Adjusting Ride Height With Bilsteins?

[BAMR33]

Ok, last night I moved the circlip down two grooves only on the front left hand front side to test height. This at first measurement made no difference at all, so I let it settle by going for a drive. I measured it this afternoon and still very little difference. Am I missing something here? as I thought two grooves would have dropped the ride height substantially...

I am actually lowering the suspension by moving the circlip down right?

Cheers,

Brett

Edited July 5, 2007 by BAMR33

[Beer Baron]

yes you are on the right track, but do the otherside too.

[dead32]

you sure that the car isnt sitting on the bump stops? as bb said do it to both side's, it would be intresting to know the increments of the upper circlip to the lower mm drop.

[BAMR33]

you sure that the car isnt sitting on the bump stops? as bb said do it to both side's, it would be intresting to know the increments of the upper circlip to the lower mm drop.

Fairly sure it's not, I don't think 33's suffer from that issue as much and I've got universal bump stops which are fairly short too. Looks like I'll do both sides as low as possible because I don't think it'll make that bigger drop.

Cheers for the responses.

[robbieraver]

you have made a simple mistake.

when you raise or lower a car you have to do the whole thing, all four corners. If you lower or raise one corner it will affect the opposite corner, eg raise the right rear it will lower the left front etc....

if your looking for change in only one corner you will not see it.

look in the group buys for the r33 and it will tell you all the heights for the circlips.

Edited July 5, 2007 by robbieraver

[Chris Wilson]

It will adjust the ride height quite a bit MORE than the distance between the grooves, as you need to take into account the wheel to damper movement ratio.

[salad]

^^^ Which is 1:1 for both front and rear of skylines, so 5mm movement of the shock/spring = 5mm movement of wheel and vice versa.

You will have to do all of them to get a true indication of height, or at least one side so the chassis isn't trying to twist/flex.

[BAMR33]

you sure that the car isnt sitting on the bump stops? as bb said do it to both side's, it would be intresting to know the increments of the upper circlip to the lower mm drop.

Checked this today and it was sitting on the bumpstop on the one side I test lowered, so looks like I'm gonna have fun tomorrow pulling suspension out again

[weeman1]

how do you adjust the height with the circlips, i dont have the manual for the bilsteins

[BAMR33]

Compress the springs and just slide them down, you can pop them out of the groove with a screw driver or fingernails.

[weeman1]

what do you use to compress the spring? would it be easier to just go to a suspension shop to get it done? do you have to take out the shock assembly to do this?

Edited July 11, 2007 by weeman1

[salad]

Spring compressors.

If you dont know what you're doing, it's probably a good idea to get a workshop to do it for you, it could end badly if something goes wrong...

[weeman1]

ok thanx for your help, where can you get those spring compressers from and how much are they

[Duncan]

spring compressors are about $30 from superdoopercheap auto....just be careful if you don't know what you're doing, if you undo the top nut with tension still in the scpring you can really hurt yourself....

[Bl4cK32]

Its actually easy to pop out each shock (3 bolts) to do it out of the car. Much easier i found as i took the top of the shock off, then removed the spring. Only used the spring compressors to get the top off.

[weeman1]

thanx guys, might give it a go this weekend, i have a mate who is a mechanic that will be able to help me