juice14

So these are more comfy than stock, are they in any way oriented towards trackday drivign? or si this just a good way to go for street only use?

T-Rex06

iTrader: (12)

You can make them more comfortable than stock or set it for track events. Spring rates are decent, much better than most systems out for the F. For the money, they're good street/occasional track system. Ability to adjust compression and rebound independently is a plus. Majority of the coilover setups are single adjustable (rebound adjustment only).

If you want a more track friendly setup, you can get KW CS. CS comes with top hats and you can get custom spring rates and valving to match. Of course, the price of CS is exponentially higher. I'd rather go with Moton, JRZ or Ohlin if I were to go full track setup.

Terrance

ERDoc74

I have a 2011 ISF and just had my first ever track experience.... What a blast! I think I"m hooked and would like to do this on a "semi regular" basis. I have PPE headers, Joe Z intake and exhaust. My question is if the KW V3 coilovers would be a significant upgrade for track (and street) than my stock '11 suspension setup... I know they changed the suspension in the '11's quite a bit from the previous years and I understand that the KW's are a significant upgrade for these earlier models, but am still not clear if I would be gaining that much by getting these... Please inform!

T-Rex06

iTrader: (12)

^^ I'd upgrade the tires first. You can go 255/35 front and 285/30 in the rear if you're keeping stock rims. It'll make a huge difference.

Terrance

ERDoc74

I do plan on going to Michelin PSS's in the spring and will be using the stock wheels and going to 245's in the front and 275's in the rear...

john09ISF

T-Rex06's explanation of bump settings (1 sweep = 1/4 turn) is very helpful. This was not obvious to me when I read their documentation the first time and I ended up calling KW for clarification.

I experimented with different bump settings and as others have stated, the usable range is pretty narrow. I settled on one more sweep open than factory default: 0.75 turns open (3 sweeps) in the front, 1 turn open (4 sweeps) in the back.

I am still playing with the rebound settings. I have tried 6-8 clicks open in the front and 9-10 in the back. I am not sure which front to back ratio I like the most. I will not be going firmer than recommended.

Also, my bump adjustment does not click. No sound, no nothing. I have to rely on the sweeps.

I would not be happy going back to stock now that I experienced KW. As far as the 2011 goes, we need someone with KWs on their 2008-2010 to test drive an 011 and report back.

T-Rex06

iTrader: (12)

^^ Your current settings leans towards comfort. When you do spirited turns, you might experience fast side to side weight transfer in the front axle. F is quite front heavy, so you can try 2 sweeps in the front and leave the rebound at 6 clicks. That'll slow down the weight transfer a little bit so it'll feel a little bit more stable on turns.

For the rear, you can leave the bump setting you have now and try 8 clicks for rebound. It'll help a little bit with understeer. Of course, I'm under the impression that your car is lowered within the KW recommended range.

Terrance

ERDoc74

I called KW and the CS's aren't available for the IS-F... but he explained that there wouldn't be much difference in the CS vs the V3's in the IS-F's application and would have reccommended the V3's even if the CS's were available....

T-Rex06

iTrader: (12)

^^ Yes KW doesn't officially make CS for IS-F. But you can custom order it. Someone on this board had one. I believe it costs around $8k. If I'm not mistaken, you can get custom spring rates and they match the valving for CS.

Personally, for that kind of money, I won't get the KW. I'll look into Moton and pair them with Hyperco springs.

Terrance

john09ISF

You are correct, I feel the sway you are talking about. My KWs are within the correct height range, about 1/4" shy of the highest they recommend.

I will try those rebound settings and keep bump where it is for now. Partly because I want to experiment, and partly because changing the bump is a pain.

If I run with a big difference in bump front to back (.5 turn front, 1 turn rear), how do you think that would affect ride quality at highway speed on a rough road?

John

T-Rex06

iTrader: (12)

I agree that the bump setting is not the easiest thing to get to. I think the car is pretty heavy and I've tried keeping the front bump at 2 sweeps and rear at 4 sweeps (1 full turn). I felt the rear end isn't as stable as I would like especially on the rough roads on the freeways. The rear shocks seem to compress too fast causing instability. I've also tried 2 sweeps in the rear and I felt it's a tad too hard on the compression when paired with 7 clicks on the rebound. I find 2 sweeps in the rear to be a good compromise.

Currently, I'm at 1.5 sweeps in the front and 2 sweeps in the rear for bump. As for rebound, I'm at 5 clicks in the front and 7 clicks in the rear. Your ride comfort will vary greatly based on the ride height and the brand of tires you have. I hope this helps.

Terrance

Boofster

iTrader: (3)

I'm having a REALLY hard time adjusting these to my satisfaction. I'm almost to the point of considering removing them and going back to stock suspension. The gap doesn't seem too bad with 19" wheels anyway.

This is for a pure comfort setting in my case. Like T-REX, I have the S2000 w/KW's for all out race/canyon mode so the Lex needs to be in super soft cruise mode.

I tried the KW recommended settings and they are definitely too stiff for the broken roads around here. I don't want to feel every bump. I'm currently at 4 sweeps front and rear and 10f/12r rebound. It's ok at low speeds but freeway is too twitchy. There seems to be no good compromise.

john09ISF

Try closing the bump settings back down to the values KW recommends (2 sweeps front, 3 sweeps rear) and rebound at 8 clicks open in the front and 10 in the rear.

Boofster

iTrader: (3)

^ I will try that but I did drive it with stock settings for a bit. What happened is the whole body of the car took every bump absorption. I would think ideally you want the wheels to move up and down around bumps while the body remaining neutral (for non-perfomance application). This is why I'm thinking maybe the spring rates are just not correct for a DD ride

john09ISF

I am pretty sure the twitchiness on the freeway is due to the bump being open too far. I tried bump settings in that range and I had to close the rebound way down to make the car feel ok on the freeway, but I was never 100% happy with it.

Now I am back to the bump settings KW recommends with rebound a few clicks softer. Small bumps and road imperfections are absorbed nicely, but bigger bumps & potholes can be a bit jarring. I think this is partly due to the spring rate and partly the fact that we can only adjust the low speed bump. When the KWs hit a hard bump a bypass valve overrides the user selected bump setting.

The Tein setup is very soft, but I heard many bad things about their build quality so I never considered it.