A discussion on improving ride quality

[KoolBRZ]

Originally Posted by sam69

I found the stock suspension prettybad as we live in the country with some crap roads .
I could put up with it but my wife used to avoid getting into the car as much as possible due to an old neck injury.

Looked around for a fair while and was offered a really good deal on a set of Tog coilovers so decided to give them a go and must say I'm rather impressed with the difference in ride comfort while set to comfort / soft out of the 32 possible settings.

Wifey finds it sooooo much better and has no issue at all now with getting into it to go to town or whatever .

They do bottom out on some bigger pot holes etc but you tend to hear it far more than you feel it where as before it was the other way round although you still heard it but not as bad.
Hope that helps for those looking for options to improve your ride.

The TOG coilovers look good. They have adjustable mounts, so they don't lose shock travel or top out. The compression damping doesn't appear to be adjustable however, and compression damping is usually where manufacturers make their mistake in making damping too firm for low-speed street bumps. (I'm talking about 25 MPH sewer-lid head-bob here.) They say they are made for Australia's type of road. Potholes, in other words. Compression damping might be too stiff, in order to prevent bottoming out on potholes. I wouldn't trust the compression damping to be set for MY comfort, that's why I want adjustable compression damping, so I can set them up the way I like it.

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by KoolBRZ

KW V3's didn't work for me for several reasons. I need at least stock ground clearance for gravel driveways, and the V3's are designed to be lowered at least 1" from stock height. The mounts aren't adjustable, only the spring perch, so lowering any more loses shock travel, and raising causes the shocks to top out. A shitty design, they only work well at a certain height. All coilovers should have threaded mounts.

I disagree with this.

- Andy

[sam69]

Originally Posted by KoolBRZ

The TOG coilovers look good. They have adjustable mounts, so they don't lose shock travel or top out. The compression damping doesn't appear to be adjustable however, and compression damping is usually where manufacturers make their mistake in making damping too firm for low-speed street bumps. (I'm talking about 25 MPH sewer-lid head-bob here.) They say they are made for Australia's type of road. Potholes, in other words. Compression damping might be too stiff, in order to prevent bottoming out on potholes. I wouldn't trust the compression damping to be set for MY comfort, that's why I want adjustable compression damping, so I can set them up the way I like it.

The damping adjustment does both compression and rebound on the Tog coilovers so even at low speeds like in the suburbs where you get water drainage sump grates etc they soak those up waaaay better than stock.

Must crank them up to the hardest setting one of these days and see what they're like but I think they will be pretty firm.

[quality_sound]

Originally Posted by KoolBRZ

KW V3's didn't work for me for several reasons. I need at least stock ground clearance for gravel driveways, and the V3's are designed to be lowered at least 1" from stock height. The mounts aren't adjustable, only the spring perch, so lowering any more loses shock travel, and raising causes the shocks to top out. A shitty design, they only work well at a certain height. All coilovers should have threaded mounts.

It's a performance suspension. Unless you have some springs custom made you're going to lose ride height.

[Captain Snooze]

Originally Posted by KoolBRZ

A shitty design, they only work well at a certain height. All coilovers should have threaded mounts.

For a given car all coilovers only work well at a certain height. The height of the damper dictates how much droop and how much bump travel the wheel has. The reason there are base adjusters is for economy of scale. Height adjustment should be done with springs and perch.

Originally Posted by quality_sound

It's a performance suspension. Unless you have some springs custom made you're going to lose ride height.

Why would you need to have springs custom made given the huge choice offered by Hyperco, Eibach, Swift et al.

[NissanGuy]

My Perrin motor mounts improved the ride quality, same as on my Altima.

I'll show myself out.

[quality_sound]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

Why would you need to have springs custom made given the huge choice offered by Hyperco, Eibach, Swift et al.

Because ALL of those lower the car. He said he needed at least OEM ride height.

[Captain Snooze]

Originally Posted by quality_sound

Because ALL of those lower the car. He said he needed at least OEM ride height.

Huh? Just looking at the Swift US website under 60mm dia there are 5,6,7,8,9 inch free length springs and under 65mm dia there are 5,6,7,8,9,10,11 inch free length springs. In the more common lengths the rates start at 4kg/mm. I'm not sure that a 9 inch spring at 5kg/mm would lower the car.

Take your pick.
http://www.swiftsprings.com/products...r-springs.html
http://www.swiftsprings.com/products...prings-65.html .

The other 2 manufactures offer a similar range.

[wparsons]

Free length is only part of the equation. If the shocks are shorter than stock you'll be giving up a lot of droop travel to raise it up to stock height (or higher).

[EAGLE5]

The stock suspension has a pretty good amount of droop travel. Stock shocks and an inch or inch and a half longer springs with stock stiffness would ride quite a bit higher but then you'd stay off the bump stops for more bumps and the suspension frequency might lead to a better ride.

Also, other factors affect how we perceive the car's ride. Try sitting more upright. Try to lower the sound volume, through matting and other measures. Big sports sedans can often get away with shitty rides by just being quiet. My kids almost never get carsick in my FR-S, but they constantly felt ill in the 550i Sport and often in my wife's Forester. I think a big part of it is how far upright they have to sit in the FR-S. A lack of wallowing is also good, but the 550i didn't wallow much. Damn stiff, actually.

[Sellout]

Did the OP ever find a suspension option that works? I'm kinda in the same boat but I haven't tried as many setups.

[calmtigers]

I never got an answer here, why don't you go Air? You don't need to slam. You have options and it's comfortable as fuck with the right set up

[KoolBRZ]

Originally Posted by Sellout

Did the OP ever find a suspension option that works? I'm kinda in the same boat but I haven't tried as many setups.

If you don't mind a lower ride, I'll sell you my K3's. They are adjustable for compression and rebound. The compression is always too stiff, so you can adjust these to compensate. The ride height is supposed to be at the center of shock travel, so I think you have a 1 - 1.5" drop with these.

[KoolBRZ]

Originally Posted by calmtigers

I never got an answer here, why don't you go Air? You don't need to slam. You have options and it's comfortable as fuck with the right set up

I have airlift digital, and I loved the air controls and adjustable shock mounts. The combination of airbag resistance and compression dampening was too stiff though. I got WAY too much road feel! I'm sure my Michelin PSS2's were a contributing factor though. If they had adjustable compression dampening they would have been perfect.