Function and form way way too slammed in front
 

Ordered a set of 14/10kgmm fnf 2s. Rears are just fine.
fronts..well fronts are ridiculous. As in when they are fully threaded in cant even raise the LCA enough to put a bolt thru the lower eyelet.
Under its own weight with only 0.5" threaded into the lower mount i have like .75" before the uca slaps the body which happens easy if i just bounce it on the ground. Completely undriveable, and threaded out further than the 1" maximum recommended.
i do have 30mm RCAc i removed them (i dont want to as the tie rod angle is extreme without them) and im stoll maxed out on how high i can u thread..
to ke these springs seem way way too soft..even thoigh its a 14. They compress over 3" just setting under their own weight...are my fronts not the right springs? Did i get the wrong lower mounts??

full dropp woth 1.5" threaded into lower mount

Attachment 414301

under its own weight. I slap the uca on the body (i do have clearance holes) just bouncing it myself
Attachment 414302


tried a stock wheel
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i had same issue with mine as well man! I'm not the only one.

I guess the preload comes out of adjustment from the factory? I don't understand. We had to adjust my preload quite a bit so it wasn't laying frame in the front.

My fronts don't seem to ride as well either

tyes pre loaded from the factory. I tried resetting preload to the factory recommended 5 mm, same thing. I pre loaded it up to 20, it raised it maybe 0.25"...Im still laying on the inner fender...
Yes they will not ride ncie if you have a bunch of pre load on them.
Something is not right. Either these spring rates are not 14kg/mm or the lower body/threaded shock body are way too short. Need to wait till 9 am pacific will give them a ring and see whats up...

Cool, keep me posted on that. Definitely not impressed with the way they are riding lol. I didn't expect the greatest of ride quality from Chinese coilovers.........but better than this!

mine are the same, coils are all the way up with 30mm RCAs. I had to do the UCA holes as well and full stiff on the dampening settings, undersized to 235/45/17 and I have a couple hundred pounds out of the car.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4171/3...bf860796_z.jpg

The thing to try is to get the superpro adjustable endlinks, I think that should tighten them up a bit and reduce the amount of travel in the coils. I thought 14k would be stiffer too but I think there is just too much weight up front.

^how do they feel for you? you say jsut the fronts ride weird?
Im expecting firm but not harsh. I had bags before which rode very soft (i only ran them at half the max psi) but since these coils supposedly are designed to slam i expect it to ride stiff so it doesnt bottom out.
Like i can bounce my front end with my hands and my UCA is slapping the inner fender...when i hit any dip out in these detroit streets some bad **** is going to happen...

Shoudlnt have to be compensating for ride height with overtorsioned sway bar links, thats jsut bad and will create poor driving dynamics...I will report back with what they say....shoulda jsut gone witht eh tried and true megans..

They do feel soft. my Genesis coupe only had standard BC 5k spring rate in front and it felt stiffer than these 14k. 3.8 GC is not much lighter than an LS



just a band-aid until I can afford to get something stiffer. Super-pros are thicker and adjustable so as slammed as the car is I could get the sway back to the stock position. Right now I believe (if my mental image is correct), the sway is pushed upward changing the angle.

right. my buddy has 10k springs on the rear of his mr2 and you can hardly push that thing down at all...to me..these do not feel anywhere near a 14k. Maybe like a 4...

tech support was helpful. Says he will be mailing me out longer shock bodies. I asked for a minimum of 75mm longer, hes getting me 85mm longer.
He says they are still most likely 14k springs...said can go to a 16k easily (they will be cominfg out with a 16k kit for the 430 soon, but not soon enough that i can swap springs right now), up to 16k is totally fine, 18k pushing it, and anything over that the shocks will get worn prematurely.
Ill jsut send my old bodies back once i get the new ones hopefully this week, and I will report back.
I do like that the shocks are independently replaceable at 100$ each.
I used to do 30k miles a year with it but dont need to drive as much with this car anymore so even if i up the rates and the shocks wear a bit prematurely no big deal.
Ideally the 14ks will be fine though as I dont want to shell more cashish out.

having an easily accessible tech support for the MFG is nice though, and not having to go thru retailer.

Good to know, i might have to rebuild w/ 18k swifts and those longer shock bodies.

so I've dealt with FnF in the past and yes I can say they are very responsive and will help out as best as they could. they are local to me too and have most of the parts in house.
to your problem, I hope it's just a shock mount issue. the front and rear are very similar in length which may cause confusion. I hope when they swapped out the springs for your custom rates that they did not mistakenly swap the lower mounts front to rear, or swap the shock bodies themselves.

just FYI most coilover companies do set the preload however they also shorten the shock mount as short as it can go for packaging reasons. they are not meant to install right out of the box. as for spring rates, 14/10 will be in the more comfortable yet firm range for a heavy car like the LS400. as you stated putting that in a light SW20 chassis and it will be a different ride altogether. I've rode in a Q45 on 18/16 and that was painful!

timmy, these are stock 14/10 how they are sold directly from them. I went short on the front, long on the rear. Everyone else i have spoke to that has these on the LS said they had to jack their preload way up, which as we all know is undesireable. not sure if there was a measurement/calculation error when they were first designing these, as i mentioned earlier, unless you have shortened knuckles, you cant even get the bottom eyelet in when the shocks are jsut a bit extended past pull low..aka wayyy too low.
The 85mm longer body will be perfect though. Can still slam it right on theground to the point where my tire will be literally on the innder fender, or can raise it to a more normal "slight drop" height. As mentioned previously rear is perfect for all kinds of height adjustment. Im itching to get those new bodies in and try it out! I will be setting it for 0..5" between rim and fender lip, right now i have 0 clearance on the rear, which looks awesome but i cant maintain that same level of tuck on the front and be able to turn.

quick updata, the longer shock bodies are perfect. cans till totally slam out on them, or can raise it quite high. Im at my desired ride height with plenty of meat in the lower mount.

Nice! So why isn't F&F sending them out with the longer shock bodies? Is this a problem that they're aware of?