Adjustable Coilovers - Loose Shock Assembly and Spring Unloading

[EndlessAzure]

Hey all,

I've recently installed coil-overs (Tein Flex A) and have been adjusting ride height.

Before I put them on the car, I adjusted all of the coil-over reference dimensions and preload according to the installation manual. I torqued all of the nuts and bolts to specification. The only thing I didn't double check torque on were the spring seat, spring lock, and bracket lock (since they are tightened by the custom spanners). I made them as tight as I could.

Everything was kosher for the first few weeks, and I went about my way dialing in the ride height. When I went under the car several times. Nothing appeared to change that much from my original set-up (which I compared and a noted each time I took the wheels off).

Fast forward a couple of weeks: I began to notice that I was bottoming out at the front over moderate bumps (which did not occur before). I got back under car and noticed that the spring preload had pretty much come undone. However, the spring seat and spring lock hadn't come undone from each other and were tight as a unit. It appears like the entire spring assembly moved down (either over time or as part of a single incident).


EDIT: The cylinder assembly itself didn't appear to spin. The markings I put on the bracket lock and cylinder were still pretty much in-line. However, the distance between the spring lock and bracket lock were greatly reduced; this caused the spring to come down and unload. As a side-effect, it caused me to bottom-out more than usual and spurred my investigation (my ride height was made unideally lower and shock travel was reduced.)


Before and after looked something like this (with no intervention from myself):




How can I prevent this from happening again? Do I need to torque down the bracket lock (which holds the ride height adjustability) more?

UPDATE: after getting a professional alignment, the mechanic noted that he was able to tighten the spring seat and lock even more. He said I didn't appear to have done anything incorrect, as the two collars were already very snug. He commented that he was able to cinch them down tighter to his satisfaction (though he commented that the process was abnormally difficult for him). We weren't sure exactly why it was difficult, but I speculate the tolerance on the collar faces aren't the greatest. I obtained reference measurements and will continue to monitor them.
Thanks!

[mav1178]

This is a fact of life with coilover ownership, you have to check regularly.

Nothing you can do will truly prevent this.

[jbailey8748]

Originally Posted by mav1178

This is a fact of life with coilover ownership, you have to check regularly.

Nothing you can do will truly prevent this.

Big hard disagree there. My fortune auto 500 have never needed readjustment. 40k miles on them now.
I wonder op,how are you tightening the two cm nuts that position the bottom of the spring

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[8RZ]

Originally Posted by mav1178

This is a fact of life with coilover ownership, you have to check regularly.

Nothing you can do will truly prevent this.

I also disagree, even on my cheap shitty Megans I haven't had to re-tighten anything and I check them once every few months.

[BigTuna]

Are you sure you're adjusting ride height and not preload? Not to insult your intelligence if you are, but the 2 rings in the middle are for preload, and the whole assembly actually turns into the bottom to adjust ride height and is locked with the single ring on top of it.

The coilovers on my old car were the kind where these 2 rings did adjust height, and I was confused as well. After playing with them for a bit, I figured it out.



Also see this video:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u09hRYVS5o8"]How to Adjust Coilovers - YouTube[/ame]

[EndlessAzure]

Originally Posted by jbailey8748

Big hard disagree there. My fortune auto 500 have never needed readjustment. 40k miles on them now.
I wonder op,how are you tightening the two cm nuts that position the bottom of the spring

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

This was how I tightened them up initially:

I set-up the coilovers according to factory measurements. Using the spanner wrenches, I spin the top nut (spring seat) into the bottom nut (spring lock). They spin in opposite directions (essentially, the spring seat comes down on the spring lock) until they are snug against each other.

Originally Posted by BigTuna

Are you sure you're adjusting ride height and not preload? Not to insult your intelligence if you are, but the 2 rings in the middle are for preload, and the whole assembly actually turns into the bottom to adjust ride height and is locked with the single ring on top of it.

The coilovers on my old car were the kind where these 2 rings did adjust height, and I was confused as well. After playing with them for a bit, I figured it out.



Also see this video:

Thanks for sending additional information. I understood the process before hand. For ride height adjustment, I unlock the bottom "bracket lock" and spin the entire cylinder assembly for ride height adjustment. When the "bracket lock" isn't tightened, the spring seat and seat lock don't spin freely with respect to the cylinder assembly (as expected)


My problem is slightly different. I didn't touch the two middle preload rings, but over time they came down and eventually unloaded the spring while on the car.

[SpectreRT]

Did you only tighten them with the supplied tools? If so, thats not enough friction to keep them there. In general you'll need to use a screw driver and hammer (rubber mallet) to really get them together to keep them there.

[Cockatoo]

Yep, you need to torque down the perches more. Its a problem on some of the Tein units, use a torque wrench in combo with the spanner wrench. (The Tein spanners have a hole for a torque wrench)

The manual will state what torque values...

[mav1178]

Originally Posted by jbailey8748

Big hard disagree there. My fortune auto 500 have never needed readjustment. 40k miles on them now.
I wonder op,how are you tightening the two cm nuts that position the bottom of the spring

Originally Posted by 8RZ

I also disagree, even on my cheap shitty Megans I haven't had to re-tighten anything and I check them once every few months.

Just because you have no issues doesn't mean it won't happen.

Unless the coilover spring perches have a locking mechanism, it is possible that they will come loose over time.

I've owned about ... 50 or so different brands of coilovers over the last 20+ years. The general rule for adjustable coilover ownership is that you have to check them on a regular basis. Some are built more robust than others and have secondary mechanisms for locking.

I've also owned coilovers that never needed adjustment, but that doesn't mean I don't check it every month of street driving or so..

If you want an install-and-forget setup, you get nonadjustable springs/shocks.

-alex

[EndlessAzure]

Originally Posted by SpectreRT

Did you only tighten them with the supplied tools? If so, thats not enough friction to keep them there. In general you'll need to use a screw driver and hammer (rubber mallet) to really get them together to keep them there.

Would you have a diagram on how to hold/orient the tools to achieve that?

Originally Posted by Cockatoo

Yep, you need to torque down the perches more. Its a problem on some of the Tein units, use a torque wrench in combo with the spanner wrench. (The Tein spanners have a hole for a torque wrench)

The manual will state what torque values...

By "perch"" do you mean the locks/seats on the coilover cylinder??

[Cockatoo]

Originally Posted by EndlessAzure

Would you have a diagram on how to hold/orient the tools to achieve that?




By "perch"" do you mean the locks/seats on the coilover cylinder??

Yep. Perches/Collars

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[zc06_kisstherain]

mine was loose last time but i just re-tighten them and hammered(rubber) on wrench few times.

[SpectreRT]

Originally Posted by EndlessAzure

Would you have a diagram on how to hold/orient the tools to achieve that?

I dont. For my FA500 it was just wheels off, long/large flathead screw driver in a slot. Hammer away.

[EndlessAzure]

UPDATE: after getting a professional alignment, the mechanic noted that he was able to tighten the spring seat and lock even more. He said I didn't appear to have done anything incorrect, as the two collars were already very snug. He commented that he was able to cinch them down tighter ti his satisfaction (though he commented that the process was abnormally difficult for him). We weren't sure exactly why it was difficult, but I speculate the tolerance on the collar faces aren't the greatest. I obtained reference measurements and will continue to monitor them.