suspension
 

hi everyone hellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllp had coilover suspension fitted to the car in dec 04, the make is D2 totally adjustable so and so on, the car before handled ok eibach whiteline the usual path, after fitting this kit i have felt that i have been almost to nervous, to drive it whilst ican except it will be a much harder ride, it,s making awful noise,s from the rear passenger side and also the front sometime,s example pothole wheel goe,s in come,s out and it,s like metal sounding clonk i know it,s solid tpo mounts but surely it,s not meant to be this noisy it just does,nt feel like its had a few hundred quid,s worth of suspension spent on it, any help would be great craig

It is not unusual for coil-overs to band and crash, especially at the rear, but not excessivly so.
If you have lowered the car too far, then the rear strut could be binding making the spring tighten/strut piston rod bind.
Front noises though would worry me more.
The piston strut top bolts may not be tight enough/wrong diameter for the top mounts. Some kits come with sleeves to space the piston rod diameter to suit the top mounts. Maybe these are not in place.

Check everything that was disturbed to fit them for fit and tightness.

Have you had the car properly set-up after the struts by someone with a good reputation?

What spring rates are on the struts? Too high a rate and the car will be everywhere on the road.
What have you done about setting the damping rate?

Overall, it sounds to me the car needs sorting by an expert company such as Roger Clarke etc.

911

hi thank,s for the info i have lowered the car the same as before, 30mm on previous eibach, as i know giong to low can really upset it the spring,s i also opted for softer than what came with the kit, the spring is only compressed enough to stop it chattering, i have the damping set to medium on both front and rear, top piston nut,s are all secure, everything has been checked and checked, the shock body you can adjust also without altering the damping characterisic,s and so on im just feed up with it only been on the car for 6 week,s im a cycle mechanic by day so i look at thing carefully and it just sound,s like the top mount is loose we have also changed these, for new one,s just in case the new but old one,s were faulty, heellllllllpppppppppp

Get yourself to Power Engineering or even try to get into LEDA in Braintree Essex.
From what you are saying, it seems there is something stupid at fault, or they are cr@p.
If you had them new, return them!

911

You sure they're not Leda ;)

I don't think the knocking from the rear has ever been solved; there're plenty of Imprezas around running Leda b with knocks from nearside rear - does it sound like something is loose?

I used to run AVO coil overs that lasted about 300 miles :Whatever_ but they never knocked. I changed these for a set of non adjustable Ledas and now the rear knocks far too regularly; I've had it off a few times and cannot seem to cure it.

I run at factory height as someone mentioned that lowering the rear may cause it but still no sign of stopping the knock.

I do need the geometry set-up so I'll take a ride up there and see if Leda can shed any light.

what are the spring rates? They should have the rate on the side of the spring.

I have AVO on my Sti v3 hill climb/road car.
Done 4000 miles now. Knock from the NSR sometimes. The springs are a free fit on the top/bottom support rings, and I sometimes get a very load 'boing' from the same quarter....
911

suspension
 

i opted for the softer set of spring,s 5kg on rear and 7kg on the rear,s doe,s that make any sense, thank,s again in advance for any help with this craig

Not to me!

My Sti has 350 lb front and the rears are 80% of that.
Took some time to crack the damping, but now all is well.

911

5kg = 279lb/inch
7kg = 394lb/inch

Those are too hard for a road going Impreza as i expected.

Coilovers like D2 are usually sold to the 200SX and it's ilk market which has a diferent wheel rate to spring rate ratio on the suspension, so companies selling them think a 5/7 rate is relatively soft, because it is on these cars, stick those rates on an Impreza and your way too hard.

For a fast road/trackday setup i would sugest you get some 6kg front and 4kg rear springs, if you dont plan on doing any trackdays and want a good fast A road/bumpy B road setup try 5kg front and 4kg rear.

IMHO:
The stiff springs (whatever the rate) should be on the front.
When i was sorting my hill climb/road car out, Whiteline and Graham Goode told me to have the rear springs 80% of the front.
This has worked out realy well for me.

911

of course. ;)

my suspension
 

thank you for everyone,s input drove the car today, the knocking sound,s like if its coming from the strut top mount where it sit,s flat against the inside of the wheel arch, being solid lump of metal against metal, is this making the noise,???? it make,s it if there is your pothole in the road, drive over and bang bang, this is coming from pretty much all corner,s although trying to avoid hole,s and divit,s in the road it,s not allway,s an option, noticed on the standard suspension there is a small rubber ring that sit,s on top of the standard top mount, i think the standard top mount is slightly different any help or advice again would be very gratefull craig..

Hi,
I bought an my97 about 3 weeks ago which is fitted with coilovers, not too sure on the make but the springs are eibach. It handles like a sack of sh**e. It was set on the lowest setting, and as stiff as it would go. It was tramlining on any lines on the road, if you ran over a pebble it felt like a brick!! and was just far too harsh.More worryingly though if you were accelerating say out of an island with a bit of a camber and you changed gear, it would shoot off to one side!!!
It was knocking and banging and creaking e.t.c and basically i have no confidence in the car at speed whatsoever, especially on narrow country lanes.
Last weekend i thought i would attempt to adjust it and noticed that when the wheel was off and the car on axle stands, if you lifted the front hub assembly up and down the top mount had a hell of a lot of play in it and that is where my banging e.t.c is coming from. I tried to tighten it up but the whole lot had, through lack of lubrication e.t.c had seized up. So i shall be junking the coilovers and going for a normal set up as recommended by scoobyclinic (adjustable ky? shocks and lowered Eibach springs)and a full geometry set up. I have heard it said that having a full geometry set up done completely changes the handling of the car for the better.I know this prob won't help ya, but i thought i would have my 5 penneth worth.

shite suspension
 

thanks for your input im kind of thinking about going back to standard stuff, it seem,s to drive a bit like a nova with 20 inch wheels on that,s lowered 500mm

it drives like that because your spring rates are too hard. *bangs head on brickwall* :D

John is so right!
Get the spring rate right, get the damping adjusted to suit and coil-overs can be a daily driver.
Follow John's advice!

911 :norty:

suspension
 

thanks john for the advice i will get on to the people who supplied the kit and get the softer spring,s and i will let you know how it all goe,s thanks again for the advice craig

coil overs
 

must say thank,s very much for your advice john, changed the springs to softer one,s much much better thanks again for your advice craig.......................

pleasure :)