Best coilover settings for a street/grip setup?

[EndLeSS8]

1996 S14 running on Tein HE's right now, with the setting on "10" for the front coilovers, and "8" for the rear coilovers. Factory setting is supposed to be "10" for the front coilovers, and "12" for the rear coilovers.

IYO, what is the best setting for street/grip setting for coilovers?

Softer rear? Softer front? Hard front and rear?

Any help or useful ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[SpeedMonkeyInc]

What exactly will depend on your setup. How sticky are your tires? anti-sway bars? What type of road course, mostly tight or mostly fast?

I didn't have any luck with damper settings any higher than 8 front or rear. The factory suggested setting was garbage on my S14.

[KiDyNomiTe]

Too many factors, and there is no "perfect" setting.

[SpeedMonkeyInc]

Too many factors, and there is no "perfect" setting.

Exactly. However, I did find that the settings that where most comfortable for driving, also resulted in my best autox times. So just play around and see what works.

[EndLeSS8]

Tires are going to be Advan Neovas in 1 month. Currently random tires.
No anti-sway bars (Unless the base model S14 has them, which I don't think they do...I could be wrong)
I'm not asking for a perfect setting, moreso a better setting because I don't know what configuration is good for a FR car.
My first car had springs, this is my first set of coilovers (came that way when I bought it) so I would like to know a acceptable setting for a FR configuration.
Setting is for regular daily driving, nothing extreme at all. Will probably bring it to the track twice this summer, but nothing harsh.
Thanks again.

[KiDyNomiTe]

Just pick what "feels" right. Use big increments when changing. On my silk roads I liked full soft for after-event drives home, I could drift with full soft if I wanted to and had to when it came to rs*r drift festival (concrete sucked). After a while i set it to 7 of 8 front and rear.

But I don't own HEs and don't know how they are. Just start in the middle and go from there..

[KA24DESOneThree]

You're taking it to the track, but "nothing harsh?" If you don't drive the piss out of your car on the track, what the hell are you learning? Drive the car hard but with an eye on the temp and make sure to let it warm up.

Best coilover setup is whatever damping level fits the road surface and your driving style. If you're having understeer problems, stiffen the rear damping force, if you're having oversteer problems, stiffen the front. If you're still having problems, it's probably your line.

[SpeedMonkeyInc]

I would dissagree with increasing the damper to deal with loss of traction. Example: if the rear is loosing grip, adjusting the fronts tighter will just lower the grip of the fronts to match the rear, lowering your overall grip level.
In that situation I would lessen the damper at the problem end to try and increase grip.

[NemeGuero]

Stiff, but not too stiff.

Just right is the best setting.

HAHA... its driver preference and too many factors change it and so its best to just get experience.

Drive.. and learn what you like.

[!Zar!]

As said prior to me, there is no magical setup.

But The biggest change that you could make in handeling to your car is preload.

I suggest setting your car's ride height to where your arms and driveshaft are level. then set your preload. Start off roughtly with a half inch of preload in the front, and a full inch in the rear. Then start messing around with the dampening.

Start off somewhere in the middle, like around 6clicks front and rear.

[Dunkee]

I have Tein Flex, I found stiffer settings to actually be smoother on bumps than softer. At first I had them very low like around 6\4 (Flex has 24 settings) and the car really drove like crap. Not only did it feel sloppy and unstable in turns but going over bumps would make the car bounce and jump everywhere. I increased it to 10/14 and it was nicer less bumpy but didn't handle that well. Then I went to 16/18 and loved it...I tried max 24 which handled great but was too stiff...left it at 17/19. Don't be afraid to increase it, the dampners need to match the spring rate.

[yudalicious]

Preloading the springs on HEs won't affect much of anything (spring rate wise), at least in theory since the springs are linear springs. You'll just lose some droop travel. Just leave them at 0.

There's some good reading out there on how to set shocks, I believe you can find one from KONI on google, in a nut shell,
Set all 4 dampers at softest. Drive on a track and increase front end damping until the front end feels controlled. Then do the same for the rears. I'd do hmm like 2 or 3 clicks each time since there's so many clicks on the HEs, 16 I think?

[KA24DESOneThree]

I would dissagree with increasing the damper to deal with loss of traction. Example: if the rear is loosing grip, adjusting the fronts tighter will just lower the grip of the fronts to match the rear, lowering your overall grip level.
In that situation I would lessen the damper at the problem end to try and increase grip.

Stiffen front and soften rear to increase understeer, soften front and stiffen rear to increase oversteer.

http://rogerkrausracing.com/overundr.html

[SpeedMonkeyInc]

I understand the concept thanks. Maybe you missed the concept I was trying to convey?