Question About Lowering Ride Height

[albertm7]

Hello,

I recently purchased and installed a set of Bilstein PSS9 coilovers on my R33 GTR. I was successful in lowering the rear coilovers but I ran into a small problem with the front.

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The lower collar hits the control arm preventing me from lowering it any further.

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I was wondering if I can add a small washer to push the coilover slightly out to give it a bit of clearance between the collar and control arm.

Has anyone ever done this and tracked their car? Would the extra millimeters put too much shear on that stud?

Thanks.

[Trex]

Run it hard made his own spacers to run wider rims. Seemed fine 2 years on and he drifted quite a lot.

I personally wasn't too fond of the idea, but I have seen crazier shit in factory cars.

[albertm7]

Yeah but the rim sits on 5 studs whereas this would be one. Or actually, it should be sitting on the hub so the spacer wouldnt make a difference. Just being a devils advocate here. I'm pretty sure the extra few mms wouldn't matter though... There would still be thread left at the end.

Edited January 23, 2014 by albertm7

[GTSBoy]

Assuming that you could still get the adjuster spanner onto it after doing it, would you not be better off removing a few mm from the OD of the lower collar?

[Trex]

Huh? I was talking about a spacer for the shock... To push it out further towards the end of the bolt. It's hard to tell from your first pic on what it is hitting

[Willis]

Interesting, i guess it is to do with the design of the bilstien's as i haven't encountered this problem before with more traditional coilovers?

Well apart from getting crazy as some others have suggested, i'm not sure.

Osborn has a decent idea, space the shock out from the bottom, i'm not sure how much of an effect that will have on the coilovers operation as you will be changing the angle of the suspension.

If it's only a few mm then i don't see why not?

[albertm7]

I think I misunderstood you. I was suggesting the exact same thing Osborn. I'm trying to figure out the exact amount of torque difference between spacer vs no spacer but having trouble with the equation lol. Also, how would that affect suspension geometry? Not saying it wouldnt, I'm just not sure.

Shaving the collar is a no go as I would have to shave it down completely. Can't really tighten it up after if I do so...

Edited January 23, 2014 by albertm7

[GTSBoy]

Well, moving the bottom eye out a few mm won't affect suspension geometry at all. It will certainly increase the shear load on the lower mount though, which I wouldn't think would be a good thing, but can't see it as being likely to cause it to break off. I wouldn't want to space it out more than 2mm or so though - there is a shoulder on that stud that the damper eye has to sit on.

Why don't you abuse that silly collar for mounting the brake hose? Take a lot of height out of it so you can wind the lower collar up higher to lock it up?

[albertm7]

Thanks for all the input. I've decided to mount the brake hose bracket further down and move the lower collar up. This way, the two collars are in contact and I'll have room to adjust the ride height. I'm putting a metal hose clamp underneath the hose bracket so it stays in place as well.