Resetting coilovers

[juvenile]

Wondering what is involved in reset/adjusting of coilovers.

Do the wheels need to come off?

Does it need to be jacked up?

Is a wheel alignment required each time you reset them? Height or stiffness.

Tools required? or supplied with coilovers?

Excuse the questions but if i dont ask i wont know :)

[1stKill]

Hey John how ya doin mate :) ...with my Pedders coilovers adjusting stiffness/rebound/dampening is pretty easy you just turn the soft & hard knobs to what evers required.Adjusting the height is a different story,car needs to be jacked up or on a hoist,wheels come off and with the 2x C-spanners provided height is adjusted by winding the top collar up or down then the bottom collar is wound into it's locking position,the guys at Pedders recommend an alignment after playing with the height but only in extreme cases where they drop it heaps and adjust the camber at the same time.

Hope my limited knowledge on this helps. :D

[SuperDave]

Pedders recommend an alignment after playing with the height but only in extreme cases where they drop it heaps and adjust the camber at the same time.

Camber isn't an issue (unless it's positive!), the main issue is on McPherson strut setups changing the height changes the toe; toe is the tyre killer. I do an alignment myself if I changed the height (I've never adjusted the height).

If you want to adjust height, then yes this requires wheels off and the car to be in the air. To adjust dampening/rebound typically this can be done on the ground. Some setups require you to get under the car, or in the wheel well.

If you want to reset the spring it depends on setup. If the lower mount is the height adjustment ; drop the lower spring seat until the spring no longer sits in the upper seat, then wind the lower seat back up until there is light pressure on the upper seat. Lock it off and you're done. If the spring is the height adjustment then you have to drop the spring so that it doesn't sit in the upper mount, thus the height adjustment is controlled by the lower spring seat.

[juvenile]

Pedders recommend an alignment after playing with the height but only in extreme cases where they drop it heaps and adjust the camber at the same time.

Camber isn't an issue (unless it's positive!), the main issue is on McPherson strut setups changing the height changes the toe; toe is the tyre killer. I do an alignment myself if I changed the height (I've never adjusted the height).

If you want to adjust height, then yes this requires wheels off and the car to be in the air. To adjust dampening/rebound typically this can be done on the ground. Some setups require you to get under the car, or in the wheel well.

If you want to reset the spring it depends on setup. If the lower mount is the height adjustment ; drop the lower spring seat until the spring no longer sits in the upper seat, then wind the lower seat back up until there is light pressure on the upper seat. Lock it off and you're done. If the spring is the height adjustment then you have to drop the spring so that it doesn't sit in the upper mount, thus the height adjustment is controlled by the lower spring seat.

Thanks Lee and SD.. Sounds pretty straight forward.If i did have them i wouldnt be really playing with height,but the soft/hard setting i would...

Lee do you have yours on soft? is it a drastic change between the two settings?

[1stKill]

Pedders recommend an alignment after playing with the height but only in extreme cases where they drop it heaps and adjust the camber at the same time.

Camber isn't an issue (unless it's positive!), the main issue is on McPherson strut setups changing the height changes the toe; toe is the tyre killer. I do an alignment myself if I changed the height (I've never adjusted the height).

If you want to adjust height, then yes this requires wheels off and the car to be in the air. To adjust dampening/rebound typically this can be done on the ground. Some setups require you to get under the car, or in the wheel well.

If you want to reset the spring it depends on setup. If the lower mount is the height adjustment ; drop the lower spring seat until the spring no longer sits in the upper seat, then wind the lower seat back up until there is light pressure on the upper seat. Lock it off and you're done. If the spring is the height adjustment then you have to drop the spring so that it doesn't sit in the upper mount, thus the height adjustment is controlled by the lower spring seat.

Thanks Lee and SD.. Sounds pretty straight forward.If i did have them i wouldnt be really playing with height,but the soft/hard setting i would...

Lee do you have yours on soft? is it a drastic change between the two settings?

fronts are set a little harder than the rears...(0=soft & 30=hard) fronts are on about 17 and the rears are about 12

it really didn't change much doing a couple of clicks,do 7 or 8 clicks and things start to change,IMO 30 settings equals roughly 3 major settings soft/medium/hard,i guess i'm set around medium. :)

[SuperDave]

I don't know why they waste their time with 30 settings; it's far to many to notice a change of 1 click. The general rule with adjusting the settings is change by 10%, test, then see how it affected things. Obviously a stop watch is needed, 'feel' doesn't work with setup work.

[1stKill]

I don't know why they waste their time with 30 settings; it's far to many to notice a change of 1 click. The general rule with adjusting the settings is change by 10%, test, then see how it affected things. Obviously a stop watch is needed, 'feel' doesn't work with setup work.

Agreed...3 settings for cars not raced or tracked would be ample (soft/med/hard) but they prolly whack in 30 or more settings to make it all sound impressive and precise.

[SuperDave]

I don't know why they waste their time with 30 settings; it's far to many to notice a change of 1 click. The general rule with adjusting the settings is change by 10%, test, then see how it affected things. Obviously a stop watch is needed, 'feel' doesn't work with setup work.

Agreed...3 settings for cars not raced or tracked would be ample (soft/med/hard) but they prolly whack in 30 or more settings to make it all sound impressive and precise.

But when people start comparing car-wangs 30 sounds better than 3 :P

[juvenile]

Somehow i dont think i'd need 30 settings, yeah just soft/med/hard... Guess it sounds better with 30...

Like Pizza,you cant get a small one now,sizes are med/lge/fam