KW V3 Ride Height, C & R, and Alignment Settings
#16
07-22-2010, 10:26 AM
I did roll my rear fenders. I had 15mm spacers on the rears but it was so close to the fender I bought another set of 7mm to give a little more room for the track. I was at the track this past weekend and didn't have any problems. The wider tires do make a difference even on the street. NT01's are R compound track tires.
#26
08-06-2010, 09:45 PM
I'm interested also in people's compression and rebound settings. The TT I recently picked up came set up with V3s. The ride is comfortable but cornering at high speeds feels a bit unstable and floaty. So, I would like to firm it up a little without sacrificing too much ride quality.
Should I play with the adjustments of both compression and rebound or just one?
Also, when I adjusted the rebound on the front, I didn't feel any "clicks", it just turned from stop to stop which was about 3 full turns. Should I be feeling detents for each point of adjustment?
Should I play with the adjustments of both compression and rebound or just one?
Also, when I adjusted the rebound on the front, I didn't feel any "clicks", it just turned from stop to stop which was about 3 full turns. Should I be feeling detents for each point of adjustment?
#28
10-19-2010, 07:44 PM
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fort Worth, TX
Posts: 100
Rep Power: 21 
KW V3 Baseline Settings
OK, here are some numbers from my installation. Car is an ’03 running OEM 18” size tires. These numbers should at least help with the initial ride height and baseline compression & rebound settings.
I was unsure as to what ride height I wanted, but ultimately decided to go with the GT2 spec ride height numbers. I DE the car and was looking to make it handle better as well as eliminate (or at least reduce) the understeer.
The factory service manual determines ride height by taking some measurements from some bolts heads in the front and back of the car (make sure you use the right measurement points). The KW instruction sheet pretty much instructs you to measure from the center of the wheel to the top of the fender arch. The KW method will get you in the ballpark but is much less accurate than using the factory measurement points.
For reference, my factory measurements when sitting on the stock suspension were 143mm (left) & 147mm (right) for the front, and 150mm (left) and 151mm (right) for the rear. For ref, the stated factory specs are 158mm +/- 10mm for the front, and 163mm +/- 10mm for the rear. My car sat noticeably higher in the front (as is typical for the stock suspension due to USA bumper height requirements). However, it sat lower than the factory specs both front and rear. My guess is that this is simply due to the original springs having excessive sag (the car has 56k miles on it). I also have the OEM front bumper lip. My stock clearance from the ground to the bottom of the lip was 142mm.
The GT2 spec heights are 118mm +5 (118 to 123) front, and 133 +5 (133 to 138) rear. Several folks I talked to said to allow for up to 5mm of additional settling as the springs settle in and sag. I therefore initially bumped up the stated settings by 5mm as I didn’t want the car to settle below the spec numbers. Using that 5mm number seemed to have worked out pretty well, as I let the car sit for a couple of weeks before doing the final height adjustments, and it did in fact settle down from 3 to 5mm depending on the corner of the car.
After the final tweaking of the spring perches, I wound up with 119mm in the front and 136mm in the rear. For reference, this equated to 339mm from the center of the front wheel to the bottom of the fender arch, and 355mm in the rear. My original OEM numbers were about 369mm front and 368mm rear. The KW spec sheet lists a range for the front of 325 - 345mm, and a range for the rear of 325 - 360mm. My front lip clearance (from the ground to the bottom of the lip) was reduced from 142mm to 122mm, and yes, it does drag more often than it used to!
The ride height is raised by increasing the preload on the spring (turning the preload collar so it compresses the spring). I had no idea, and no one else I talked to could give me any guidance either, as to where initially to set the preload collars as a baseline setting. Thus, I initially set the collars to the mid-spec position given in the KW instructions. Of course, then I had to put the wheels on, drop the car, take some measurements, and go from there. Here are some numbers that should help get you closer initially. On each shock body there is an area about 2mm below where the preload collar threads end. It’s basically just a line all the way around the shock body just before the threads start. If you want to be close to the GT2 ride height numbers, set the preload collars on the front so that the measurement from the line just below the threads to the bottom of the preload collar is 51.5mm. Set the back preload collar so the measurement is 45mm. From there, you’re going to have to install the struts, put the wheels on, drop the car, and take some measurements. Write everything down, jack the car back up, and start turning the collars. Realize that changing one corner will effect the other corners as well. For reference, each full turn of the preload collar will change the height of the car by about 2mm.
Here’s where I had to deviate from the KW spec sheet. The KW instructions also show a min and max measurement for how much thread on the shock body is showing below the spring preload collar. The range for the front is 20 - 40mm, and the range for the rear is 15 - 50mm. You’ll note that I am pretty far beyond the front spec (over by about 15mm). However, with the front preload collars set to the KW recommended max setting of 40mm, my front ride height was well below the GT2 spec.
After all was said and done, I had the car aligned and corner balanced. While my set up took quite a while (and I took all the measurements off my garage floor), there were only very small adjustments necessary in terms of the corner balance of the car (1/2 tank of gas and 200# in the drivers seat). I’m sure there was some luck involved on my part, but the initial balance of the car was 50.2% (R Rear - L Front) vs 49.8% (L Rear - R Front). I also went with the “mild” side of the GT2 alignment specs. The front is set up with just under -1.0 degree of camber, and about 0.07 deg of toe. The rear is set up about -1.85 deg of camber, and about 0.15 degree of toe. I also installed an H&R rear sway bar with AP drop links, and have that set up as “tight” as possible. The front sway bar remains stock.
In terms of compression and rebound settings, there was some wide variation in opinion, and I eventually just went with KW recommendations to start out. For compression, I went with the following:
Front; 1.25 turns open which was 7 clicks (total adjustability is 2 ½ turns or 14 clicks).
Rear; ¾ turn open which was 5 clicks (total adjustability is about 2 turns or 12 clicks).
For rebound, I used the following:
Front; 8 clicks open (total adjustability is about 3 turns or 18 clicks).
Rear; 8 clicks open (total adjustability is about 3 turns or 18 clicks).
Realize that you’ll have to jack the car or put it on a lift to change the compression settings. The rebound settings are made at the top of the shock body. The fronts are not too bad to access as you just have to remove some plastic trim pieces and remove the small black plastic cover in the center of the camber plate. The rears however, require you to take half of the back of the car apart for access, especially if you have the Bose subwoofer in the car.
Here’s what I can say about the ride. The car was transformed at the track. It is now very neutral and most (if not all) of the understeer is gone. There is significantly less PSM intervention when driven hard, and the car is much more planted and exhibits much less body roll. The ride on the street is noticeably more firm. Not kidney jarring, but it’s not a luxury ride either. I actually like it, but if you routinely drive on poor roads, you may tire of it pretty quickly. After my last DE event, I softened up the compression both front and rear by 2 clicks, and that softened up the ride just a little. I did not do anything with the rebound settings however, as with one more DE event coming this year, I didn’t feel like hassling with access to the rebound adjustments at this point.
I didn’t start out to write a novel, but hopefully some of the above will ease the installation and set-up workload.
Bill
I was unsure as to what ride height I wanted, but ultimately decided to go with the GT2 spec ride height numbers. I DE the car and was looking to make it handle better as well as eliminate (or at least reduce) the understeer.
The factory service manual determines ride height by taking some measurements from some bolts heads in the front and back of the car (make sure you use the right measurement points). The KW instruction sheet pretty much instructs you to measure from the center of the wheel to the top of the fender arch. The KW method will get you in the ballpark but is much less accurate than using the factory measurement points.
For reference, my factory measurements when sitting on the stock suspension were 143mm (left) & 147mm (right) for the front, and 150mm (left) and 151mm (right) for the rear. For ref, the stated factory specs are 158mm +/- 10mm for the front, and 163mm +/- 10mm for the rear. My car sat noticeably higher in the front (as is typical for the stock suspension due to USA bumper height requirements). However, it sat lower than the factory specs both front and rear. My guess is that this is simply due to the original springs having excessive sag (the car has 56k miles on it). I also have the OEM front bumper lip. My stock clearance from the ground to the bottom of the lip was 142mm.
The GT2 spec heights are 118mm +5 (118 to 123) front, and 133 +5 (133 to 138) rear. Several folks I talked to said to allow for up to 5mm of additional settling as the springs settle in and sag. I therefore initially bumped up the stated settings by 5mm as I didn’t want the car to settle below the spec numbers. Using that 5mm number seemed to have worked out pretty well, as I let the car sit for a couple of weeks before doing the final height adjustments, and it did in fact settle down from 3 to 5mm depending on the corner of the car.
After the final tweaking of the spring perches, I wound up with 119mm in the front and 136mm in the rear. For reference, this equated to 339mm from the center of the front wheel to the bottom of the fender arch, and 355mm in the rear. My original OEM numbers were about 369mm front and 368mm rear. The KW spec sheet lists a range for the front of 325 - 345mm, and a range for the rear of 325 - 360mm. My front lip clearance (from the ground to the bottom of the lip) was reduced from 142mm to 122mm, and yes, it does drag more often than it used to!
The ride height is raised by increasing the preload on the spring (turning the preload collar so it compresses the spring). I had no idea, and no one else I talked to could give me any guidance either, as to where initially to set the preload collars as a baseline setting. Thus, I initially set the collars to the mid-spec position given in the KW instructions. Of course, then I had to put the wheels on, drop the car, take some measurements, and go from there. Here are some numbers that should help get you closer initially. On each shock body there is an area about 2mm below where the preload collar threads end. It’s basically just a line all the way around the shock body just before the threads start. If you want to be close to the GT2 ride height numbers, set the preload collars on the front so that the measurement from the line just below the threads to the bottom of the preload collar is 51.5mm. Set the back preload collar so the measurement is 45mm. From there, you’re going to have to install the struts, put the wheels on, drop the car, and take some measurements. Write everything down, jack the car back up, and start turning the collars. Realize that changing one corner will effect the other corners as well. For reference, each full turn of the preload collar will change the height of the car by about 2mm.
Here’s where I had to deviate from the KW spec sheet. The KW instructions also show a min and max measurement for how much thread on the shock body is showing below the spring preload collar. The range for the front is 20 - 40mm, and the range for the rear is 15 - 50mm. You’ll note that I am pretty far beyond the front spec (over by about 15mm). However, with the front preload collars set to the KW recommended max setting of 40mm, my front ride height was well below the GT2 spec.
After all was said and done, I had the car aligned and corner balanced. While my set up took quite a while (and I took all the measurements off my garage floor), there were only very small adjustments necessary in terms of the corner balance of the car (1/2 tank of gas and 200# in the drivers seat). I’m sure there was some luck involved on my part, but the initial balance of the car was 50.2% (R Rear - L Front) vs 49.8% (L Rear - R Front). I also went with the “mild” side of the GT2 alignment specs. The front is set up with just under -1.0 degree of camber, and about 0.07 deg of toe. The rear is set up about -1.85 deg of camber, and about 0.15 degree of toe. I also installed an H&R rear sway bar with AP drop links, and have that set up as “tight” as possible. The front sway bar remains stock.
In terms of compression and rebound settings, there was some wide variation in opinion, and I eventually just went with KW recommendations to start out. For compression, I went with the following:
Front; 1.25 turns open which was 7 clicks (total adjustability is 2 ½ turns or 14 clicks).
Rear; ¾ turn open which was 5 clicks (total adjustability is about 2 turns or 12 clicks).
For rebound, I used the following:
Front; 8 clicks open (total adjustability is about 3 turns or 18 clicks).
Rear; 8 clicks open (total adjustability is about 3 turns or 18 clicks).
Realize that you’ll have to jack the car or put it on a lift to change the compression settings. The rebound settings are made at the top of the shock body. The fronts are not too bad to access as you just have to remove some plastic trim pieces and remove the small black plastic cover in the center of the camber plate. The rears however, require you to take half of the back of the car apart for access, especially if you have the Bose subwoofer in the car.
Here’s what I can say about the ride. The car was transformed at the track. It is now very neutral and most (if not all) of the understeer is gone. There is significantly less PSM intervention when driven hard, and the car is much more planted and exhibits much less body roll. The ride on the street is noticeably more firm. Not kidney jarring, but it’s not a luxury ride either. I actually like it, but if you routinely drive on poor roads, you may tire of it pretty quickly. After my last DE event, I softened up the compression both front and rear by 2 clicks, and that softened up the ride just a little. I did not do anything with the rebound settings however, as with one more DE event coming this year, I didn’t feel like hassling with access to the rebound adjustments at this point.
I didn’t start out to write a novel, but hopefully some of the above will ease the installation and set-up workload.
Bill
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
eclip5e
Automobiles For Sale
8
04-28-2022 12:38 AM
pshep138
Automobiles For Sale
3
09-01-2015 09:45 AM
