Great video! Always good to see the correct info spread around. Flyin’ Miata has some great videos videos on this subject too. This way of adjusting this type of coilover always seems to cause some backlash even though it is the right way of doing it.
Now this is what I'm talking about!! Truly the correct method! Thanks for not spreading misinformation, which seemingly most content on coilovers does sadly. Even more wacky is that some manufacturers don't get it right....smh. Keep up the great videos!
Nice video, had no idea of the proper way. Even the instruction manual that came with my coilovers said not to adjust the spring perch. I'll have to dial them in like this after I get some helper springs.
Great coincidence! I was just working on dialing in my bump stop last night, since I took it apart for the new spring rates! All in the name of maximizing droop lol
Great video! Do you take bump stop deflection into account when you're setting the shock length? I imagine the bump stops will compress quite a bit under load.
No. Just adjust to the point my car is jacking up with the bumpstop. They just came with the coilovers and im not aware of how much they deflect/rate. I know there is a whole world of bumpstop tuning/progressive bump stops but I have no experience with that.
@@TougeTime ok cool. It's worth thinking about if you get close to the bottom of your travel. Keep an eye on the inner fender area and you'll see if it rubs at all.
I have my 2003 MR-S at a similar ride height to yours and I've noticed that my control arms seem to be nearly parallel with the body of the car. I'm assuming this means that upon compression the arms will pull the bottom of the wheel in reducing camber, I'm considering raising the car about an inch in hopes to avoid this. I was wondering if your arms are similarly positioned, or if my understanding of McPherson strut suspension is lacking.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to just put a longer spring with the same rate? Doesn’t using a helper spring make the suspension completely useless once you’re in the part of the travel that relies on the helper spring? And why do some people use bump stop spacers? Doesn’t that reduce overall travel?
the whole purpose of a helper spring is to keep the spring positioned against the mating surfaces of the suspension at all times. Coilovers by design are much shorter than typical oem struts' springs, and since the car's suspension doesn't necessarily travel less with a shorter spring - they are notorious for bouncing around (floating is probably a better word) in those instances when one tire goes airborne and the shock's stroke exceeds the length of the spring momentarily. this poses a few risks to the suspension itself - possibly the frame of the car (like the shock towers) when coming back down (impact damage) but also that extra play means there's no "suspending" taking place immediately after the tire touches the road again, it f**ks with the geometry. But more importantly in a worst case scenario, the spring can become derailed from the upper and lower seat. The helper spring "extends" the spring's profile within the strut so that it's longer than the max stroke, ensuring it keeps positive pressure with the seats. Helper springs are very very soft. they don't have any damping force at all, less than a few pounds of pressure. just enough spring force to lift the main spring up into the top seat. at static rest, the helper springs are completely flattened under the main spring.
Not saying this is an incorrect method. But doesn’t make sense to me I’m afraid. You buy a coilover kit specific to your car and you’ve chosen the spring rates depending on what brand you buy. You simply assemble to suspension, with the preload specified by the manufacturer, which means the springs are not loose when static or on full droop when jacked up. Then you adjust the cars height with the lower perch. You can then adjust the bump and rebound to suit your needs after….. depending on your coilovers of course. Mine are BC BR Racing coilovers.
This is interesting. I've messed around with my spyder's bc coilovers a few months ago. Turned out I had 2cm of rebound and 8cm of bump. I left it at 3.xcm of rebound and 6.x cm bump, with the spring a bit loose on full droop. There is something Im not sure about though, isn't it true that once the spring gets loose while on droop, the rest of droop is a bit useless since the spring is not pushing down the wheel anymore? This still applies after installing a helper spring to prevent the main spring from being loose, since helper springs won't actually help push the wheel down since the rate is pretty low.
@@TougeTime yes, that's not my concern. The thing is, you are doing this to gain more droop travel right? What I mean is that I believe that that new droop achieved isn't going to be of much help, since the main spring is going to be unloaded (the helper only keeps it in place but isn't making any force pushing the wheel down)
@@ivan_b28 The shock still has an effect even when the spring is unloaded. It controls the speed of motion as the load comes back onto that corner. Think about it as if you were doing a jump: if your wheel can travel further downwards, the damper has more time to dissipate the energy as you land. The same is true if you're transitioning through a left/right section of corners - as you change directions, the extra droop travel will give more control over the cars movement.
Hey buddy, who ever taught you that that adjusting ride height is done on the spring was definitely wrong. Your not making the shock body longer your moving the wheel hub assembly up and down the shock body. Travel never changes. You said it your self the helper spring remains compressed until the wheel comes off the ground. Buy moving the spring collar all your doing is compressing the helper spring till you start adding preload to your main spring. And ride height will remain unchanged till your start compressing the main spring.
@@TougeTime the helper spring adds droop yes. But using the the collar on the spring perch for ride height is a bad and removes the droop if that’s what your adjusting ride height with. And conversely lowering the perch is just letting the piston back in the shock body and at max stroke let’s your spings loose
@johnbuckley1754 the point of the helper is to hold the spring in place when unloaded. Lowering the perch lowers the car. The helper does nothing else. Raising the perch will raise the car
if that's the right way (bottoming out the tire until it's pushing onto plastic and thin metal body panels), I'm probably ok with never ever doing it properly.. lol I like my car too much. I'll continue my no-contact method.
Did allot of research on this and this is not 100% true. It all depends on the vehicle set up (FWD,RWD,AWD)rwd would require some droop but not to the point where you measure till the bump stops hit. Of course this is for a track pavement car not rally which would be completely different. Hence depending on the set up. FWD would require less droop in the rear for better rotation (less grip) you’ll see allot of time attack FWD cars lifting the inside rear tire. Having a a helper spring may help keep the spring in place BUT. Remember most of these coilovers come with linear spring rates not progressive like OEM. Your bump stop will NEVER bottom out with high spring rates UNLESS they of course fail and brake which is highly unlikely. 2. Setting up the suspension this method makes the shock already compressed (close to bottoming out due to this) and possibly wearing it out even more (possibly blowing the strut) and the spring regardless of a helper spring would not be able to rebound the strut cause it’ll always be compressed under the vehicle’s weight. To negate this either you get a taller spring or.. get dedicated suspension for your car. KW for example.
