Now I know these are some brand of cheap eBay sleeved coilovers so they are crap but they came with the car I just bought but I am trying to figure out a puzzle. Both the front and the back have the same problem. When trying to match the ride height both the front and the back are off by about 3 to 4" from each other when measured on the coilover. As in I can slam one side as you should be able to with these but the other will not even get the tire within 2 inches of the fender. I.E. one side if you lower collars all the way down will tuck the tire and become almost unrideable while the other side will have a 2" gap from the tire to the fender. Any ideas what would cause this? I am lost. I just want to make sure something is not out of whack or something?

 

Can you support the front of the car and remove both front coilovers and check out a side by side comparison? That's probably where I would start. Almost seems like it's two different kinds on each side.

 

If the "low" side is the driver's side then maybe the previous owner is fat-**** and wore that side out..lol

Ever notice how a lot of big people drive small cars? Especially, big women.

 

LOL, this could also be the case. Fat people in small cars. Take them out and maybe snap some pictures if you can.

 

The coil-overs or fat people in small cars?..lol

 

Both should be fairly interesting wouldn't you say?

 

I'm thinking the actual sleeves themselves are different heights.

 

At least in the back the collars are adjusted all the way down and are sitting on the lower strut cup or whatever you call that. The sleeves wouldn't make a difference. I'll have to take a pick

 

blown struts are a possibility

 

Blown struts would keep the car from lowering? Right now I have one side on the rear that I can't get any lower and its not even resting on the coil. I can shake the coil with the car on the ground.

 

Front Drivers Side




Front passenger side

 

And I know the coilovers are or at least look upside down! But that is the difference to try to even them out and the one that is all the way down is still a good 1 to 2" of gap between the tire and fender. It is on stock tire size and each coil measures about 7.25 and each sleeve is about 5.25"

 

Fork doesn't appear to be fully seated in the first picture, check both sides.

 

Yep that bottom collar should be butted up against the fork.

 

I checked the other side and they are both sitting up evenly like that. I know it should be seated but that wouldn't account for that much difference side to side I would think. Plus the back is the same just opposite. So I am maxed out of the drivers front and passenger rear.

 

eBay's might be eBlown?

 

Lol! Surprisingly they still take good pressure to collapse. No noise at all and smooth motion. Remember the the ones that are maxed out on low setting are giving me the highest ride height!

 

Do you have 2 front springs on one side?

 

Both springs and sleeves are the same length!

 

I'd take everything out and lay it out in front of you on the ground. Might have a better visual of what's really going on then. Also would give you the chance to closer inspect the rest of the suspension components. I know you already covered it, but I'd be leaning toward different length springs, and two fronts on one side of the car. Just my immediate guesses.

My coilovers were off a bit too. I took me many hours before I finally found out I got the best result by adjusting the collars, lowering the car back down to the ground, then pushing down on the hood/fender in a rocking motion with most of my body weight. It helped settle the coilovers much better because I noticed that every time I went to adjust one, it would throw another (or more) out of measurement. It was so annoying lol.

 

Do you think eBay coils would have f/r spring rates? Serious question.

OP, how do your bumpstops look?

And yeah at this point it is best to take it all out and look at what's going on from that point of view.

 

The sets I've seen do have different F/R rates.

 

Interesting. The garbage kit that came on my Civic, well I wouldn't know, I didn't put it on.

 

Thats what I'm going to do. I'm going to take the ones that dont adjust down and put them up front and put the ones that do seem to go all the way down and put them out back.

 

Other way around.

If you have to adjust them upward to get the same height as the others, they're probably the softer of the two.

I'd put the softer ones in back instead of what you're planning.

Edit: I'm probably mixing up what you're saying. Either way...soft springs in back.

If you have a couple hundred $$ to spare, you can buy yourself a decent setup and forget all your troubles though, lol.