First off i want to start by saying this is NOT intended to be a "what's the best setting" thread because there is no real answer. I just want to see how others are setting up their shocks and how they like them.

with that out of the way I just want to ask the community how many turns front and rear they are driving on, what height they are using, what springs/ sway bars are used in conjunction, and most importantly their comments on the comfort and handling regarding the current firmness setting. Pics are always cool but i dont want this to turn into a show thread please

I will start.

1) 5 height, lowest front, second to lowest rear
2) eibach pro springs, type S FSB, progress RSB stiff setting
3) 3/8 or 1/2 turns in the front and 1.5 turns in the back

It handles like a F1 car but it is rough as hell i am thinking of making it softer as im getting over cornering and thrashing tires. I have the front much softer because the FSB is so damn stiff. this also causes the front to feel too bouncy going over speed bumps. I have scraped my 3rd cat a few times. but the rear goes over very easy. On the highway it is very stable however especially at higher speed like 85+

 

I'm just confused..How are you adjusting the height when you are lowered on springs? What exactly is the setup you have?

 

please dont post unless you read...obviously i have koni shocks thats how i adjust height if i were you i wolud edit your post so you dont look like a fool

 

^^ If I were you I'd put my thread in the Wheels/tires/suspension forum, so you don't look like a fool.

 

Too late.

Moved.




Rain, sounds like he has the SP3 Koni which has five spring perch heights; front on the lowest perch and the rear on the next to lowest.

 

If I remember SP3s actually have 3 perches in the front and 5 in the rear. Or vice versa. Right?

And each perch is like a 1/4" drop?

 

Sp3's have 5 front/rear. I believe it is almost 1/4" per perch.

 

sp3 have 3 grooves for height and sp5 has an additional 2 grooves in between the top and bottom grooves that the Sp3 would have. Sorry that should have been put in the right category i forgot.

anyways I want to know what firmness setting everyone is riding on and what they think about the comfort and handling.

 

For real? I knew I wasn't wrong (completely that is)! Lol

 

 

ok lets just close this thread because no one seems to want to share what firmness they set their shocks to. probably no one cares either they just want to drop thier ride and get attention. its a sad day here on AZ.

thanx splur the information i learned from your post that i did not already know is that you must have a smart phone (sarcasm) . which completely seams to suit you

 

I have my SP3s in the middle perch both front and back. The fronts are set to whatever 60% is and the rear is around 80%. I also have the progress RSB set on stiff.

This, however, is too much. So I will be setting the front to like 25% and the rear to like 50%. I also want to drop down a notch all around. Maybe even 2 on one half to level it out.

 

i have the aspec springs on koni's. (not to be confused with Kony2012)

the springs are sitting on the lowest perch of the 5 front and rear.
just got my car back, so I havent played with damping, yet.

 

hey justnspace do you have a picture of your car with the A-spec springs on with koni's

 

Yes, butt my car is different.
I have different tires, and I've also lightened the car.
both of these contribute to my vehicle's stance.







I'll try to get some level pics.

 

Thanx

 

Patience, my friend. There is no need to accuse everyone on our forum of only wanting to drop our TL to get attention. Even if people are lowering their cars purely for aesthetic reasons, it's their car and they should be able to do whatever they want to it (as long as it's not a hazard for others on the road) without being ridiculed.

I'm posting my specs because I think that your reason for starting this thread was a good one, and I want to help contribute to the forum. However, I will correct you in that there IS an optimum damping level, called the critical damping, where the springs are only allowed to go through one oscillation (or compression) before arriving back at it's set point. This is important in racing. However, the degree of importance of this effect is probably negligible during day-to-day driving in the streets. Comfort levels due to damping, however, are subjective.

Shocks: Koni Sport SP3 - springs are sitting on middle pearch all around. Fronts are 180 degrees from full firm, rears are 270 degrees from full firm

Springs: H&R Sport Springs for TL type-s

Wheels: 17x9 +22 Enkei RPF1

Tires: Bridgestone potenza re760 sport (front); Hankook Ventus V12 evo (rear)

More Facts: 6MT 2008 TL Type-s with some weight reduction

Everything about the car is going to play a factor in achieving critical damping. A 5AT version of my car, all else equal, will have a different weight distribution. Simply having softer tires, heavier wheels, etc. can all play a role in critical damping.

I'm still trying to get my damping settings right, but this setting makes me FEEL confident for now and they're comfortable enough for my daily 80 mile commute. Please note that this is subjective, though. What's comfortable to me might be hell for someone who regularly cruises in a S550.

 

I can understand the frustration.

Currently:

A-spec front springs
Custom rears which are the same rate as the fronts (I believe 520-ish but don't quote me on that.

Fronts on the low setting (on the stock perch but lowered to the normal low setting), rears on the stock height setting.

Progress RSB, H&R FSB

Front shocks modified for full suspension travel.

The front damping is just under halfway.

Rear is 5/8 to 3/4 of the way to full damping.

Back on stock springs anything above 1/4 front and 3/8" rear was too stiff.

This setup had practically zero body roll on normal summer tires. With the nittos' much higher limit, there's some roll but it's a great compromise for the street. Some days I think it's too stiff, some days I think it's too soft so it must be pretty neutral lol.

I would like to add that I've done a ton of adjusting and testing to get the attitude just right. Besides the handling balance which was done mostly with springs and swaybars, part of the reason for the shock setttings I've done is to get the tail to barely slide during an aggressive corner entry while being pretty neutral mid corner. What works for me won't work perfectly for others because there are many variables.

 

thank you for the real info ^(last 2 posts). Justn make sure you come back once you get ur dampening settings. It took me about 2 months of testing before I got it right and put all the interior back in. Just a tip. there are 8 groves on the adjustment knob and to make things easier to record settings I i wrote 1-8 on the groves on the knob. Hence me reporting turns by the 8th from soft setting. I forgot how many turns from soft is full hard. we'll see im gonna adjust to try to get a more balanced setting and then go for a comfortable setting in the winter.

 

just re adjusted the shocks to a much more comfortable setting and i am surprised how well it still handles and how balanced it is

from soft its 5/8ths turns in the front
7/8ths turns in the back but i changed the setting on the rear sway bar to the softer mode.

the ride is much more comfortable and quiet but still handles very very good. i took a turn going about 60 and just barely had a bit of oversteer. the car was easily controllable. also accelerating is quicker the car doesnt shift weight and rock all over the place. same for when switching lanes. I really thot i had to sacrifice performance for comfort but i was wrong. These shocks are awesome!

 

So generally speaking, how does the TL tend to behave when the front is set softer than the rear and also when the front is set firmer than the rear interms of:

A) Performance/Handling
B) Comfort

 

it really depends on what springs and sway bars you have. but gererally i can tell you that softer front firmer back leads to oversteer, which is what you may call tail fishing i think. but technically its when the rear tires lose traction first and the back of the car swings into the turn. this is not necessarily good but adversely understeer ( front tires breaking the point of traction first) is tragic and can lead to ur death. so its better to have oversteer than understeer and its damn near impossible to have a perfectly balanced car. this is gonna cause IHC to be issued into a mental hospital some day. i just really wish this car was RWD but no it had to be based off the accord. they couldnt make up a new car from scratch to sell for 40K

it seems like several people set thoier front shocks alot firmer than mine. im gonna try it out on the much firmer side and see how it handles

 

i noticed if you count each stub on the adjustment knob, full firm would be 19. maybe we can start counting each stub as a universal measurement cuz some people use 8ths, some use 4ths, and some use degrees cust throwin my 2 cents in.

so right now im at 5-7, 5 on front and 7 on rear

 

a modded the koni knob to help me stay on track.

 

That is so simple yet so smart. I can't believe I didn't think of that. Just the other day I was thinking it would be great to have a finer adjustment or to be able to see the adjustments on the rear. Thanks for this, I know what I'm doing tomorrow.

 

hahaha glad to help..i used a sharpie then threw a couple clear coats over it...had it laying around, y not. but yes its very simple with these numbers. 0 is soft and max is 2 and 3/8th turns or u can say 19...i like using 0 to 19.

im so sick of adjusting and testing...i found a very comfortable and well balanced setting today at 4-6, but as soon as i got on th freeway and hit highspeeds it was bouncing all over the place and i had to constantly play with steering wheel. I think you are right with the type-s FSB and the progress RSB, the RSB has to be on firm. maybe 4 in the front is too soft too though.

 

^You're sick of adjusting?? Try having coilovers with 32-way damping adjustability!

When I had my Koni Yellows, I had them on the lowest perch with the softest setting, paired with Neuspeed Sport springs. I loved the ride because it was firm but comfortable...very similar to the stock Type-S suspension.

 

how does it adjust 32 ways can some1 explain this?

 

I'm guessing he means 32 "clicks".

It's good to see someone experimenting and trying out different settings. That's pretty rare around here. One thing I meant to mention a long time ago is what I did to get an idea of how damping affected ride and handling. When I first got the Konis years ago, I put the front on full soft and rear on full firm. Then I put the rear on full soft and front on full firm. I drove it for a couple days in each configuration and took it to a "track" nearby for at the limit testing. Doing it at each extreme makes it easier to see what stiffening or softening each end does.

Generically speaking, steady state cornering was mostly influenced by swaybar and spring rates. The shocks had the most effect on turn-in. If I had the rear on full firm and front on full soft, a flick of the steering wheel would kick the rear end out. The opposite way meant the front tires momentarily breaking free while the rear stuck.

I have mine balanced so that at the limit, the tail will barely kick out but both ends break free at about the same time during steady state cornering. With the shocks adjusted so that the fronts would momentarily slip, as I went around the corner they would slowly stick and if going fast enough the rear would eventually slide just a little by the exit. That's the way I ran it at the track mostly. The car would be close to a 4 wheel drift and then the rear would slide just a little more.

Obviously on the street with the bumps and changes in the surface, it can get a little weird. It doesn't always over steer at the limit and sometimes the tail will kick out quickly. All you can do on the street is use the best compromise for all situations. I'm careful about dialing in too much over steer because while it's fun, if you have to swerve 2-3 times in a row to avoid an accident, you don't want to worry about catching the tail at the same time.

 

^^^
just noticed u run 255/40. i just installed 255/40 hankooks yesterday. im a little concerned with tire pressure. any recommendations? i dont want my tread to wear funny that my specific concern.

also what do you set your shocks to for street? we have a fairly similar set up with the sway bars not sure about the spring rates

 

just my two cents - I have my Koni's set to 1/4 turn all the way around, with my progress RSB set to soft. It's a huge improvement over the A-spec setup (of course they WERE worn out).

I should point out that I am still rocking the A-Spec springs so my ride height didn't change at all from the A-Spec ride height.

i am very happy with the way it turned out!

 

No worries about tire wear on the stock 8" wide rims. Pressure totally depends on the tire. For best traction, my old BFG G-force Sports like 47psi or so. My Nitto NT05s like no more than 35psi hot for best traction and wear. I can take some pictures of my 255 NT05s tomorrow. They have about 10k on them right now and wear is completely even. I've been running 255s for the past 70,000 miles.

 

Thinking of getting Koni Yellows but all this perch business I don't quite understand.

What I'm looking at is I am installing H&R sports springs and I don't want my car to sit any lower than what the those springs will set it to. What "perch" should I put it at? (Whatever a perch is). Also what do you guys recommend for firmness on daily city driving without needing Advil or loosing my fillings on the way to work? That is something a bit firmer than stock.

Thanks

 

ive got a tein s tech/koni combo, springs are on the lowest perch, ive also got a progress rsb(set to firm), 18x9 wheels with 245/40/18's on them. the struts are set to the softest setting because its a daily driver and im not much of an aggressive driver (any more)...i really like the comfort and handling as well as the look. but i am glad that the struts are adjustable for those mountain driving days.

 

Hey Greek...Yiasou

How many settings are there in the Koni? Nice to have adjustable so your not stuck on one setting.

 

Looking at the koni also but don't believe the adjustable perch versions are available anymore. Had a set on another car years ago and they were nice. I would be using stock springs on the 04. Just a bit stiffer than stock would be fine. Not concerned about looks.

 

Yes, if left alone from the koni factory, it comes in the middle perch.
if you go up or down, you deviate 10mm in either direction.

and the damping setting is all up to you!!!!
one persons awesome setting could be headaches and backaches for you.
YOU are going to have to find the perfect setting for YOU.

 

5 height koni SP3s are still available
http://www.heeltoeauto.com/home.php?cat=1389

please guys i want this thread to be about firmness settings there are dozens of threads about koni info regarding height

 

?
PLEASE NOTE, VERY IMPORTANT NOTE AS OF 12/13/2010: SP3 shocks are discontinued. We will replace your SP3 shock order for normal 2-way height-adjustable Koni Yellow shocks.

 

I wish SP3s were still available. I'd be all over that. Instead I'm hoping Aspec springs or really cheap Aspec suspension comes up on the Black Market so I can buy the Konis and get them on my car. Still waiting...