Fine Tuning Hks Coilovers, Help With Identification

[rgb]

Hey guys,

I've got HKS coilovers on each corner of my car, but I don't know what model they are. The strut tops are using what I believe is a rose joint (pillowball uppermount?), because it knocks quite loudly as I drive down bumpy roads. The shocks themselves don't have much identification on them. There is a holographic HKS sticker with the word DAMPER on it. On the opposite side of the shock there's another plaque all in japanese characters with '3031' stamped into it. I know these units are height and damper adjustable.

My questions are: Does any know what the adjuster is that is shown in the picture? Is this a rebound setting? It travels very smoothly, not like the clicking of the damper setting in the front. It's only on the rears IIRC, but I thought the damper setting was at the strut top. Does anyone know which coilover model I have? I'd like to change the strut top of the coilover to a bushing style to reduce the road noise.

Cheers

[rgb]

BTW Installed on a r34 gtt. Also, I'd like a rundown on what exactly a damper setting is. I haven't found anything in the forums talking about it.

From my basic knowledge (read: nothing) I understand that it's a setting that would act against the movement of a shock compressing and decompressing. The shocks allow the wheel to travel upwards against a bump in the road to ensure that your car doesn't bottom out, and the spring pops the shock back in place to make sure you are still pushing the wheel down for traction. The damper in this equation will counter these two motions to effectively make the travel along the shock's length smoother and limit to total travel distance. A soft damping setting will allow the shock and spring to move freely, this could theoretically allow the shock to hit the top or the bottom of it's total length, which could cause damage and loss of stability. When the setting is too firm, the shock and spring won't be able to react quickly enough to the change in road surface and may cause bad handling because of loss of traction, etc.

So if this is all correct, there should be a theoretical "perfect setting" for damper where it would be at it's softest setting that would prevent the shock from maxing out the travel length either during compression or rebound. The reason height adjustable coilovers have damper setting is to find that sweet spot in the case that you've changed the ride height. The front and rear damper setting should be slightly different, where the front should be a little firmer, because there will be more load on the front suspension during cornering at the track. Is this a fair statement?

[lidz]

They're Hipermax 2's if the sticker says 'damper'. Also pretty sure that's not an adjustment point at the base of the shocks & you shouldn't be un-doing it. Pretty sure it's a valve cap for the Schraedar valve & is for recharging with nitrogen.

The only adjustment is using an allen key tool in the top, centre of the shock & as they're hipermax 2's you should have 30 clicks of adjustment.