Hi i bought coilover for s13 from you guys a couple weeks ago, i'm having some problems with it ever since i installed them, 1. the spring of the front ones are making clunking noise whenever i'm making a turn ,
i checked the upper nut torque they were ok, it feels like it binding against the steering force
2. after making a turn, the steering wheel doesn't want to go straight right away , it will still pulling to the whatever side i was making a turn 3. the coilovers doesn't turn by the pillowball mount if i turn the steering, but they will turn at the lower spring perches although they were tight so i search the Zilvia.net forum, people are having the same problems with stance GRs.. they say it's the upper pillowball problem...can you guys help me on this problems?? are these a common problem too with max coilovers??
thank you , i really appreciate your help
My reply>>>>>Its not a problem with the parts, but it is a common problem with the installation.
1. The initial setting of the coilover should be where the spring is not drooped and not pre-loaded. 2. The spring perch locking collars need to be tight as hell, most people who get tired of tightening all the time take a screwdriver and hammer and tap the notch on the collar until it is very tight. 3. Lower mount needs to be tighter than the factory supplied pillow ball resistance or it will turn before the pillow ball. 4. If you are convinced that the pillow ball may be defective or frozen, you can bolt in the topmount, but not the bottom and work it back and fourth. We've never seen one that is frozen however initial factory settings are supposed to be stiff.
yeah i am having trouble with the same as he stated but i did slove the clunk from making it super tight ( i figured that one out). however still having the steering problem but i figured its going to go away after i do an alinement
Mine start to bind a little after intense drifting, I take my wheels off maybe once a week and a half and re-tighten everything and make sure that the springs aren't pre-set or drooping too much.
like dan said hammer the collars against each other. once i did that they never loosen. Think about it, there is a lot of force being put on all these parts when driving. and as for the steering wheel not returning, that sounds like a caster issue. when you slam your car, other alignment settings change and the car will react different than you are used to. i thing anything less than 6.5 degrees of castor will be noticably slow on return.
well my steering is still tracking its kinda annoying when i turn left it stays left same on the right too etc. i have taken a hammer to it too but still have the problem. if it hasnt changed i will post up.
did you have your alignment done? What are all the specs? Regarding the top plate on the FC coilover, please make sure the imaginary line formed by the angle of the top slots points towards the firewall not towards the front bumper. In other words, the shock mount point moves back and in. FC's in particular has poor caster in regards to drifting performance. Additional caster provided by the coilovers is supposed to make the steering faster & more resonsive. The additional camber improves contact patch at full lock (when you really need it) but on the freeway it will want to track lines coming acrost the lane. So I just wanted to clarify the way its supposed to feel in daily driving situations. There is some alignment based tradeoffs that arent a defect, its just the intentional daily driving compromises made for peak drift performance.