I went back today to take measurements and dial in my ride height.

At stock height, the front fenders are 27 and 1/4 inches from the ground, and the rear fenders are 26 and 1/4 inches from the ground. When lowering the car I wanted to maintain this 1 inch difference between the front and rear ride heights.

With my coilovers I wanted to set ride height and bump stops by adjusting the threaded body and set my compression and droop travel by adjusting the preload on the springs.

I set my front bump stops to engage with the wheels 2 and 1/4 inches away from the fender, and the rear bump stops to engage with the wheels 1 inch away from the fender.

I wanted more compression travel than droop travel. From what I understand, reducing spring preload increases compression travel (and also lowers the car). Unfortunately, even with no preload, both my fronts and rears ended up with slightly more droop travel and compression travel.

With my bump stops set and my springs at zero preload., I installed the coilovers on the car, lowered it, and took the pics I included in my post last night.


Ground to front fender measurement


Wheel to front fender measurement


Ground to rear fender measurement


Wheel to rear fender measurement

With those coilover settings:

• my front fenders were at 25 and 9/16 inches above the ground (a.k.a. just under 1 and 3/4 inches lower than stock)
• my front wheels were 3 and 1/3 inches away from the fenders
• my rear fenders were 24 inches above the ground (a.k.a. 2 and 1/4 inches lower than stock)
• my rear wheels were 1 and 2/3 inches away from the fenders

The most concerning measurements to me were how close my wheels were sitting to the fenders, and how low the rear fenders were to the ground. My front bump stops engage when the front wheels are 2 and 1/4 inches away from the fenders, meaning I only have a bit over one inch of possible compression travel (and this is with 0 preload on the front springs, a.k.a. when the springs should have the most possible suspension travel). My rear bump stops engage when the rear wheels are 1 inch away from the fenders, meaning I only have 2/3 inches of possible compression travel (again, with 0 preload on the springs).

Setting my rear bump stops where I wanted them also just so happened to leave the rear coilovers at the maximum possible length they could be before they became physically too long for me to fit into the car. To be able to squeeze them into place between the rear strut towers and the lower control arms I had to pull down on the rear knuckles hard to get the suspension arms to move down just enough for the coilovers to fit. Ideally I would extend the threaded body even more to raise my ride height while maintaining maximum compression travel but I physically can't do that because otherwise they will be too long to fit in the rear, so I had no choice but to apply preload to the front springs to get the rears raised up.


Preload on rear springs


New rear fender to ground measurement


New rear wheel to fender measurement

After applying 9/16 inch (14mm) of preload to the rear springs:

• The rear fenders are 24 and 11/16 inch away from the ground
• The rear wheels are 2 and 3/8 inch away from the fender

With this change, the rear is no longer so slammed.


How the car sits after raising the rear

I haven't adjusted the front (yet). Maybe I'm misunderstanding something, but I feel like I don't have nearly enough compression travel. I don't want to preload my springs because they already have such limited compression travel, but the car is sitting so low that I only have about an inch of travel anyways before the bump stops engage. I also can't adjust the threaded body in the rear because then the rear coilovers will be too long to fit into the car.

Any advice appreciated.

Unrelated, but I started up my car for the first time after making all these changes and ran into a new problem – all my brakes are engaged, even when my foot is off the pedal. My ABS light is also on. Are these problems related? I'm going to scan the car and see what the issue is that is causing the ABS light to turn on. I didn't really mess with my brakes so I'm not sure why they're doing this.

 

One thing. just throw away the bump stops and never mention it again Are we talking about a yellow highdensity foam? those just crumble and fall off.

Also i think you want the helper springs on top so it doesnt damage the threaded tube

If you can install the rear coilovers without unbolting the control arm, IMO that is too short

 

Thanks. I was hoping for the spring/shock setup. One difference I can think of is some of us converted to spring perches instead of just resting the spring on the shock mount and that raises the rear a good inch or so. Also if you have helper springs it will sit extra low.

 

I ran a set of Reinharte R1s initially and used the measurements off my final settings on those for the body selection of the custom MCS 2WR dampers I have now. Damper length in front shouldn't change at all from a proper length setting on OE knuckles. Rears on the Ohlins, being a non-fixed length body, you should just be able to spin the threaded body out of the lower bracket by the required additional needed length.

Ride height is adjusted at the spring perch, regardless of damper design or brand. That's not a preload adjustment unless you are physically compressing the main spring, which you won't be doing pretty much ever on these cars if your damper length is set correctly. If you haven't screwed up the rear by adjusting the ride height at the lower bracket, it should just be add length at the lower bracket, spin your spring perches up to your desired height, and you're done.

FWIW, with the rear custom fixed length MCS body that was stock length +20mm, my total spring stack height at full droop was about 8" perch to perch in order to achieve my desired ride height. Obviously YMMV, but those measurements should get anyone into the ballpark at the very least.

 

Is it easy to get MCS to do a custom length shock? This is the 2nd or 3rd platform where I've heard people complaining about lack of droop travel on MCS setups.

 

I dont know how easy it is, but I did have a customer that was getting custom lengths and I provided details to MCS for it.

 

(moved)

 

unfortunately no one at ohlins makes a bottom cup to extend the rears. frustrating.

does anyone know how to clip this back into place? makes quite the racket, i was surprised.

 

Needs a new clip. That one goes directly into the hood through the insulator. Probably lost its grip for good. Maybe adjust it out with hand tools.

 

Is it this one?

https://www.maperformance.com/produc...o-8-9-mb270053

 

measure it. I'll check my FAs and Shaftworks

 

yessir

 

measure what?

 

the threaded sleeve that goes into the cup, and the height of the cup.
I just realized, try contacting Jonathan at Shaftworks. He rebuilds Ohlins and others so he might have an idea where to get the taller cup

 

i dont have the car with me for a few days but reached out to them.