B serious

I have OG KW V3's. They have the click adjuster, but came with 513LB springs.

I have upgraded to 12k/10k springs. At the time, the dampers had 40k miles on them. Today, they probably have about 50k miles on them.

I feel that the ride quality kinda...sucks lol. The front feels fine, for the most part. The rears feel very hoppy. I can't seem to dial in the shocks for the ride to be compliant.

The rear rates only came up 50lbs from KW factory springs.

I am getting ready to switch the 10k springs to the front, and use the KW factory 9k springs in back.

Before I do this....does anyone have a damping combo that works for the street?

FWIW, I use the car as a semi-DD and I use it for lots of track time. Time trails and HPDE's, mostly.

-MY 2000
-Stock sway bars
-255/40 squared street tires (Z2, RS3, etc) on 17x9.
-OEM hard top. CR front lip. No wing.
-Carbotech XP10/Stoptech SP. Or XP12 front with XP8/10 out back, depending on the track.

Advice on damper settings would be great. Or if the spring rates are likely the issue, LMK.

Thanks in advance!

boyguan

back rebound i ran 1.5 full turns and 3/4 turn compression.

i would try 1 turn rebound and 1.25 turn compression.

your shocks are different as it has the 500lb springs and most kw have the 400lb springs. I forgot if the valving inside is different.

B serious

You mean you ran those amount of turns from full stiff? Or from full soft?

If you mean from full stiff, that's 9 clicks out on rebound, and 3 sweeps out on bump. Thats the factory setting for the updated shocks with 470lb springs. What spring rates?

Thanks for the reply.

yamahaSHO

I ran those spring rates on my KWv3's last year before switching to Ohlins. I actually got them to ride nicely. In fact, I got them to ride nicer than the original springs since whoever installed the KW's right before I bought the car jacked the rebound and bump nearly all the way up. I don't remember the settings I had anymore, but softening up both bump rebound made a big difference.

B serious

I softened both settings up...and the unfortunate side effect was a lot of bouncing from being under damped.

I have made some strides in getting it to be comfortable again. I originally thought the issue lay in the rear adjustment by itself. I was haplessly adjusting the rear shocks. But...after taking a step back, I made the hypothesis that maybe since the FRONT was too soft...the car was oscillating/see-sawing and trasferring all that bounce to the rear suspension.

Turns out I was correct. Once I stiffened up the front, the car seems to have leveled out a bit.

My current settings (all measured as OUT FROM FULL STIFF...meaning I turned it to full stiff as a 0 point. Then turned the dials counter clockwise):

Front:
-Rebound: 5 clicks from full stiff
-Bump: 3.5 sweeps from full stiff(each sweep is 1/4 turn)

Rear:

Rebound: 14 clicks from full stiff.
Bump: 3 sweeps from full stiff.

The rear adjustment is pretty close to KW factory specs...which makes sense because the springs are only 50lbs stiffer than KW original. The Factory REAR settings are 15 clicks for rebound and 3 sweeps for bump.

The front bump, surprisingly didn't need much change. The front springs are 150lb/in stiffer...so the big change in rebound made sense. The factory FRONT rebound recommendation is 9 clicks. Factory FRONT bump is 3 sweeps out.

Again...I have the shocks that are meant for 513LB springs. The current gen KW V3 shocks with 472lb springs will need different adjustments.

I will keep messing with the shocks until I feel that I've gotten it as comfy as I can. I'll post back. Hopefully this helps other people out.

Apex1.0

Generally speaking you are going to soften compression and stiffen rebound when going to a stiffer spring. That being said, I usually start by running the shocks as soft as possible first and get a feel for what I don't like. I will start by adding some compression until the ride becomes harsh and skittish and then back it down a little. Then I stiffen rebound until the bouncines goes away.

B serious

^lol...I just...for some crazy reason...decided to try that today and made some strides. Idk why I was using KW's recommended numbers as a base spec. I feel like an idiot because it was so simple all along.

I loosened rebound settings all the way (+1). The car was STILL not crazy under damped. It blows my mind. It actually feels pretty comfy here. I need a couple more rebound clicks and it should be ok!

Slowcrash_101

Also keep in mind the difference in front to rear rebound also has effects on handling. Rebound keeps the inside wheel from unloading, which is the opposite of bump which loads the outside wheel faster. Meaning front rebound stiffness in isolation can cause entry oversteer, exit understeer, but this can be effectively cancelled with stiffer front compression, and or stiffer rear rebound. Much like adjusting rear alignment, one setting affects the others.

B serious

Yep. I'm just trying to figure out a comfortable setting on the street. Unfortunately, setting them soft didn't work as a long term solution. On larger bumps, the car was noticeably thrown around from the lack of damping. I know that the high speed damping is set by KW. But...I believe that high speed damping does passively move a bit as you actively adjust low speed damping.

I'm trying other settings to determine a reasonable compromise between getting thrown around with too little damping vs. cracking my spine with too much damping.

Also...is it true that to reliably adjust damping, the knobs have to be turn't all the way to stiff, and then backed off to where you want them?

For example (1 is stiff. 18 is soft):
To stiffen the shock from setting 7 to setting 6:

-turn knob all the way to stiff (7 clicks up).
-turn back 6 clicks.

Thanks for all the help/input so far, guys.

Apex1.0

As my old motocross instructor said, "fast suspension, fast rider."

A way over simplification but it is based on some truth. You need to let the suspension work. The damping really affects the speed it will work at. That's why I always start with lower damping and move higher based in specific issues. For some people as stiff as possible (slow) is a race car suspension. You need to control the sprung and un-sprung mass for predictability, any more damping and you are not letting the suspension work.

Of course this assumes the suspension is inherently designed well and its utilization is a benefit. When I tracked my fox style Mustang, the best bet seemed to lock the suspension down to control the camber curve and scrub radius.

Luckily we are all blessed with a much more advanced setup.