I got a set of skunk2 pro s II's and finally got them installed. I havent messed with coilovers to much, and lots of internet searching hasnt given me much to go on. I was hoping someone could help out.

They are on my 93 hatch.

first of all I found it strange that I have the back where i want the car to sit at (21in's from the ground to the middle of the fender). they are turned up about 10 threads, and trying to get the front to be the same is proving to be a real pain in the ***. they are as low as they can go and still a little to high.

I had it so the driver side was only a hair above 21 but the passenger side was a half inch higher.

so added more preload to the spring in order to get it lower, added 3 turns and the passenger side is exactly the same, and the driver side raised up to 21 and quarter. so the pass side is 21 and half and the driver side is 21 and quarter now.

Im having trouble figuring out whats wrong, i drove it around the block, it was a tad bouncy, but nearly as bad as i thought it would be, I hear a bit of pop over bumps, im thinking the upper control arm might be hitting something? not sure. but I came back and all the measurements are the same.

any ideas at all? will I need to raise up the back to match the front to avoid putting even more preload on the front springs so I can lower them even more? I just gave up since I was going at it for awhile and it seemed like I was getting no where fast.

 

so no one has ever had an issue adjusting their coilovers before?

 

Adding preload to the springs? Adding preload (compressing the spring while the suspension is at full droop) RAISES the ride height.

Also if you want equal body height on each side, the spring perches will NEVER be in the same position on each side. Don't worry about getting them in the same position on each side. Just adjust them until you get the body height from ground that you want.

 

well now that you say it, that kinda makes sense, but I was just going by what i seen on this video

the guy says that if you want it to go any lower you need to tighten the spring so you can spin the bottom up further. which is what I did. you can skip to 4mins to see what Im talking about.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eSpwEXwYlc

 

Adding preload like shown in that video is rather pointless. Spinning the spring perch up raises the ride height, then shortening the shock puts you back to where you were to begin with.

I just posted a comment on the video. Given the same spring rate and length, if you have all 3 adjuster rings and the lower shock body all bottomed out together, that's AS LOW AS IT GOES. Doesn't matter what the spring preload is. The distance from the spring perch to the fork mount determines your ride height (all else being equal) so if they're already jammed together, you ain't gettin' any lower.

 

Well damn, now that makes sense mainly because thats exactly what is happening to me and Im glad you pointed it out. I was getting really pissed off. So it appears as though im gonna have to just raise up my backs a bit to match the front and deal with it.

and get rid of some of the preload because it is a tad bumpy. But they do actually ride very nice imo

 

seems like the dude from skunk2 responded to you on the video. Hes saying that adding preload wont change the ride height. adding preload lets you shorten the shock even more lowering the car further.

Im not sure what my specific problem is, I just got the full set of energy suspension bushing in the mail today so Im gonna start working on swapping every damn bushing on the car, and then try playing with the ride height.

 

I don't know what's up with Skunk2, adding preload will RAISE the car up, EVERY time. They should know that. It's just like moving the spring perch on a sleeve-type coilover. Adding preload raises the car. Shortening the shock body lowers the car. If the shock housing, locking ring, and spring perch rings are all bottomed out together, you absolutely CAN NOT get any lower, as distance from spring perch to bottom of housing determines ride height. And when they're all jammed together, you can't reduce spring perch-to-bottom of housing distance any more.

 

it makes sense to me in my head yeah.. I mean in basic terms you stiffen the spring and the car wont sag down as far so making it stiff and then lowering the shock will put you exactly where you where before right?

 

stiffen the spring? You're not stiffening the spring unless you physically change the spring out for a different one. Preload does not ever change the spring's physical spring rate property.

Say for instance that you have the shock housing and all 3 perch/locking rings jammed together. That's as low as you're getting for ride height. Now imagine that you can some how spin the shock body inside the threaded housing and perch rings, with the suspension still on the car and the car still on the ground. Ride height will not change. However what DOES change is the shock body's position inside all the other parts. This changes your maximum bump (compression) and rebound (droop) travel.

So if you add preload, spin the shock housing up to where the damper body bottoms out inside the housing, and get all the rings back against each other and the housing, you'll have more compression travel available, but less droop travel. If you remove the preload and then get the perches and spring housing all together (shock body not bottomed out inside the housing), again you're at the same ride height, but then you'll have less compression travel and more droop travel available.

 

Wouldn't it be considered stiffening because your adding preload? Reducing the travel ? Like a slinky for instance, if you have it in both hands and your pull appart it loosens up. Stack it together and reduces travel completely. So let me understand this SKUNK2 Racing is posting miss leading information on their own legit website to the public and consumers? I don't get it.....I must be missing something. I was helping this guy at his house and we were both baffled. I don't get how tightening the spring yet shortening the shock leaves it at the same height when with the back we can practically make it sit on the ground no problem but the front is being so difficult its now like hes doing something abnormal to his hatch, everyone drops their car, even lower than his. I'm so confused, I'd like to know as well because I have coil overs on my crx that the previous owner had it monster trucking so I'm about to slam my car when I get extra money for tires for my rims.

 

No, preloading the spring does not ever change the spring rate. It will change the point before the spring starts to move, but all else being equal (same spring, same load applied) preload makes no difference in the spring's final compressed length.

Take an 8-inch 400 lb/in spring on a car with an 800 lb/in corner weight. Have the spring just snug with no preload. Set the car on the ground, and the spring compresses 2 inches (and shock piston goes in 2" from full extension) to a compressed length of 6 inches. Now raise the car again, and spin the spring perch up 1 inch using the spanner wrench, which is a preload of 400 lbs (spring is now 7" long). Now set the car back down. Until the corner load surpasses 400 lbs, the spring doesn't move. After that, the spring compresses one more inch, again to a final compressed length of 6 inches with the same 800 lb. corner weight.

The difference here is that the shock piston only went into the body 1 inch. This is because the car now sits one inch higher (ignoring motion ratios) and so you have 1 inch of additional shock compression travel.

With dampers that have separate ride height and preload adjustments, like the Pro-S II's, you can then spin the shock housing up 1 inch to compensate for moving the spring perch up one inch. So you're back to your original ride height, but with 1 inch of additional compression travel, and now with 1 inch reduced droop travel.

Spring perch to lower shock fork mount distance determines ride height (all else being equal). If that shock housing and all 3 adjusting rings are bottomed out together, you simply cannot get any lower, period, unless you switch to shorter and/or softer springs.

 

Well the previous owner of lunars car had stock struts with different springs the car was lower that stock civic height. the skunk 2 pro s2's say they get up to 3 inches of drop yet the front is only a slight bit lower but the back can be slammed, I'm talking SLAMMED! tire on wheel well slammed to where you only see the lip of the rim and a tiny bit of tire, we did it just for ***** and giggles but the front doesnt want to sit nearly as low as the back. Obviously we can measure all the way around until we get a "true" ride height, but the height hes aiming for is were the back sits perfectly at. So even if we bottom out the fork end and have the spring loaded it will stay the same? Idk its just mind boggling that you can reduce the length of something yet it stays the same.

 

so the simple fix to this would just to be order shorter springs from Skunk2 themselves?

 

You have to think about it as if it were mounted on the car with the car on the ground, i.e. suspension fully loaded. When you add spring preload, the car's corner weight still surpasses that preload amount, and the spring still ends up compressed the same amount. But to get that preload, you moved the spring perch up, which means the compressed spring will also be moved up from the previous location, meaning the car will sit higher.

Sure, you can then spin the shock housings up more, but then you're back to where you started before you added the preload.

The simple fact is: the distance from shock mount point on the LCA to the top hat of the coilover assembly determines ride height. Aside from minuscule changes in compressed spring length due to changing corner weight amounts, that compressed spring length is going to stay pretty much the same when the car is on the ground. That only leaves the distance from LCA to spring perch as something that can be changed, and when the spring housing and all 3 adjusting rings are all touching each other, you cannot reduce that distance any farther.

 

That would be one way. Do you or the OP have any pics of the suspension installed on the car? Are you saying you can't get the 3" drop that Skunk2 says you can get?

Are all 4 springs the same free length or are they different, and which end are they installed on?

 

Well being as it wasn't OEM honda struts already installed on the car I couldn't tell you if we got the full 3inches or not. Definitely did on the back. We can get some pictures next week more than likely but we went by what the installation video said add enough preload to the point you can barely move the spring freely and we just turned them all down as low as they could go by doing that. I understand what you've been saying is true thats what I told lunar from the get go "Its like yeah you might be able to turn the shock down more but the spring is going to have my pressure on it, making it stand taller" Its kinda bogus though if you think about it because the video says "If you need to go lower just crank the spring down and turn the bottom up to shorten it" But who knows we discovered some wrapped bushings so he got the energy suspension kit so we will soon find out if that changes any of our measurements.

 

Ahh I finally understand what your saying patrick. The cars weight will never compress the spring down so adding preload will effectively raise the car.

I wonder how skunk2 can put up that video, they claim to know what they are talking about, tell you your wrong and now deleting all the comments. Ive seen what you are talking about happen in person. We added preload, lowered the base cylinder of the shock, set the car down and it hadnt gotten any lower at all.

Which brings me back to main problem. Why do they make the back coils able to go down so damn far? Like randy said, we had it so you couldnt even see the tire, it was fender than rim in the back. yet the front will only go down to the meet the wheel, so theres no gap, but its about a half inch higher than where I want it. and the driver side is only a quarter inch higher, they are both at the locking rings, which should be by what your saying be as low as it can go.

 

removed comments, wow, that's real professional

*edit* I have e-mailed someone at Skunk2 directly about this issue. Not about your issue specifically, lunareg, but rather about the issues of the incorrect information in the video.

 

Good to know ahead of time..

 

well aside from these issue, they actually ride real good, so as far as quality goes I would not question that, but theres definitely something not right here.. it might just be my bushings for all i know at this point

 

so I finally got around to getting all my bushing replaced, its been a huge hassle.. I did all the bushings, balljoints and tie rod ends. So now the passenger side is exactly the same as the driver side, it dropped down a 1/4 of an inch. I still have about 3 threads on the front I can down and Im assuming that will give me enough to make the front line up the same as the back.

The ride is completely bad *** now. I guess the bit of vibration I was getting was from the bushings, because now its totally smooth and not bouncy. Obviously a big difference in road surface takes a pretty decent hit, but on smooth road, they ride smooth, cant ask for more than that.

 

i briefly skimmed this thread.

if the OP is complaining the ride height is uneven, and he has coilovers, then USE THE GODDAM COILOVERS TO FIX IT. its common for ride heights to be uneven. so adjust the ride height at each corner until youre happy.

secondly, im reading a bunch of BS about preload. i didnt bother reading the explanations but i read enough not to care. and im not talking about from skunk2 or the OP...

carry on.

 

the post right above yours I just came back to the thread to say I replaced my bushings and now both sides are exactly the same. so cleary adjusting the coilovers wasnt going to solve the real problem. plus they where already as low as they could go and the passenger side wouldnt go as low as the driver side. Im not sure why im paraphrasing this, because it is all already written here.