marwin

Hello Everyeone,

First off all, my english is really bad because I come from
Holland.

My name is Marwin, 21 years old.

A few weeks ago, I have purchased a subaru impreza gtt (2000). The previous owner said he knows absolutely nothing about the car. He had bought it without knowing what it was.

Well now i do not believe him anymore, after a week the car was broken. In other words the car needs a new motorblock.

Now I'm working on adjusting the subaru at the desired height, the subaru is
reduced by HKS hiper-d coilovers.
I got some pics:




I lowered the car in a comfortable position:


The problem is, that when I drive true bumps in the road or I drive true curves the wheels touch the wheel arches very hard. The HKS suspension bounces almost harder than original shocks!!

Are there more possibilities to adjust the hardness than the button at the bottom of the coilover?

I hope my explanation is clear, it's always easier to come by but
I do not live in the neighbourhood

Thank you for help!!!

Greets Marwin

Arnie_1

These coilovers are pretty stiffly sprung and stiffly damped. Much, much stiffer than a stock impreza suspension. You should be able to adjust the damping stiffness through the adjustment **** at the bottom. Try turning full anti-clockwise until the **** stops (but don't force it). You should be able to feel some clicks. then drive around a bit and see if you can feel a difference. Full soft will not be the best setting. You'll basically want to adjust the stiffness to where when the car goes over a speed bump it bounces once and then stops.

marwin

Hello Arnie,
Thanx for your reaction! I have used the **** at the buttom! It is very strange, First i tried to turn the **** to the ride sight, the car was bouncing on every road. Then I tried it with **** at the left side end it was a little bit better. But not stiff enough!!

Is this the ownly possibility? My honda was much lower and there where no problems with my d2 suspension! I can't understand why HKS is bouncing so much!!!

Arnie_1

They key is to adjust the **** to a setting that the car is not too soft and not too hard. So you'll have to experiment a bit. But start at full soft then drive on a road with some good bumps on it. Get out of the car and adjust the **** to two clicks harder on the front and the rear. Drive the road again. If its still too soft, go another two clicks harder. Remember how many clicks you have adjusted to! For driving comfort I usually have the rear dampers 1 or 2 clocks softer than the front.

One thing you have to know about these kinds of coilovers is that they are pretty high maintenance. Meaning, they should be rebuilt ever few years because of the design style which is "inverted" (upside down). The design of an inverted damper has much more friction compared to a non inverted because of the extra seals and bearings used. So after a couple of years they become more stiff than when new.

I can't remember the spring rate on these coilovers but I thin they were quite stiff. The problem with using stiff coilovers on the road is that people usually are running normal street/summer tyres with somewhat or very soft sidewalls. These stiff coilovers are designed for tyres with very stiff sidewalls. So what happens is, the springs and shocks are so stiff that the first thing to flex is the tyre sidewall. Now, the issue with a flexing (bouncing) sidewall is that there is shock absorber in the tire to control the bouncing! So you the tyres act like and undamped spring! An experiment you can do to test this is to set your tyre pressures higher and see if the car is bouncing less. Remember not to exceed you maximum allowable tyre pressure. You don't want to run the car at max pressure but its just to experiment to see where the bounce is coming from.

marwin

Thanks Arnie, I tried to do it your way! It did not help. And I have another problem, one of the shocks on the front (right side) is a annoying noice.

Tomorrow I will try to play with my tires! Today I was playing with the camber!
It helped a little bit but not much!

I really want to thank you because you give me points I never heard before!

Do you know what the nut on the top is? I have a picture:


It's on the fronside and the backside!

THANKSSSSS

marwin

Well I tried to play with my tires, it's a lot better now! I can drive normal, only when the way is very bad and I am going true a curve the wheels hit the wheel boxes!

The anoying sound from my rightshock was away when I used WD40 lubricating oil! When I drived for about 20 minutes the noice slowly came back! Does someone know what it can be?

Arnie_1

Are you saying you felt no difference in how stiff or soft the car got by adjusting the *****? Or only a very small difference? If they make very little difference its quite possible that the adjustment is no longer working. I think you should consider getting new budget coilovers to replace these. There are a few that don't cost much but can still give you the features that most people look for in a coilover. If you don't have a local supplier contact bren at APEX for some BC coilovers. They are a popular budget coilover that seem to work ok.

What sort of noise is it on your shock? Is it a kind of knocking noise? Where did you spray the WD-40?

As far as the wheels contacting the fenders, that's going to be difficult to solve online. Your car has an aftermarket body kit and using wheels with the wrong offset. Or there are wheel spacers. Anyway, I don't know if they cut the original fender back or if those fender flares are just glued onto the body. You'll have to look under your car to see where it is contacting. You might be too low as well.

Those large nuts on the top of the dampers are just the lock nuts to secure the tophat to the strut. sometimes you get a knocking noise if those are not tightened properly.

marwin

Thanks Arnie, you help me a lot!

Now i Played with the camber and it works, the coillovers are really stiff!
Only when I am driving fast through curves or bad ways the car is knocking the fenders.

The wide bodykit brings always problems, it is installed on the original fenders. One Guy in Holland got the Monza Wide Body to and he got the
same problem like me. I've got original WRX rims but my spacers are really big!

But I am glad it is a litle bit better! But not good enough, I will try untill
mision is completed! My honda and golf were very Low, I like low it is my adiction

About the anoying noice, it is like you hear a clunk! I used the WD40 to spray the topmounts, because I think that rubber is broken! When the springs come up, it is like they do not have damping because the rubber isn't there. I think I will take my shocks of the car today and look if the rubber is broken! I never tried to do sow much on my car as I do in this days. I really like to do this, it is really nice!!! I read a lot, so maybe one day I can help you with carproblems hehe

Arnie_1

Cheers Marwin! Happy to help out.

When you say you "played with the camber", what do you mean? Did you adjust you camber plates to add more negative camber? Camber will not affect how stiff your car rides. Or do you mean you adjusted the damper stiffness?

The knock from the coilover can be a couple of things:

1. Loose top mount nut. If you have an impact wrench, zap that top mount nut once at low torque. DO NOT use high torque and hammer on it. It will tear the upper spigot (threaded portion of the strut at the top) right off. Just a quick zap and it should tighten the nut enough. It only takes a little bit of play between that lock nut and the pillow ball to make a clunk noise.

2. The grease in the struts has dried and there is nothing lubricating the slider into the strut body. Do not use WD-40 to lubricate. It isn't actually a lubricant. If you are going to grease anything, use a teflon based lubricant. You for a temporary cure, should last a couple of months, get some spray teflon based lube, jack up the rear of the car, lift the dustboot and spray the sliders with the lube. You don't have to go crazy and have it dripping down the strut! Then lower the car so it compresses the suspension. Then raise the car again and spray once more. That should be good for a little while. Best solution is to disassemble the strut and clean and regrease the strut internally. But that is best left to a professional suspension shop who know how to rebuild coilovers. There is likely no one in europe who rebuilds HKS (or cusco or tein) so it makes using these brands difficult.

This should at least keep the noise down for a bit but judging from the condition of your coilovers I think its time to get something new. If you look into getting the BC's do not get the inverted. Get the non-inverted series, as you will be able to get the car lower than the inverted.

That's unfortunate about your body kit and how its installed. its actually very scary. its no wonder that you get noise because the real fender looks like it would be about in the middle of the tire. That's not good as it can seriously damage your tire and cause a flat in the middle of a corner when you hit a bump! You realize you can die from this, right? The only way to safely operate this setup is to have super hard, high spring rate coilovers that basically only allow maybe 2 cm of travel. then you will hate the ride. This is really just a show car, not meant to be driven on the road. Can you do me a favor next time you are under the car? Can you take a picture of how the body kit is attached to the fender? I want to see where the original fender is in relation to the kit and if you can take a pic with the wheel on, maybe the tire too. So just realize, the lower you go the more likely you will contact the tire with your fender. Best would be to take a grinder to the real fenders and cut them up higher to give properly clearance.

Just keep in mind that the way your car is set up is really only for a show stand. It will, to be honest, perform very poorly on corners for many reasons that I'm too lazy to type in detail right now (too low, poor geometry, spacers, no travel, too stiff spring rate for tires, etc. etc.). A stock Impreza with a good alignment would drive circles around your car on a track or twisty road. If fast is your goal, you have a lot of work to do on this car.

Best of luck!

marwin

Hello Arnie!

When I said I play with camber I referred that I have placed the shocks in the middle of the topmounts, this drives much better and the fenders only hit the wheels when I am driving faster than normal. The problem why I thought the suspension was bouncing to much are my tires. About three weeks ago I had pumped my tires on 2.4 tire pressure, now I checked one of them was 1.2 and the other three were 2.1. The tires are new I can't get it but it happend. Now is the suspension really stiff!!

Thanks I will try both of your tips!! Thank you for helping me out. There is not much to
find about HKS in Holland! Many people drive with d2! That are really good shocks, I had it on my honda and I really like it! It is very stiff but I like it!

You are right, the HKS coilovers are not the cheapest ones to have! I think mine are in good condition except the anoying noice, but now with youre tips I think I will solve this problem, I am really thankfull. In holland no one knows to answer my question.

About the fenders, I know it is really dangerious! But I think it's save enough to drive, tommorrow when I am done with work I will make some pictures so you can see how my wheel to fender situation is. I know it's a show car! I do not want to race with it, I want to make it more like a family car! It's the first car I drive with a little bit comfort, and about one year I am going to marry so when kids come they need a good reliable car.

I bought this car about one month ago! But I am screwed because the same day I had bought the garage told me this motor would not drive long. Connecting rod bearings, coupling and much more are damaged because the previous owner drived without air flow meter!! The subaru will get a new EJ20 engine with stronger material.

Thanks and I will post you tomorrow!!

Greetings!!!

marwin

I promised to make some photo's:



Maybe saturday or next week I have time to take the wheels of and make some pics!! I think that will bring more clarification!

Arnie_1

Ah, ok, I see what you are saying about adjusting your camber.

Yes, from what I can see you definitely need to add some camber just to clear the fenders properly if you go over bumps. You will need to do this on the front and rear. To be honest, this is a big pain in the butt to work out. Will take a lot of time and experimentation. Ok, the other option is to remove your wheel spacers but I don't think you'll be happy with how that looks. In the end, only way to get this "right" is to to experiment.

On the front of the car you have two ways to adjust camber, through the camber bolt at the bottom of the strut (its the larger, top bolt of the two) and through the camber plate. Its easiest for you to adjust from the camber plates. You should move the left and right side in the same amounts just a little bit at a time. Drive it around a familiar curve with some bumps and see if you get some noise or contact. If you have a really big friend, bring them along so you have some extra weight on the right side of the car when testing. Do left and right turns. When you get to the point that you have no noise then that is the proper camber angle for you. Just know that this camber angle will have nothing to do with performance, its just to get clearance so you don't rub.

The real pain will be adjusting the rear camber. You will need to get camber bolts. I use Whiteline bolts. You replace the top bolt with these in the lower clevis. Judging from your experience with this car you will not be able to adjust or install them properly yourself. I don't think your rear struts use adjustable camber plates. They use a pillowball solid mount but no camber adjustment. You'll need to find a good alignment shop who will knows how to use these bolts properly and are willing to help you adjust them until you don't rub. When the mechanic adjusts the camber angle on the alignment rack he should be able to "eyeball" the proper angle necessary to clear.

Once he has the camber angle set for clearance he can set your toe. do not drive around too much after adjusting your camber without adjusting your toe or you will wear out the inside edges of your tires very, very quickly. As it is, this will be an issue for you because judging from how much camber you'll need to clear your fenders you will need to run a log of negative camber. I estimate you will need about -2.5 or more in the front and around -2 in the rear. That's quite a bit.

To the idea of making this your family car. I wish you the best of luck with that. unfortunately the ride quality will be absolutely horrible in the back and your kids will be throwing up left and right. It will be a very bumpy ride back there and the only way to cure this is to get new struts/springs. If you can, have a friend drive your car and you should sit in the back. You'll be amazed at how much bumpier the ride is in the back compared to the front.

marwin

Today I was going to some bodyshops, one off them wanted to remake the bodykit so I can lower my car. He wants to do it for € 6000,-! I decided to upper the car, I do not like it but it is to expensive.

I know this car will not be a good family car, I think I need to buy a little daily! Thanks for helping me out! The noice is a little bit away!