I recently bought a set of almost brand new (Installed for 2 days) Stance Coilovers. Installed them with friends recently and have been having some issues. Now first off I only received 2 Spanner wrenches, the bigger ones but not the smaller ones

Since they have been installed the ride quality is horrid. Now I know its not going to feel like a caddy by a long shot lol but its pretty bad. Not as bad with extra passengers but its almost unbearable when I'm by myself.

With other passengers it usually jars hard off the first bump and then that's it. Though when I'm by myself it'll hit hard off the bump in the road but then continue to bounce about 3-4 more times even on smooth road. This creates basically a continuous bounce the entire ride which kills my back...

Now is this normal or have I installed something wrong? I have all the Damper's set to 8, maxed with all locking rings in. The previous owner snapped 3/4 of the lower spacers of the rear shocks which I didn't notice until after the fact. He now refuses to answer my texts.

I installed them with the spacers against the shocks still, missing one i just used a couple washers on the outside of the one shock.

Any pointers/ help?

 

welcome to the world of cheap coilovers.

you cant expect a good ride or even close to a good ride out of coilovers. its the nature of the beast when you put adjustable suspension in. the bouncing is pretty normal especially if you have them set really low.

doesnt sound like you did something wrong. my old stances only came with one size spanner wrench.

are all the preloads set the same front to front and back to back?

 

Alignment if you didn't get one yet

 

So you want low and ride quality

What a good joke

 

Yeah everybody thinks they ride great just because they are expensive haha.

 

I went with YYZ mainly because they are the best for handling but I wan't going to sacrifice ride a ton either.

 

my back hurts when i ride in stock ride height cars, im at peace with the lows

 

I gotta say driving around in my Saturn is so peaceful and I can go wherever I want as fast as I want, driving the cobalt can be like a war zone haha.

 

watch out for the landmines

 

I've only got about 2.5 maybe 3'' of clearance I cant imagine being truly low.

 

This is why I stayed away from coilovers. Good ones aren't cheap, and cheap ones aren't good. Did you set dampers before or after the height adjustment? I remember a thread somewhere here explaining how to properly adjust and set these things.

 

Sounds like poorly adjusted preload to me.

 

I knew the ride was going to be crap lol but I've also rode in other friends card with coils that were not nearly as bad, my friends with ksports rides much smoother than man. Still rougher than stock but not nearly as bad as mine.

I came from YYZ's which were fun but I got sick of 4x4 status. I'll be selling them next time I can get home and take pics.

Okay here comes the thrashing but I missed how to set the preload on the springs... How do you adjust the preload on your fronts and rears? Also what would be be a good amount to set the fronts and rears to?

 

Did you adjust the length of the shocks in the rear? They could be causing extra bounce.

 

Yeah I installed those properly, I shortened them all the way, which I know is wrong.

To my understanding I adjust the springs to the height I want them, then jack up the axel so that the springs just sit properly in their perch loosely then adjust the shock to that the bottom lines up with this?

 

randy O is `100% right and stealth you cant be helped. sad to say. see the post `welcome to the world of cheap ass coilovers`AND they do ride like crap. AND they bind at the top tower as they dont have a torrington bearing in there. AND they will disintegrate in winter salt conditions. sad to say.

 

Preload is set from most manufactures at 4-5mm. You adjust ride height by threading the shock body through the bottom of the knuckle. Bit the way you were doing it, that way makes for unnecessarily short shock travel.

 

For the fronts I did thread the shock body through the bottom of the knuckle, I just did not touch the preload on the springs.

Now when u are referring to what I was doing that was making unesecarry short shock travel I believe you mean shortening the rear shocks all the way? I understand that now I was unaware before. Just wanted to make sure how to properly adjust the shocks so that they are the right length

Where do you measure the preload from? Or do you just measure that they are the same? At what measurement would the preload be "0mm"

 

When you adjust the pre load take all of the load off of the spring so it will barely spin by hand. Then snug up bottom lock ring. After that tighten the upper lock ring until it's 4-5mm away from the bottoms lock ring. It should be good to go. Some people run more preload some people run less, that's just what the manufacture suggests.

 

I have the custom Stance coils with the higher spring rates and they came with no preload from the factory. Like somebody else said they only have gave me the bigger spanner wrenches as well.

 

Okkk so I'm understanding what your getting at now. Technically there are three locking rings on the coilover including the buttom one for the shock collar correct?

When I start I want both rings loose from the spring then hand tighten the top one so the spring can move by hand. And go from there?

After if set the pre load can I have the top two locking rings(for pre load) all the way down to the bottom spring(for the shock collar)?

Thanks for all the help and bearing with me guys

 

So I was able to adjust my coils last night and the bouncing has gotten better. Still an issue tho, now I've gotten the chance to compare with other cobalt's with coils. I understand it will be rough, I didn't expect it to be smooth sailing.

Tho where as the other cars I've driven were rough on bumps mine seems to bounce like a pogo stick... The initial thud is to be expected where as mine seem to want to continue to bounce over and over even after the road is flat. It's noticeable when driving behind my car as well.

All the pre loads are set equal front-front and back-back now. Starting to think that maybe one of the struts may be blown... Feels as if the springs in the rear are too soft. Any ideas?