Adjusting ride height of coilovers

[mills_88]

Well my car came with tanabe adjustable coilovers which i havent touched up till now. But now i want to lower the front down a bit so what i basically want to know is how hard this is to do.

From what i can see its just a matter of wheels off then winding them up a bit with a c spanner or is there more to it than this. Obviously measuring how much height is dropped while doing this.

Sorry if this has been discussed before but i couldnt find anything on adjusting ride height while theyre on the car.

 

[montgomery]

That's Pretty much it dude.

Just remember to do up the locking nut before your start driving again.

 

[mills_88]

Yeah will do lol, reckon it will need an alignment after or should it be ok if measured accurately.

 

[montgomery]

If your car hasn't had an alignment in a long time (or at all since you have owned it) I suggest getting one.

It will drive much nicer and save your tires too!

 

[mills_88]

Cool cheers for your help mate.

 

[montgomery]

No probs.
If you do get stuck getting the car level ,most suspension joints can do it for you.

Also if you end up getting and alignment it might be worth getting them to double check that both sides are even , Just to be safe,

 

[steveP]

this is actually quite easy if u prepare urself.

get all ur tools ready, 14mm and 17mm socket, jack, measuring tape and C spaners.

now make sure u dont adjust the spring pre load, but the base height. so u will need to unbolt the coilovers from the hubs.

while ur at it, make sure the all the spring pre load is the same all round. a good way to do this is:
1. get one of the coilovers.
2. unwind the rings until theres no tension on the spring. (so they arnt captive).
3. tighten until they just get tension, then do 2 rotation of the rings.
4. measure from the top of the coilover to one of the rings holding the spring in.
5. match the measurement on all the other coilovers.

(note, measurement for the front and rears will obviously be different, but this is good to get left and right the same)

basically u do the same thing to get the height the same on all the coilovers. adjust the base height on one until u get it right, measure from the top of the coilover to the bottom ring, and match all round. however front and rear will be different, but u get my point for matching left and right.

hope this helps, any questions, ask me.

 

[matchtheclown]

My hint is that they will settle when loaded.

So if you want to lower the front 20mm... wind them down 20mm each the take it off the jacks and see what it actually lowered it by measuring ground to guards.

Raising my front 25mm meant winding it up 30mm on the coil overs.

 

[steveP]

that doesnt make sense. as the original measurement would have been when the coils were settled. sure u didnt play with the spring pre load?