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My car is slightly too low I think, as it scrapes a lot. Plus I'm going on my hols with her next month, and think with the luggage in the boot, and an extra person it will sit even lower!
I got my geo set up, and used the same setting as below. But say raising everything by 10mm, what damage will I do to my setup?
Ride height should be about 14'in front and 13.8' rear or roughly 355mm front and 350mm rear. This is measured from the centerline of the wheel to the lower edge of the fender.
This ride height should get you back up to where your roll centre's will be happy (generally if the car is scraping, your roll centre is way off making your roll couple huge, and your car handle badly).
So not only will raising your car back up a bit keep you from scraping on things, it will also make your car handle better.
Ride height, also determines the location of the roll center. When car is too low it increases the distance between the roll centre and centre of gravity which is your roll couple. Increasing roll couple, results in increased tendency to want to roll in cornering modes, which introduces a whole host of problems.
Ride height also determines the amount of travel the suspension has to work with. The higher the ride height, the more bump travel you have, (the distance the suspension can compress). It will also determine which part of the dynamic camber curve you stay in.
To simplify things (These cars do not like to be lowered extremely low!!!) Just going down a few millimeters can have a big effect on things.
The ride height I'm recommending over where your at now, will tremendously reduce the amount of understeer your car will have. It will also allow you to have some suspension travel so your car isn't riding on the bumpstops everywhere. The car will not as easily be unsettled by small, to moderate sized bumps. Your car will not be bottoming out everywhere anymore, and this will in turn also extend the life of your dampers.
Basically, your car will be better in just about every way that it can be. I think you will enjoy driving it much more this way.
With these cars you really gain nothing when lowering them much lower then stock height except of appearance maybe. And who cares what the car looks like if it's sucks to drive it LOL.
I'm not sure what you have to adjust alignment with. If your on fixed perch dampers, just have them max out the stock negative camber possible with the factory eccentric bolt (it wont be much). Try to shoot for zero toe. Negative camber has a MUCH smaller affect on tire wear then toe does.
Do you have camber plates? If so I have some other ideas for you that will totally change the way the car drives (for the better).
What are you running for suspension right now anyway?
Ride height adjustment does not affect the BC-Coilovers performance as you do not adjust the spring platforms to alter ride height you alter the shocks at the base, keeping the travel the same.
The change in ride height will affect the handling of the car, get it aligned after.
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2002 WRX - 370BHP/325lbft - Thanks to JGM
Ride height adjustment does not affect the BC-Coilovers performance as you do not adjust the spring platforms to alter ride height you alter the shocks at the base, keeping the travel the same.
The change in ride height will affect the handling of the car, get it aligned after.
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2002 WRX - 370BHP/325lbft - Thanks to JGM
What settings are you using now Dunx? I might go for something not as aggressive as what I used last time to try to reduce the tyre wear on the insides.
I have something else you can try before you go for your alignment!
In the front of your car flip your camber plates so that when their bolted in, and your standing at the front of the car looking toward it they adjust front to back rather then left and right or in and out.
By doing this, you are now using your plates to adjust for caster rather then camber. While in for the alignment, have them set the positive caster to somewhere in the realm of 6*-7* of positive caster. Your pushing the coilover back in the camber plate (so the hole in top is getting closer to the firewall from looking at the car from standing in front looking toward it).
By increasing positive caster, your increasing dynamic camber, rather then just increasing static camber from the top mount. Increasing static camber at the top mount causes an increase in "SAI" or "steering axxis inclination". This SAI increase will cause you to lose some of your dynamic camber curve. If you use your plates to adjust for caster at the top mount, and set static camber at the bottom (via the stock eccentric bolt), I think your going to be very happy with the result
Since your a wagon, your going to have very little camber adjustment from the bottom, but you can buy a second set of aftermarket camber bolts to put in the bottom hole for more negative camber if you like.
Try what I'm saying with the plates though!! I think your going to be very surprised at how much better the car will feel!!
Ride height adjustment does not affect the BC-Coilovers performance as you do not adjust the spring platforms to alter ride height you alter the shocks at the base, keeping the travel the same.
The change in ride height will affect the handling of the car, get it aligned after.
Even though the BC adjust from the bottom for ride height, your are still affecting the overall arc of the actual suspension arm itself. The only real benefit from adjusting the ride height from the bottom mount is that you don't change your spring pre load with ride height.
Also the issue with the roll centre being too low, and increasing the roll couple will still remain the same.
I don't suppose if you have the time you could PM me or post on here something I could print out and give to the alignment centre please could you? As I really don't have a clue about the settings.
I will try changing the top plates around though what about rears? as they are adjustable top plates too.
I don't unfortunately have anything with exact alignment printout specs I can put up here, but essentially heres what you do:
1) Flip your plates so they adjust front to rear for caster rather then camber.
2) When at the alignment shop ask him to move the plate so that your achieving somewhere in the are of 6*-7* deg. of positive caster.
3) Have him max out the stock eccentric bolt (the one thats in there already mounted in the top hole) for the max negative camber it will be able to do. It's not going to be much roughly around 1.?* neg.
4) Dont flip the rear camber plates, just have the alignment guy try and get close to around where stock is ( he should have those numbers available to him, off the top of my head I don't remember what they are).
5) Have him try to get your toe setting as close to zero (well stock numbers actually) as possible.
6) If the alignment guy does all that correctly, pay the man shake his hand, and go enjoy your car!! It's going to feel seriously different, and very, very, much improved if the above have been done correctly.
Location: JGM made it quick, I ought to clean it !
Posts: 9,355
Found this !
RB320 Geometry Setting
Road setting (Rear anti-roll bar in 2nd hole, nearest the end of the bar)
Values are read: minimum / preferred / maximum
Front Camber -1°20’ / -1°15’ / -1°10’
Front Toe-in (Total) 0°02’ / 0°06’ / 0°10’
Front Caster / 3°00’ (Referential value) /
Rear Camber -2°15’ / -1°30’ / -0°54’(Std Subaru tolerance)
Rear Toe-in (Total) 0°02’ / 0°60’ / 0°10’
Thrust angle -0°01’ / 0°00’ / 0°01’
HTH
dunx
P.S. Track setting
(Rear anti roll bar in 1st hole, nearest the mounting bush on the bar)
Values are read: preferred
Front Camber -1°30’(Maximum negative on adjustment)
Front Toe-in (Total) 0°06’
Front Caster 3°00’ (Referential value)
Rear Camber -1°30’(Standard Subaru)
Rear Toe-in (Total) 0°06’
Thrust angle 0°00’
Raising my Suspension a bit.....?
