does anyone know their spring rate?

[SLY33]

got tein HA's with the hardest springs possible -its like no suspension.

anyway im getting a new set made up, and have had various recommendations from suspension specialists. Problem is they conflict a bit.

One says go 250lb/sq in on all four corners, one says go 350 front, 280 rear, another says go 350 on all four.

I checked with kings and the lows i had before are 175fr and 180 rear.

-->why would they make them softer at the front seeing that is where the weight is?

-->should all four corners be same spring rate? if not, do you go harder in the front as has been suggested, softer in the front like the kings, or same all round?

-->anyone had springs made and what rate?

thanks

[Warpspeed]

What do you hope to achieve ?

What is wrong with stock springs ?

If you can answer that, there is no need to ask anyone.

[Craved]

makes good sense in getting softer spring rates at the back if you suffer from bad oversteer, if its not too bad then equal all round will suffice!!

but answer warpspeed's question and you'll get a better answer

[SLY33]

as i said the springs i have in there currently are so firm its like they are solid.

what i want to achieve: a firm but acceptable ride, (firmer than the kings lows) but not so firm that the car will not be able to get traction off the line. Basically a compromise.

I have been given solutions but they conflict, given a forum of this size im hoping i can get first hand feedback from different setups to help me decide on my own.

[Craved]

well according to the TEIN website, the spring rates are 9/504 front and 8/448 rear!! witch is pretty hard!! thats what i have on mine and i know what you mean about "not be able to get traction off the line", only got bad since i put the adj swaybars on, but softened up the back to 10 clicks (aparrently 1 less than stock) and it seems alot better!! BUT still bad, the only way is to drop it back until you come to a compromise!! will still be stiff but able to bog down alot more! just remember that if it's low, makesure you adjust the ride height cause it will drop down ive noticed! this is the only way to do it without spending money on new springs!! if you have adj sway bars, loosen them up too!

[Mick Trainer]

With a rear wheekl drive car they should definatly be softer in the rea than the front to reduce oversteer. The 350/280 ratio sounds about right and around what I would recommend. I may go a little softer if I was you , say around 300-320f and 230-250 rears as it will give you better handling through bumps which there are plenty on our roads, and much better drive out of corners. But this will stilll enable good turn in under braking etc as well as giving you good drive out of corners. Too many go too hard as they think harder is better when it is often not the case. The car will sit flatter but on radial tyres there is a limit to where this becomes the case.

Hope that this helps. For real knowledgable advise you can call Top Performance Koni in victoria and ask to speak to Ric Kemp. He is one of the top suspesion set up guys ging around (thankfully he iscurrently outside of a team so we can get access to him) . I would put my house on him saying go softer and he will know so if you are not happy with other answers go straight to the top of the tree.

Mick.

[Warpspeed]

Have to agree there Mick.

The best springs for ANY car are those that just allow full suspension travel for the type of driving you do. If the tyres leave the road (airborne), or you hit the bump stops, tyre grip immediately goes to zero.

The trick is to get best tyre adhesion at all times, and increasing the spring rate does exactly the opposite. What the springs do is press the tyre against the road. If you stiffen the springs the tyre forces go up and down far more violently with every little bit of suspension movement.

Now sometimes stiffer springs will help, but there are only two circumstances where this is true.

1/ The suspension geometry is so terrible, that limiting the suspension movement keeps the wheel more upright This is often the case with very old cars with badly designed suspension. Simply because the suspension cannot move around much, you might have prevented all the terrible camber angles, and unwanted steering effects of individual wheels.

2/ You have reduced the available suspension travel so much, that you must now increase the spring rate to prevent you hitting the bump stops all the time. You will lose roadholding by doing this, but it will be far more predictable when you hit a mid corner bump.

In both the above cases, stiffening up the springs is a band aid approach to a geometry related issue. Fix the geometry first, it will feel a lot better.

I assume you want real performance, not just that cool low car look.

If you really want to improve things, you cannot really better the original spring rates. But the original dampers would have been specified for comfort rather than the ultimate in roadholding. Get the best fully adjustable dampers you can afford, and play around with them.

It will feel a lot firmer, probably as firm as you really want it to be. Then try some stiffer antiroll bars. As the original suspension is almost certainly set for a fair bit of understeer, try increasing the rear roll stiffness first.

All you friends will tell you this is not cool. You must lower the car 100mm, fit twenty inch wheels with 30 profile tyres. It will look like it should corner really hard, it will not.

[SLY33]

thanks guys, thats the best info ive had for a long time!

Mick, thanks for your contact, will be a great help.

unfortunately i have 19inch wheels with 35 and 30series rubber

Well apparently the Tein HA adj dampers i have are excellent dampers, all i have to do is select the right springs.