Hi all,
I just bought a set of KW-V3 coilovers and am wondering if spring preload will be affected by ride height? Will ride height affect suspension travel? If I lower my car and shorten the stroke of the strut will I lose performance or need to change my spring rate to prevent bottoming out the strut?
Any information would be helpfull.
Thanks,
Adam S.

 

In general yes, spring preload is affected by ride height. If your car is jacked up so the suspension is in full droop and there is slack between the spring and the perches, or if you have helper springs and the helper springs aren't fully compressed, then adjusting ride height will not affect preload until you lower it to the point where there's no slack or the helper is fully compressed.

Ride height will affect suspension travel. They build in some extra into the shock so you can lower some without compromising travel/performance.

If you're bottoming out the strut then yes you need to change spring rate or you'll destroy your shocks, apart from that killing consistent handling.

Put a zip tie tight on the shock shaft, slide it to the bottom of the shaft, and go take some hard turns or go to the track/autocross, then see where the zip tie ends up. Its distance from the top of the shaft is how much suspension travel you have left before bottoming out. Obviously this doesn't include your tire hitting your fender, that's the other limit you have.

Hope that helps.

 

Does the helper spring have a purpose other than neutralizing spring preload during ride height adjustment?

 

All helper springs do is keep the spring seated if there's no preload. Otherwise the spring could jostle around on its perch. If your springs are preloaded then helper springs won't do anything since the spring is held in by the preload.

 

thanks for the info. very helpful. once i saw everything together and started playing around with the adjustment it became very clear to me. thanks again.
Adam

 

Does anyone using the v3's on a 255 non-staggered set up have any recommendations for me?