear sway then get a front one.

i had a fairly large 24mm front sway on alone no rear sway while i was figuring out what rear sway/brace combo to go and it understeered everywhere! it was terrible! then i fitted the whiteline 22mm rear sway and brace combo on the hardest setting and the balance was perfect! it leaned more towards over steer but with good acceleration pedal control i could control front to rear weight shift and control understeer oversteer that way. eg. conering and back off oversteer/ accelerate understeer. by having it balance more towards oversteer it was a far more enjoyable ride.

[wpn.ls]

Hey, i wanna drop my ride by 1 inch.. apparently chopping the springs will make the springs to soft.. & using a ox ( or something ) to compress them will make them too hard.. or the other way around ?

I want my ride to be comfortable.. but low?
Im also on a budget.. but if there are a reasonable priced set i can get.. let me know! =]