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| Neuspeed Suspension
Final Settings |
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click for a larger image |
Here's a side view of the rear before lowering the
car off the lift.
Lower the car to the ground and reattach all the nuts to the top of
the strut towers. Tighten them as best you can.
Drive the car back and forth a few feet to get the strut towers settled
in and to relieve any tensions. Re-tighten all your nuts and install
your strut bar if you have one. |
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Adjust the settings on your shocks (if applicable).
These Koni Yellows can be easily adjusted for firmness using an included
knob. When adjusting, it is recommended to turn (lightly) clockwise
until it stops. This is the softest setting and should be equivalent
to stock. A half turn counter-clockwise is slightly stiffer than stock.
A full turn is a nice moderate stiffness that will be noticeable but
not huge. A turn and a half is pretty stiff and you'll feel all the
bumps in the road, but it is still quite driveable. Two turns is the
stiffest you should go, according to the instructions, even though
the knob may continue to turn. This will be a very stiff and maybe
a little harsh, especially if you've lowered your car more than 2
inches.
Currently, I am running 2 turns in the front and back and I'm
pretty pleased with the feel of the car. There are a few more rattles
and a some passengers comment that it's a little harsh, but I'm overall
pretty pleased. I might back off to 1.5 turns front and rear just
to quiet a bit of the rattling. |
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| We measured the height of the front wheel well before
the installation. The total height was 27.5" and the wheel gap
was 3.5" |
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| After the installation, the total height was 26"
and the wheel gap was 2", so the initial drop is 1.5" in
the front. The springs will take about a month to completely settle
and should give an additional 1/4" - 1/2" drop. |
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In the rear before installation, total height was 27.5"
and the wheel gap was 3"
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| After the installation, total height was 26" and
the wheel gap was 2", for a drop of about 1-1.5" (the pictures
are a bit tough to read). Again, settling should give an additional
1/4" - 1/2" drop. |
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| Here is a picture of my car (left) next to Traubenberg's
coupe. You can see that the bottom of my bumper is lower than his,
as are my mirrors. |
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Here is a picture from the back. Again my bumper is
slightly lower than his as are the mirrors.
The car does not roll as much in turns, nor does it dive as much during
braking. The car is gonna be a lot more fun to drive now. The only
issue is going over bumps with passengers, and my muffler sometimes
scrapes. Angles are your friends! |
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I got my car aligned at Sears. Here's my alignment
readings. Cb = Camber, Cs = Caster, T = Toe.
If you rotate your tires diligently, you can get away with -1.5 to
1.5 camber. My left rear is out of spec, but acceptable (less than
1.5) but my right rear is pretty bad at -1.7. My suspension being
out of spec means my tires could wear out much faster but I haven't
had any problems for a year.
One other note, the front wheel gap seems a little bigger (although
I do have random junk in the trunk) which makes me think that I should
have put the front shocks on the 2nd perch (3rd perch is "stock"
level, 2nd perch is 1/4" lower, 1st perch is 1/2" lower)
instead of the 3rd. Ah well, it'll be too much trouble to worry about
it now. |
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Left front - before/after
Cb = -.4, -.4
Cs = 2.5, 2.5
T = -1/16, 0
Right front - before/after
Cb = -.4, -.4
Cs = 2.5, 2.5
T = -1/16, 0
Left rear - before/after
Cb = -1.4, -1.4
T = 0, 0
Right rear - before/after
Cb = -1.7, -1.7
T = 1/16, 1/16 |
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Long Term Impressions
Well, it's been about 3 years and 30,000 miles since I had the suspension
installed. My thoughts? I'm happy with it, although I still wish I
had known about the perches mentioned in the paragraph above. Every
once in a while I scrape a curb when parking but that's ok. I do scrape
my GReddy SP exhaust on bad inclines alot though, but I think that's
more the fault of the large muffler than the suspension.
I softened up the front shocks a little bit b/c I wanted a little
softer damping for better traction in snow. Who knows if it actually
made a difference. The only problem I'm having is that I'm getting
accelerated tire wear, but only on the front inner sides of the tire.
I rotated my tires once (total tire mileage is about 40,000), so now
all four of my tires have the inner side worn, as can be seen here.
I'm debating whether it's worth it to have all the tires removed from
the wheels and switched to the opposite side to wear down the almost
pristine outer edge, which could probably get me another 10,000 miles
out of the tires... maybe more...
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| Introduction | Preparation
| Installation | Final Settings |
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