Hey lads,

I had my coils fitted and so far so good but i am getting ripped off by mechanics just trying to adjust the height as i want. I asked a suspension place to raise my rear and he actually lowered it by 1mm then he claimed that he did what i asked and if i want to raise i need to pay again, idiot.

My question:
I can adjust the rear myself? is it easy. I have the spanner but i don't want to just jump in the blind. The instructions are in japanese, hence useless. I have tried a search in here and the DIY section, haven't seen anything. I have tried google and most of them adjust the front.


Anyone know where i can find pics or videos or the actual instruction manuals for those coil overs.


Your help is much appreciated, thanks.

 

Just jump in and get wet.. It is a bitch when you need a translator to install parts but now that they are on adjusting the height is no big thing... You need jack stands a large piece of cardboard to lay on and the pair of spanners... Crawl under and take a look and you will be able to make sense of how it is adjusted.. You hold the upper nut with the correct spanner (which is the only one that fits) and turn the lower one counter clockwise to raise the car and then hold it in place while you turn the upper nut the same way until it tightens up on the lower one and you have it done... You need a small ruler to measure the amount of threads showing so you don't have one side higher than the other.... You adjust the dampers at the bottom of the front dampers and the top of the rear inside the car... I have mine at 3 clicks from the softest setting in the rear and 4 clicks in the front... If you are a fat body you can add some pressure on the front and spring adjustment on the drivers side or get a fat girl friend.

 

Awesome thanks a lot for this. You don't remove your tyres ? U didnt mention removing tyres.

Won't the upper nut exert pressure while I turn it ?

Thanks again.

 

No need to remove tires.

As soon as you read this, you should:
1) Go away from keyboard
2) Get under car
3) Follow the Coyote's instructions
4) Fiddle around
5) Report back


The rear should be easy.

 

I need to go buy those jack stands tomorrow Saturday, today i am stuck at the office damn it. Sounds quite easy indeed.

Is the front that easy as well ?

 

By the sounds of this, i bet that after i do what you have written, i will hate myself for paying two different dudes to do this with failure.

These things, you gotta do yourself, people won't do it with the same patience and passion for cars that isn't theirs.


It's a black art !

 

One of the most true statements i've seen typed on Fitfreak.net.

Good luck and have fun messing around down there. You will probably kick yourself for paying anybody to begin with and never let anyone work on your car again now. I'm glad we could impact you so

 

Yes spootnik has the right idea about being a true automobile enthusiast... What I referred to as nuts ar the rings with notches that the spanners fit on and turn... On the front there are two pairs of the notched rings on each of the struts.... The ones on the lower part of the struts are the ones you need to raise to lower the car or lower the rings to raise it.. The upper set you raise to stiffen up the ride or to make the car sit level side to side when you are sitting in it.. You might need long needle nose pliers to adjust the dampening valves which are visible looking upward into the bottom of the front struts... The damper adjustment valves should have rubber nipples that have to be removed before you can very gently turn them counter clockwise until you feel resistance and they can't be gently turned... I think that three or four clicks when turned clockwise is a good starting point to work up or down with... I first adjusted mine to seven clicks and found the ride to be to stiff for my sagging boney ass to handle... The adjustment for the rear is on top of the shafts with the nuts on them sticking up out of the shock towers in the cargo area behind the rear seats and are adjusted the same way... Since adjusting the rear dampers is so easy to access and adjust you might want to adjust them up and down and see how much the ride is affected by setting them at different amounts of clicks before doing any adjustment to the front dampers... Just messing with this part of the suspension will have you understanding more about the workings of it than most people behind the wheel of a car... If you are planning to do other things to your car you need a shop manual and tools. They will pay for themselves if they keep you away from a repair shop or dealership technicians 2 or 3 times....

 

Great info, more than i had anticipated and sounds fairly easy for the rear. I will get some tools, try the rear first, then move on to the front after mastering the back which seems the easier of both.

Back here in a few days

Thanks

 

One last question left, before i go play around and not know what this is:

The slotted camber adjustment in those coils , are they as easy as clockwise or anticlockwise also ?.



Thanks, yet again

 

Ah man, you're a legend, thanks again.


Doooooooone, awesome, finally have my ride exactly like i want with 5mm higher at the back. The front looks good , i won't be playing with it anytime soon. It clears all humps and stuff limit limit, so i will leave it as it is for the time being.

I was looking at my front tyres today and the left side is sticking out more than the right side. How the hell can't mechanics not see such thing, unbelievable. Lots of thieves out there hiding behind franchise names.

As soon as one of u guys tells me about that slotted camber, i can get on to that. I will definitely need a wheel alignment after this one right ?. The rear i just raised might probably get away but camber should impact a lot wouldn't it.

 

Oh and i also adjusted my dampers, reset the whole thing anti clockwise then i gave it it 2 clicks clockwise at the rear and three clicks clockwise at the front. I am stunned at how soft it has become, almost like factory settings now except that it handles waaaaaaaaaay better.

 

Wheels staying on the ground for a change. Success. Well done.

 

No :-) car was jacked up. U mean wheels staying on the car ;-)

 

Come on boyz, anyone that can explain the camber before the weekend is over :-)

Front & rear adjustments have been explained. Damper explained, only camber left :-)

Thanks

 

Talking about the soft suspension, letting the wheels staying in contact with the road. Better handling is a result. Bounce bounce bounce from dampners set to stiff is no good. Camber, for negative settings the top of the wheel tips in. Undo both bolts just enough, push on the top part of the rotor, snug things back up. For a rough measurement a carpenders square can be used, shoved up against the wheel. Take a measurement to the top part of the rim. 1 1/8" equals close to -2 deg.

 

Ok lads,

I'm at a lost here and really need some advice. I got the cambers adjusted, visually correct, all good and sweet. Then i brought my car to a wheel alignment place to get it aligned and the left tyre has -1.00 camber and the front is +0.20 camber. Now they advised me to bring it back to +2 +2 both sides which makes the left tyre sit outside of the guard by quite a lot, so much so that it is a visual torture looking at the car like this. I am told my left tyre will wear within 10k and i spent a fortune on those Goodyear F1.

What's the take ?? how do you guys deal with this imperfection ?


Funny enough, one week ago, i was told that my cambers were -0.9 and -0.8 and they were stuck in the guard completely (like V8 supercars) whilst now they look symmetric with the guard but i am told a totally different number.


Can someone please explain what are the advantages or disadvantages and suggest what i should do ? thanks a lot.

 

Your after negative camber. Our Fit is -2.3. we have camber bolts top and bottom on stock suspension. On your set-up, the top attachment point is slotted? Push the top of the rotor in as far as possible and tighten fasteners. Should give you negative camber. More tire stays in contact with the road while making aggressive direction changes in autocross events. If we didn't autocross -1 would be more like it.

 

Yes it is slotted camber and no I am not after more negative camber, I am very happy with the way it looks now, right on the guards. At the wheel shop the dudes seemed quite alarmed that i had -1.0 front left and +0.20 front right. They wanted to balance it and make the front left +0.20 hence making it stick out again.

My question is:

Do you guys drive your cars with such differing amount of camber degrees on your front tyres ?? or do they need to be as close as possible ?? but then one tyre just sticks out by a mile and it looks funny.

I am told the -1.0 will wear out my tyres to death, really ? that bad or is he just dramatizing the situation ?.

 

And you can't make both -1? Somethings amiss. They should be close side to side. A few 10ths not a big deal. Get the toe adjusted after. Our toe is set at zero. To much toe in/out will wear tires much more than camber. How about a camber bolt on the bottom location, rt. side. That should equal things out.