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Originally Posted by todd5854
Full soft makes it more bouncy, correct? I have the car about 1.5 inches lowered as we speak. the front seems fine to me, nice and tight, but not too bad.. I feel as if I could soften it just by turning the knobs.
The rear... ugh. Okay, so I turn the knobs to "LOW" for the rears, and raise to stock ride height, and function and form factory-set pre-load, then go from there?
I was told that coilover springs should be able to be turned around by hand, but no vertical play. is this true?
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The last statement is correct, you want to raise the collar up into the spring until there is no lateral (up and down) movement, but you can slightly spin them....and that's to be measured under full droop (car jacked up, wheel down).
You want to turn the knobs all the way soft front and rear. Having them soft could make it more or less bouncy, that's dependent on the damper you have. I like to set up most street 240's with the fronts a few clicks hard, and the rear full soft, or maybe a pair of clicks.
As above, you want spring preload to be zero to minimal...just enough to keep the spring seated.
Most people go out and make the mistake of 'full hard and full hard sway bars' and thinking it will work best, when the reality is far from that. I really think there is no GOOD reason to run an aftermarket sway bar over the SE bar ever (maybe the whiteline bar as it's the smallest). Sure putting a bar on can make a car feel stiff, but it won't make it handle better....the age old debate of 'feels good' vs 'performs good' has allowed many car guys to drive slow vs fast
fwiw: most entry level coilovers perform best with as few dampening clicks as possible, as the damper suck and the spring rates are bad. Keeping it soft allows it to 'sort of' work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Driftwurks
That would mean you have set the coilovers at zero pre-load. Depending on what your coilover manufacturer recommends, this may or may not be the correct pre-load level. Contact them or look on their website and find out what you are supposed to set the pre-load to. As for adjusting your ride height, you probably want an even level front to back. Raising your car should make the ride more comfortable as the springs will have more room to travel although 1.5 inches shouldn't be a big problem depending on the suspension specs. I have PBM Competition coilovers and I ride on full soft and I feel that it's tolerable for daily driving.
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Preload should always be minimal on a double adjustable setup...5mm is negligible, it's basically telling you snug the spring, that's it.
Raising your car will make your ride more comfortable because it fixes roll centers, bumpsteer...not because the springs will travel more (whatever that means is beyond me). With ANY car the two biggest things that negatively effect ride are what I mention above, and 240sx's are especially effected by those two issues due to it being macphearson based in the front.
I know you're trying to help, but you need to really learn what is going on first before just copy/pasting what you've read. Check out the suspension angle thread, and other various threads to see how it all works.