The Coilover Settings Thread
May 2, 2012, 02:51 PM
#31
Small update on mine as well.
After being screwed and ending up with 6k/4k springs, I went the route of installing Swift coilover springs instead of the OEM BC springs, similar to what sstevojr did as well. Went up to 8k/6k since you can go 2k higher without needing a revalve. I immediately noticed the firmness and ride comfort changed. The Swifts react much better than the other springs. The ride is much more firm, it stays a little "flatter" in the turns, but it hasn't given up any comfort either. I can take this car for a nice drive and not be uncomfortable.
I had to readjust my ride height, but she sits perfectly now, the rears are maxed out and the fronts have a little more left. The reason, I suppose, is because the Swifts don't compress as easily as the OEM springs, so that pushed the ride height up a bit. I left the preload alone, set the fronts to -1 and rears at about -1.8 for now.
I need to get rid of these god forsaken DWS tires, they're the only thing that's killing the handling on this car because of the marshmallow sidewalls, they're way too soft for any performance driving. Yes, they're excellent in any weather condition and comfortable for the normal highway driver, but they do not belong on this car at all. I will report back once I get a set of proper summer tires and give more insight on the actual handling of the coilovers then.
After being screwed and ending up with 6k/4k springs, I went the route of installing Swift coilover springs instead of the OEM BC springs, similar to what sstevojr did as well. Went up to 8k/6k since you can go 2k higher without needing a revalve. I immediately noticed the firmness and ride comfort changed. The Swifts react much better than the other springs. The ride is much more firm, it stays a little "flatter" in the turns, but it hasn't given up any comfort either. I can take this car for a nice drive and not be uncomfortable.
I had to readjust my ride height, but she sits perfectly now, the rears are maxed out and the fronts have a little more left. The reason, I suppose, is because the Swifts don't compress as easily as the OEM springs, so that pushed the ride height up a bit. I left the preload alone, set the fronts to -1 and rears at about -1.8 for now.
I need to get rid of these god forsaken DWS tires, they're the only thing that's killing the handling on this car because of the marshmallow sidewalls, they're way too soft for any performance driving. Yes, they're excellent in any weather condition and comfortable for the normal highway driver, but they do not belong on this car at all. I will report back once I get a set of proper summer tires and give more insight on the actual handling of the coilovers then.
May 12, 2012, 09:54 PM
#33
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sstevojr and I have RASBs
My height settings as stated in my write up (on page 2) is adjusted from the coil-over's manufacturers settings. So, my fronts are at BC Racings factory default setting, and the rears are currently at +3/4" higher than BC Racings factory default setting.
sstevojrs info is on page 1
My height settings as stated in my write up (on page 2) is adjusted from the coil-over's manufacturers settings. So, my fronts are at BC Racings factory default setting, and the rears are currently at +3/4" higher than BC Racings factory default setting.
sstevojrs info is on page 1
May 13, 2012, 01:04 AM
#34
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yeah.......... metric system hear in aus lol
and what are b/c factory specs. Every suspension ive seen is measured from center of hub to wheel arch.
Not having a dig at ya just trying to make things easy to understand
and what are b/c factory specs. Every suspension ive seen is measured from center of hub to wheel arch.
Not having a dig at ya just trying to make things easy to understand
May 13, 2012, 10:06 AM
#35
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I'm not sure to be honest. I just know that with the factory settings the rear tires were tucked, and a quick drive around the block it felt like the rear was sagging.
I also haven't bothered with measuring the height, as long as there was no rubbing of components and the handling and comfort of the ride was improved over lowering springs. The fender/tire gap is approximately 2 fingers (about 1.5"/38mm). Visually, the current height of my car is about the same as it was on H&R Sport springs, maybe slightly higher, but not by much.
The next time i make any adjustments to my suspension I'll do a proper height measurement.
I also haven't bothered with measuring the height, as long as there was no rubbing of components and the handling and comfort of the ride was improved over lowering springs. The fender/tire gap is approximately 2 fingers (about 1.5"/38mm). Visually, the current height of my car is about the same as it was on H&R Sport springs, maybe slightly higher, but not by much.
The next time i make any adjustments to my suspension I'll do a proper height measurement.
May 13, 2012, 12:49 PM
#36
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You can't pick a height of "x" and apply that to all 4 corners, it won't work. Each corner needs to be individually adjusted. The cars don't come from the factory perfectly flat and level, let alone the weights are different for each corner.
May 18, 2012, 05:01 PM
#38
Question for the guys with BC's.
I played with the dampening settings coming home from work this evening, and I found that having them all on 30 is way too harsh, but having them on 15 was way too "saggy", felt like I was driving on mush.
I currently have the fronts on 22 and the rears on 23 and it seems stable enough with these awful tires. This is with upgraded 8k front and 6k rear Swift coilover springs. What settings are you guys on? I think that mine are a tad high for daily driving use, but I hate the bouncy "Cadillac" feel.
I played with the dampening settings coming home from work this evening, and I found that having them all on 30 is way too harsh, but having them on 15 was way too "saggy", felt like I was driving on mush.
I currently have the fronts on 22 and the rears on 23 and it seems stable enough with these awful tires. This is with upgraded 8k front and 6k rear Swift coilover springs. What settings are you guys on? I think that mine are a tad high for daily driving use, but I hate the bouncy "Cadillac" feel.
May 18, 2012, 09:02 PM
#39
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I'm on the BC 8k 6k springs and currently w/ about 800 miles on them 15 clicks on the rears is still pretty darn stiff. Better than it was brand new, but still pretty stiff. I've bumped my fronts up to 10 from full soft/20 from full hard. Fronts feel pretty much perfect. I'm still expecting the rears to loosen up a little more.
May 19, 2012, 02:06 AM
#40
Well now....
I'm personally doing the Testing for Megan Racing. Megan is making a Dedicated Ralliart setup. Bout time! So.....
The Megans come standard 8K and 5K rears. Me personally... I think it's WAYYY too soft for the rear and a bit soft up front for any performance Driving. I had a meeting with Megan at HQ and discussed that the RA crowd wants our own Setup and not a setup based on the Base lancer. I've gone into details about people who track their cars, mentioned my suspension guru advice, even viewing this threads along with a few other Lancer/Ralliart forums and reading what others had to say regarding coilovers for the Ralliart. Without going over what happened the next few hours.....
Wheels/Tires:
Work XD9
18x9+30
Nitto NT05's 245/40/18
Alignment:
2.6 Front 0 Toe
1.4 Rear 1/16 Toe In (Something so small yet it stabilizes the car with smoother entry and corner Exit)
Here's my results (Cutting the Story Short):
8K Fronts 8K Rears =
The Rear is Amazing and less bouncy which is a night and day difference compared to the 5K spring. This setup Helps the car a lot when daily driving and smoothens out the ride, however with the 8K Front spring, as far as performance, I feel as the car didn't corner as well compared to when it had the 5K rear. This isn't a psychological game as it should of been the other train of thought for mos thinking with a 8K it would be better. I noticed there's a little bit of understeer which made the push on the rear more noticeable against the previous setup.
10K Front 8K Rears=
Done! This is by far the best setup up on the car IMHO. Rotates like a champ and doesn't push like the old setups. Turn-in is great and can't ask for more. Mid corner the car is very stable and seems to not toss the weight around when you hit turn back to back corners. Some might think the springs might be too aggressive but the car actually seems to run much smoother without having to work the struts as hard (the bouncy feel). Yes the car is more stiffer but nothing out of the ordinary to make you say NO WAY. I can go on and on and on about how good the setup feels but only you guys can test this out yourself.
The setup has passed the GF Test, Mom test, and Baby test. I know some of you guys are parents so I had to throw that in there.
In conclusion, if you want more performance out of the Coilovers 10k/8k is a perfect setup for the car. For daily driving( Just hitting a corner here and there), I think that a 8k/6k.... 6.... would be optimal and a much better choice than a 8k/8k and the 8k/5k.
Now some are going to wonder "I thought you can't go more than 2K on the struts" This only applies to not limited to different cars or models ie lancer vs Ralliart. A Lancer doesn't have the weight of a Ralliart therefore not able to use it's weight to compress the spring. This term is called over springing the car. What I did notice is when upgrading the springs, I had to lowered the car much lower compared to the stock spring rates. IE: With the 10K Spring up front, I'm almost... ALMOST... maxed out on right height as far as going any lower. Yes I can increase preload to give me more drop but less shock travel but decreasing travel will shorten the life of the struts much quicker. My car sit right at the fenders and I don't bottom out.
Thanks for Reading I probably just went on rambling. I'll stop here... If you have any questions please PM ME I'll be glad to answer them as best as possible.
** Bonus **
If you want even more hardcore setup...
You can run Evo X Front Megan Tracks along with S2000 Megan Tracks Rear Struts with Ralliart Hardware. lol Just letting you guys know for those track heads who dont want to spend money on KW's. I'll soon do a review on this setup for you guys =) again thanks for reading no hard feelings to anyone.
I'm personally doing the Testing for Megan Racing. Megan is making a Dedicated Ralliart setup. Bout time! So.....
The Megans come standard 8K and 5K rears. Me personally... I think it's WAYYY too soft for the rear and a bit soft up front for any performance Driving. I had a meeting with Megan at HQ and discussed that the RA crowd wants our own Setup and not a setup based on the Base lancer. I've gone into details about people who track their cars, mentioned my suspension guru advice, even viewing this threads along with a few other Lancer/Ralliart forums and reading what others had to say regarding coilovers for the Ralliart. Without going over what happened the next few hours.....
Wheels/Tires:
Work XD9
18x9+30
Nitto NT05's 245/40/18
Alignment:
2.6 Front 0 Toe
1.4 Rear 1/16 Toe In (Something so small yet it stabilizes the car with smoother entry and corner Exit)
Here's my results (Cutting the Story Short):
8K Fronts 8K Rears =
The Rear is Amazing and less bouncy which is a night and day difference compared to the 5K spring. This setup Helps the car a lot when daily driving and smoothens out the ride, however with the 8K Front spring, as far as performance, I feel as the car didn't corner as well compared to when it had the 5K rear. This isn't a psychological game as it should of been the other train of thought for mos thinking with a 8K it would be better. I noticed there's a little bit of understeer which made the push on the rear more noticeable against the previous setup.
10K Front 8K Rears=
Done! This is by far the best setup up on the car IMHO. Rotates like a champ and doesn't push like the old setups. Turn-in is great and can't ask for more. Mid corner the car is very stable and seems to not toss the weight around when you hit turn back to back corners. Some might think the springs might be too aggressive but the car actually seems to run much smoother without having to work the struts as hard (the bouncy feel). Yes the car is more stiffer but nothing out of the ordinary to make you say NO WAY. I can go on and on and on about how good the setup feels but only you guys can test this out yourself.
The setup has passed the GF Test, Mom test, and Baby test. I know some of you guys are parents so I had to throw that in there.
In conclusion, if you want more performance out of the Coilovers 10k/8k is a perfect setup for the car. For daily driving( Just hitting a corner here and there), I think that a 8k/6k.... 6.... would be optimal and a much better choice than a 8k/8k and the 8k/5k.
Now some are going to wonder "I thought you can't go more than 2K on the struts" This only applies to not limited to different cars or models ie lancer vs Ralliart. A Lancer doesn't have the weight of a Ralliart therefore not able to use it's weight to compress the spring. This term is called over springing the car. What I did notice is when upgrading the springs, I had to lowered the car much lower compared to the stock spring rates. IE: With the 10K Spring up front, I'm almost... ALMOST... maxed out on right height as far as going any lower. Yes I can increase preload to give me more drop but less shock travel but decreasing travel will shorten the life of the struts much quicker. My car sit right at the fenders and I don't bottom out.
Thanks for Reading I probably just went on rambling. I'll stop here... If you have any questions please PM ME I'll be glad to answer them as best as possible.
** Bonus **
If you want even more hardcore setup...
You can run Evo X Front Megan Tracks along with S2000 Megan Tracks Rear Struts with Ralliart Hardware. lol Just letting you guys know for those track heads who dont want to spend money on KW's. I'll soon do a review on this setup for you guys =) again thanks for reading no hard feelings to anyone.
Last edited by AlphaKennyBody; May 19, 2012 at 02:28 AM.
May 19, 2012, 09:51 AM
#43
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I'll throw in my update as well (hat trick!)
I've upgraded my BR's with Swift Springs (8k-200mm F & 7k-220mm R) which are a whole new world in improvement. It's my belief that BC keeps their prices down by using cheaper springs with decent shocks (not great, but decent). I've discovered that BC offers Swifts as an upgrade at purchase (although for some odd reason they don't advertise this), which is the route I would take in the future (one day I might scoop up the ER's, mmmmmmm ER's).
I've upgraded my BR's with Swift Springs (8k-200mm F & 7k-220mm R) which are a whole new world in improvement. It's my belief that BC keeps their prices down by using cheaper springs with decent shocks (not great, but decent). I've discovered that BC offers Swifts as an upgrade at purchase (although for some odd reason they don't advertise this), which is the route I would take in the future (one day I might scoop up the ER's, mmmmmmm ER's).
May 19, 2012, 01:30 PM
#44
Megans also sells Swift springs and advertises them also. They sell Megan tracks with springs for the Evo guys and if they gain a lot of interest they might do one for the Ralliart.
Last edited by AlphaKennyBody; May 24, 2012 at 04:07 PM. Reason: Typo.... Soft > Swift.
Oct 6, 2012, 06:39 AM
#45
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Ok I have the BC coil overs, I believe they are 8k front & 6k Rear. My issue is that no matter what I set my dampner to the ride in tha back seat feels rough :-(. Would going to swift springs help? Any other thing I can do? This is my daily driver and my son prefers to me in my car than the Family SUV, wife hates that lol, so I would like the ride to be smoother.