Hi all,

I'm trying to sort out some clearance and tyre rub issues. Over decent bumps, I'll get a scrape from the tyre, on the sidewall it seems. When loaded up coming out of a corner on the throttle, I'll get a gentle "fwizzing" sound as it lightly rubs. And finally, I have a friend who lives up a steep and tight street. As I'm turning going uphill, the tyres drag and sometimes I even get wheel hop and the stability control lights coming on.

I have fitted Falken FK453 tyres, as I was having issues with the old tyres. They were undersized and triggering the stability control systems with any sporty driving.
The Falkens bring the sizing back to within 1% of stock, so that's good. Whats not good is the shape of them. They have a very "square" section, which probably doesn't help with this rub issue.
The arches have already been widened by 15mm, and rolled.


The car sits very low though, especially at the rear. I have had the car to two shops, who both say they can't get more height out of it.
KW have said that having aftermarket control arms and such can throw their travel guidelines out of whack, so they don't seem to want to help much, or they can't without pulling the car apart.


What got me wondering though is looking at other coilover installation threads, where guys seem to have inches of adjustment on their setups. Setups that drop the car an inch, but they are free to raise or lower from there. I look at mine and think "how the eff would that ever work??"
I've attached a pic of the car as it sits now, and the coilovers that were installed by the previous owner.

I can't quite figure it out yet, even if I had 10mm more clearance, it might give just enough room for the tyre. Yet I seem to be stuck. Whats worse is I have no space or equipment where I am to sit and dick around with it, so I'm left with going to the few shops around here, none of which are performance oriented.

Any ideas?

 

is it rubbing the front or rear, if its the rear have the fenders been rolled?

 

Since you didn't post a pic of your set up specifically, I'll assume your rear perch is either maxed out or taken off to get as low as possible. Do you have the spring perch pictured on the last page of this manual (purple part on top of the rear spring)?

http://www.kwsuspensions.com/extras/...ah68685002.pdf

 

link didnt work... so here is pdf

 

Other things to consider:

What is the wheel size and more properly, offset? And, of course, tire sizing?

What are the alignment settings?

How are the coilovers set?? That is....

- Are you at 0-pre-load or do you have some pre-load adjusted into them?

- What is your height setting? Min, max, in-between?

- Shock settings?

As Advan mentioned, you don't have a pic of the install so it's hard to judge/recommend anything. Consider the above and post then maybe someone can/will make some recommendations. I want to say something to each of the points above but not worth it unless the answers on present config are out there.

 

Rear, the front will just barely rub if I trail brake hard while hitting bumps. Both shops who've looked at it said that there was still room in the front for adjustment.

All arches rolled, all arches widened by 15mm each

Yes, that perch is there, and both shops said they were at max adjustment. I will get it up on stands soon to check out the tyres and grab some pics

Wheels are 19x10 F, 19x11 R. Iirc, tyres are 265/35 and 285/35. They are done to have a stock overall diameter.
Offset I don't have a figure on, again I'll try and spot it when it's on stands again. Both shops mentioned that tge setup was done nicely, as barring the bit of outer tyre rub, they clear everything else nicely.

Camber iirc is -2 rear, and -1.5 front.

You mention preload, and it's got me wondering. One of the shops mentioned there was no more adjustment as the spring would be sitting loose in its mounts. That to me sounds like they've would that collar as far up as poss, reducing preload.
Maybe that's what's wrong, but seeing 2 separate shops not be able to change it is odd.

 

The KWs are only height adjustable IIRC, pre-load should not be an issue; just turn the perch to your desired height and you're done. If the perch is screwed up all the way (towards the top) then you are at max LOW. It need to be unscrewed (towards the ground) to raise the height.

 

Your perches aren't adjusted correctly. I have the same coilovers and if I put them max high, It would be atleast an inch higher than stock. You may be maxed out low and the shops don't know what they are talking about.

 

Take the rear tire off, take a pic and post it if the spring area please

 

I didn't grab a pic, but I think this may have been solved just today. I talked to the previous owner through google translate and he said "yes, I put lowered springs in the rear". Stock springs in front.
I'd already asked about the suspension before and he sent me the pic of the coilovers and said they are standard, hence the confusion, both here, at the shops, and with KW. Probably lost in translation somewhere.

Currently ordering stock springs, and going to get it all baseline set at KW specs, and go from there.

 

Just to clarify, you are saying that as the perch goes up (blue arrow) the vehicle is lowered, as opposed to the loosening the perch downwards (red arrow) to raise the vehicle?

 

That's correct. As you move the perch UP, it's compressing the spring, hence lowering the car. Perch down allows spring to decompress all the way up to full length.

BTW, just a minor correction from an earlier post. KW Variant 3's are FULLY ADJUSTABLE for jounce, rebound, height.

 

Just need to correct this as you thread the perch up (blue ) the car is raised. The removing preload (red) will lower the car.

 

Well this is exactly what I am talking about. There is misinformation, Micvelo says that as you move the perch up, you are lowering the vehicle. Yet, terrasmak is saying that as you move the perch up, you are raising the vehicle!! So which is it?

 

No, Len (terrasmak) is CORRECT. No excuses, was confusing the KW partial threaded body with the c/os on my Shiro... or something, which seem to, IIRC, do something a little different - full thread, separate height adjustment versus pre-load/height adjust. Confused without looking at it in front of me. Hahaha!

But yes, Len's info is spot on.

Another reason I don't like coilovers. They get over on me.

 

With the Z though, does that just apply to the front, as a proper coilover?

 

This applies to all, anytime you compresses the spring more ( preload) you raise the car, unless your suspension is already topped out for some odd reason.

The rear, well the spring is in a different location. Typically you thread the collar down on them ( compressing the spring) and the car raises

 

I still find the whole thing counterintuitive. While I know I misspoke, it still SEEMS to me that compressing the spring should lower the car but I'll just wait to play with a set if/when I ever spring for a set. < YSWIDT >

The c/o's on my ZX are fully adjustable (single control jounce/rebound, height, pre-load, all separate). I took them down to 0 pre-load with no resulting change to height so had to screw the height collars DOWN to raise it.

I think.

Fehhhhhhh...... I hate having to think.

 

Get an RC car and play with the suspension. Works the same , just in a smaller scale and adjustmets can be mama de faster to see results quicker

 

From setting up motorbikes and getting the amount of suspension sag set, you are effectively "starting" the suspension from a "harder" point when you increase preload, therefore the vehicle doesn't sag as much under it's own weight. That's the way I remember it.

If you jack the car up and get the wheels at their max droop, and then wind more preload on, they are going to be further into the spring compression and will require more force to start moving. You bring the weight back on and it won't droop as far.


It confuses me seeing the coilovers labeled as height adjustable when I can only see the one adjustment on the rear, the top of the spring mount. Now it's my time to think