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suspension upgrade time

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 5:01 pm
by gazwhittle
Hi all,

Time to give the old girl a new stance and less body roll.

I first want to change my springs and dampers then head over to changing sway bars ect.


ive been on demon tweeks and have been looking at purchasing the following

Spax SSX Lowering Spring Kit 60mm

with Bilstein B4 Performance Gas Damper front and rear.

has anybody used this setup ? im looking for quite a stiff setup but i am on a budget (ish)

Re: suspension upgrade time

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 6:56 pm
by rix313
I'm running the spax springs on my car with Spax dampers. Looking at my tyre wear and photo's of it on track it still rolls like a pro.

Re: suspension upgrade time

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 7:37 pm
by aceifty
get some coilovers, my cab is sitting on some gaz coilovers and the ride is nice and stiff but not too stiff

Re: suspension upgrade time

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 8:16 pm
by kilrone
at 60 mm I hope you enjoy dragging your car over everything mines just over 40 mm and my sump guard looks terrible. wait till your budget looks good and go with coil overs

Re: suspension upgrade time

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 8:46 pm
by capri_rob
Eibach or H&R springs are the only ones to go for it you want to do it properly.

You cant go wrong with Bilstein dampers.

Re: suspension upgrade time

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:19 pm
by gazwhittle
im struggleing to get coilovers that are cheap enough as my struts are 45mm

and i can only find two makes that make 45mm coilies an they aint cheap.

if anyone can point me in the right direction ide be grateful.

Re: suspension upgrade time

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 12:52 am
by Jozi
Bc racing do coilovers for 45mm struts, their the same as 51mm :thumb:

Re: suspension upgrade time

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:44 am
by mrLEE30
Buy 51mm struts.

Re: suspension upgrade time

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:51 am
by Sjoerd320i
kilrone wrote:at 60 mm I hope you enjoy dragging your car over everything mines just over 40 mm and my sump guard looks terrible. wait till your budget looks good and go with coil overs
Mine is lowered 60 and I've never hit anything...

Re: suspension upgrade time

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:58 am
by aceifty
Try getting in touch with Gaz they might do them, if not get 51mm struts. I payed about 700 for mine

Re: suspension upgrade time

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 9:43 am
by steve_k
when i bought my old coilovers from FK nearly 6 year's ago i had to send back my old 51mm struts so they could cut the stub axles off them to weld them onto the bottom of a new set of coilovers.

iirc gaz only need the stub axle so if you can hang on till after christmas/new year's i might have a pair of them for sale that you could send to somewhere like gaz & then you get a nice shiny new pair of coilovers :D

Re: suspension upgrade time

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 11:23 am
by mrLEE30
When you weld the coil over lower collar to a stub axle it does not matter what size strut you have as its cut off anyway. Only the cheap insert coil overs require the strut to be sized correctly.

Mine, same system as Gaz

Image

Re: suspension upgrade time

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 12:00 pm
by Jozi
The Bc's are the same, welded onto a 50mm stub. Are the Gaz adjusted the same as above in mrlee's pic? My Bc's work the same, you change the height of the shock which has the sprin on it.

Re: suspension upgrade time

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 2:03 pm
by aceifty
Jozi wrote:Are the Gaz adjusted the same as above in mrlee's pic? My Bc's work the same, you change the height of the shock which has the sprin on it.
adjusting is the same on Gaz, also has a damper adjustment on the top for the front and at the bottom for the rear.

Re: suspension upgrade time

Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 1:41 am
by balilu91
i ve got bc coilovers and i would recommend them..

Re: suspension upgrade time

Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 7:19 am
by mrLEE30
all coil overs adjust in the same way, the spring mounts are on collars that can be screwed up or down, this afects the height of the car as it makes the shock longer or shorter. Other ways to adjust the height are down to the spring itself, obviously a shorter spring wil lower the ride as will a softer spring.

the damping is normnally adjusted from the top of the unit (or the lower rear on some models), this has no affect on the ride height as it only restricts the amount of oil/air/gas that can flow through an orafice by adjusting the size of the orafice.

never heard of Bc coilovers but the thing to look for is the ability to handle the UK wet weather and thus corrosion. normally cheap sets will corrode on the spring collars making adjustment impossible (you need to grease it up well and keep reapplying regularly), or the spring can corrode and worst case crack.