To start off here is my build.
I'm running a half bridged TO4z pushing about 400hp to the wheels.
Suspension parts includes the following:
Tein Mono flex coil overs
Racing beat front and back sway bars
Aftermarket Toe links/Trailing arms.
Replaced all OEM bushings with polyurethane bushings

Problem I'm having is under acceleration and highway driving my front end feels extremely light almost as if its floating. To my guess its that alot of the weight is transferring to the back wheels? It's hard to really describe the problem but to sum it up it feels if I constantly don't have grib/front tires losing contact with the pavement for longer then I would like. I live in NYC and was wonder if anyone had some suggestions on how I can go about fixing this issue or if there is someone I can take the car to for help with adjustments.

Thank you.

 

What tire and wheel combination are you running ?

 

It is possible that your coils are set too soft or bad wheel setup

 

might be front tires are over-inflated if you have that sense on highway speeds?

 

I know I'm using weds sport rims with Michelin sport all seasons. I still have to find out the off set of the rims. As for my coils if I remember right I'm running 10kg front and 12 kg springs in the back if i recall correctly. As for tire pressure that was the first thing on my list when trouble shooiting. I went from 26 psi - 34 psi didn't help much in fixing the issue I'm having. My front tires feels like they are constantly not making contact with pavement for split secounds during semi hard acceleration and when I hit bumps or pot holes at high speeds the front end gets loose for longer then I would like.

Note* I don't have power steering on the car either.

 

20 inch weds sports. Will look at what tires pervious owner has on them once i get the car out of the shop

 

Sorry I meant 19"

 

I've been reading up on getting a car corner weighed also. Any idea where I can go to get this done? Or is it something that's normally diy? Once again appreciate any help I can get.

 

A race shop is a good place to get your car corner weighed. Often they are on site at a track.

This would be a good place to have the tech drive your car so they can tell you exactly what is wrong with it.

It kinda sounds like front sway bar or front bushings binding or too much rebound damping on the front shocks/not enough droop travel, but could just as easily be blown shocks, bad alignment, mismatched tires front/back decreasing front grip enough it is very noticeable when front end traction is further compromised with bumps or weight transfer.

 

I'm sure the shocks aren't blown. Can you go into a little more detail about sway bars/ rebound damping and how I can go about troubleshooting them?

 

^This sounds backwards. And a little heavy, especially for street. And front sway may be too stiff with those springs.

Check the Howard Coleman sticky in wheels/tires/suspension section.

 

You are right it's 12 front 10 back. Also what do you mean by front sway too stiff for the springs

 

What I mean is what you believe is a lack of grip may just be overly quick turn-in and an inability to sense where the limit of grip really is at any of the four corners. I think your high spring rates, combined with your aftermarket (stiffer) front and rear sway bars would cause that. Seems together they would turn your car into a go-cart. Anyway, personally I doubt there's much advantage to stiffening the rear sway, especially for a street car, on street tires. I know a lot of guys who track and still use the stock rear sway.
I'm not a specialist, it's worth what you paid for my input. But again, there is a lot of info in the stickys in that section I mentioned.

 

Thank you. I will keep this in mind.

 

Do you have any idea what your alignment settings are? Any idea what your toe and camber settings are? Some of the best cornering vehicles have stiffer rears. The Amuse s2000 for example. The stiffer rear springs are not suicide if you have proper camber, down force, wheel and tire setup, etc.

 

Thats the thing Gadowere... I was hoping to meet someone or be directed to a shop/person that can point me in the right direction.

 

You were pointed to someone who could help....yourself. Have you gone to that section? Did you read thru those stickys or do any searching there? The car handles like crap despite a bunch of cool sounding but maybe ill-advised suspension modifications. Presumably YOU bought it that way. You should make some effort to figure it out. I agree with Gadowere that you need to find out your suspension settings...or just have an alignment done by a competent shop based on your tire/wheel size. BTW, my experience that tire size on the FD is almost always chosen for looks, not performance. And all-seasons?
I'll unsubscribe now. Good luck.

 

Understandable. I haved yes all s been reading through the stickys and all seasons... I know lol. I have one guy that I would like to go to but I can't seem to find him anymore. He was located in Long Island by Meacham ave and B st back in 2008-2010

 

Stiffer springs = higher ride rate = generally less mechanical grip. Race cars use stiff springs to reduce weight transfer during hard cornering on ridiculously sticky tires and to compensate for (typically) very high aerodynamic forces pushing the car into the track. People with lowered cars generally use high spring rates in order to avoid bottoming out or hitting the bump stops on the suspension when they go over a bump in the road due to the reduced available suspension travel of a lowered car. For a street car with (assumingly) limited downforce, stiff springs with crappy all-seasons will very much reduce your mechanical grip. I am guessing your ride rate is way too high for the car's weight and lack of downforce, causing the wheels to vibrate like crazy when you hit a bump/pothole or whatever, and therefore the tires are not making good contact with the ground. High front sway bar stiffness can and will make this effect worse when cornering since you are basically adding spring rate to the loaded (outside) wheels. Generally you want the suspension to be as soft as is practical without bottoming or hitting the bump stops. But like I said, soft suspension can also lead to greater pitch/roll/weight transfer in turns so it is a tradeoff like anything else. The (assumingly) low profile sidewalls on your tires with big rims also will most likely reduce the "feel" of your tires at the limit, resulting in rapid breakaway without warning. Regardless, it would be worth getting the car aligned at a shop that ACTUALLY knows what they are doing, and make sure you ask for a spec sheet with the alignment specs at each wheel after they are done.

 

Keep asking petrol heads around your area for a good race shop and once you find it they will be able to drive your car with you, put it on a rack and let you know exactly what you need to fix it.

It may be as simple as changing out to wide wheels and max performance street tires to suit the sway bars and coilovers.

I will say- your set-up is mixing American tuning philosophy with Japanese tuning philosophy and they might not work so well together.

American's typically use soft springs/damping and big swaybars and Japanese typically keep the stock swaybars and tailor the handling with stiff springs/damping.


This combined with the already low grip of the seasons could very well be the problem.

I hate swaybars as they make independent suspension much more like solid axle, so I would ditch those for stock swaybars.

To best put down big power in a straight line though (American style) you will want stock springs, koni yellows and your RB swaybars.

 

You might also have a local shop check the preload on your shocks. If someone installed them and got the preload setting wrong, the car can handle very weirdly. A friend of mine tried installing his own shocks, got it wrong, and seemed to have similar results to what you've described. Worth a check to have someone verify that things are correctly set up!