sly fox

I have just purchased a set of hks hiper dampers (nice and shiny)

They are now fitted to the car (myoo) and the ride is not what i expected.

The ride hight has dropped by about 2" (looks very cool) but it is very, very stiff. I had a small play with the damping adjustments on the bottom to make the damping as soft a possible, but no improvment.

The main problem is the car also bounces along instead of absorbing some of the bumps (seems to be the tyres working rather than the dampers).

Do i need to put a softer poundage spring in??

Has anyone got any ideas, suggestions on how to make the ride better, or has anyone else got hks hiper dampers fitted on there car?

Advise please.....

sly

Tone Loc

iTrader: (1)

I'd say that sort of ride would be typical of a Jap (HKS/Tein/Cusco etc) supplier.... they're roads are a little bit better than ours.

I wouldn't really be in favour of changing the spring rates, they should be well matched for the dampers as they are. There isn't much you can really do if the 'softest' setting is too hard.....

Did you purchase these new or secondhand? For UK roads i'd say Leda, KW ect would be a good choice.

Tony.

sly fox

Cheers for the feed back.

Bought them second hand (nearly new)

sly

sly fox

anybody else on scoobynet got these fitted to there car??

Help would be appreciated.

sly

Kippax

sly,

if it bounces it's almost definately underdamped and you should increase the damping setting, not decrease it. but as you say, it will feel stiffer and crash into bumps more. perhaps better than bouncing though. (underdamped means the damping rate is not sufficient to control the motion of the spring so it's free to oscillate). as tone says you must be careful to match damping rates with spring rates but luckily for you, if it bounces on the lowest damping setting then you should be able to reduce the spring rates and the bouncing will stop as the softer springs would bring the forces within the range of your lower damper settings.

you are right about the tyres. if you open a door and push the car from side to side, look where the movement comes from, i bet its mainly in the tyres. its not as noticable with soft suspension as the suspension displaces first.

demon tweeks or leda could supply a softer set of springs no problem but you need to know the stiffness of the ones you already have.

tone is also right, i would guess the front are ~350lb/ft and the rears ~270 so try more damping on the front say 60/40. there is a spring rate chart for common springs here.

hope it makes sense.

stu.

sly fox

Very helpful there mate, appreciated.

I will look into the springs a bit more. I have taken the coilovers off tonight till i managed to get some more info of set-ups as ride was to bad.

Have been for a good test run earlier today, and when it's not bouncing (ie on new smooth tarmac) the cornering speed is definatelly faster and feels more sharp turning it.

Now i just need to get the balance right.

sly