Most people adjust their coilover for best appearance. They measure wheel gap and attempt to adjust the coilovers so wheel gap is even on both sides.

My question is: Is it better to have coilovers that are exactly the same height on each side and let the differences in wheel gap slide? Or is it better to adjust coilovers to the exact same height of wheel gap on each side?

I'm not sure how I got to thinking about this but since the shock is the most important piece in the suspension shouldn't it be equal in length on each side? I got to thinking that things such as body panels, weight distribution, tire pressure etc. can all affect the wheel gap but these variables are negligible.

Or just corner balance my damn car hahaha.

 

You'de do best to just even the wheel gap all around & call it a day. The height of the adjustable perch doesn't matter since your vehicles weight isn't distributed exactly even. This means some spings are compressed more than others, and thats why the car will lean to one sice in the first place.

The "ideal" would be to corner-weight the car. This cross balances the car to give you the most even handling left to right. A lot of drivers can't really feel the difference anyways, so it probably isn't worth the money to you. Plus it will make each corner a different height wich isn't really desirable on a street car...

 

Adjust so ride height is equal from side to side from the top part of the wheel well opening. Make sure tire pressures are all the same though first.

 

This is what I'm getting at. I don't really care for looks as much as performance.

Equal ride height vs. equal coilover height?

This has me thinking even more. I wonder if leaving the coilovers at the same length would be similar to corner balancing the car, as in the values would be alot closer than if just adjusting for apperance.

 

Either have it scaled and corner balance or adjust the ride height to be equal. Adjusting the shocks all to the same height and slapping them in won't get you anywhere except a funny looking ride height and a screwed up weight balance.


Modified by backpurge at 7:29 PM 4/20/2006

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by backpurge &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Either have it scaled and corner balance or adjust the ride height to be equal. Adjusting the shocks all to the same height and slapping them in won't get you anywhere except a funny looking ride height and a screwed up weight balance.
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LOL, it would be the worst of both worlds...

 

i have never done a street car, but im guessing it would come out looking worse then a race car. but then it again it might be closer.

my race car is (was i took the suspension off after the last race) and will be again corner weighted, and i would say there was vareance of up to a half inch, most typically the right rear out of wack and so was the left front. (iirc)

From the few cars i have done, it seems this is the way it is on civic's and integras.

 

I would set the suspension up measuring and making sure the perches are even. There are too many variables when setting up a suspension with the "appearance" look.

Redshiftmotorsports recommends doing it with the method above if you don't have corner weight scales.

I've set my suspension with this method and the alignment readings came out well with camber very close to even on the fronts and rears.

 

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=834761

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Understeer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=834761</TD></TR></TABLE>

That's pretty interesting reading... Baically, on a street car (non cornerweighted), you will set your coil-over sleeve perches so they are the same number of threads from left to right. Then if one side of your car is lower than the other (with driver weight), you raise both perches on the SAME side of the vehicle to fix.

Good to know...

 

great to know

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94eg! &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> That's pretty interesting reading... Baically, on a street car (non cornerweighted), you will set your coil-over sleeve perches so they are the same number of threads from left to right. Then if one side of your car is lower than the other (with driver weight), you raise both perches on the SAME side of the vehicle to fix.

Good to know...</TD></TR></TABLE>

That's how coilovers work, if one side is too low you raise it.

 

Your smart, do you work for nasa?

The point was that you don't just alter the one corner that looks off. You raise or lower both corners on the same side of the car by the same ammount to keep from changing the cross-weight.

Your so helpful...