Eibach GT performance springs on a 4xer

[Dysan911]

@azerik - Hey Erik, What setting did you dial in on your Koni's? I decided to pull the trigger on a set to smooth out the rear as I feel it could use a tad more improvement on some roads around me. Seeing as you have the Eibachs and sways too, I was just wondering if you found a rebound setting on the Koni's that you've been really happy with lately

Thanks!

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[azerik]

Somewhere between 1 to 1.5 turns. Streets around here are like a war zone though. I’m fiddling again because I just swapped tires to P Zero AS+’s and they’re a firmer sidewall. The Koni’s will induce a bit more compression firmness over sharp bumps. You’ll also notice when the rear tire pressure is lower than about 40, the Koni’s will hold the rear more, inducing a bit of tire bounce when the pressure is low. These P Zero’s seem to be great right around 41.

 

[Dysan911]

Somewhere between 1 to 1.5 turns. Streets around here are like a war zone though. I’m fiddling again because I just swapped tires to P Zero AS+’s and they’re a firmer sidewall. The Koni’s will induce a bit more compression firmness over sharp bumps. You’ll also notice when the rear tire pressure is lower than about 40, the Koni’s will hold the rear more, inducing a bit of tire bounce when the pressure is low. These P Zero’s seem to be great right around 41.

Ahh ok thank you!. I am still on the stock Conti Cross Contact. I think I'm running my pressure around 38ish cold. So when it comes to setting that 1.5 setting on the Koni's. I saw this from Mark

" Take the supplied adjusting dial and turn clockwise (-) all the way until it stops. It is usually at this setting from the factory. Now turn counterclockwise (+) 2 full turns. This is the maximum rebound setting "

So...

I'll start off by turning them clockwise (-) until I can't turn it anymore. Then Turn it in the other direction (Counterclockwise +) 1 and a half turns. Is that correct?

B.

 

[azerik]

Yep. I've left the dome cap off mine for now, but we don't get rain here really so there's not much of a chance of something getting up inside that top shock mount for me, just makes it easier to adjust. At 1.5 the back end is still sway'y. It's less than the stock shocks but enough give for me to not feel every inch of expansion joint on my drive. Tires and pressure will make differences, even from morning to afternoon.

 

[Dysan911]

Yep. I've left the dome cap off mine for now, but we don't get rain here really so there's not much of a chance of something getting up inside that top shock mount for me, just makes it easier to adjust. At 1.5 the back end is still sway'y. It's less than the stock shocks but enough give for me to not feel every inch of expansion joint on my drive. Tires and pressure will make differences, even from morning to afternoon.

Mine is so odd that on Concrete highways around here, the ride is absolutely amazing but when I get on sections of asphalt roads, even some recently paved, it feels like the rear suspension is sort of soft and maybe drops quicker than it needs to over bumps which definitely makes it feel out of sync with the front. I"m hoping the Koni's will eliminate this and balance things out a bit more.

 

[txaggies07]

I can vouch for the sway bars for sure. An amazing improvement in handling and left-right stability.

you, @markboris , and @azerik are all costing me time and money. My wife would appreciate it if y'all would stop posting.

 

[azerik]

Mine is so odd that on Concrete highways around here, the ride is absolutely amazing but when I get on sections of asphalt roads, even some recently paved, it feels like the rear suspension is sort of soft and maybe drops quicker than it needs to over bumps which definitely makes it feel out of sync with the front. I"m hoping the Koni's will eliminate this and balance things out a bit more.

The lighter 1st stage of the rear springs might be just a touch too light. I've been trying to dial out that floaty'ness on some of the roads around here. I have 1 section on the way into the office (only in a specific lane) that is a harmonic wave paved into the road. The front handles it a bit too much and the rear feels a bit loose. But I'll take that over it's previous ride quality. The biggest issue with this suspension is the fact we're having to tame all of it with about 1.5 inches of shock travel. We 'need' the first 1/2 inch to be dual rate as well, this can be done on externally adjustable shocks like FOX but there's about no way it could be done in this car. It'd require the likes of the Viking/QA1 4 way adjustable. Problem there is the near $750 a shock cost and they use a urethane bushing which makes noise. The 4 ways have a high and low speed compression and rebound adjustment. So you could firm up the low speed while being able to absorb the shock of something high speed like a pot hole. That 1/2 inch doesn't move enough to allow such a thing sadly. So far with the Koni's dialed above 1.75 turns all it does is annoy the high speed shock movement, making expansion joints, speedbumps harsher. I've found a couple spots that might be a bit bouncier with the Eibach GT Springs but they are few and far between. But going from the stock shocks to Koni's it'll slow that bounce, it won't be gone but it should be a good improvement over the water filled plastic shocks off a Tamiya Hornet from the 80's. (These shocks arn't water filled but if some one handed me one and asked who made them, I'd point at my kid brother)

One thing I've been able to see a world of difference on is getting rid of the Conti RX's. Now that I'm 1000 miles into a new set of PZero AS+'s so much unneeded noise is gone from the cabin and I can even run the tires lower. The RX's I had to run over 41psi or the car would swobble. With these PZero's I can run them down to 35 psi before they swobble. However there is drawbacks to running them that low. They seems to need to be at 40 to 42 in order to keep the suspension doing the work. I've not had luck running a staggered PSI since I departed from the 19's with AS3's. From what I can see it should put the whole car back into time if the fronts are around 42 and rear is about 40. It's 109 out so I'm not planning on doing that right now but I will say ditching the RX's and getting a foam lined tire got rid of the terrible cabin echo over expansion joints. And over all the PZERO's even at 41 take expansion joints like a pro.

The reason I came back to this thread was to update about the springs and the ability the car now has to take a washboard dirt road at 25 to 35mph and not knock the teeth out of your head. I was astounded, the road I had to do about 15mph on last year I was pushing 40 at times this year and the car was just utterly happy about it.

 

[bbrett]

I put on the Eibach Sport lines, and front and rear and roll bars. 4xE

 

[Dysan911]

The lighter 1st stage of the rear springs might be just a touch too light. I've been trying to dial out that floaty'ness on some of the roads around here. I have 1 section on the way into the office (only in a specific lane) that is a harmonic wave paved into the road. The front handles it a bit too much and the rear feels a bit loose. But I'll take that over it's previous ride quality. The biggest issue with this suspension is the fact we're having to tame all of it with about 1.5 inches of shock travel. We 'need' the first 1/2 inch to be dual rate as well, this can be done on externally adjustable shocks like FOX but there's about no way it could be done in this car. It'd require the likes of the Viking/QA1 4 way adjustable. Problem there is the near $750 a shock cost and they use a urethane bushing which makes noise. The 4 ways have a high and low speed compression and rebound adjustment. So you could firm up the low speed while being able to absorb the shock of something high speed like a pot hole. That 1/2 inch doesn't move enough to allow such a thing sadly. So far with the Koni's dialed above 1.75 turns all it does is annoy the high speed shock movement, making expansion joints, speedbumps harsher. I've found a couple spots that might be a bit bouncier with the Eibach GT Springs but they are few and far between. But going from the stock shocks to Koni's it'll slow that bounce, it won't be gone but it should be a good improvement over the water filled plastic shocks off a Tamiya Hornet from the 80's. (These shocks arn't water filled but if some one handed me one and asked who made them, I'd point at my kid brother)

One thing I've been able to see a world of difference on is getting rid of the Conti RX's. Now that I'm 1000 miles into a new set of PZero AS+'s so much unneeded noise is gone from the cabin and I can even run the tires lower. The RX's I had to run over 41psi or the car would swobble. With these PZero's I can run them down to 35 psi before they swobble. However there is drawbacks to running them that low. They seems to need to be at 40 to 42 in order to keep the suspension doing the work. I've not had luck running a staggered PSI since I departed from the 19's with AS3's. From what I can see it should put the whole car back into time if the fronts are around 42 and rear is about 40. It's 109 out so I'm not planning on doing that right now but I will say ditching the RX's and getting a foam lined tire got rid of the terrible cabin echo over expansion joints. And over all the PZERO's even at 41 take expansion joints like a pro.

The reason I came back to this thread was to update about the springs and the ability the car now has to take a washboard dirt road at 25 to 35mph and not knock the teeth out of your head. I was astounded, the road I had to do about 15mph on last year I was pushing 40 at times this year and the car was just utterly happy about it.

I've come to acknowledge that the Koni's are not a 100% fix. Even with the Eibach springs.

I started off with the 1.50 setting as you recommended and felt a slight improvement. I have a few places near the house where I typically tense up for the overly bouncy section of roadway and this time you could sort of feel there was more resistance to dip/bounce. However other places it almost felt like no change at all so I increased to the full 2.0 and tried that for a couple of days. Felt even more effort in that resistance to bounce but noticeably a rougher ride.
From there I started backing it off a little and found 1.75 to be the sweet spot for me.

I find if I stop thinking about the ride and obessing over it I don't really even notice it. There are some places that are very smooth and amazing and then just some that appear they should be perfect that drive me crazy with the back end feeling like bounces unnecessarily. Just looking out the back window you can seeing it going up and down and now I look to see if other SUV's and cars are doing this. Usually not.

 

[PalsyWalsy]

I put on the Eibach Sport lines, and front and rear and roll bars. 4xE

Your impressions? What wheels are those and size? Yours looks like it lowered more than mine with the GT sportline (but mine is on a GT). The wheel wells look close to the tire.

I put mine on about a month ago and waited to get plenty of drive time in before posting about it. will post pictures and info later.

 

[azerik]

Just looking out the back window you can seeing it going up and down and now I look to see if other SUV's and cars are doing this. Usually not.

This is the way. And what i've done for the last year. It usually ends up being "wow that Y is all over the place' or 'even the Lexus GX's are bouncing so it's probably not that bad'. But honestly if you're running the Conti's you're hearing more which drove me to monitor more. I've started being able to tune out a lot of imperfections because I don't hear them all the time now. I used to be annoyed my '12 FFE with a dead suspension rode nicer, now I know my MME rides nicer than it, and it's got 225 70's.

 

[Dysan911]

This is the way. And what i've done for the last year. It usually ends up being "wow that Y is all over the place' or 'even the Lexus GX's are bouncing so it's probably not that bad'. But honestly if you're running the Conti's you're hearing more which drove me to monitor more. I've started being able to tune out a lot of imperfections because I don't hear them all the time now. I used to be annoyed my '12 FFE with a dead suspension rode nicer, now I know my MME rides nicer than it, and it's got 225 70's.

LOL!. Yep. "Oh wow this road is bouncy! Is that other SUV ahead of me bouncing? Yep. it is!.
YES!"

 

[bbrett]

Your impressions? What wheels are those and size? Yours looks like it lowered more than mine with the GT sportline (but mine is on a GT). The wheel wells look close to the tire.

I put mine on about a month ago and waited to get plenty of drive time in before posting about it. will post pictures and info later.

They're 22" HRE FF10 Flowform Wheels - I'm happy with ride quality, but shitty California freeways I can feel/hear the rear when hitting bumps on freeway at higher speeds. But with the front and rear anti-roll bars car corners awesome!

 

[bbrett]

Was the the second car at the entrance of the HRE OPEN House 2 weeks ago, so it got lots of looks.

 

[azerik]

If ever there was wheels I’d buy, it’d be HRE’s. You don’t work for them do you?

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