I just installed a set of Koni Yellow's with ground controls. Im just now starting to fiddle with the dampening settings. I started off by setting all four corners to the middle of the range of the knob. Car feels fine, but something is missing or just not right. I actually feel like turn in and response is slower than the stock suspension. Here is where I am at a loss. How does increasing the dampening of the shocks affect this. My hunch tells me to increase the firmness of the front two shocks to offset this condition I am feeling. I have never dealt with suspension before, so I am basically a newbie. I understand how the basics work and how they interact, but I dont know the first thing about tuning.

 

Glad ya piped up... I just set up my car with KW variant 3's I understood that the fronts should be firmer than the rears. I actually cranked the front and back down to the firmest and then backed them back by a quarter turn. I LOVE IT! Firmer is better!!! I'll keep playing with them though... its a little too firm for everyday driving good luck

 

I just finished taking a spirited drive, I cranked up the fronts about 1 quarter turn less than full firm, car felt better, turn in wise. Felt more responsive, I have a Cusco X brace coming in, that should help with turn in as wel. Im going to keep experimenting here in the next few days, next will be full firm to see how the car feels.

I really dont plan on adjusting the rears much, as its a royal pain to do it.

I would like to hear what other people on here are running their dampening settings at. I.E full firm, middle firm, full soft and how each affects handling and why each setting was chosen for your particular driving style.

For me, I never auto cross the car, just some very seldom spirited driving on the street.

 

Did you realign the car after the install? That could explain a lot...

 

Well, if you installed a coilover sleeve you have to make sure that the perches are all an equal distance from where stock was. If you mess this up even a little, the car will feel funny as it is now not balanced. Let's asume you did this correctly for now. In the future if you really should have the car corner balanced and then aligned. IT WILL MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE. I'd go so far as to say that this should be included in the price of coilovers.

Regarding the dampening adjustments: the koni's are only adjustable in rebound. That means any feeling of stiffness you get from dialing them to the "+" area is going to be from the car not bouncing back up.

I would recomend that you start on full stiff and just roll it off in small increments until it feels comfortable for you. Keep in mind that the koni's adjustment is not linear. By that I mean that small changes in settings at the "+" side of the spectrum will make more difference than small changes at the "-" side.

With stock springs, I ended up running about a 1/4 turn off of full stiff front and back and I didn't think it was uncomfortable at all on the street. It was more planted than stock for sure.

 

I haven't aligned the car yet, I forgot that this will affect the handling as well. I haven't gone yet to align yet because the springs went in over the weekend, so I want to give them a little time to settle. I guess I cant make any assumptions or any adjustments until I get an alignment.

 

I hate to say it, but doesn't that make this an S2000 Talk thread, not a Racing and Competition one?

 

Well wait wait wait, Im on the verge of starting auto x with my new toys. Thats why I asked.

 

This leads me into my next question. Alignment?

Im assuming stock specs wont apply to a lowered vehicle.

Im looking for an alignment that will allow longest possible tire wear and yet still give me the handlign characteristics of the car when it was stock.