coilover suspension adjustment and corner weighting

[TALEB TYRES]

Hey guys,

i have a question about coilovers and how they should be set up.

I have a set of fully adjustable aragostas, came on the car from japan.
I wanted to know how tight the spring should be when tightening the ring that seats it.
I was told it should be "captive", ie not compressing it but holding it in place snugly.
just want to check what you guys think.

Also told the car would need weight cornering to get the most out of it as i want to head to the track some time soon, and was told it will be crap if its not right.
Does anyone know who does this work and rates in Sydney?

[baeshin]

if the springs are tight.. less roll.. can take on corners harder

but more bumpy

[trism]

no.

youy are wrong

hard springs DO NOT reduce body roll


that is teh jobs of teh sway bars.....

[i-vtec]

Hey guys,

i have a question about coilovers and how they should be set up.

I have a set of fully adjustable aragostas, came on the car from japan.
I wanted to know how tight the spring should be when tightening the ring that seats it.
I was told it should be "captive", ie not compressing it but holding it in place snugly.
just want to check what you guys think.

Also told the car would need weight cornering to get the most out of it as i want to head to the track some time soon, and was told it will be crap if its not right.
Does anyone know who does this work and rates in Sydney?

Heasman steering at sydneham does corner weighting and all sussy work there. its on the princess highway, sydneham.

[e240]

The springs need need to be captive. You don't really want to compress the spring. Then again, you need to make sure they're really tight, so I normally compress it about 2~3mm which is fine. Just make sure all the measured height of the springs are the same throughout.

Corner weighting isn't really necessary unless you're after that last 1/10 a second at the track. I've never corner weighted my own car as at this point, I'm still figuring out the car.




Hey guys,

i have a question about coilovers and how they should be set up.

I have a set of fully adjustable aragostas, came on the car from japan.
I wanted to know how tight the spring should be when tightening the ring that seats it.
I was told it should be "captive", ie not compressing it but holding it in place snugly.
just want to check what you guys think.

Also told the car would need weight cornering to get the most out of it as i want to head to the track some time soon, and was told it will be crap if its not right.
Does anyone know who does this work and rates in Sydney?

[TALEB TYRES]

ok,caus i know from changing cheapy springs in cars there is a fair bit of compression in the springs when tight. But yes compressing the coilover springs would mess up the spring rate. so good to hear thanks. I just wanted to make sure it wasnt like i had to manually compress the spring, then tigheten it, then uncompress it like a normal spring change on a strut.

Yea I though heasmans would do it thats where i send all the big suspension jobs that come my way i know theyre good. i just havent had a chance to speak to em, . I was told that not doing it would make the car feel crap(by some other forumers). i dont have any experience on this subject so thats why i was asking around, yet i was asking around today and all the performance cars ive been doing havent been corner weighted.
but still if your suspension is worth so much, i guess it wouldnt hurt to give the car that little bit better feel/balance.

thanks for the info guys, Ill keep you posted on what happens with it.

Now to wait for the next trackday and day off...any trackdays on sundays haha

[JohnL]

Pre-loading the springs will have zero affect on the spring rate. All that more pre-load will do is raise the ride height (which in turn will reduce the 'droop' motion of the suspension, i.e. how far the suspension can droop before the damper travel stops it).

The springs ought to be at least captive at full droop. If you lower the car too much the springs will become free floating at full droop, which may or may not be a real problem depending on the specifics of the strut, but may well be considered illegal in some places(?).

If you have access to corner weighting scales then it wouldn't be a bad thing to do.

Some people start off with a level car (i.e. both front corners at equal ride height and ditto rear) then try to adjust all corner weighting at one corner and end up with reasonably OK corner weights, but uneven ride heights.

Corner weight adjustment should always be done on both diagonally opposite corners, e.g. if you have a light LF and light RR then you want to increase pre-load at both both of these springs. If you don't (i.e. try to adjust it all at say only the LF), then ride heights will become unequal.

Keep in mind that corner weighting can only affect diagonal corner weights (as affected by spring lengths, chassis twist etc), it cannot properly account for incorrect corner weights that are caused by the basic mass layout of the car (e.g. right side heavier due to say driver weight). Such unequal weightings can only be properly addressed by moving mass around within the chassis, though adjusting pre-loads will have some affect (i.e. you could equalise say LF and RF with pre-load adjustment, but only at the expense of making the LR and RR loadings more unequal).

[TALEB TYRES]

hmm i see, i have to raise the car from rear a bit anyways so i'll level it all first, then get it weighted and see the outcome.

theres a good vid on youtube that goes through this process as well. taken from ignition dvd too believe it or not.

[aaronng]

Corner weighting will make both left and right turn handling more predictable. It won't turn shit into chocolate, and as e240 said, it is when you are after that last 1/10. Go for it if they are doing it for a reasonable price, I reckon.