suspension setup

[HRthirtyone]

I have recently lowered my car 1.75 inches all round with king springs. Unfortunately the tyres now hit on the strut everytime i take a corner fast, and the back end will dump down when i change gears fast.

The question is, will good shockers like biltzien etc. fix this problem by not having so much body movement that the suspension bottoms out?

any help would be greatly appreciated, thanx...

[Ronin 09]

Sounds like your offsets are a little too deep; ie they place the wheels about 5mm too far inboard (assuming they are aftermarket jobbies).

Also, when you lower, you tend to pick up extra negative camber - when looking at the wheel front on the tops of the wheel tip in towards the body. A good camber correction kit or adjustment should fix this.

Just a note also when you lower a car - the stock shockers are put under a fair bit more strain as they are not 'matched' to the spring rates - if you can afford it would be wise to change the shocks too to a stiffer rating - when you say it dumps down when changing it seems like you don't have enough damping.

Hope that helps

[hippy]

would u still need camber correction kits if u use proper coil overs ??? i know that u stuff up ur camber ... but i still dont' understand why?? if i lower my car 50mm with proper suspension ... will i have problems??

[Ronin 09]

Hippy, i think pillowball mounts on coilovers allow for camber and castor changes, so should be sweet

[jlnewton]

Pillowball mounts for skylines don't have any camber or caster adjustment like the silvia ones. You would need the kits.

[hippy]

how much do kits cost??

[HRthirtyone]

thanx ronin, yea there was no extra camber i asked the guys when i got my wheels aligned..

The tyrewall doesnt hit on the strut housing, there is around 1cm+ clearance there, but the top of the tyre scrapes on the part of the strut that supports the spring.

Because this is caused by excessive bodyroll on corners and big bumps, if i had uprated shockers/heavy duty would that stop this from happenin?

[predator]

Hippy: I'm not exactly sure.. I don't believe mine has any form of camber adjustment and it was sitting pretty damn low (enough to get canaried). It still handled pretty much the same at that height and my current legal height so maybe the coilovers are better at adjusting for that. I have adjustable (height & damper) Zeal Coilovers.

[bbenny]

i did the same as you. droped my R32 about 2 inches and after about 4 weeks of driving i had blown the standard shocks. The seals split and all the damping oil came out. it was like driving a pogo stick around, and can be fairly dangerous.

I replaced the standard shock absorbers with Bilsteins and they worked a treat, however be careful with how low you are going to run the car, because i found it possible to bottom them out on big hits. other than that it was a sweet ride!

The shocks cost about $1300 and you can use all the bits off your standards - boots, strut tops, bumpers etc.

not a very hard job at all.