Properly setting up your coilovers | Ride height & bump stroke | BC Racing coilover install
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- While switching my KW V3 coilovers to BC Racing I wanted to share with you how I set up my coilover ride height. There are a lot of misconceptions out there on how you should adjust coilovers. Hopefully this clears up one of the typical area's people make mistakes.
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Finally someone who explains the proper way to setup a coilover!
Sooooo many have no clue on how to properly adjust coilovers. Even the manufacturer gives bad instructions. You are doing great work here! Thanks for the info!
Couldn’t agree more. Even as a shop owner I have called the manufactures to help with install and they are nowhere as thorough as this video. Love this video.
I’ve watched about 3 videos on this topic, this is the BEST one because you actually show what’s going on and explain vs explaining and the cutting to what was done. So thank you very much for explaining this
Though installing CO on my Mustang, your plain-spoken short vid provided me with more info than the dozen other vids I have watched! Good job!
Glad it helped I noticed nobody really explained the right way to do this. Looking back I wish I did a little better job on this video but the information is mostly here.
Thank you so much bro keep it up horrible instructions from the manufacturer and you just made it easy for me.
best so far on bc setup
this is the first video i found on yt that actually explains the correct way to do a coilover install. very useful! Especially since I have a Z4c as well, your car is a beauty! I've never drifted mine, how are they?
This isn’t the “correct” way to adjust height and preload, you shouldn’t use preload as a travel adjustment even though for his use preload won’t matter as much but just saying
Even though it’s not bad at all to do cause preloads not that important as far as drifting but it’s still not the correct way
@@Matt_A4 Hey there, can you elaborate a bit? Not sure what you meant by “using preload to adjust travel” Thanks!
Glad it helped! I'm not sure Mr MX5 watched the whole video. As I used what he's calling "preload" for ride height and the lower perch for overall stroke positioning. Unfortunately you can't adjust stroke length on a coil over kit without ordering a custom cartridge. "Preload" isn't important as when you are driving the spring remains loaded! It's only when you lift a wheel it can matter and that's where a assist or helper spring can come into play. Considerations like this are one of the reasons manufactures use progressive rates. But with your typical coil over kit there is no way around it. If you set a meaningless spring preload, then use the shock length adjustment for ride height you lose out on shock travel in on direction or another. Drifting or Grip don't make a difference except which front wheel is loaded in a turn. It's opposite for drifting. Car drifts amazing, It's my favorite chassis for the task and I've owned most of them.
@@Matt_A4 the man in the video and the OP comment is correct. You adjust your bottom perch to ensure that you hit the bump stop before your tire jams into the wheel well. This way you maximize the available shock travel to ensure that, at full droop, you give the best chance of your inner tire staying on the ground during a turn. High end coilovers (usually) will utilize this method so that you don't need to determine the travel as they do it for you, so all you need to do is set up your ride height. From there, you can set up preload depending on road surface/preference. Im installing coilovers myself in a day or two and this is one of the few videos that actually shows how to do a proper initial coilover set up.
extremely helpful to me ty sir
Great video. Really well explained
Ive been looking for this forever, thank you for this video!
Amazing educational video
Btw.. u did the install method correctly in terms of the bump stop checkup.
Very helpful most of the other videos are stupid and done know to do this test
Thanks lol
Could you make a video on a divorced setup for the back!. I really appreciate it! 😊
This is an excellent video
Thanks for the video !
Thanks for the comment!
I know this video is 5 years old but it’s such a good explanation, but do you technically have to take the spring off to figure out bump travel?
Correct me if im wrong but it seems to me you used your ride height adjustment to adjust your bump stop and you used your spring preload adjustment to adjust ride height and you were left with an extreme amount of slop in the suspension as a result. maybe my coil overs are different but from what my manufacturer recommends, this is wrong. the spring should be tight with 5mm preload with all the weight off the wheels.
That's why you add helper springs. The coilovers manufactures are idots and just make an application for a car without testing based off numbers. Few co m panties actually do any r&d. Kw maybe one of them, but bc, stance all all that crap nope.
So the one you are calling "ride height" the lower perch on the strut actually moves the overall position of the total stroke up or down. The amount of stroke can't be changed without a whole new shock. The spring perch only adjusts where in that stroke your car rests. Obviously you don't want the wheel to hit something before the bump stops come into play. What I did was maximize my upward and downward travel. Now, the spring rate has a lot to do with how high the car rests. You can get a shorter spring or softer rate to change the ride height or move the spring perch (what people call preload). Obviously we are tuning the handling with the spring rate and the length only needs to be adequate not to bind under full compression. Thus the only thing left to do is either A get a shorter shock and sacrifice down travel or get a helper spring to utilize the missing down travel if you ever lift a wheel.
Great video. Way too many peopel don;t understand the concepts you present in this video. Bump? Droop? What's that!? It's a race car bro you need to lower it to make it faster!
Thinking about it more... I will add though that I wouldn't call this "bump travel" but rather the "fender clearance during bump travel." Bump travel refers to the struts stroke in bump. You're not changing your bump travel by adjusting the lower collar. You're changing the wheels position in the wheel well at max bump. Something you explained well but then kept saying "bump travel."
A helper spring may not be necessary either... you need to look at your bump/droop distribution from static ride height to decide that. At STATIC ride height (on the ground) how much strut travel do you have until bump stop max compression (bump travel). Then compare that to droop travel from static ride height (jack the car up). IF that ratio is poor, then you need a stiffer spring and not just a helper spring. Stiffer spring rate will gain you more bump travel from static ride height and then the helper spring keeps the ride height low. Bump travel is important to maintain so that you're not riding around on the bumps tops (infinite spring rate might be good for drifting though lol). Or, if bump travel is sufficient for you application then you can just run a longer spring to pick up the sag rather then waste money on helper + additional perches/collars.
@@brendenbanks9293 Well said. Because spring rates are so important to how the car handles weight shift, you can't just up the rates to get the travel you want. You can run a longer spring but then you would need to lower it to get to the optimal static suspension geometry eating away the stroke you gained with a longer spring. Helper spring is to give you down travel when the rates you want don't equal the static hight your geometry is optimised for. Of course factory springs are progressive or "logarithmic" and essentially have this function built in. I should also add that a longer spring can have more travel before binding on itself so that may be a good use for longer springs and one of the reasons BMW and 350/70Z's have an inboard spring and an outboard strut in the rear. Thanks for the great comment!
Thanks 🙏 so much wish you knew how much peace
How do you go about setting proper preload without the use of helper springs ? Or is that not really possible
Thank you
Not sure how the shock would fully compress like that to hit the bump with the spring in it 🤨
I've watched this video again bc now I'm doing mine lol, with new ball joints bc they were cooked haha
Nice video! can you put a video on how to measure what what rate helper springs you need
Great suggestion! Helper springs are fully collapsed when the vehicle is resting so really only the decompressed length matters to keep the spring from coming loose on the perch and force the wheel down if you ever lift it. I did notice that swift has a assist springs as well which have higher rates. I would likely choose the highest rate that would still be compressed when the vehicle is rested. So you just need to know the corner weight and make sure it's enough kg at the wheel resting to compress the length of the assist spring.
@@DriftaholiC That helps alot as there isn't much info, and I had trouble understanding what rates to pick, I mean yes I get that the stiffer main spring you run, the more assist you need as more main spring is pushing your vehicle up, and ah that sucks that you need corner weights to truly know.. your video was great though, super helpful and simplifying things and being clear about it, thrilled you replied!
Hey, i got this clunking noise and i brought it to a shop that mentioned i had my car too low? (Still had .5inch gap all around). Acura rsx. They raised it and its still making noise, burned $120 and no solution man. Im not worried about rubbing, im just anoyed by the clunking lol
Hi buddy, great tutorial and I honestly never come across one before that explains this so well and I have searched A LOT, I have been suffering with awful ride quality on my Honda Prelude and after watching this I setup my front suspension the same way. What I found was the opposite, i had to shorten the shocks by a lot to get the bump stop hitting just before tyre contact with the guard, that now means the car would sit way lower so to compensate I dialed in 15mm of preload from 0 and the car now sits acceptably, is this the right approach in this scenario? Much appreciated!
Edit: I should add that I haven't actually test driven it yet, it got dark just as I finished up the front...
In this scenario you need longer shocks. Or raise the car with the shock and get a taller bump stop. Sounds like your coilovers we not properly sized by the manufacturer. May I ask who?
@@DriftaholiC Well now im really confused and i just want the thing to ride well, they're bc racing br series coilovers made for both 4th and 5th gen preludes
@@DriftaholiC Ok so I've had a think about this and i think i am using the right approach because if i lengthen the shocks i will limit the wheel travel and hit the bump stops before the wheel can travel through its entire range of bump. If you watch MCA Suspensions video on how to setup wheel travel relative to the shock travel both scenarios are explained, scenario A is what i am experiencing but to a bit more of an extreme, scenario B is the ideal as you demonstrated in this video, scenario C is what you experienced and corrected in this video, but in any case ride height is adjusted via the spring perch so in my case that means dialing in preload to correct the height. The concern now is will i experience coil bind before the wheel can travel through its entire range of bump (probably), and if that is the case i may have to invest in some swift barrel springs to increase the available compression stroke. I will need to do some checks to ensure enough droop and if that is not the case (hopefully minor) i can make a small correction from the bottom mount. Make sense?
th-cam.com/video/jjsocJxdlYA/w-d-xo.html
mcasuspension.com/technical/11/Ride-Height-Adjustment
I would never tighten the shaft top mount with a power tool.. u need to hold the it manually wrench it..this avoids the inner piston from damage.thnks.
Very true
There are literally manufacturers that secure the shaft top mount bolt with power tools. th-cam.com/video/OnAxtnSkLyc/w-d-xo.html
This video was very helpful. Are you still base in Tucson I'm frome here. I have installed some BC coilovers everything is good on it the ride and the look. But I have a little clunking sound coming from the rear any suggestions what I could do.
Is it possible to get a helper spring for the rear divorced setup? I can't imagine it's very good to have negative preload.
Will this method lower the amount of shock travel vs adjusting height from the perch
Can you explain how to set the pre load on the rear?
I hear a thump every now and then on my 2018 forester xt is it possible that the factory built BC br series didn’t adjust them correctly? I’m thinking maybe the lock nut on the top hat or the bump stop now.
Can this method be used with partially threaded coilovers?
Unfortunately not. In that case they've already decided the position of the stroke for you. It's not always a bad thing. You can pull the spring and check their work. You can adjust the bump stop to prevent tire to frame/fender collision if the shock doesn't bottom out soon enough.
I ordered bc racing coilovers for my Dodge Dart and it didn’t come with camber plates how or what do I do to install it to the car.?
Holy shit... I've been doing it wrong the whole time. I've installed dozens of coilovers for myself and friends using the method that BC coilovers recommends on their youtube page... How do the guys manufacturing the coilovers get it so wrong lmao
Yeah I'm still confused what the right way is. Did you try this one out?
Hey, so I saw you kinda tackle my question. Basically I have a shorter stroke shock and so my spring length is a bit longer and Im going to have to add extra preload. I know that preloat rate remains static up until a point, I just wanted to know if about 1/2 to an inch of preload is excessive, and in turn I need to search for a shorter spring
At some point you run the risk of coil bind.
I have a problem with bouncy ride, inverted dampers bc . think issue is no droop springs and I had to setup without them and its sitting wrong even close to the correct ride height overall , lower leg set to raise car + - 10mm. classic Rally car so raised a little over standard road height + 10mm , Can you do a droop spring video setup and selection ? Im sure this is my issue with the bounce. bounce when parking , bounce when car levels out and not doing any work tarmac. car weight 1225kg front engine. 4x4. 300bhp
Funny thing is, even though this is the correct way to do, it is the exact opposite way bc instructs you to do it. 😂
100%
how to actually set your ride height for track use
How dose the wheel not drop when you raise the shock collar to meet the dump stop?
Im in tucson too wanna adjust my coils 😂😂😂
Sure when it's not a million degrees out. That's pretty much why there has been a lack of new content. Darn 102° weather lol
Help plz! I got some Godspeed mono ss coilovers and the front rides beautiful but I can’t seem to figure out why the back is so bumpy like it just pops back up and bounces a shit ton. I changed my dampening I’ve adjusted preload. I don’t think ride height has anything to do with it but idk. Any help would be greatly appreciated !!
Sounds like they are blown. Godspeed isn't exactly a quality product I don't even think they nitrogen charge their shocks. I know this isn't a nice thing to say but it may be the most honest.
I really hate stance cars the reason I say this is because when I lower my coil overs the negative camber increases so i got all my coilovers maxed out but not the dirt nasty low maxed out I got them as high as they can go my question if you could be so kind is the rear is bouncy as hell can this be helped without lowering the dampening doesnt seem to do anything
The new "Stance" is the absence of function for form. To me the ultimate enjoyment of a car is from the driving sensation. It's a tool and I want it to do what I'm thinking and translate my mind through the controls to the tarmac. This unfortunately doesn't happen when you lower the car to much for many reasons. Not just camber but also roll center, bump steer etc. You may be running out of travel put a zip tie on the strut the shiney part where it goes into the shock body. go drive around without articulating over any curbs or speedbumps. Come back jack up that corner. If the zip tie is up at the bump stop you are too low.
@@DriftaholiC hey man to each there I dont care if a person drops there car to the point where it looks like a dog scraping its ass on the carpet to me if your happy with your car and how it looks it's great but I just wouldn't do it to mine that's where I stand and I appreciate your advice the problem is is that I have it at the tallest setting and i need it there because my car the more you lower it the more rice camber appears if that makes sense
@@Dannymclovin I agree. Regardless of hight you should still take the time to set your bump travel like I show. Then set your hight with the spring perch. Then if you still need to raise it you can raise with the shock body although this would mean you can run a longer shock and take advantage of more travel. Even really low cars can use this advice to save some handling characteristics.
@@DriftaholiC oh yea that actually sounds like a possible solution for me thank you very much
Hey i have a question....does this method apply to all coilover such as cusco tein etc. thanks
Yes, I even use the same basics on off-road vehicles.
@@DriftaholiC thanks mate
Excellent vid....
What if your 'shock-base height for clearance' and ride height are very close (e.g. tyre already tucked into the guard)? No suspension travel and a shit ride?
Thanks for any help :)
I've thought about it some more... And I guess the answer is go slow over bumps!
That does not seem to make sense. (Maybe I mis-understood the situation you're describing...)
But with how I interpreted what you're saying, it sounds like one of several possible situations:
1) Your coilovers were not sized/designed properly to the car.
2) Your springs are too soft. (When car is fully resting onto the coilovers, the spring gets compressed, all the way to "shock's end-of-travel".
By the way, I'm assuming your pre-set position is pretty high-up on the body/threads and no more room to raise. Also assuming your lower mount is pretty extended already. E.g. your coilover setup is on an "as raised as possible" position, and still barely giving you enough bottom clearance for the car.
If it's situation #2, then changing to stiffer spring will help.
If I misunderstood your situation, my apologies; just scratch everything I said. 😅
Hey my friend hru doing? I just recently saw this video several times and it looks really easy the setup I mean. But I have a question for u...this setup that u are doing is it only for drifting right. The reason that I am asking is cause I own a 2017 honda accord sport and I have bought a set of bc racing coilovers br series and I wanted to set it up like u did but my car is not for drifting but instead its for esthetic looks, can it be done to my car and also can I still do the 4mm preload that bc suggest for their product...
The if you set up your coilovers this way and loose the 4mm preload and absolutely can't raise the car you just need helper springs to ensure you maximise your droop travel. This is 100% for handling. In drifting contrary to popular belief we want as much grip with as little disruption of that grip by deviations in the road surface. There is a point that without dropped spindles you can't get lower without completely fucking your roll center and the car actually handling way worse than stock. This guide is simply making sure you have the proper amount of bump travel with regards to shock length. If you then choose to lower the car more you will be sacrificing grip. To me, it isn't cool when I see that static hight car bouncing down the road like they have no suspension travel and my mom's minivan could pull more G's in a corner. If you think about all the things that become popular in car culture they start from function and become form then gets taken to the extreme. For me cars are about the joy of driving and handling them to the extreme more than how low they can be.
Thank u so much for ur reply...believe me I enjoy the full satisfaction of my ride and I don't believe in completely dropping the car to the max so that the whole chassy is scrapping like if the owner had no fucking sense at all...I met a person that did that one time and I completely lost it and told him that his next stop with the car like that was the junkyard...lol...after seeing ur video I will try it ur way to see how it rides and also since these coilovers have a 30 way adjustable dampening what would u recommend for my car like for example where should my starting point be...
@@henrygarcia473 don’t be a hater on other peoples cars. It’s to each their own. Some people like static low life and some people like monster trucking life. It’s theyre money and choice. Enjoy your car and they enjoy theirs.
I have coilovers and my rear end is really bouncy how do i fix that??
Do exactly as described in the video to ensure you have a good starting place. You can put a ziptie on the shaft to check and see if it's bottoming out. Also check out some other replies below I went into more detail. Are they quality coilovers? Have you tried adjusting the dampening? are you bottoming out elsewhere?
@@DriftaholiC hey I have a 02 mustang with bcs and the rear end is bouncing like all hell. There isn't anyway to adjust the dampening back there.
@@ericpatton7767 you are probably hitting bump stops. Check travel with a ziptie on the shaft.
@@DriftaholiC so if I am hitting the bump stops what do I do?
@@ericpatton7767 raise the car. If you setup the shock length like I described in the video then you can't shorten the shock any more for more stroke.
Since the spring is free do we need a helper spring if the car is fully on the ground
Helper spring or longer mainspring will give you a little more down travel in situations where a wheel could lift. Say I was dropping the right wheel off track in the dirt and the left front lifted.
Is this called pre-load?
I know this video was made a while ago, but hopefully you maybe able to help with an issue I'm having.
I've adjusted my coilovers in the same manner you show in this video, but I had an issue where I can not thread my damper out of the lower mount anymore as it only has a few threads left. I ended up using bump stop spacers/packers to make sure it was fully engaged before the tyre hits the chassis
I'm on stock sized wheels and tyres for my vehicle so I think the design of the coilover is incorrect for the vehicle.
I presume if I need a longer damper in order to account for running out of threads for the bump setting?
Sounds like you're correct, what vehicle? Must have the wrong kit on it. Make sure you keep a safe amount of threads!
@@DriftaholiC it's an Integra DC2. They are 100% the correct coilovers for the car manufactured by a reputable company...however I've just changed my roll centre with extended ball joints which I doubt help as it moves the lower control arm further from the hub.
Yeah I got the coilover to the maximum extension on the threads I was happy to run whilst having enough remaining in the lower mount.
Like I say, I had to take the remaining bump travel up with bump stop packers in order to stop the tyre hitting the chassis.
@@simoncoleshill431 roll center correction won't move the tire. Well it's always a bonus to have the ability to add more droop travel by using a longer shock! Curious the brand some are geared more towards being as low as possible and use shorter strokes.
@@DriftaholiC my car is double wishbone so the coilover mounts to the LCA via a fork, in changing my roll centre the fork is now 20mm further away from my hub, so I was always going to have to adjust my damper to account for this.
They are made in the UK by a company called Meister R (their GT1 model).
I feel like I have way too much droop already if I'm honest! It's bump travel I think I need more of.
I measured at full bump my wheel centre to fender and it's 280mm, my static ride height on the ground is 310mm, this only gives me 30mm of bump travel before hitting the bump stops.
Whereas in full droop my wheel to fender is at about 410mm! Thats 100mm of droop from static ride height...personally I feel like that ratio is way off? But I can't have any less droop travel as I will be hitting my fender with the tyre.
Do you think I can gain any more bump travel by changing anything?
i have coilovers fully threaded and my ride is way to stiff how to soften my ride pls help
Spring rate and dampening usually but you may also have too much preload that you are hitting the top of the stroke constantly or the opposite even and hitting the bump stop.
I tried to setup my coilovers like this, but i couldn't get my socket over the adjustment knob. Did you have to remove it before you could get the socket to fit over?
In most cases yes.
@@DriftaholiC Awesome. I wasn't sure if they were removable and I didn't want to damage them. Thanks for your rapid response and helpful video
This is wrong because you don't have any pre load on the springs and this will cause the spring to dislocate when its unsprung.
It's not wrong it just means you need a helper spring or a longer spring of the same rate.
Why drop your preload so low to where you would need helper springs why not just preload it to manufacture specs
It's just not always possible. To have the proper stroke length and ride height I would need a longer spring in this kit but then the car would sit higher then stock, so either you need a helper or a softer spring rate. Obviously we generally don't want a softer spring. Alternatively the stoke of the strut cartridge could be better optimized but that's generally not possible with a mid range kit.
This totally negates the preload on the spring.
Just means the spring length isn't ideal for the car/shock combo. This is where helper springs would come into play or a longer spring of the same rate.
Are you sure that's the proper way cause you are messing with your preload?
Yep preload isn't important, feel free to add helper springs if you lift a wheel on track.
Why did you switch the coilovers setup from KW to BC?
Mainly for the additional adjustability. I couldn't take all of the camber I needed out with the spring of the KW being larger then the standard coil-over spring. I couldn't adjust my bump travel with the KW's and the built in bump travel was to great. The KW's are an overall better setup and I would love to have a set of club sports. With the BC's I get 80% of the performance of the KW's at 45% of the cost. So it works for my needs at the moment. I'll be making a comparison video eventually.
Wrong! U just took all the preload out of the spring
a linear spring's preload doesn't change with compression until you get to extremes that you shouldn't take that spring to. having 0 preload (spring snug between plates but not compressed) isn't bad. oftentimes what the coilovers come set at can be an improper setting. especially cheaper coilovers where the hands at the factory aren't the same hands that designed it
Yes having no preload can limit down travel, ideally you would use a longer spring or helper spring but preload isn't really the most crucial part of suspension setup.
Thank you