Car Alert! Fitting Coilovers?

[stevo as b4]

This is a bit of a way off yet, as firstly I need to order them and wait for them to be made and delivered.

But have any of you handy car mechanics ever fitted a set of coilover's to your car/someone else's and how much of a job is it?
I have fitted lowering springs years ago on a mates car, and this was fairly easy, especially as it was a 2year old car with no really rusty bolts on the strut mounts etc.

Apart from needing somewhere nice and flat to jack up the car, (want to have all the wheels off together), I am worried about the setting up more than the fitting? I've never set up ride height/preload on coilover's and will be using adjustable front top mounts that allow camber/caster changes. I'm no expert in suspension or how different camber/caster settings affect the handling, or what would be the best setting for road use on a Rover 200?

Do the professionals use laser alignment tools to get them correctly set, and would it just be a better option to get a decent suspension specialist to fit and set them up for me? I would like to learn what I'm doing, (reading suspension books would be a good start I know), but don't want to mess up my car or make it handle any worse than is normal for a 20year old 260bhp fwd'er?

[lihp]

Assuming the car already has coilover suspension as standard it should be a straight swap.

If you're fitting units with that much suspension then you're going to need alignment tools.
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[bugeye_bob]

stick with shocks and springs unless its a track animal

[stevo as b4]

I would, but it's too low on lowering springs and shorter struts. The ride isn't too bad, but the downpipe, oil filter and front splitter are all too low and vulnerable.

The car has been spanked around on the track quite a bit by the previous owner, but I'm only going to do about 1500 road miles a year, just pootling around. If I had coilover's I could easily wind it up say 15mm for the road, and if I did do a trackday I'd be able to lower it again if required.

I know it needs raising a bit as the driveshafts are below horizontal.

[Llama-Farmer]

What car is it?

I have fitted coilovers (in the height-adjustable sense) and different shocks/springs (in the literal coil-spring-over-shock).

Say coilovers to someone who knows about modding cars and they know what you mean, but they mean something else to some people. I know what you mean though.



Some cars are dead easy, I can get 4 corners done in a little over 1 hour on some cars, others take best part of a day. Depends on the design, how they mate to the wishbone, whether top mounts and bearings need swapping from original strut onto the coilies etc
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[Clutchy]

Not too hard, took me and a mate 2 hours so do mine, however golfs are known to be an easy fit.
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[bugeye_bob]

Each time you lift or drop it you will have to get the alignment done.

[arry]

[Llama-Farmer]

Not all coilovers come with with that level of adjustment arry.

Most only come with height adjustable only. Particularly the lower end of the budget.

More expensive ones come with damper adjustable, but they can be getting on for £1k.



Whenever you touch them though you'll need to get it all realigned, so try to adjust them as little as possible unless you've got money to spend on a full alignment.

And don't skimp on aligning, it'll cost you much more in worn tyres than it will in aligning.

A guy I fitted some coilovers for ignored my advice to get the alignment done and got through 7mm tread in 8 weeks, costing him around £600 on new tyres. Still didn't learn, he spent £300 on cheaper new tyres and they only lasted 3 months. Alignment would have cost less than 1/10th of what it cost him in tyres.
____________________
Current Bike: 1999 Honda CB600 FX Hornet
Next Bike: I want a CBR-RR. And I want an F800 GS-A. And a VFR 800. Can I have all 3?
Dream Bikes: Honda VFR750R RC30, Honda NSR500, Ducati 996 R

[arry]

[Llama-Farmer]

[Nash GT]

Done it on my old mx5, couple hours job
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[stevo as b4]

Hi Guy's. Thanks for all the info and replies to my coilover fitting questions and concerns.

I don't think the unit's I'm using have pillowball top mounts, as the top mounts are not part of the coilover struts. They also don't have bottom mounted height adjustment, so the ride height will be controlled by the main spring collars, and not by being able to wind the body of the unit in or out of the lower suspension arm.

They are made by GAZ, and the top mount's I'm getting are separate solid mounts, with spherical bearings fitted where they fit onto the top of the coil over unit. The top mounts have an eccentric hole for the mount, and are slotted to allow the strut to be angled inwards or outwards slightly in the strut towers.

I can appreciate and see the need for a full laser alignment to be done after fitting, and everytime the height is adjusted etc. I hope to not need to mess with them too much though once I've got a sensible ride height, save for maybe tweaking the damping to get a reasonable ride on the road. I'm happy to pay for a proper alignment set up once I've got them fitted correctly and the car is level.

I don't know anything about castor or camber settings or where they need to be for a lowered fwd car used on the road?

And lastly I do have a rear ARB, but I don't know if it is an uprated one or not, but if it's worth changing I would be happy to do so.

I just wanted the car to sit a bit higher than it does now, and also for the wheels not to droop too far when jacking it up, so I don't run out of travel on my jack before the tyres are well clear of the road. As for damping I assume I don't want it set too hard on the front, as it don't want it to scrabble for grip under medium acceleration on a dry road if possible?

[Llama-Farmer]

Experiment with the damping... if they're top-adjustable with some kind of key then they should be easy, if they're bottom-adjustable that can be slightly harder.

I had Koni adjustable shocks on my car and used to wind them to the softest setting most of the time, and they were only marginally harder than stock, but then on the stiffest setting they were literally like rock, only ever used that when I was on track, it would literally bounce over kerbs like a touring car, two wheels in the air.

Most of the time for spirited driving on the road I'd set them to the firmest setting then wind them back off by about 1080 degrees, or 3 full turns. That made them soft enough not to crash over bumps/dips/etc but firm enough that they kept level in the turns.


So basically just experiment.


Also, depending on how far away you have to travel to get the alignment done, it's worth going back regularly.
Most places will charge a very small amount (if anything) to check the alignment. You pay for getting it adjusted. But pot holes, kerbs, tyre wear, suspension settling, lots of things can affect the alignment, so keeping on top of it with regular checks is worth doing.

UK doesn't seem to do it, but Australia and New Zealand almost religiously get their alignment checked every 6 months.
____________________
Current Bike: 1999 Honda CB600 FX Hornet
Next Bike: I want a CBR-RR. And I want an F800 GS-A. And a VFR 800. Can I have all 3?
Dream Bikes: Honda VFR750R RC30, Honda NSR500, Ducati 996 R