GR+ Pro questions

[good0177]

Hey, installed co last week and a couple of questions:
1. I noticed looking at my coils on the rears when parked that the helper springs are compressed all the way down. Is this right? For some reason I'm confused; I thought the helper springs assist with rebound and position the shock in the ideal position. Maybe too much preload?

2. My car is bouncy as shit! And yes, I've searched and read a ton about coils and comfort, :blah: . I'm wondering your guess experience with how to dial in a nice setup and what should be my next susp purchase to best go with the new coils. Everything is stock on my 97 kouki except the coilovers. I'm still tinckering with the dampening (current 8 and 8 on the dials). I'm thinking new low-pro wheel/tire combo to eliminate the spring-effect of the high wall stock tires. Input?

Thanks gang. Bryan.

[!Zar!]

Try running zero preload all around. Ride height arms level all around. Set damping on 6 up from full soft.

Go from there and see what happens.

[KiDyNomiTe]

The helper spring is supposed to compress under load, you can squeeze it by hand.

Tires are a huge thing for ride comfort. Big oversized and tall tires will feel like crap with stiff suspension.

[mmdb]

crap please delete.

[mmdb]

[FONT=Century Gothic]1. I noticed looking at my coils on the rears when parked that the helper springs are compressed all the way down. Is this right? For some reason I'm confused; I thought the helper springs assist with rebound and position the shock in the ideal position. Maybe too much preload?

Yes. Helper springs do not and should not add preload. Sounds like you should release tension on the spring and adjust height using the perch (i'm not familiar if these coilovers have that adjustment).


[FONT=Century Gothic]2. My car is bouncy as shit! And yes, I've searched and read a ton about coils and comfort, :blah: .


Bouncy is probably because:
a. dampers are blown
b. spring rates are too high for the damper
c. dampening is set too soft
d. too much preload (shouldn't have any) on the spring disallowing damper to control spring rate during rebound.

Most likely it's because of cases D then C. Try setting your preload to ZERO (the helper spring is slightly compressed while the main spring has zero compression when there is no load on the shock).

[FONT=Century Gothic]2. I'm wondering your guess experience with how to dial in a nice setup and what should be my next susp purchase to best go with the new coils.


I'm not sure, but do these coils just have a single knob adjustment for both rebound and compression? Go to Koni's website and search for a tutorial concerning initial suspension setup. It'll give you the overview of what you need to do. Remember, dampening is used only for transitional periods, not how much the car rolls or dips/dives in a turn. So you're setting these shocks according to how they feel over bumps, initial turn in and exit.

You have front camber plates I'm assuming, so you'll need to get camber arms for the rear. Stick with a manufacturer that uses quality bearings (Peak Performance, etc) as those would be the first to start making noise and fail. And get an alignment at a shop that specializes in racing if possible. That way whoever is setting up the car will do it right the first time. They should also know how adjust the suspension as well, so that'll take out a lot of the guess work.


Everything is stock on my 97 kouki except the coilovers. I'm still tinckering with the dampening (current 8 and 8 on the dials). I'm thinking new low-pro wheel/tire combo to eliminate the spring-effect of the high wall stock tires. Input?

Having a tire with a thinner wall will make your ride harsher and work your suspension a bit more. If your ride is uncomfortable now, I wouldn't suggest low wall tires, but for performance sake they do help overall performance.

[nicku]

I have stance gr+, it was really bouncy when I first installed it. But after a while, the ride became a lot smoother. and yeah...dont put any preload on these coilovers

[good0177]

Thanks for the help fellas, I know, I'm a noob but I love working on my car and this is my first attempt at altering it using aftermarket suspension parts. I'm not that well versed in coilovers yet, but learn through trial and errror. So, gonna put 0 preload on all four corners, set dampening to full soft and try this out. Thanks for the advice.

Still confused on the whole helper spring issue though. Wtf does it really do anyway (I know-why did you buy these if you don't know how they work...) but seriously can anyone direct me to somewhere where I can study how these are better than not running with them like on the GR+? Thanks again.