Issue with Coilovers - Need some advice

JipJopJones

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Aug 17, 2006
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4,475
Location
North Shore
Car(s)
1979 Cressida Wagon, 1981 Corolla Hardtop
I just bought a car... 1982 Toyota Corolla Wagon, however pretty much everything on it (drivetrain, suspension, brakes) is AE86. I'll admit, I broke the "never buy a modified car" rule, but it seems to be in pretty good shape.

However, the car is stupidly low. It's got KSport Coilovers on the front and lowering blocks in the rear. Going over any bumps/potholes in the road is hellish. The CLUNK the car makes is daunting to say the least and I'm pretty sure it's bottoming out on the bumpstops.

Having never delved into lowering a car until now, what should be my first steps to fix some of the issues. As the car sits, the adjustable perches are sitting about 1" off the bottom of the thread and with the car on jack stands the coil falls to the bottom (unseating itself from the upper spring seat) Is this wrong/bad?

With all this being said... is there a way I can improve my ride while still maintaining a relatively slammed look? I don't mind taking the car up 1-1.5 inches or so in the front, and 2-2.5" in the rear, but I don't want huge gaps showing in the wheel arches, nor do I want a super soft ride. (I plan to autoX this car)

Thanks for the help. I can get pics of the coil overs if that would help explain the situation.

EDIT: Here's a photo:

0fRWhL9.jpg
 
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There is a certain amount of NVH you'll get from those no matter what you do, but the clunk you hear is probably from the springs unseating and then reseating. Most coilovers adjust height using the lower part that attaches the steering knuckle, and you adjust spring pre-load using the "nut" that the spring makes contact. At the least I would run it up until that nut holds your spring in place, and then adjust height accordingly. That is one of the main benefits of coilovers, being the amount of travel in the suspension is separate from the height of the vehicle.

The harsheness of the ride is a combination of things, but mostly comes down to how the damping valves inside the shock are set. You can get a harsh ride from too stiff a spring as well, but if the springs are correct and its still harsh then the valving is also too stiff. Not sure if those have adjustable valving, but you could possibly have them worked on to fit your needs if they are. When I say that, I mean actually changing the valve shims and such, not turning an adjustment knob like some of those have. At least in the offroad world, people tend to set the ride height with the springs and then use valve shimming to adjust the ride characteristics.

I have a friend that does a lot of Autocross, and he has a Toyota Celica that uses very similar running gear to you (i.e. AE86 stuff) and he could give you some pointers. His name is Ed Cushing and he has a seperate Facebook page for his Celica called "Tom Celica". I think I friended both, so search in my friends file. He'll be able to give you some good tips to start off with Autocross tuning and such. I'm sure there are plenty of people on here that could too.

First step, IMHO, is to pull those off and clean all the rust off and put some marine grease or other rust prevention on them to keep it from happening again. All of that aluminum and steel interaction is a bed for a ton of rust to keep happening.

Sounds like a cool little car that should be fun to drive both on road and on track.
 
Should also point out that many coilovers actually have a very limited amount of travel they can actually do. It has been a long time since I messed around with street coilover conversion units, but as I recall the advice from then it was to determine what ride height you wanted it to be at then figure out which coilover unit you needed for that height. You didn't just do things like cut, heat or replace the springs, etc.

That unit looks to be in pretty bad condition. What make are they? You may want to just go ahead and replace them anyway.
 
I have a friend that does a lot of Autocross, and he has a Toyota Celica that uses very similar running gear to you (i.e. AE86 stuff) and he could give you some pointers. His name is Ed Cushing and he has a seperate Facebook page for his Celica called "Tom Celica". I think I friended both, so search in my friends file. He'll be able to give you some good tips to start off with Autocross tuning and such. I'm sure there are plenty of people on here that could too.

Thanks for the info. I'll look into what you've said, and I'll definitely try to check out Tom's page.

Sounds like the shock is too long for the spring / the spring is sitting too low. Raise the lower perch and I would think you'd be good to go. Besides, you want to raise it anyways so...

Edit: either that or the shock is blown.

It's very possible that the shock is blown. I'm pretty sure it's quite old.

Should also point out that many coilovers actually have a very limited amount of travel they can actually do. It has been a long time since I messed around with street coilover conversion units, but as I recall the advice from then it was to determine what ride height you wanted it to be at then figure out which coilover unit you needed for that height. You didn't just do things like cut, heat or replace the springs, etc.

That unit looks to be in pretty bad condition. What make are they? You may want to just go ahead and replace them anyway.

They are KSports. The car was built as a drift car in the early 00s. So chances are the suspension hasn't changed since then. I might start looking at replacements.
 
I would at least try to clean the crud off of them first. A little scrubbing and soaking in vinegar or coke for a few hours might do the trick enough to use them.

Any of those "cheap" japanese coilover kits will err on the side of too stiff and no travel. Honestly, that works allright for Autocross from what I can tell. That Celica dude's are so stiff he might as well have the suspension hard mounted to the body. He doesn't really drive it on the street though, or if he plans to he swaps in some softer ones.

Very cool little car, and I'm sure it will be a blast. Its fun to have two cars that are diametrically apposed in their goals too.
 
Thanks! It is very different from the Jeep, that's for sure. I've been sidetracked from the suspension right now though because the patch on the fuel tank let go. I've pulled the tank out and it's currently at a shop to be welded/properly fixed.

I'll be pulling apart the suspension while the car is off the ground and the tank is out. So I'll try and get a PYC thread together in the next couple days.
 
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