Okay, I just got my Koni double adjustable shocks and Eibach springs. I dont have any experience adjusting the shocks for rebound and bump. All I know is where the adjustment screw is and that counter-clockwise turn increases the bump and rebound.

What is "side-hop" and "walking"? This was on adjusting bump damping control on a website I found that talked briefly on suspension setups.

Generally, I need to know where to begin on adjusting the bump and rebound. Could someone explain to me as to what these shock adjustments (in bump and rebound) would do for the handling of the car? I have no clue as where to begin. Right now the shocks are set to the lowest settings for bump and rebound. BTW, it is a Gen 3 Integra. thanks

 

For sake of simplicity I'm not going to get into all the ands, ifs or buts. I'll breifly explain rebound and compression damping and the best way to set it up the first time. It's up to you to take it to the next step and figure out the correct damping for track use, different conditions, and so forth. Tuning is everything and you've opened a can of worms.

Although rebound damping is what's going to be important most of the time, I'm going to discuss compression damping first because you should set it first. Compression damping, or bump damping, should be used to control the suspesions movement over bumps. Starting at full soft go drive the car. Pay close attention to how the suspension absorbs, dampens, whatnot bumps. Try and find the typical bump{s} your vehicle goes over. It's best to have a good 1 mile section of road to drive up and back. You don't want too smooth of a road and you don't want too bumpy of a road, just a typical 'normal' road. Now adjust the compression damping up one or two clicks, say 10% of the total adjustment available. Drive the road again. Continue this process until the bumps become hard or firm. Once you've found that point then back the damping off 5-10%. You've now properly setup the compression damping assuming you were honest with yourself on road conditions, the feel of the bumps, and the adjustments. It's important to note that the front to rear difference can, might, and will probably be slightly different so you have to pay attention to each seperately.

Rebound adjustment is used to control the rate at which the vehicle rolls in a corner, or how fast it rolls. Springs control the distance or how far it rolls, shocks control the rate. With that in mind find a corner (hopefully on a track or closed off area like a parking lot) and drive the vehicle with the rebound damping set to full soft. It's important to note that you should have pre-set the comrpession damping already because it will have some effect on the roll rate. Everyone has their own preferences as too how a shock should be set but I'll tell you things to look for. You want a good smooth transition from corner entry, through apex, and another smooth transition to corner exit. Too low of damping will cause the vehicle to roll over fast and the transitions will seem very abrupt. The vehicle will get to it's maximum displacement very fast and way before the apex. Too high of damping will cause the vehicle to never achieve it's maximum displacement and transitions will seem very notchy, erratic, and slow. Your shocks should never limit the amount of suspension motion. It's very important to note that too high of damping is worst then too low of damping, both for compression and rebound. So while your setting your rebound adjustment slowly work up from full soft, making only one adjustment at a time, untill you've achieved the desired effect through your test corner. I personally like to choose a corner thats good for about 55mph and set to that for street driving.

To recap,
1. Compression damping controls the suspension over bumps.
2. Rebound damping controls the rate of roll of the vehicle.
3. Too high of damping is worst then too low of damping.
4. Always make adjustments one at a time and never do more the 10% damping change in one shot.
5. Set compression damping first and rebound damping second.

My last and final comment is to start a log book now. Since it's obvious you've never worked with dual adjustment shocks before it can be very easy to get lost. Imagine a tri or quad adjustable shock, it gets much worst. Make sure that when you do your testing it's in a safe controled area. Also make sure the vehicle is setup properly with the correct tire pressures fuel levels, etc.... to erase any future variables.

 

thanks kevin for the reply. Very precise instructions on how to set up the shocks.

 

DUDE....YOU ROCK!!! way good info in there even for the "old-timers!!!"