team510fc3s

hey guys im planning on running a auto cross event this coming up weekend and im still having trouble getting my suspension to handle how i want it. I work next to a gated parking lot that fire fighters use for training and they have cones set up and everything so i sneak in there to test out my suspension adjustments but it seems like i just cant get my car to handle very well.

background:
89 GXL na

mods:
"throttlebody mod"
racing beat cat back
god speed front/rear sway bars
megan racing coil overs
ss brake lines
lsd from a gtu i believe but not sure

Right now my shocks are at preload and the dampening is set to 16 front and 16 rear, the coilovers have 32 ways of adjustment so i figured in the middle somewhere would be good. when im cornering it feels like its going to slide out when im not even going that fast, i have done some research on the rear steer and am planning to buy the bushing set some time soon. just wondering if you guys have any tips for tuning your suspension. is the only way to just mess with it, test it out and keep doing that over until you find something that feels good? any help would be great, im tryna kick some serious butt this weekend and hold it down for the fc's!

BeauNC

What tires are you using?

When you say it feels like its going to slide out, you mean the front or the rear?

D Walker

iTrader: (1)

disconnect the rear sway bar and see if that helps. A LOT of the low-end coilovers are way too stiff to be useful. If you have time and $$ I would change your spring rates. If you search, I bet you will find some good recommendations. Not sure what you mean by "preloaded" springs, but it doesnt sound good. If you cannot change your spring rates then you can try to run a little less tire pressure, but watch for rollover.
Checking the actual setup would be a good idea as well, and by that I mean the frnt and rear camber and toe. Not much you can do about caster at this point. Check your ide heights as well.

You havent said which tires your using, if you have done this before, etc. so its hard to actually help you much. Honestly for what your doing you would have been better off to skip the megan/godspeed stuff and done the Mazdatrix/racing beat/ground control springs and konis than gone out and see if you even need stiffer bars. Chances are the Megans are so friggin stiff the sway bars are doing nothing. Oh, yeah before I forget- the stiff-soft adjustment really is not something your going to really "feel" with really stiff springs, and the stiffer the spring the worse it is.

team510fc3s

when i said slide out i ment it feels like the rear is sliding out. Im running falken zexis on stock bbs rims. preload is when you adjust the springs so that their just barely putting tension on the spring when the car is off the ground or atleast that was what i was told. I have some auto crossing experience and track experience, i had a sentra se-r that i ran on thunder hill with the sr20club, than i sold it and bought a integra that i autocrossed for a couple months. But fwd and rwd seems to need two different driving styles, im pretty used to driving fwd cars, my fc is my first rwd. how do you know if your suspension is too stiff or too tight? in my sentra and integra i had bars all over , strut bars front and rear, between the rear seatbelt bolts, on the floor right behind the driver and passenger seat and some under neath the car as well and it handled great, i was out cornering miata and civics with both cars. lol

BeauNC

If the rear is sliding then soften the rear rebound or lower the rear spring rates to start.

Stiffening the chassis allows the suspension to do its work rather than the chassis flexing because the springs are stiffer than the body rigidity. So if your springs are overpowering your chassis, you may benefit a bit from chassis stiffening.

Concentrate on slow in, fast out and see if that changes anything. Try driving in steady state cornering (driving in a circle) and see if it understeers or oversteers. If it drives neutral in steady state cornering then your spring rates are probably not too bad, then its transitionary suspension movement that is the problem and that is all in the damper settings and driving style.

gkmccready

How do the Megan coilovers adjust ride height? If they don't have an adjustment other than the spring perch height (and preloading the spring) then make sure you're not riding on the bump stops from having the car too low to start with...

team510fc3s

they have 3 plates, one to lock the height adjustment, two for spring rate and the 3rd is to lock against the 2nd plate to ensure it doesnt move. but thanks everyone getting some good ideas for my fc