Could someone please explain coilovers...

[Daipac]

....to me ?

The main thing I wanted to know was how you adjust the ride height and how easy it is to do ?

Is the handling MUCH better with COs than say a Cup suspension ? Is the ride height harsh or not ?

Cheers for the dummies guide to coilovers !

Dai

 

[McBunny]

much better but need setting up by a sexpert. cos can be very very hard and unfogiving on the road just depends how they are set up. cos tend to be very easy to change ride hight and stuff on.



the are also much smaller and lighter than standard struts and dampers

 

[RobFenn]

Dampers are smaller as mike says which gives them the reputation of a hard ride but not a prob if you get adjustable damping and besides normally coilover kits use a better quality damper unit than most spring & damper kits. For example by non damping adjustable FKs have as good a ride as OE!

-Rob

 

[McBunny]

but it depends on how it set up if you have cos badly setup your car will be utter sh*t lol

 

[Turkish]

ok ride height is easy to do you use a c spanner at the front end and a i used a large adjustable to set the rear platforms but to be honest i would have it set at a height that you feel happy with and leave it there. this way you can have the tracking and gemotery set up by somone at an alignment centre and just forget about it. ride will be firmer than std but it is not harsh. ive had my h&r coilovers fitted for over a year now they are non adjustable damping and even on sh*te roads i never feel it is bone jarring ride. ive done a fair few trips of a coupleof hours on the motorway and b roads and never felt it was uncomfortable. as for the handling all i can say is good things. it went round corners before but now its even better. turn in is very precise and you basically just point it and it goes and sticks like sh*t to a blanket very very impressed with them definately the best mod ive done on the car

 

[Mark]

Quote: Originally posted by 172loony on 12 March 2004

sticks like sh*t to a blanket

LMAO

 

[BenR]

The only real differnce between coilovers and the regular strut/spring setup is the body.

Coilovers do not neccesarily use smaller dampers, they can use the same inserts but jsut use a body that doesnt have as large a spring seat. The Strut casting is threaded and an adjustable spring seat sits on this thread. As you move the spring seat up an down the thread it raises or lowers the car without altering installed spring height.

Handling isnt a function of design, but the component settings. So a coilover with the same damping rate and spring rates as a regular setup will give the same result. The only real diff is space saving and adjutability. But due to the nature of coilovers being performance items, they are almost always higher quality inserts.

The ride is determined but what spring you use and how hard the damping/rebound rates are.

 

[Fred@BTM]

Dai, ive already said you can try my car round curborough!!!! then you can see what coilovers are like!!!!!