Hi all , iv just bought my Christmas present a nice set of bc coilovers after reading all the great reviews on here....

Only problem was can't afford the fitting so gonna have to do this myself

Are there any tips to removing the old springs etc or things to watch out for???

Iv done slot of DIY car repairs but never changed suspension before...

Cheers

 

Some good guides on here, but do make sure you wind some preload on to the BC's- rule of thumb is wind ring up to springs, then give it 5mm more.

I would also use a marker/ paint pen to mark the bolts so you can see if they move- you shouldnt need to take any springs off old or new so shouldnt need compressors for that

 

Iv been told heights to pre set them too from scoobyworld which is what they have there cars set at.
I thought that I would need to compress the original springs before removing the bolts? To prevent them from going off with a bang?
Or would I be ok to just undo the lower support bolts

 

you dont need to compress the original springs,the whole strut will come out as one piece.just undo the brake hose and abs cable,remove the two bolts from the bottom of the strut,(the top one will be a camber bolt).then undo the 3, 12mm nuts from the strut top and the whole thing will come out.

 

Not a fitting guide, but some tips from experience :-

Out of the box, the struts will be set much too short (for packaging purposes) Take the advice of Scoobyworld or unwind the hub at least 5 turns (one turn = 2mm)
As bigarf said, the existing strut will come off as one piece. The 19mm AF hub bolts may be VERY tight and the top ones on the front are the eccentric camber adjustment bolts. When fitting the front BC strut adjust the top bolt to give just off max negative camber - (it's all got to be adjusted when you get the geometry done)
Assuming the ride height is reasonable, drive the car for the next week to settle the springs then adjust to get the ride height you want. You MUST check this on absolutely flat ground. The slightest uneveness will raise or drop the suspension slightly on any one side. You may need a couple of goes at this, at least! Assuming you've got the rubber rear upper spring mount, you may find turning the strut very hard as the spring is turning on its rubber seat (give a spray of silicon lube)
When the height is finalised get it all laser aligned to the settings you want, whether fast road or track biased. There is a small amount of camber adjustment available on the rear struts via an elongated hole - remind the alignment technician of this as he may assume no camber adjustment is possible.
As a start, set the dampers around 10 clicks from full soft then adjust as required.

JohnD

 

Thanks very much for that John feel alot more confident now, is it just the same when removing the rear struts aswell?
Going to buy some penetrating fluid and give the bolts a good soaking for a few days..... Hopefully will be able to undo them then!!

I was just going to go for a fast road set up as have only managed 1 track day so far, either no funds or cars not 100%

 

some good experience points in there

Just wondering where people are buying their bc's from cheapest place ?

 

Scoobyworld they have got an offer starting new year 600 pound I had to buy early as away on Holstein next week and want to fit them during Christmas holidays!

What ride height are most people set at??? Iv got 18 inch rims on blob eye sti

 

I think I run mine as low as long as I get no rubbing.

Geometry wise I run --2 front and -1.5 rear bamber, as much castor as they can get, and zero toe in. Tyre wear isnt bad on yoko advan ad08's, and I use that for road and hill climb.

 

Has anyone uprated the rear anti roll bushes at the same time. Iv been looking at the white line front and rear and poly bushes but insure how much difference this will make to the ride/performance.
Makes sense to do this before having the geometry done to save paying twice, but only if its worth it.

If so what parts did u have etc cheers guys

 

Hi iv started fitting the coil overs today and the length I was told to adjust the ride Hightower to was waaaay to low couldn't of been right!

I have got the rear coil overs on now and from the centre of the hub to the bottom of the wheel arch is about 365mm

What would be a good right Hight to set the car at?? Both front and rear!! It's on 18inch wheels

Thanks alot

 

Sorry about spelling mistakes it the predictive dictionary on this iPad

 

i have always gone with what looks right for me.a few of my mates have there cars sat really low with the tyres up in the arch,i'm not a fan of that look,and like to see a little light between the tyre and wheel arch. so i just keep adjusting the height till i'm happy with the look of the car.

 

Should the front be slightly taller than the rear or visa versa as will this not make a difference to the way the car handles?
I'm the same with not wanting the "slammed look" want to still make it over the annoying speed bumps that seem to be everywhere!!!

 

The car should have a slight nose-down attitude. The straight-line stability is maintained.
My car had Prodrive springs before the Apex (BC) which gave that attitude so when setting the ride height on the Apex, I maintained the same front/rear differential.(taking measurements from wheelarch to wheel rim)

JohnD

 

right fellas got some bc`s for xmas and im about to fit them to my bugeye just 1 question



on pic E gives you the distance between locking collars just wondering what measure people go for just as rough guide ?
really but fancy about 35-40mm drop

cheers

 

Hi I have finished fitting mine now, I measured the car Before fitting the coil overs and after. I have gone for a 20mm drop from wat my car was standard.

The springs were black and original dampers so I'm presuming the ride height was as oem.

To ur question on the front I have set the distance e as 65mm

For the rear I have set 145mm.

Although I know it's to ur personal taste aswell I have 18inch wheels and this gives a snug look but not too low and be covering the wheels. It's subtle in my opinion.

Best to try this then if u want to go lower can measure how much and increase size "e".
Good luck with the rear lower strut bolts mine were a b***tard. Best to soak
then in penetrating fluid over a few days!

 

cheers for the reply mate

 

It will, but it will come out under a little load; I personally think it's a little easier using spring compressors - just IMHO.

Rest of the advice is sound.
The hardest part of the job for me was undoing the bolts securing the strut to the hub - I had to take them to my local tyre place and get em to undo the bolts for me with an impact driver as I couldn't get them off with a 1 1/2 foot breaker bar!

Once that was done it was pretty simple. Just make sure you get the struts the right way so the camber adjustment's sideways and not pointing diagonally (like one of my mates who made that mistake!!)

Regarding ride height, I tried to mimic the same height as the Prodrive springs I had on mine, but still ended up with the front sitting slightly lower.
My method was - fit at these settings, then drive the car around and test parking up and going over speed humps - if I couldn't get over the humps or hit the kerb too easily, raise the suspension 2-3mm and try again!
When I first fitted them it was so low I couldn't even get up a relatively steep drop kerb .
Not really very practical though. You can see on my avatar it's still quite nice and low though, but without danger of hitting things!

 

You need to get in the gym more mate

 

Well I didn't have any child labourers to swap my shocks for me like you did hehe

 

The lower strut bolt on the rear was a right pain to get out I ended up wedging a 19mm on 1side and the breaker bar on the other, was fingers crossed all the way as to wether it was gonna round the bolt off or not!!!

 

child labour, with snap-on power tools

 

I'm in the process of doing mine weather depending lol , done the rears , but mine did round off well two bolts did i just got a good drill peace and drilled across the nut then split it off the bolt but it worked not to hard to do either really just the bottom bolt is abit hard to get to . i tried heating it up aswell but nothing worked for me . we all get there in the end

 

Bloody hell mate! I know my local tyre place fairly well, been going there for over 7 years, so they were good enough to do it all for free for me. Saved me wrecking my gear, everyone's a winner

Jamie - where did those kids get snap-on tools from? Do they do a roaring trade in scrap metal too?

 

He He He.

Try googling http://damnyouautocorrect.com/ and see how predictive text can get you into fun!

 

Can any of you who took off STi struts from a 2005 onwards Hawkeye STi please take a look and measure what travel the O.E. strut gives please. I'm looking to spec my BC coilovers to match as I want to run them at about nomal ride height.

You'd need the spring off to do it so only if you can, i'd be grateful.

 

In case you are wondering why I need to know, mine has the HID and auto levelling. If I go longer than stock, I might damage the mechanism that bolts to the lower arms.

Anyway,, got my rears off to take a look. Bear in mind mine is a 2006 car with 37,000miles on it. no knocking yet and the rear inserts were clean, functioning perfectly and well greased.

I couldn't get the bump stop off but it moves 115mm to the bump stop which is 80mm long. total travel with me sitting on them is 145mm. probably a few mm left in the bump stop so 150 or so?
Total length of strut from bottom bolt centre to top mount is 620mm. from centre of wheel to wheel arch at full droop is about 18" or 458mm. The car rides with about 14.5" or 368mm.
So, 90mm of droop and the O.E. rear strut has only 25mm to go before the bump stop starts to come into play. No wonder I hate the bloody things! CRAP!

Really would appreciate some info on the fronts before I get dirty again.

 

Adjusting the ride height of BC's does not change it's suspension travel. The spring remains the same length as height adjustment is via the whole strut screwing into the bottom hub mount.

JohnD

 

John, I know this but thanks...

I am ordering my BCs with as close to O.E. travel as possible so I can lift them to O.E. ride height but not risk damaging the HID transducers with too much droop. The longest BC do is 150mm total which is what O.E. rears have. Just need to check on front specs now.