HKS Hipermax IV SP coilovers and height adjustment

[Torry@HKSUSA]

Originally Posted by Bach415

Well for me the weird thing is that it's coming from the front. The back has no noise at all.. What I realized was that the pre-load was set from factory for the rears when I received my coilovers but the fronts were not set all all. I brought this issue up a while back but Scott didn't really give me an answer now that I look back on it.

Edit: Maybe @Torry@HKSUSA have an idea or can chime in?

Was the spring loose, or just not compressed? As long as the spring wasn't loose when you received them, the should have been adjusted correctly out of the box. There shouldn't be any preload on the springs, except for enough to keep the spring from being loose.

The thing that makes the springs creak is vibration or movement between the spring and the spring perch. Two things come to mind that could be causing that. One is, if the spring was truly loose when you installed it, then it could be moving when you go over a bump.

The other, and the more likely, is that you have the car too low. Too much compression on the spring can cause it to bind, so when you go over a bump and the spring moves, it is binding on the perch.

Make sure that if you have made adjustments to the ride height you do so by turning the shock body and *not* adjusting preload on the spring.

[Bach415]

Originally Posted by Torry@HKSUSA

Was the spring loose, or just not compressed? As long as the spring wasn't loose when you received them, the should have been adjusted correctly out of the box. There shouldn't be any preload on the springs, except for enough to keep the spring from being loose.

The thing that makes the springs creak is vibration or movement between the spring and the spring perch. Two things come to mind that could be causing that. One is, if the spring was truly loose when you installed it, then it could be moving when you go over a bump.

The other, and the more likely, is that you have the car too low. Too much compression on the spring can cause it to bind, so when you go over a bump and the spring moves, it is binding on the perch.

Make sure that if you have made adjustments to the ride height you do so by turning the shock body and *not* adjusting preload on the spring.

Hello @Torry@HKSUSA,
When I got the coilovers brand new from the box, the springs on the front were completely loose. You were able to move the springs up and down ~2 inches between the lock and the camber plate and spin it. I had turn the lock perch that the spring sits on so that the spring is fit snug and doesn't move and lock with the 2nd perch. Also after installing and letting the coilovers sit in, I noticed that the fronts were higher than the rears at stock. I did lower it more but I still have about 1-1.5 inch gap from the tire(stock wheels) to the fender arch for the front. The sound was there even before I even lowered the car.

[Jdogg88]

Originally Posted by Bach415

Did your fronts come preset for the preload? Or did you have to set it? I kinda feel like it's a preload thing but then again not too sure. Or it could just be the end links that were supplied. Hard to see what is making the sound.

I had a shop install them but I think the readjusted preload to compensate for lowering slightly more than how they came out the box. Endlink wise, I put back on my whiteline adjustable front endlinks to get rid the binding

[_gt86_user]

Mine were all set with the same measurements the instructions say they shipped them with, I double checked all the preload, measured the thread length and everything checked out down to the millimeter, if yours were loose out of the box then someone forgot to set them or whoever was selling them may have messed around with the set to see how the quality was.

[Bach415]

Originally Posted by _gt86_user

Mine were all set with the same measurements the instructions say they shipped them with, I double checked all the preload, measured the thread length and everything checked out down to the millimeter, if yours were loose out of the box then someone forgot to set them or whoever was selling them may have messed around with the set to see how the quality was.

It was bought brand new from moto-east. I'm re-do the suspension and see what happens what I get the time

[Apexer]

I just installed mine today, and I haven't heard any noises yet.

What settings are you guys using? Anyone autocross with these?

[Torry@HKSUSA]

Originally Posted by Bach415

Hello @Torry@HKSUSA,
When I got the coilovers brand new from the box, the springs on the front were completely loose. You were able to move the springs up and down ~2 inches between the lock and the camber plate and spin it. I had turn the lock perch that the spring sits on so that the spring is fit snug and doesn't move and lock with the 2nd perch. Also after installing and letting the coilovers sit in, I noticed that the fronts were higher than the rears at stock. I did lower it more but I still have about 1-1.5 inch gap from the tire(stock wheels) to the fender arch for the front. The sound was there even before I even lowered the car.

That is unusual. The springs should not have been loose out of the box. I'm not sure exactly what to tell you to eliminate the problem other than to try raising the car back up a little.

[Torry@HKSUSA]

Originally Posted by Jdogg88

I had a shop install them but I think the readjusted preload to compensate for lowering slightly more than how they came out the box. Endlink wise, I put back on my whiteline adjustable front endlinks to get rid the binding

Preload on the springs should not be adjusted to change the ride height. Ride height should be adjusted by threading the shock body into the mounting point, not adjusting preload.

[[YOYO]]

Originally Posted by Bach415

@[YOYO] Just wondering, do you have creaking noise coming from the suspension when you go over speed bumps slowly? The noise will sound like an old spring bed.

Sorry about the late reply, but no, I had no such issue.

Currently I'm lowered at about 39mm, with a bit of rake in the back (the back being about 5mm higher than the front). The HKS manual recommends not lowering the car more than 42mm in the front as these are MacPherson struts. This translates into 17mm of free thread between the locking spring and the locking bracket. It does sound like you're ride height setup is in line with this, but I can take a photo of the manual and the above info for you if you would like.

One thing that does bother me about the coilover package are the spanners that are shipped with them. At first they looked solid and well made but I soon realized that they didn't fit all that well over the locking perches / rings, and tended to chew away at them, which made me a bit annoyed as these are brand new coilovers, and having to fine tune the ride heights a number of times took some of the lustre away from them. I finally remembered that I had some old spanner wrenches from another coilover set lying around, and they fit like a glove. I'm not sure what HKS was thinking with their spanners. Wish I could get some new locking brackets for my rear (I cleaned them up and touched them up with paint, but they're still not NEW and I'm anal about this sort of stuff)...

[Bach415]

Originally Posted by [YOYO]

Sorry about the late reply, but no, I had no such issue.

Currently I'm lowered at about 39mm, with a bit of rake in the back (the back being about 5mm higher than the front). The HKS manual recommends not lowering the car more than 42mm in the front as these are MacPherson struts. This translates into 17mm of free thread between the locking spring and the locking bracket. It does sound like you're ride height setup is in line with this, but I can take a photo of the manual and the above info for you if you would like.

A picture of the manual & above info would be nice. Please and thank you!

[Torry@HKSUSA]

If you're looking for the installation manual, please see attached. The second half of the book is in English.

[[YOYO]]

Originally Posted by Bach415

A picture of the manual & above info would be nice. Please and thank you!

Originally Posted by Torry@HKSUSA

If you're looking for the installation manual, please see attached. The second half of the book is in English.

Beat me to it. That's the exact manual that I have, but in .pdf format.

[xr1ck]

Just got a set of the Hipermax IV sp, I've installed them without any changes to the coils but still seem to be getting that creaking sound from the front. Any help?

[Bach415]

Originally Posted by xr1ck

Just got a set of the Hipermax IV sp, I've installed them without any changes to the coils but still seem to be getting that creaking sound from the front. Any help?

The creaking sound never went away for me for the fronts despite changing ride height, preload, and re-installing the whole fronts. I'm just thinking it's probably the stiffness of the springs that is causing the creaking noise. I ended up just switching to another set of coilovers which eliminated the possibility of it being the end links (still running the same end links that came with the HKS suspension).