MarbleGT

If you are getting rubbing on the inside fender well...your wheels are too big. Once you get an alignment you'll need to get your fenders rolled. 17x7s are too big for NBs stock, much less lowered. Just looking at the front wheel, TireRack probably suggested a "safe" offset. A lower offset in the front would push the tire out more, giving you less inside rubbing. You've got a lot of room to play.

Eibach is notorious for having a rake in the drop, it looks like you've just got to much.

Judging by the pictures, it could be a number of things....

Did you torque the bolts before you lowered the car on the ground?

Are you sure you didn't swap the springs front and back?

If the 110/109 are the spring rates, you got the wrong springs. Should be 140f and 120/70 progressive in the rear.


Next time order from Goodwin.

Shoofin

I'm not sure who makes the springs, they are labeled "Koni", I don't know if they are made by Eibach or not, though I heard it could be Eibach or H&R, or even another brand. I walked out of the garage when my friend put the wheels on, I don't know if he torqued them in the air or on the ground. We do have air/power tools though. I spoke to Koni, and the 109/110 numbers on the springs are their internal model numbers for the springs, not the spring rates. They are clearly labeled "Front" and "Back" and they are in their proper place.They say that the springs sent in the kit are correct for the car. I explained to them that the front is low, and the rear is high, almost where it was at stock height. I am sending them an e-mail with all the details of the purchase, the wheels/tires, as well as the pictures. They are going to review it and get back to me.

MarbleGT

Ohhhh..I was thinking they we're Eibachs.

Im sure you are right about Koni sourcing them elsewhere, but for all we know Koni makes their own springs. It would be unlike Koni to sell a defective product. Eddie, you may get the car up in the air and un-torque everything and then drop it again. Lots of Miata guys have had this same problem. If you torque it when its in the air, the car wont budge when you get it on the ground again. Its tough to do, but makes a lot of difference.

It sounds like they are fixing it, which is good. Keep us posted.

Shoofin

I don't understand what you want me to do...Tighten the wheels by hand in the air, then tighten/torque them when on the ground? I don't see how that would have an effect on ride height though..

Miiike

iTrader: (4)

I think he's talking about all the suspension bolts. When I did the suspension on my Miata I was told to put the car back down with everything not fully torqued, drive forward a bit and slam on the brakes, then drive back a bit and slam on the brakes just to let everything kind of settle into position (especially if you took off the control arms like I had to), then torque it back on.

jjashaa

iTrader: (23)

I used my floor jack to just jack up from the bottom arm so that the suspension would compress into the position it would be when dropped onto the floor.. then i tightened and torqued down.

like this.. floor jack on bottom.

Shoofin

I attempted to take the car for a ride before. Had another person with me. The weight of two people in the car, the shock is set to full stiff, and driving in a straight line, not hitting any bumps, the tire is hitting the splash shield.

And here's something more interesting....I have to find out the offest and backspacing specs of the OEM wheel, but I just measured the wheel, and it's 16x7.5, and the rubber is 205/45/16. It's wider than the Enkei wheel!

Some specs:



I have to get the stock wheels back on with the suspension and see if it's still rubbing. This is driving me crazy!

I got a response back from Koni:

I gotta get the stock wheels/tires back on the car to see if the suspension is out of whack, or if it really is the wheels..

MarbleGT

Not the wheels, they suspension bolts. The guys above got it. Back before I had coilovers, when I did the spring setup I skipped this and just tightened everything. When I retorqued everything, the rear dropped a good 1".


Tell them you want American springs...lol

Thats a weak response from Koni. They need to fix it if something is wrong.

Shoofin

Just found a site listing OEM wheel sizing. It says the wheels I have are 16x6.5 with a 40mm offset. I measured the wheel width using the measuring caliper from my balancing machine, and that says it's 7.5". This is getting weird now...

Shoofin

The only thing I'm confused about in what you're saying is we didn't take off the major suspension components that would seriously alter everything down there...Here's what we did:

On the front, we disconnected the tie rod end, we disconnected the lower ball joint, and we disconnected the sway bar end links. Pulled the upper and lower control arm down, and pulled the shock out. In back, we disconnected the end links, disconnected the shock bolt, and disconnected the lower bolt in the knuckle, pulled everything down, and the shock came out easily. We did not take off the control arms to get the shock/spring out.

JS + XES

iTrader: (1)

Can someone turn on the ESP in this thread? I'm so confused.

jjashaa

iTrader: (23)

i think this has to do something about the bushings inside the arms not sitting the way it should be.

like.. its torqued down when the suspension is at no load so bushings inside the arms are at that spot vs torquing it down at load similar to when car is on the ground.

idk.. i don't really remember but this is what my friend recommended we do.. we did forget to do this when we installed his rears and it came out like yours.... so we raised the rear up.. loosened everything and retightened everything with load.

MarbleGT

Let me see if I can find a member I know from MX5.net in your area.

Cross your fingers.

Shoofin

Looks like the rear is dropping a bit more...Haven't aligned it yet, but it's still rubbing. IMO, front is a pinch lower than I expected, but I guess once the rear settles a bit more, it should level off the front a little more and balance out.

Don't know why this image is blurry, maybe my camera didn't focus quick enough







Took off the wheels and put the stocks back on to see if it was still rubbing. In front, it's rubbing a drop. Not the fender, only the splash shield. The very front of it where the splash shield has the open slots to allow air to cool the brakes. Really need to get it aligned to know for sure what's up. Here's what it looks like with stock wheels and the suspension drop:





Wasn't in the mood to put the wheel locks back on..

Shoofin

Drove the car a bit, took it on a 100 mile run, cringed every time I hit a bump. The car was bottoming out every time you hit a bump. Took it to align after that ride. Helped the rubbing a little, but of course didn't change the horrible ride. After going back and forth with Koni, they asked me if the bump stops were installed. I wasn't sure because the day it was done, when my buddy was helping me out and swapping the springs, I was on the other side of the shop working on my Lotus, I didn't see if he installed them or not. When I asked him, he said the instructions didn't say to install them . In his defense, the instructions were horrible, with no words, just images and arrows, a-la-Ikea. Annoying. I had to look closely at the instructions to see something that might look like a bump stop, telling you to use it. So for the 3rd time, we took the suspension apart, installed the bump stops, and while we were at it, replaced the end links all around with something beefier. As we were working on the last wheel, (front right), we were putting everything back together and noticed that the outer tie rod stud threads were stripped, and the crown nut would not screw in. I had to call no less than 10 places until I found someone that had it in stock. I ran over there, picked it up, and installed it. After that, put the OEM wheels back on, and took the car for a shake-down. No rubbing at all, and the ride felt a heck of a lot better. Brought the car back in the shop, put the new wheels on, and took it for a shake-down again. No rubbing whatsoever, ride is compliant. FINALLY. Took a few pics, looks like the front end came up a drop. While tightening the rear suspension, I took the advice of some of you, but a bit differently. I put a floor support jack under the suspension and compressed it until the car was just about to come up off the lift arm, and tightened everything that way. It still has a pinch more rake than I would want, but I'm glad this is finally done with. Speaking of which, I asked Koni if the springs were an in-house design or outsourced, and was told that they are from Vogtland. The car has to be aligned again though, because of the issue with the outer tie rod ordeal, which my brother will do tomorrow.

Some pics of the finished product:







He is planning to install a few other cosmetic mods, like an OEM bodykit, lip spoiler, front grille, roll bar, etc.. Performance-wise, he wants to put an intake and exhaust, and eventually wants to put a turbo.

What do you think?

jjashaa

iTrader: (23)

ahh.. looks much better... i hear bump stops means a lot for this car.. haven't really read up on that kinda stuff yet...

What intake would you get? I think the stock one is good as is.. if anything, you can get the Randall Cowl intake duct and drop in a K&N filter.

1StGenCL

What a pain but I'm glad you figured it out. Car looks good and while I liked the wheels at first, the stock ones look better back to back.

phee

iTrader: (5)

it looks like your rear springs are not completely in the spring hole on the body. does that make sense? I went through this with my civic. the spring kind of sits on the circular wall that it's supposed to slide into and it makes the drop uneven. it only happens in the rear when I jack the car up too high

Shoofin

I compressed the spring/shock using a floor support jack before tightening everything in back. Everything is in it's place, and solid/tight. When one or even two people sit in the car, it comes down quite a bit. That might be why it is the way it is, who knows....Plus, the springs have to settle a bit, they will come down a little more as the car is driven.

mrmako

Glad this is working out, and nice looking Miata.

Shoofin

Any car I've every changed springs on, I always re-used the bump stops. In my Mini, I was instructed to cut a part of the bump stop before putting it back over the shock, which is what I did.

As far as intake, I'm not sure yet. My brother is the one that is researching it, and once he finds something he likes, he tells me and I approve it. He doesn't know nearly as much as I know about cars, so he usually seeks my advice in these things.