dominicm

I have just had the above suspension fitted to my MY95 STI RA, not sure what the 1-6 are on the rebound adjustment!

I'm guessing 1 is the softest and 6 the hardest, can anyone confirm this!!

Cheers

Dom.

TopBanana

Set the front to 6 and the back to 1 and test it. Reverse the settings and test again. If 1 is softest, it should tend more towards oversteer on the second test.

AvalancheS8

Damping only effects over / understeer balance under transient conditions (turn in, accelerating out of a corner), under steady state cornering it has no effect, so this isn't a good test. Also, he has rebound, not bump damping adjustment.
Almost for sure 1 will be lightest - usually referred to as fastest with rebound adjusters, and 6 will be slowest. You should be able to feel the difference, in the ride as you adjust them, the slower you set them, (higher number) the more the car will feel "dead" over bumps, faster will feel more "bouncy" (even if not actually bouncing). The best bet is to find a road with a moderate step type bump all the way across the lane (a badly blended in change of surface for instance) Set your shocks all the way fast and drive over the bump at a reasonable speed - say 50. What you are looking for is how the suspension responds after the bump - you should be able to feel the suspension compress then rebound and return to ride height. Initially, with the shocks all the way fast you may feel it compress, rebound, overshoot, bounce again and finally settle, slow the rebound down , 1 notch at a time until you eliminate the extra bounce, so it goes compress, rebound, settle. Slow it down only just enough to reach this situation, and if in doubt leave it one click quicker. It's very easy to over damp in rebound and end up with a car that packs down over successive bumps (it can't extend the suspension quick enough in between bumps, so the suspension goes down and down, each time). It's also very hard to tell when it's right coming from the slow end, so start with it too quick then you'll be able to tell when it's right.

TopBanana

It's a perfectly good test to confirm whether 1 or 6 is softest. All he has to do is go round a corner a couple of times.

dominicm

Thanks for the replies gents, was being a bit lazy as they are not that easy to adjust without lifting the car.

Cheers
Dom.

AvalancheS8

O.K, so what should he expect, oversteer on turn in, oversteer on lift off, steady state oversteer, oversteer accelerating out of the corner ?

Bear in mind that he has adjustable rebound, not adjustable compression, so slowing the damping isn't the same as stiffening the springs. The suspension will still compress the same amount, it just won't come back so quickly. If he had adjustable compression damping then yes, to an extent, stiffening the damping is similar in effect to stiffer springs on turn in.

Edit: Don't get me wrong, you can certainly affect the handling by adjusting the rebound since it changes the speed of weight transfer, but it's not anything like as clear cut as quicker on the front and slower on the rear causes oversteer.

RRH

tim-h has just fitted billi's, keep you eye out for him as he knows what he's talking about (usually)