I just got my coilovers installed and I was reading that when you adjust the ride height you should be adjusting it from the bottom collar and not the 2 spring collars. Something about preloading them.

Can someone explain to me how I should be preloading them and adjusting the ride height?

 

I'm assuming that you are talking about full coilovers and not sleeves.To adjust the ride hight you have to jack the car up,take the wheel off,and turn the sleeve.You should not be turning the spring perch to adjust the hight,that will screw up your spring rate.

I believe that if you have full coilovers,they are already preloaded and you don't have to worry about that,depending on what type of coilovers you have,but I'm not 100% sure about that.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Zerophase &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm assuming that you are talking about full coilovers and not sleeves.To adjust the ride hight you have to jack the car up,take the wheel off,and turn the sleeve.You should not be turning the spring perch to adjust the hight,that will screw up your spring rate.

I believe that if you have full coilovers,they are already preloaded and you don't have to worry about that,depending on what type of coilovers you have,but I'm not 100% sure about that.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Moving the spring perch will not "screw up" the spring rate. It won't change the spring rate at all. Having the perch snug up under the spring just prevents the spring from moving around when the suspension is at full droop.

If there is a separate adjustment for height, then yes adjust that and not the spring perch, but it's not going to hurt anything to move the spring perch.

 

I've always read that if you adjust your spring perch(the ring that the spring sits on) on full coilovers then you will definitely change the spring rate and effect how your car rides.Maybe I'm wrong,I'm no suspension guru.

 

I thought that if you adjust the ride height with the spring perch you would lose the full suspension travel and might damage the damper if it is set too low? Is this true or no? can someone explain

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by matryx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I thought that if you adjust the ride height with the spring perch you would lose the full suspension travel and might damage the damper if it is set too low? Is this true or no? can someone explain </TD></TR></TABLE>
That's partially correct. Wen you lower your car you loose suspension travel. When you lower by lowering the spring perch you loose damper travel. Going too low by dropping the spring perch you can damage the damper if the shaft is forced to its full compression travel, like hitting a pot hole or jumping railroad tracks like the Dukes. If you can lower by adjusting the lower mount (didn't specify what system you have) that would be ideal so you dont loose any damper travel.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Zerophase &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've always read that if you adjust your spring perch(the ring that the spring sits on) on full coilovers then you will definitely change the spring rate and effect how your car rides.Maybe I'm wrong,I'm no suspension guru.</TD></TR></TABLE>

No, spring rate is an inherent physical property of the spring itself. The spring is still going to be compressed the same amount when the car is sitting on the ground, regardless of whether you moved the spring perch or not.

But what matryx said is true, you run the risk of bottoming out the damper sooner if you lower the car by the spring perch instead of by the lower adjustment ring.

 

ok can someone explain to me the procedure on how exactly to lower the car? The way I do it now seems like theres a lot of work to lower the car from the bottom perch.

I take off the wheel and loosen the flange bolt from the damper fork before I can adjust the ride height. Is there a way to adjust the ride height without having to remove the coilover from the damper fork?

Here is what I'm talking about

 

Let's start with the most obvious question first,what kind of coilover setup do you have(not that it even makes a difference)?

 

For most full coilover setups that is indeed the process you go through to adjust the ride height. Kinda is a pita but once you get it where you want it, it shouldn't be a big deal. Just sucks for the initial setup.

 

I got Ksport coilovers

I was doing some research and found out a way how to adjust the coilovers without taking it off the forks.

Here's a thread on HT on how to do it. You got to look a bit more down in the middle of the thread.

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1227936

I just tried it and it was way easier this way and faster.
After adjusting the ride height I made sure to readjust the preload since the shock body might have move and effected the preload.