toecheese

Do the Bilstein PSS9's lower the car any? I'm looking to replace my stock '02 suspension and am perfectly happy with the way it is now - I'd prefer not to lower it and have to deal with any issues or workarounds.

Also planning to stay with the stock tire sizes.

Also I know the PSS9s are adjustable. Can anyone tell me what's involved in the adjustment? Is this something I need to tell my installer about when he puts them in, or is it an easily user-adjustable thing?

B serious

Adjust the height as high as they will go.
It should result in ~ 0.5" drop.

Set the damper bleed to your liking. Maybe start in the middle of the range, like 4 clicks back from full stiff.

Your installer needs to read the manual to make sure he/she is adjusting properly.

Car Analogy

Make sure installer clocks the control arm bushings. If they don't know what that is or say its not needed, you need a new installer.

toecheese

If I want to change the adjustment later, what's involved?

Car Analogy

Turn knob

Literally just a knob at top of shock. Like a volume control. Harder, softer.

Front ones easy to access. Under hood. Rear ones are behind trunk soft panels. Huge pain to get reach. They make extenders, so knob gets placed on wall of soft panel. Extender uses flex shaft.

But ideally, once you get setting correct, you don't have to touch again. Correct setting should always be correct. More to do with tires than anything else.

So you could simply leave trunk panels off for a few weeks, as you tweak and retweak until you have setting that works. Then install panels, forget about suspension and drive.

B serious

Which adjustment?

GBR!

Car Analogy, what does that mean to clock the bushings?

Mr.Matchbox

Torquing the bolts of the bushings when the suspension is loaded with the weight of the car = like the car was standing on the ground.
Means: pump the suspenion up with a jack until the edge of the Side sill just rise from the Jack stand and then torque the bolts.
Reason is, the rubber in the bushes flexes when the suspension moves up and down when driving. If you dont clock the bushings this way, they are installed in wrong position, twist to much while driving and can tear.
Here in germany, torn bushings are regarded as a major safety issue at our safety inspection and they need to be replaced to get the car street lagal again. Just saying.

Mr.Matchbox

....You have a Link to these Extenders?

Car Analogy

...and replacing torn bushings is major pia. Either have to buy all new control arms (mega $$$), or buy aftermarket rubber bushings, and press out old ones from each position on each control arm, press new ones in.

Short version:
Clocking bushings = aligning bushings neutral position with intended ride height.

Looong version:
Image the bushing as a torsion spring. Inner sleeve, outer sleeve, rubber bonded in between both. Outer sleeve locked in position to control arm. Inner sleeve locked in position to chassis (because of mounting bolt). So as suspension goes up and down, rubber has to flex. Can only flex so far, or it'll tear.

Imagine if you have car on stands, suspension hanging at full droop. Now you torque down all the control arm mounting bolts (which you had to loosen to install new shocks or coilovers). Bushings are all locked into place at the extreme end of travel. Their neutral position is full droop.

Now imagine what happens when car let down from stands back onto gound. To get to normal ride height the rubber gonna have to twist way past normal extreme. Then if you go over bumps, gotta twist way past even that.

Bushings will soon tear from stress. Meanwhile, bushings torsion spring effect is on overdrive. Constantly fighting to get to its neutral position, which is aligned to full droop. Car will sit higher than intended. Plus bushing bind means car won't handle as well as should.

When people talk about a car taking a while to 'settle' after lowering springs or coilovers, they don't realize they're actually talking about waiting for bushings to tear.