aftermarket suspension questions

[stsdude2]

My first question is now that I have a very stiff suspension that makes my car feel like it has no shocks when I hit bumps, how will I be able to tell when the struts in this suspension set up are blown? The suspension always makes noises like a blown set of shocks would due to those poly urethane bushings and coil overs.

Second, my car handles wonderfully in most situations, and I don't have the damper set too high.

I noticed around certain turns that are sharper, the tires will kind of hop or squeal slightly and I feel the car slow down a bit and it just doesn't sound like its happy going around the turn. On other turns where the car would normally slide (say it was wet out) the suspension makes a horrible groaning noise, doesn't lose traction but feels like its not going around the turn smoothly.

Do I want to turn my dampers up for better handling or will a softer setting help the car to glide around the curves? When I'm on nice smooth roads, the car is a joy to drive and will not lose traction period, but if I hit a turn kind of hard where a rear wheel car might slide and drift around the corner, my car just does not sound happy going around, the tires make a squeaking noise, I feel like the car is slowing down even if I keep my foot on the gas pedal.

Hopefully people understand what it is I am talking about. Thank you

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[AspenScoob255]

Originally Posted by stsdude2

My first question is now that I have a very stiff suspension that makes my car feel like it has no shocks when I hit bumps, how will I be able to tell when the struts in this suspension set up are blown? The suspension always makes noises like a blown set of shocks would due to those poly urethane bushings and coil overs.

Second, my car handles wonderfully in most situations, and I don't have the damper set too high.

I noticed around certain turns that are sharper, the tires will kind of hop or squeal slightly and I feel the car slow down a bit and it just doesn't sound like its happy going around the turn. On other turns where the car would normally slide (say it was wet out) the suspension makes a horrible groaning noise, doesn't lose traction but feels like its not going around the turn smoothly.

Do I want to turn my dampers up for better handling or will a softer setting help the car to glide around the curves? When I'm on nice smooth roads, the car is a joy to drive and will not lose traction period, but if I hit a turn kind of hard where a rear wheel car might slide and drift around the corner, my car just does not sound happy going around, the tires make a squeaking noise, I feel like the car is slowing down even if I keep my foot on the gas pedal.

Hopefully people understand what it is I am talking about. Thank you

Questions:
1- What modifications have you made to the suspension?

2-What tires are you running?

3- What exactly is it that you want to know?

[A-man07]

I noticed around certain turns that are sharper, the tires will kind of hop or squeal slightly and I feel the car slow down a bit

Too stiff. Try softening the damping settings but likely your springs are too stiff for a street car.

[Web Foot STi]

How low? Are you close to the bump stops?

[stsdude2]

Car is one inch lower than stock, I have coilovers, sway bars and endlinks. My tires are not great, the dealer I bought this car from cheaped out on the tires. I have the damper set at 7 /32 clicks in the front and 5/32 in the back. I will be adding a bump steer kit to my car this Friday do hopefully it'll improve somewhat. I know that my car is definitely a track ready car right now, I'm regretting having bought coilovers but I plan to take my car to the track a lot this summer once I go back to work at the end of June so It will work out, I hate my car in the city though, it's quite awful.

[SW21MR2]

Well, dampers dampen and reduce oscillation. Depending on the spring rate, if it takes a particular corner longer to settle than the others, the damper may be blown. You can also look for other signs like leaking oil and stuff.

Can you be more specific on what you actually have on your car?

[stsdude2]

ISC n1 coilovers, rallitek sways, kartboy endlinks. I've only had the coil overs for like a month or two so if they are blown already I'm going to be hella pissed. The car doesn't fail the bounce test at least, its been mad bumpy since I installed them and it doesn't really feel too much bumpier so I hope they aren't blown already.

[xluben]

That's just how cheap coilovers are on the street. They'll work OK on a perfectly smooth track surface but they will suck around town. If that's what you want, you just live with it. If you truly want to go faster, I would trade the budget coilovers for a good set of tires.

[SW21MR2]

What are the spring rates?

[stsdude2]

I am unsure of that, the car is getting realigned with a bump steer kit friday so I'm going to ask them to check/adjust that. Do you happen to know what spring rate I should have it set at for a little more comfort?

[stsdude2]

Spring rate is 8k in the front and 6k in the back. Higher spring rate means less comfort right?

[SW21MR2]

Originally Posted by stsdude2

Spring rate is 8k in the front and 6k in the back. Higher spring rate means less comfort right?

That is the standard correlation. Just keep in mind that correlation is not causation.

When it comes to specifically the dampers, usable stroke and travel determines a lot regarding ride quality. I'm running 8 up front and 10 in the rear, but people who have ridden in my car compare the ride comfort quality to a stock STi on OEM suspension. Like most budget coilovers, the stroke is too short resulting in very little usable movement. Also, the dampening values are never great, and the springs that come with them are not to spec or as linear as one would hope.

You may want to consider selling those coilovers and getting a spring and strut combo. Probably not what you wanted to hear, but it will most likely solve your problems. Plenty of people I know track on spring and strut combos and do rather well.

If those coilovers were installed correctly and not under massive preload, there are other factors to consider as well. What size wheel are you running, what kind of tires, what's the air pressure in the tires. If you're running a low profile tire or something with enforced sidewalls, that will also adversely affect ride comfort. Also keep an eye on the tire pressure as well. It takes high PSI to seat the bead of a tire and a lot of shops forget to let the extra air out.

More than likely, your coilovers are not blown. There are a handful of remedies if you want to keep them, but they will cost a lot and will put you in the "might as well have spent more on better coilovers" mind set.

[stsdude2]

My tires are toyo luxuries at about 32 psi in the front and 33 in the back, stock size rims, I do plan on buying better tires and possibly springs, I am going to find out what the preload is set at.