Why Coilovers?

[65 ElCamino]

Can someone provide me with a link to an article about coilovers?
I'm thinking about purchasing a set from CPP but want to read about what benefits they offer before purchasing them.

Thanks

[SSLance]

The big plus to a coilover shock setup vs standard coil springs and separate shocks comes with ride height adjustability, and the ease of removing the springs say for a spring rate change. With coilovers, you can jack the car up to take the pressure off the spring, loosen the spring collar with an allen wrench and turn the collar up or down to easily adjust ride height or corner weight.

With a traditional spring setup you will most likely need a spring compressor just to get the spring in or out and you'll have to swap to a different spring all together if you want to raise or lower the ride height or go stiffer or softer on the spring rate.

[Mkelcy]

The big plus to a coilover shock setup vs standard coil springs and separate shocks comes with ride height adjustability, and the ease of removing the springs say for a spring rate change. With coilovers, you can jack the car up to take the pressure off the spring, loosen the spring collar with an allen wrench and turn the collar up or down to easily adjust ride height or corner weight.

With a traditional spring setup you will most likely need a spring compressor just to get the spring in or out and you'll have to swap to a different spring all together if you want to raise or lower the ride height or go stiffer or softer on the spring rate.

Of course, every time you do that on the front end you should check the alignment.

[1966longroof]

Additionally, with places like Viking selling Double Adjustables for less than the competion selling singles is icing on the cake with the added benefit of ride quality adjustments. Along with the ability of quick adjustments for an afternoon of auto-x or drag strip.

[65 ElCamino]

Additionally, with places like Viking selling Double Adjustables for less than the completion selling singles is icing on the cake with the added benefit of ride quality adjustments. Along with the ability of quick adjustments for an afternoon of auto-x or drag strip.

Thanks for the tip!

[Rod]

Additionally, with places like Viking selling Double Adjustables for less than the completion selling singles is icing on the cake with the added benefit of ride quality adjustments. Along with the ability of quick adjustments for an afternoon of auto-x or drag strip.

ummm...

[65 ElCamino]

The big plus to a coilover shock setup vs standard coil springs and separate shocks comes with ride height adjustability, and the ease of removing the springs say for a spring rate change. With coilovers, you can jack the car up to take the pressure off the spring, loosen the spring collar with an allen wrench and turn the collar up or down to easily adjust ride height or corner weight.

With a traditional spring setup you will most likely need a spring compressor just to get the spring in or out and you'll have to swap to a different spring all together if you want to raise or lower the ride height or go stiffer or softer on the spring rate.

Thanks for the information! Looks like ill be going with coilovers!

[Damn True]

Coilover =\= good. There is a lot of rubbish out there that looks to the naked eye quite similar to that which is in fact quite good.

While dated, I recommend giving a quick look at "Far North Racing's" shocks page for some great info on things to look for and most importantly, the right questions to ask when looking at dampers.

[Fras]

For my car, I wanted a good ride, and since adjustable height and spring rate wasn't going to be changed, I opted to go with a separate spring and shock and put money in the upper control arms. I did this all with lots of guidance from Mark from SC&C suspension. The guy is awesome, you just need to figure out the function of your car along with budget and completion time.

[Fras]

This is the ride height

[UMI Tech]

Coilovers are good and popular but don't automatically make a car perform more awesome.

The main benefit is ride height adjustability, the secondary benefit depending on the application is the damper is usually adjustable.

We build standard coil springs in 1" and 2" drop that when combined with a premium shock leave nothing on the table performance-wise. The spring itself is awesome quality (100% Made in USA of US materials, ISO traceable) and you can get as crazy as you want with the shock.

Hybrid coils such as Viking and QA1 are a good solution for ride height adjustability, damping adjustability, ease of installation and so on. The shock itself isn't super sophisticated though and the side loading makes it not as premium as some other solutions. Good enough for most but not necessarily what a national level PT competitor would use.

A true coilover, 2-1/2" spring and ultra premium damper would be the "ultimate" but requires in many cases some fabrication to get things right.

There are many solutions for many different customers.

ramey

[rustomatic]

Coilovers just look flippin' sweet!

[Jon @ Hotchkis]

Coilovers are good and popular but don't automatically make a car perform more awesome.

The main benefit is ride height adjustability, the secondary benefit depending on the application is the damper is usually adjustable.

We build standard coil springs in 1" and 2" drop that when combined with a premium shock leave nothing on the table performance-wise. The spring itself is awesome quality (100% Made in USA of US materials, ISO traceable) and you can get as crazy as you want with the shock.

Hybrid coils such as Viking and QA1 are a good solution for ride height adjustability, damping adjustability, ease of installation and so on. The shock itself isn't super sophisticated though and the side loading makes it not as premium as some other solutions. Good enough for most but not necessarily what a national level PT competitor would use.

A true coilover, 2-1/2" spring and ultra premium damper would be the "ultimate" but requires in many cases some fabrication to get things right.

There are many solutions for many different customers.

ramey

This.

There are a lot of companies out there producing mediocre-quality coilovers that ride poorly and have cheaply made springs that will sag prematurely, but people buy them because coilovers are the hot-ticket. I have a saying that I like to use, "A lot of coilovers are like Starbucks coffee, it certainly isn't the best for the money, but they sure are trendy".

Not to mention I see a lot of people buy coilovers for the ride-height adjustability alone, and after the first couple of months they get tired of crawling under the car to adjust it and never touch them again.

[65 ElCamino]

Like everyone else I'm looking for the best bang for my buck. I'm a student who works part time as a pizza delivery boy which makes my options for parts small. I just started getting into cars so i don't know whats what. If someone could give me some advice on all things suspension (within my budget) it would be much appreciated!

[Marcus SC&C]

Coilovers are good and popular but don't automatically make a car perform more awesome.

The main benefit is ride height adjustability, the secondary benefit depending on the application is the damper is usually adjustable.

We build standard coil springs in 1" and 2" drop that when combined with a premium shock leave nothing on the table performance-wise. The spring itself is awesome quality (100% Made in USA of US materials, ISO traceable) and you can get as crazy as you want with the shock.

Hybrid coils such as Viking and QA1 are a good solution for ride height adjustability, damping adjustability, ease of installation and so on. The shock itself isn't super sophisticated though and the side loading makes it not as premium as some other solutions. Good enough for most but not necessarily what a national level PT competitor would use.

A true coilover, 2-1/2" spring and ultra premium damper would be the "ultimate" but requires in many cases some fabrication to get things right.

There are many solutions for many different customers.

ramey

This.

There are a lot of companies out there producing mediocre-quality coilovers that ride poorly and have cheaply made springs that will sag prematurely, but people buy them because coilovers are the hot-ticket. I have a saying that I like to use, "A lot of coilovers are like Starbucks coffee, it certainly isn't the best for the money, but they sure are trendy".

Not to mention I see a lot of people buy coilovers for the ride-height adjustability alone, and after the first couple of months they get tired of crawling under the car to adjust it and never touch them again.

What they said. Coil over conversions are one of those things that look great at first blush but the more you get into them and the longer you work with them the more you realize they may not be as great as you thought. I`m a BIG fan of coil overs in general, they`re the only way to go on tube frame race cars that were designed for them. They`re okay on general performance cars IF the conversion is well done AND IF the car is fairly compatible. Here`s a link to a great article by Chris Alston on coil over conversions. It touches briefly on a few of the issues that need to be addressed to make them work properly...and it`s 12 pages long. Starting to get the idea? https://www.cachassisworks.com/white...ion_WP_WEB.pdf
I`m not a big fan of the hybrid coil overs for the reasons Ramey mentioned and the fact they they`re actually a huge pain in the rump to adjust to the perfect height. There`s no frame of reference, you have to guess...and guess again....and again until you get it and hope that the system will live adjusted that way. For performance GM street cars we generally lean toward running conventional touring rate springs (firm enough for good handling and good ride but also long enough to have good stored energy for traction off the line) with a good adjustable shock (the brains of the suspension weather they`re in the form of a coil over or not). This format is as reliable as the sunrise and durable enough to use in a taxi cab. If we want adjustable ride height (who doesn`t?) we pair them with SPC adjustable height lower A arms. Swapping spring shims gives you pretty much whatever height you want from lowered to lifted without changing the preload of the springs and with zero chance of coil bind. The adjustments are also easily quantifiable, a 1/4" shim alters the ride height about 1/2". Easy. Yes, you have to separate the lower ball joint from the spindles ( 1min.) and disconnect the shock (2 mins.) but you know how much you have to adjust it before you even start so you seldom have to do it more than once. FYI with touring rate and higher springs a spring compressor is not needed so it`s really not a big deal. Once adjusted it`s reliable as OE again.
For road race/autocross competition oriented cars I can see more application for coil overs but not necessarily as bolt in conversions. The higher spring rates give you more usable range of travel without coil bind and the finer points of tuning may come in handy. The weld in "long travel" conversions up front like the Speedtech Chicane make a lot of sense for cars like this. Without using a weld in upper mount they can be made to work well with coil over specific lower A arms with dropped mounts. I never recommend trying to run coil over conversions with stock lower A arms but then I wouldn`t run flimsy, old stock lower A arms on a road race car if I could help it anyway.
Bottom line, if you`re building a car for competition and you use really top shelf parts, formatted for that application coil overs can be a good thing but will still require more time and attention to detail than conventional springs/shocks. If you`re not going to spend a lot of time in the car wearing a helmet and you`re looking at a "budget coil over conversion" then you may want to do some more reading and thinking before you whip out your credit card... Mark SC&C

[Mully]

Interesting…the more I read the more I realize how little I know

[Nothingface5384]

well they wont be a pain to adjust anymore when Viking comes out with the Berserkers ASM..only pain would be from thinner wallet :-)

Mark , What do you think of the coil-over extender bracket mod?
do you think enlarging the hole to fit the shock body through compromises or weakens the frame overall? or does the new bracket make it just as strong or stronger again?

[Marcus SC&C]

The concept of the weld in extended length coil over kits is a sound one. The execution of each attempt is what makes or breaks them (maybe literally, heh). The well designed ones should more than make up for any strength that`s lost in the clearance cuts.

[HellPhish89]

isnt the physics reason for a coil over conversion on a car like mine (3rd gen camaro) or most cars that the integrated package has more leverage (control) over the suspension thus increasing handling? also, a side effect of being able to us lower rate springs for the same abilities?