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Sorry to bump an old thread, but I am experiencing similar results. The rear has a jacking feel over humps, as if there isn't enough suspension travel.
I am also on full soft which rides great on smooth road and over very small bumps but over humps or a large bump the rear is almost jumping back up to recover from that hump.
Today I plan to try to turn it to full stiff, drive a few miles, then start to adjust in reverse back down to soft.
If that doesn't work I'll try messing with the preloaded and raising the rear spring in hopes of extendind the shock a little and giving it more support from the spring.
Does this sound like either of these could work based on your experience CL?
Here is a pic of how much shorter the rear BCs are compared to stock, and a pic of the car.
Wow, while I'm no expert in this field, but just by looking at it kind of tells you why it's performing like that.
This car is a heavy boat and to maintain the suspension movement limits while also shrinking the overall length to that extent would tell me that those springs must be very, very stiff by comparison. I mean everything has to be ultra stiff, the piston and spring if it is hold that weight and limit movement while shrinking it down that much.
Just basic physics I guess. They know the movement limits of the suspension, they shrink it down and have to stiffen it up accordingly to maintain that.
Here's another way to look at it: say our cars are designed with a maximum of five inches of suspension movement (I have no idea what it really is) before it hits the bump stops. If the new coilovers are three inches shorter, then that means the overall movement limit just shrunk and the maximum allowable movement is now two inches, which means everything has to be stiffened up to maintain that.
Wow, while I'm no expert in this field, but just by looking at it kind of tells you why it's performing like that.
This car is a heavy boat and to maintain the suspension movement limits while also shrinking the overall length to that extent would tell me that those springs must be very, very stiff by comparison. I mean everything has to be ultra stiff, the piston and spring if it is hold that weight and limit movement while shrinking it down that much.
Just basic physics I guess. They know the movement limits of the suspension, they shrink it down and have to stiffen it up accordingly to maintain that.
Here's another way to look at it: say our cars are designed with a maximum of five inches of suspension movement (I have no idea what it really is) before it hits the bump stops. If the new coilovers are three inches shorter, then that means the overall movement limit just shrunk and the maximum allowable movement is now two inches, which means everything has to be stiffened up to maintain that.
Car looks very nice, though.
While it should be stiffer, it still shouldn't behave the way it is behaving. This is from my experience working with my previous LS400 which was just as low and rode better. That tells me something is wrong with my settings.
I would double check that pre-load is adjusted correctly. Did you pre-load the suspension prior to tightening the bolts? If not, you'll want to loosen up the lower strut bolt, jack up the suspension so its under load and tighten the bolt to spec. Check out you-tube videos of tightening suspension bolts under load.
If you don't set preload correctly your suspension is going to feel off. You should adjust the locking collar just enough so that there is no vertical play in the spring between the mount and the adjusters. Once you have that set, tighten the locking collars. You can adjust this while the shocks are on the car, simply let the suspension hang down, loosen the lock collar, then bring the spring perch so it's just snug, then bring the second locking collar and tighten it. Verify that the spring doesn't move up or down. This is zero preload.
You should also verify that there is no binding in the travel (do this by loosening the collars all the way so that the spring is out of the way of the suspension travel, then raise and lower the arm to verify that nothing is binding), but it may simply be a matter of the rear spring being too stiff.
Take the rears out and redo your preload. You should be using 4mm to 5mm of preload. BC has a Youtube vid that is a great reference
Originally Posted by is150
I would double check that pre-load is adjusted correctly. Did you pre-load the suspension prior to tightening the bolts? If not, you'll want to loosen up the lower strut bolt, jack up the suspension so its under load and tighten the bolt to spec. Check out you-tube videos of tightening suspension bolts under load.
Originally Posted by NickTee
If you don't set preload correctly your suspension is going to feel off. You should adjust the locking collar just enough so that there is no vertical play in the spring between the mount and the adjusters. Once you have that set, tighten the locking collars. You can adjust this while the shocks are on the car, simply let the suspension hang down, loosen the lock collar, then bring the spring perch so it's just snug, then bring the second locking collar and tighten it. Verify that the spring doesn't move up or down. This is zero preload.
You should also verify that there is no binding in the travel (do this by loosening the collars all the way so that the spring is out of the way of the suspension travel, then raise and lower the arm to verify that nothing is binding), but it may simply be a matter of the rear spring being too stiff.
Guys I can't thank y'all enough, I will try to adjust the pre-load and go from there. I'll keep you all post, had the mother in-law in the back seat tonight and she was mumbling prayers, lol.
As a future note to those that may read this: this is the reason I prefer lowering springs to coilovers on a DD: you can still maintain a smooth ride thanks to the bore and valving of the OEM shock, while gaining addition downstroke in exchange for losing some upstroke travel. As can be seen with these coilovers, there is complete loss of travel. I've gone down both roads, so to speak, and even going through the tedious motions of perfecting the setup on coilovers still yields a fairly rough ride.
You may consider selling the coilovers and just doing drop springs.
As a future note to those that may read this: this is the reason I prefer lowering springs to coilovers on a DD: you can still maintain a smooth ride thanks to the bore and valving of the OEM shock, while gaining addition downstroke in exchange for losing some upstroke travel. As can be seen with these coilovers, there is complete loss of travel. I've gone down both roads, so to speak, and even going through the tedious motions of perfecting the setup on coilovers still yields a fairly rough ride.
You may consider selling the coilovers and just doing drop springs.
Unfortunately springs just don't do it for me ascetically. I'll go through the tedious process once for happiness the remainder of this cars life with me. I've generally had great experience with coilovers on my last LS and other cars I have owned and I'm sure once I get this one setup properly, i'll enjoy this one too.
I will keep everyone posted on the ride comfort once I get the suspension dialed in. I will also share my settings for thosebof you who want coils but don't know where to set them for the most comfortable ride.
What rims are those if I may ask? Kind of look like OZ Italias, which I was looking at. Are they considered black machined. I'm really interested in the color description.
Yeah, I agree, your LS looks very clean and sharp at that height. Although Personally, I would never do that myself, not at my age, but I do like that look. I value that comfort slightly more than looks lol.
What rims are those if I may ask? Kind of look like OZ Italias, which I was looking at. Are they considered black machined. I'm really interested in the color description.
Yeah, I agree, your LS looks very clean and sharp at that height. Although Personally, I would never do that myself, not at my age, but I do like that look. I value that comfort slightly more than looks lol.
They are Asanti AF145 gloss black and chrome accents: 22x9 and 22x10.5
Trust me I understand valuing comfort, personally I'm will to give up some comfort for the look I want.
Thank you for adding another perspective to this thread.
Well guys I am very happy to report, after adjusting the preload to 4mm, the ride is BMW 7 series smooth.
I relate it to a 7 series because those cars don't ride as smoothly as our cars but have a sporty feel when being pushed. My LS now feels that way and I am loving it.
The jarring feeling is gone and even on NYC streets it soaking up the bumps well.
01-09-16, 04:13 AM
