I have Tein Advance Z coilovers. For some strange reason, the left side of my car sits higher than the right side (everything was perfectly measured)

Therefore, I've lowered left side by 1/2 an inch so appearance wise, the ride height on the right side looks exactly like the left side now.

The weird part about these coilovers are that when you adjust the height, the spring rate also gets adjusted. In other words, now my car has a higher spring rate on the left side compared to the right side.

Do I need to soften the damping on the left side due to the higher spring rate to compensate?

 

Ummm adjusting the height does not change the spring rate. You are adjusting the preload on teins that don't have separate ride height and preload adjustment. The spring rate still remains 300lbs/in or whatever the as manufactured spec is. Adding 1/2 inch of preload just means you have to add 150lbs of load to the spring before it will start compressing more. It is still going to compress at 300lbs/in after that initial preload.

That is perfectly normal. Cars are not often balanced left to right and front to back. Add in slight manufacturing variances on the springs and you get what you see.

Adjust to look level and send it. Or get out the scales and corner weight it but the car will not look level after getting the corner weight balanced.

 

I appreciate your response.

The reason why im asking is because my car drives very erratically on bumpy roads. Its like my car wants to shoot left or right over bumps so i have to keep adjusting my steering wheel to keep it in a straight line. I'm kind of in a rabbit hole since I had multiple mechanics tell me my car is fine and have switched out multiple parts (front and rear end links, tires) but nothing seems to have solved the issue.

I thought maybe the uneven height / dampening setting may be the issue. I should have just stayed with the stock suspension because this is becoming a nightmare for me.

 

Have you gotten an alignment after you’ve adjusted your ride heights?

Erratic over bumps can be a caster/toe issue. Also, google “bump steer”

If you adjust your coilovers, you are changing your alignment. You’ll need to get it realigned.


Agree that corner balancing is the way to go if you want it “correct” but it may not have the look you are going for.

 

How low did you go? As low as possible? Geometry gets all stupid when you slam them.

Bump steer is a real concern as is toe as mentioned. Bump steer is desirable on a street car but when you go too low the bump steer curve gets extreme and makes a bad driving experience.

The other possibility is you are hitting the bump stops. That will also cause poor handling over the bumps.

 

The right side (driver front and driver rear) are at pretty much at the recommend measurements (1.6 and 1.5 inches)
The left side (passenger front and passenger rear) are lower than the recommend at around 1.1 inches and .9 inches.


I've gotten an alignment but it doesnt seem to help. I should have just bought the firestone lifetime alignment since I've already waste so much money on alignments ;(

 

Adjust it up as high as the Teins will allow and see if that improves the issue.

I have had a good experience with Teins on a TSX but that is a double wishbone suspension not McPherson struts.