Worth having Coilovers set up?

[Cliotoby]

Since ive had my coils fitted ive not bothered having them set up. If i do, it will be by a local garage to set the geometry up for tyre wear and to centralise my steering wheel.

Ive just been having a "play" with a 182 down a stretch of dual carrage way consisting of a few roundabouts and long stretches. I was suprised at how well my piece of crap kept up actually, it wasnt ike i got left for dead so to speak. I have however, since i had my coils fitted, noticed that taking roundabouts where the left side of my car takes all the weight, isnt great and i sometimes get tyre screech and the car looses grip big style, taking left turn corners on the other hand is okay and i can carry a bit more speed through the corners. Do you think having them set up in this way will help, or is my car as crap as i thought. I know my Pilot Primacy tyres wont help lol !

 

[theduck]

Should always get coilies properly setup.

 

[The Boosh!]

100% yes. Not even a question. Mine get set up every 6months as the road in general knocks out your alignment over time.

Also have them set up after adjusting ride height & camber. Difference for me was night and day once I had them set up.

 

[Davis]

how much roughly is it to have the coilovers set up?

 

[The Boosh!]

The place I use charge £45 for a full set up - camber toe caster etc

 

[Gray]

The place I use charge £45 for a full set up - camber toe caster etc

When are we going

 

[Jamie]

£45 is silly cheap. Who does that?

 

[The Boosh!]

When are we going

I'm going in about 2 weeks time mate. Going to tweak the stance of the car so want it re-setting up. Also coming up to 6 months since it was last done, so will be interesting to see how out it is.

£45 is silly cheap. Who does that?

Tyre 4 U Ltd (HawkEyeAlign)
7 Anglian Way
Southwell Road West

MANSFIELD
Nottinghamshire
NG18 4LP
Tel: 01623 661501

They are good lads tbh. Worked on my car for 2 hours!

 

[Cliotoby]

Did they set it up just for tyre wear, or was it a more aggresive road setup they did?

 

[newapps4@hotmail.com]

Since ive had my coils fitted ive not bothered having them set up. If i do, it will be by a local garage to set the geometry up for tyre wear and to centralise my steering wheel.

Ive just been having a "play" with a 182 down a stretch of dual carrage way consisting of a few roundabouts and long stretches. I was suprised at how well my piece of crap kept up actually, it wasnt ike i got left for dead so to speak. I have however, since i had my coils fitted, noticed that taking roundabouts where the left side of my car takes all the weight, isnt great and i sometimes get tyre screech and the car looses grip big style, taking left turn corners on the other hand is okay and i can carry a bit more speed through the corners. Do you think having them set up in this way will help, or is my car as crap as i thought. I know my Pilot Primacy tyres wont help lol !

having the same problem mate , rescentley fitted the group buy rokkor coilover kit, kits ace, went on well etc...car drives so bad tho get that feeling ur on about with tyre screech and not being as responsive and directive through corners, like u described as weight heavy in corners..

 

[Fletcher]

Should always get coilies properly setup.

This x100

 

[The Boosh!]

Did they set it up just for tyre wear, or was it a more aggresive road setup they did?

They set it to how you as for it mate. As I didn't really know what I wanted they set it to what they thought was 'ok' and let me go for a drive, then adjusted it to what I thought was good.

If you type your postcode in here: http://www.alignmycar.co.uk/ it will tell you your nearest centre, however I'm not sure how good they will be or how much they will charge as obviously it will vary!

 

[Cliotoby]

What do all those centres have in common then, do they use a certain piece of equipment that gets it spot on?? Theres one right near me i might pop in later. Im not sure if i should have some camber on the wheels, does anyone have any reccomendations as to what "settings" to use?

 

[The Boosh!]

I think that they all use the HawkEye lazer alignment systems. I ended up opting for 1.5 degrees of camber on the front and I am going to order some half degree camber shims for the rear.

 

[Cliotoby]

Stupid question, but will my car have adjustable camber on the front. I have some HR cpolovers which are only height adjustable. Im not sure how it all works if im honest.

 

[ipodsandguns]

not fancy trying that place around the corner from me luke?

 

[The Boosh!]

Stupid question, but will my car have adjustable camber on the front. I have some HR cpolovers which are only height adjustable. Im not sure how it all works if im honest.

I think that H&R's require camber bolts.

Dan I might give that place you know a try but I don't want them to c**k it up.

 

[ipodsandguns]

http://www.garnett-motors.co.uk/fourwheelalignment.html

The use the hawk eye machine, iv been in and they said the can do caster, camber as long as the car allows.

toe is normmaly 30 and they said he should cost about 10 quid more do have camer done.

 

[James28]

I've been wondering about this as well.
Does anyone have like a comprehensive list of all the things that need setting up once you've fitted coilovers?

 

[The Boosh!]

I've been wondering about this as well.
Does anyone have like a comprehensive list of all the things that need setting up once you've fitted coilovers?

Click on this link http://www.alignmycar.co.uk/ and press wheel alignment on the top left. I'm not sure why but it doesn't let me link through to the actual page :dapprove:

 

[Naith]

that reminds me i must jaunt to birmingham and get freds new workmonkey to setup my V3's

 

[James28]

Click on this link http://www.alignmycar.co.uk/ and press wheel alignment on the top left. I'm not sure why but it doesn't let me link through to the actual page :dapprove:

EDIT: My bad I missed the other links at the top of that website.
So If I get them to do it they'll sort out these all at the same time as part of the wheel alignment, or do you have to get them to do these bits individually?
Camber | Caster | Toe | KPI or SAI | Thrust Angle | Setback

 

[Cliotoby]

Does anyone have any idea where to find the "settings". Went in to a local garage, told them id had coilovers fitted, and that it all needs sorting like, toe, etc. I asked them if they could just get the toe right and have an equal amount of camber on each side.

They told me they could only do it to factory settings....unless i provided them with the exact settings i wanted, and that because id had coilovers fitted everything would be different to factory so to speak...

 

[mat-nos]

toby i think you will need camber bolts to correct the negative camber with going quite low on the front, think there about £50.
personally i would get the car at your desired height for looks then get it set up to factory spec and see how you go. if you have un-even spacers on (ie 20mm rear 10mm front) i would take them off as it will only confuse the matter and see how you go on. with what your saying about difference in going round right/left hand corners being un balanced and a basic tracking set up doesnt make it any better for you, you may want to think about getting it corner weighted so the car has a perfect ballast on each side of the car but i doubt a small garage would have the equipment to do this, speak to fred@btm, he will sort you but its also down to your personal feel/preference so what works for boosh my not work for you, trial and error im afraid......
as regards the factory settings, renault serivice desk should be able to tell you them if you give them your reg number.......

 

[Cliotoby]

Right so what would be worth doing? Would it be possible to have the standard factory settings applied, and more so would there be any point?

I have it sat how i want right now. Now i just want things set up. The main problem is the toe, as my steering is out and it pulls to one side slightly. Gets a little annoying after a while. I have 20mm spacers on the rear, and nothing on the front.

Camber is okay i guess, but will that have become both un even and sqew whiff now i have fitted coilovers to it. And more to the point, can the camber be adjusted atall?

 

[Cliotoby]

I hope that makes sense lol ^^

I just want to know what to expect. Its the steering allignment i want sorting out mainly, but the handling is a bit strange at the moment. Could really use as much help as you guys can give me, or maybe im not reading the above posts right?!

 

[Hutchie]

Stupid question, but will my car have adjustable camber on the front. I have some HR cpolovers which are only height adjustable. Im not sure how it all works if im honest.

H&R have a slight bit of ajustment on top bolt in hub as standard.
normally there is too much negative camber with H&R though.

last few sets of coilovers i have set up seem to be running nice.
best setup i have come across is the custom setup on mine, feels better than trophy

 

[fraserd007]

does fred do the whole coilover set up thing then?

 

[mat-nos]

^^yes he does, give him a bell!!

toby, imo yes its worth doing to standard set up as best they can and see how you find it, only £50ish, i dont think having the rear 40mm wider than the front is helping which you will have to take off anyway to set them up, with tracking now set to factiory set up (camber will still be negative by a small degree but if the camber is still not to your liking/feel its not working for you, try camber corecting bolts, again another £50ish and get them to set it up again. on the other hand if you can afford camber bolts and set up at the same time you could kill 2 birds with one stone.
last of all if you cant live with the tucked wheel look without spacers try to get a matching set ie 40mm front and back or at least abit closer to each other ie 40mm rear 30mm front which i think will make a massive difference.
mines got an fk hightec suspension kit -40mm and not even set mine up yet (gonna get renault to do it at its first service in june) and think is a mint set up now even with me running no spacers at the min, normally 13mm alround which i think helps its stability in corners.

 

[Cliotoby]

ive got 20mm per wheel on the rear, and i have a set of 20mm spacers lying about spare, i havent put them on as the car looked ridiculous with them on.

Ive contaced a VAG garage near me as they do the whole setting up suspension thing, i emailed them asking them if they could do a setup which they "thought was okay" and asked them if they NEEDED me to get hold of the settings to set up by, but they were not specific with their answer and just said yes we can do this for you give us a ring and get it booked in.......


One thing id like to know with you guys is.....when you had your coils setup, was it to factiory specs or did you just get the garage to get on with it so to speak.