I, to the best of my ability, set the preload last night. I followed what most people said to do which was, completely loosen the top 2 collars on the shock assembly, then start tightening the top collar until the spring is snug, anything after that, and you are adding preload. Most posts I found said to just leave the preload there. So that's what I did on both sides.

The car still feels unstable... Today or tomorrow I'm going to uninstall and reinstall the front sway bar and see if that changes anything.

I'm also concerned about why my steering wheel will not center..

 

ok my bad i misread that, i would get that arm fixed, get a corner balance alignment and try to figure it out from there.




Go back and check all of your fittings and make sure everything is torqued down to spec. The only way a sway bar is preloaded is through the mounting points, so check that endlink for the sway bar and make sure its connected all the way.

 

Most people are idiots, set the travel with the shock length , then set preload for ride height.

If you do it this way, you will have the most usable suspension travel. If you have 2mm of preload or 20mm preload, it does not matter on specific rate springs.


OEM shock length is longer than your coilovers. So on the first side you pulled the shock out and had no problem, this is because the swaybar pulling the LCA down for you. Wthen you got to the other side , the swaybar is now working against you because of the shorter damper fully installed.

Sway bar preload, don't worry about it unless you are trying to set up adjustable endlinks. A little bit of preload will not matter, or even be noticable. If it did, endlinks would be adjustable from the factory

 

if you set the preload and didnt do this, go back and redo it. You can use the wheel as a jack point for the shock, make sure the car is on jack stands

 

Quality control check to see if the one of the struts is bad, possible manufacturing defect.

 

If it was just one damper, the car would just move in that one direction awkwardly, or you would feel the body roll in the direction of the broken damper really hard.

 

Not necessarily, I've had worn/bad struts before on other cars and it felt unstable. Did not move towards any certain direction.

 

Got the same issues as you, maybe not as bad but the only thing that changed to my car was an alignment. Steering wheel is slightly off center and the car feels floaty from side to side on the highway, around town I can't notice it.

 

Whats the best way to check for a bad strut? These are basically brand new, previous owner of the coils had no problems, and there are no fluids leaking from the struts or anything at all...

I notice mine around town but its just a lot worse on the interstate

 

Best way may not make you happy, take struts out, push it down and see if it comes back up somewhat quickly, if it's barely moving, it's weak or dead.

Easiest way, try putting it on the hardest setting and see if it makes a difference in the ride. Test it side to side then front and back.

 

Actually speaking of dampening and stiffness or w/e.. I just thought about something so simple that I haven't even checked yet..

When I received the coils from the PO they were set at a really soft setting (both f&r), well since installing them I have changed the fronts to 1 click away from full stiff, while the rears are probably still at damn near full soft.

Would that make sense that the fronts are so stiff and the rears are so soft that it makes the rear end feel "loose"?

 

He can also just unscrew the perches till the spring is completely loose and jack up the car, use the wheel as a jack point and he can check shock travel and dampening ability that way also.



yes those settings would make you feel unstable your dampening isnt setup properly, just keep adjusting till you get the right settings

 

I also just found a link on how to properly setup "droop". ----> Page #3 here: http://www.splparts.com/instructions/SPL_RML_Z33.pdf

Alright, so tomorrow the plan will be to properly adjust the droop in the rear, and then stiffen up the rear dampening and see how it feels after that.

*crosses fingers*

 

I don't think so, especially that it happens even on a straight line.

Last time I experienced that, one of my shocks was blown. But yours are brand new.

Have you tried setting them to medium-hard?

 

there are a myriad of questions with his suspension lol it needs to be tuned to the T. im waiting to hear after he adjusts his settings to see where to go from there

 

I haven't even touched the rear setting for the stiffness.. so i am betting its at full soft or something, while the rear is 1 click away from full stiff and thats why it could possibly feel like this?

 

You are betting it's full soft while it's 1 click from full stiff?

I ran mine at full stiff in the rear, 3/4 stiff in the front. Never had an issue.

 

No, I'm saying the fronts are 1 click away from full stiff, while I haven't even touched the rear but I know they are really soft from what the previous owner of the coilovers had them set at.

Fronts are 1 click away from full stiff
*I am betting* that the rears are really close to full soft

 

I think you solved the problem.

 

Welp, put the rears at full stiff today, didn't change a thing...