Coil Overs

AFAIK:

a) Using a standardised spring size means you can choose from dozens of lengths/rates off the shelf. b) The spring seats are adjustable so that ride height & corner weights (to an extent) can be adjusted. c) Coilover kits from the big names probably have better quality internals than normal shocks.

Steve.

for the boy racer, it's primary use is so that you can get bigger rims in without falling foul of the spring cup obviously you know that it's modified version of the McPherson strut, but with the normally welded bottom spring cup being on a thread that moves up and down which means you can alter the spring rating with a "C" spanner there are also smaller helper springs that stop the main spring from being too springy and you can also adjust the position of the spring to alter the ride height (different to just tightening it up with will drop it and make the ride a lot harsher)

I thought long and hard before writing this - what's to explain ? The damper and spring are mounted concentrically, and the body of the damper performs 2 functions. Damping the suspension and providing a mount for the suspension spring. Because it isn't asked to perform some other suspension function like location as in a chapman or macpherson strut, it can be mounted at the angle most suited to provide best performance in terms of damping, travel and spring performance. The other factors mentioned by other are a product of evolution - variable damping and spring seat height but coilover suspension does not equal modified struts.. These are not defining characteristics relating to coilover suspension. My half baked locost has real genuine coilover suspension at either end, mine are nitron as provided by GTS tuning.

should be vlaved according to the requirements of the vehicle and theopen and closed lengths should be suited to the vehicle.Bear in mind - I'm a self confessed amatuer and you must do your ownresearch when considering such an important subject as suspension.

look at the bottom for the coil over pics thy seem to be upside down, but it don't matter

Adjust the spring rate? I think not. Adjust the spring preload I'll let you have but the rate stays exactly the same.

John

well, yes :) it's one or the other :) and anyway, HE'S doing teh faq not me!!!!!!!

*shakes faq*

Dont forget

1 the enormous weight saving over other types of spring/torsion bars. 2 the cost and ease of manufacturing said components.

Mick

Yes; the "I can get mine lower than yours" too.

/whoosh over Dervy's head, rounds the corner, then slaps him in the back/

:)

People repute that you can get the best compromise between handling and ride, but I'd have thought it a bit more scientific than the "turning it another quarter and trying it" technique!

Well, in a nutshell, coilover suspension is supposed to be "the best you can get, volume three, ever" (or whatever) - and nobody can tell me why, other than it's the most expensive, therefore it's the best (doesn't cut the mustard with me, heh).

Is this is true whereby the unit is replacing a conventional set up?

Which makes sense. Presumably you can buy coilover suspension for /insert car here/ and if it's adjustable, it's mainly the ride height . . . ?

Heh . . .

no it's the spring rate thing which you can change as well as the ride height and tey take up less space and they weigh less and they are easier to change than the normal spring/strut set up which is why the race teams use them

Explanation of Coil-Overs:

Coil-overs consist of springs and threaded adjustable sleeves (and in some packages, struts). The system is exactly the same as regular spring/strut systems in a crx, except that instead of the spring sitting on a perch on the strut, it now sits on a ring that is screwed onto the threads of the sleeve, with the sleeve sitting on the strut perch. See

for a good picture of thespring/sleeve/ring, with links to some prices for them. By screwing thering around, one can change the distance between the bottom of the springand the strut perch, thereby changing the height of the car and weightdistribution. This allows for plenty of flexiblity that you don't getwith regular lowering springs. You can have the car dropped like crazyduring the summer, and raised like a truck during the snowy winters. Youcan rake the car (the front lowered, and the rear raised) for drag races.More importantly, you can set exact heights for aerodynamic stability andweight distribution for racing (autox, roadracing, etc). Aerodynamically,you want the smallest distance possible between the ground and the car, sothat the venturi or bernouli (to give proper recognition to bothscientists) effect creates more of a vacuum underneath the car (thesmaller the gap, the faster the air flows through, and the lower thepressure, like an inverted air foil), "sucking" the car to the ground.Nevertheless, it is more effective at creating downforce than a suprastylespoiler! This is how one can change the weight distribution with coil-overs: Say that you race your crx alone, so there is uneven weight distribution because you sit on one side of the car. You could even it out by increasing the distance between the ring and the strut perch on the passenger's side wheels, raising the car slightly on the passenger's side. It's like making one leg of a table longer than the others: the longer leg will have to support more of the table's weight. In this case, the passenger's side wheels will have to support more weight, and if you balance it correctly, it will compensate for you sitting in the driver's seat. Coil-overs are great for bigtime racing, but are slightly more expensive on a whole. They allow for great flexibility, and they look cool too. :)

"DervMan" wrote in message news:bgm7br$pomva$ snipped-for-privacy@ID-136275.news.uni-berlin.de...

Not true. Coil overs are simply any shock (or strut) that has the coil spring over or around it. That means all Hondas that I can think of other than the torsion bar cars have coil overs. However when you mention coilovers many people think of the threaded body or threaded sleeved units that also allow you to set ride heights, corner weights, etc. but they are best identified as "threaded coil-overs".

Truth.

By the way all Civic/CRXs since '88 have shocks on all four corners, not struts. The torsion bar cars had strut front and shocks rear. So many cars had struts for so long that people call coil-over shocks "struts". An easy way to tell is to see what acts as the upper ball joint for suspension motions. If there is a upper ball joint or pivot that states what the suspension geometry is during its range of motion and it is not on the damper/spring assembly, then it is a shock. If the damper moves and states geometry changes based on the pivot, camber plate,etc. then it is a strut. On the front the decision is easy, turn the steering wheel... Does the damper pivot and move? Answer yes and you have a strut, answer not and it is a shock. That is why no one sells camber plates for 88 and later Honda...moving the upper shock mount in or out does not change your camber because the upper shock mount is not a geometry stating load point. Move your upper control arms and ball joints and you change your camber. Struts were hailed as marvelous in the 70s and 80s because they were better than their primitive mass production predecessors and were much cheaper to manufacture but now that street cars have better suspension designs you rarely find struts in good cars.