I installed my koni/ground control suspension today everything was fine until I put the car on the ground. I set the front 2 adjuster the same height about 10 splines up from the bottom(the rears are fine), once on the ground the passenger side is considerly higher than the driver side I'm talking almost 1 in. To compensate for it I raised the driver side by 6 more spline so its 10 on passenger side and 16 on the driver side (its still not even). I called GC and was told the frame might be bent, my car has been in a accident before and the body shop replaced the arm in between upper and lower control arms. Does anyone have any suggestions I'm going to call a body shop tomorrow and reserve a frame machine.

TIA

 

I found out that I installed the sleeves wrong. I put the shorter sleeve on the front and longer sleeve on the rear would that cause this problem ?

TIA
Chris

 

So long as you put both fronts on the rear or both rears on the fronts, I don't think swapping the sleeves end for end should cause your issue. Did you roll or drive your car around a bit before you started jacking your spring perches around to different locations or was the car in essentially the same spot where you dropped it off the jack after the spring installation? If the car had not moved much, then the suspension probably was not settled at all and you need to move the car around. Whenever lowering the car to the ground, it needs to roll at least a few rotations of the tire back and forth for the suspension to setle and be back in a semi-normal position.

I don't think I would be so quick to blame your issue on frame damage, especially if the was seemed pretty straight before. I think the car either has not settled right or you have something set a bit off. If you read most threads about people who are measuring the ride hegihts of their car, you will find that most folks find 1/4 inch and sometimes up to 1/2 inch lower on the driver's front corner to be relatively normal in an older car, especially one that has had one passenger most of it's life. I don't recall the number on my 230,000 mile CRX but it sits notably lower on the driver's front corner with 275 lb. me being the only regular occupant. A few extra threads up on that corner or whole side and all is well.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRX Lee &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So long as you put both fronts on the rear or both rears on the fronts, I don't think swapping the sleeves end for end should cause your issue. Did you roll or drive your car around a bit before you started jacking your spring perches around to different locations or was the car in essentially the same spot where you dropped it off the jack after the spring installation? If the car had not moved much, then the suspension probably was not settled at all and you need to move the car around. Whenever lowering the car to the ground, it needs to roll at least a few rotations of the tire back and forth for the suspension to setle and be back in a semi-normal position.

I don't think I would be so quick to blame your issue on frame damage, especially if the was seemed pretty straight before. I think the car either has not settled right or you have something set a bit off. If you read most threads about people who are measuring the ride hegihts of their car, you will find that most folks find 1/4 inch and sometimes up to 1/2 inch lower on the driver's front corner to be relatively normal in an older car, especially one that has had one passenger most of it's life. I don't recall the number on my 230,000 mile CRX but it sits notably lower on the driver's front corner with 275 lb. me being the only regular occupant. A few extra threads up on that corner or whole side and all is well.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks CRX Lee I didn't roll the car around I guess I should have, but being 6 splines off really bothers me. I'll take a look at it and see if it has settled any since the install. My car has 210k so it's probably sagging a little bit on the driver side.

 

If you didn't roll the car at all, then all bets are completely off. You have absolutely zero point of reference whatsoever until it has had a chance to settle because the one thing that you can guarantee is the car won't drop down level and settled.

Put both front perches back to the same setting and go drive the car around the block before you do anything else or worry anymore. Without it being settled, you've got nothing to base it on.

 

Just measured I'm 1/2 in off between the driver and passenger side weird

 

bump

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRX Lee &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If you didn't roll the car at all, then all bets are completely off. .</TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Cole D &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just measured I'm 1/2 in off between the driver and passenger side weird </TD></TR></TABLE>

Is this after driving the car around and settling the suspension? A half inch is not that far out of the normal range that one needs to compensate on an older chassis and the driver's side is always the low corner. I'm thinking that you probably don't really have much of a problem if at all.

 

Are you sure that both your front snap rings are set on the same grooves?

 

yes sir, both are on the same clip I have the koni with 5 circlip setting and I put them on the second clip

 

like Lee said it's normal to be 1/2 off like that. I'm not sure how many turns, but I needed to raise the drivers side to get it level with mine. That's the beauty of having coilovers.

 

But its so tight right now that I can't raise the car up anymore by hand on the driver side

 

I'll take pictures tomorrow

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Cole D &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">But its so tight right now that I can't raise the car up anymore by hand on the driver side </TD></TR></TABLE>
Welcome the real world of stiff springs needing some preload. Use spring compressors.

 

Hey do you have a how to and pictures of the adjustment on internal koni yellow shocks ? I took mine to a suspension shop and they told me to put the allen wrench in the top of the shock and turn which that doesn't make sense because the shock would be external adjustment and its internal. Please let me know

TIA

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Cole D &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hey do you have a how to and pictures of the adjustment on internal koni yellow shocks ? I took mine to a suspension shop and they told me to put the allen wrench in the top of the shock and turn which that doesn't make sense because the shock would be external adjustment and its internal. Please let me know

TIA </TD></TR></TABLE>

I found the instruction on the koni site

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRX Lee &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Welcome the real world of stiff springs needing some preload. Use spring compressors.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Is this normal with coilovers ?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Cole D &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Is this normal with coilovers ?</TD></TR></TABLE>

The "problem" of not being able to continuously turn your collar, otherwise compress and preload your spring, is because it is a spring! It's just trying to resist change.