clee109

I know it's hard to say what your dampening firmness is because each brand varies. However; what I am interested in more than what "setting" you're at is what you have front vs. rear.

So, is your front stiffer than your rear dampening settings and by how much? I have mine set firmer up front however I want to know the pro's and con's and personal experiences, maybe it should be equal?

Thanks for the opinions.

wong05tsx

iTrader: (6)

when breaking theres more stress put onto the front suspension, with that said. i'm running 9/15 up front and 10/15 in the rear. 15 being the most stiff

at full stiff, ive noticed there seemed to be some oversteer, while at full soft, there were understeer

LukeaTron

^^ Wheel load is independent of damping settings. The damping only effects the dynamic motion of the suspension. Spring rate and preload will effect how much weight ends up on the wheels.

You will generally want a higher setting up front since there are a lot of dynamic forces at work on the front wheels of a FWD vehicle. A higher damping setting up front will reduce wheel hop under acceleration and slow down the weight transfer under braking (but not how much weight eventually ends up there). You want the back of the car to lag slightly from the front because it makes the car more stable. The higher the damping rates on the rear, the more snappy the car will feel. For instance if you weave lightly back and forth, the car will respond more briskly. The down side of this that it's much easier to end up with too much weight on the outside tire and cause it to break free inducing oversteer. A lower damping setting in the rear allows the weight to more slowly settle onto the tire. The wheel will still break free under the same lateral G-load but it will transition more smoothly and controllably.

Audioserf

Tein SS, 14f/12r. I was running 10f/8r for a long time but over the summer I noticed that I was experiencing slight rubbing at highway speeds (got home from a weekend in Boston and saw shredded tire all over my rear fender). Cranked the dampening firmness up and that problem's gone away. Raise my car? Fat chance...

godfather2

ksport kontrol pro dampers:

front = 5/8 soft
rear = 3/4 soft

dropped approx. 2.75"

clee109

thanks! Please keep them coming! Suspension dynamics are a bit new to me so all of this really helps grasp the concept

zxxxboy

I have my car on stiff settings all around

From my expereince (Please correct me if im wrong):

The stiffer damping takes away some floatiness over larger bumps so your car wont be crazy bouncing up and down.

stiffer damping reduces the nose diving “phenomena” when you hit the brakes so hard

Also stiffer damping helps preventing the car from bottoming out

LukeaTron

^^ You are mostly correct. The nose will still dive when you brake, it just does it slower.

JTso

iTrader: (2)

I think we should take into consideration "which setting" is being adjusted. Certain adjustment changes the rebound setting, and other changes the compression or both if available.

LukeaTron

You pretty much only see dual adjustability on remote reservoir dampers. I'd hope any one spending $4,000 or more on suspension components has a need for and the know how to adjust them.

tsxacurazine

i running on Buddyclub n+ with 18" wheels 1 finger gap front (10 clicks/15 clicks) and pinky gap rear (8clicks / 15 clicks)

clee109

I'm concerned with just what typical Tein, Ksport, Buddy Club etc... adjustments using the "twist knob" on top of the damper. Granted spring preload can come into play with what your firmness is set at. Mainly looking for factory spec spring perch and what you adjusted the dampening to and why? Also what affects did it have to your ride quality? And how does adjust front to rear ratio affect understeer and oversteer which was answered above.

If anyone has a fancier set up speak up and let me and the rest of us know!

clee109

I have about the same set up as godfather above with KSports, about the same drop which is fairly soft however I have never experienced the bounciness. I actually felt harsher bumps with my dampening rate set as stiff as possible whereas now the car behaves more like stock. Not bottoming out and no rubbing with TL-S wheels which have a different offset pushing the tires close to the fender rim.

Care to elaborate on what you suspension is and ride height? I'm curious! Thanks!

zxxxboy

^^^

My TSX is lowered on Tein SS

Currently I have the damping stiffness on 2 front and back

In the past the stiffness was on 8 front, and 10 back and I used to scrape on certain streets.
Now that I have the stiffness on 2 all around, I do not scrap on those same roads

So with the stiffer setting every time I hit a bump it feels like a sudden and quick drop with instant and quick rebound back up
However when my car was on soft setting every time I hit a bump it felt like my car was bouncing and bouncing.
Like I said above the stiffer damping takes away some floatiness

godfather2

fyi, i have a custom-springed setup (10/6, F/R - same as tein basics and ss)

clee109

^^Ksport factory is 12/7 f/r, would that make you set up softer than ksport factory spec? I am not expert on these numbers and their relation to ride quality so if you can elaborate I'd greatly appreciate it!

godfather2

the higher the number, the firmer the ride

godfather2

i could elaborate, but i'm at work