i installed my pedders last week with the help of one of my friends. car drives awesome and everything now, however my friend brought up something that sounds interesting. hes a hardcore autoX guy. his car is fully modded for just autoX, its an rx8. he said that you could "preload" the suspension to help seat the springs even more. he did it on his rx8. most people would assume hes talking out his ass, but what do i know? plus hes a full on autoX nut and very knowledgable. anyway, anybody have any info on this? he said something about on his rx8 he had to loosen some bolts and let it sit for a while, and take an easy drive, then tighten them back up.

 

eibach:

Pre-load the suspension before tightening suspension pivot bolts. When installing the Eibach springs it is important to preload the suspension before tightening all suspension pivot point bolts. This can be easily done with the full weight of the vehicle on its tires on an alignment rack, or if the car is on a lift or jack stands by using a jack to lift each suspension corner to then tighten all the pivot bolts at each corner. Proper suspension preload will ensure a more consistent lowering and also help the pivot suspension bushings last longer.

 

You can also preload the front sway bar with use of powergrid adjustable end links.

 

interesting.

 

when I installed my springs back in the day, I tightened them too tight so you heard coil bind when turning, but on the flipside too lose would cause them to chatter.

 

Your friend is talking about preloading springs. That means that you either have to stuff spacers underneath the spring to compress them more in a typical OEM setup. That's pretty uncommon, so it's more likely that he's referring to preloading the springs in an aftermarket coilover setup. That means tightening the bottom spring perch more than you need to.

If it's linear springs, then this is pointless. While I agree that you don't want there to be play or a loose spring, in general, pre-load on the springs is unnecessary, unless you're trying to do things like play with corner weight, and have no ability to independently adjust ride height. Then you must change pre-load to accomplish this.

Preloading the suspension before tightening suspension bolts is a totally different subject. For our car, the front doesn't really matter, due to the way they are located and function, but the rear, I like the do the final torquing of the lower shock bolt while the car is fully lowered on the ground. You just need a long extension to do this. It helps keep the bushing from getting twisted.