Corner Weighting and Geometry Done

[skiddusmarkus]

I was having a bit of a dilemna with my Tein SS.They were realy hard and bounced me about a lot so I was looking into getting them revalved an possibly different springs.After reading a few post on here though it seemed that they already have very very soft springs already 4kg front 3kg rear and one member mentioned that their ride got a lot better after raising the car up a bit.
I contacted Tein UK for their advice and they were very helpful, being more interested in giving me advice than taking my money to have the dampers revalved to a softer setting.They suggested raising the car up around 25mm as when my suspension was fitted it was lowered to the maximum.So before potentially wasting any money having them set up properly and then finding I needed to revalve them, I raised the car myself, by eye.I got it pretty level but in raising the car around 25mm I threw out all the settings(I expected this) but it did soften the car up quite a lot so I decided to have the geometry done proerly and the car corner weighted.

Luckily for me a google search brought up ScoobyClinic as being able to corner weight and its just the other end of town so only 15-20 minutes away.I went yesterday and they set up the car as I asked-fronts 1.5 degree -camber, rears 1 degee -camber and zero tow.The car weighed in at 1198kg with an almost full interior and cusco roll cage but I have removed stuff lke aircon, sound proofing etc.They had me sit in the car and managed to get a 49-51 balance on the front of the car, which considering how unbalanced the car is weightwise I thought was pretty good.
There were a couple of problems where my new trackrod ends and trackrods were meeting in the threaded tube so they couldn't set the tow right and had to machine a couple of threads off each bearing to suit.They also had to grind a little of my rear shocks to be able to get the camber right.

I drove home in traffic but was pretty impressed with how the car felt, I could actually accelerate on bends without fearing for my life and the car just felt nicer to drive.The total cost was £270 but some(2 hours) of that was extra labour for machining.I won't put what the actual geo and corner weighting cost as I was apparently underquoted on this so if you are in the lookout for this service better to contact them yourself for a price.

 

[olliecast]

Sounds like some good value there matey.

Well done

 

[Keg510]

What machining did they need to do?

 

[campbellju]

Nice one Simon. Interesting what Tein are saying about the ride height. What ride heights did the garage setup front and back? Also, what is the difference front to back?

 

[skiddusmarkus]

They had to machine a few threads off the rose jointed bearings to stop them touching the trackrods as both screw into a threaded sleeve and they touched before the toe could be set to what I wanted.They also said they'd have to take a bit off the rear shocks to get the camber right, but tbh I haven't looked at that them yet to see how much.I just sort of expect complications whenever anything is done to this car, even if it was just changing a wiper blade.
Campbell I'd already set the ride heights to roughly what Tein suggested which was something like 335mm and I think I did +/-5mm for the rear from centre of the wheel to the top of the arch, but mine were just temprorary guesstimates to see if it changed how hard the suspension felt.They just played with it a little to corner weight it and said they didn't need to change it dramaticly to get it right.They did point out that it was set up with my weight included so when it was parked on a flat surface it might look uneven which makes sense.
Obviously they are subaru specialists and don't think they have done much work(if any) on these cars so went on what I asked for rather than what they knew would work form experience.They seemed quite interested in the car though.

 

[Keg510]

Street car I take it as u didn't ask for too much camber? What's the weight split front to rear factory, gotta be happy with almost 50/50. What were the aftermarket track rod ends u used? Have heard of this problem with a few different cars now

 

[skiddusmarkus]

Yeah its a street car, I didn'tget too much camber as it would tramline too much and wear the tyres out.They didn't say the front to rear balance but I doubt they'd get that as close as the rear is already light plus I have stripped out the rear seats, parcel shelf and sound deadening making it even lighter.
The trackrod ends I got are in a thread on here, search stevepudney to find them.They don't sell them as a kit so its not like they messed up.They just sent me what I ordered to replace my knackered ones I got in a kit from Powerstation years ago.

 

[Trip]

I had the same problem with the rod ends. I ended up sawing off a a big part from the male part of the spherical bearing to get good toe.



What height did you end up with front and rear to get the car weight balanced ?

 

[skiddusmarkus]

I haven't measured it since I got back Trip, had a few family problems lately so car not been a priority really.I did ask if they had to adjust it much form what I had already set it at and they hadn't.
I can measure it for you at some stage if that helps you, but bear in mind I have already shifted a lot of weight around the car eg FMIC, koyo rad(loads more weight in front of the front wheels),aircon removed, lightweight wheels, cusco 6 point cage, battery behind my seat etc.

 

[dencon]

I find it difficult to understand how you can get front corner weights giving 49/51 balance with driver sat in . My attempts recently and I could not get this without driver. This is why I intend to build a lhd competition car for next season if all goes well. My car is of course fully stripped out with only one seat and weighs in at 1060kgs. I run my car at normall heights, being 330 in front,335 rear. 2deg neg front, 11/2 rear, no toe. den.

 

[skiddusmarkus]

It started off at 41/59, like I said my engine bay isn't standard anymore alot of stuff has changed position and I have a lot of lightweight parts(wheels, suspension, lighter exhaust, no aircon, brackets removed, alloy pulleys etc).
You say yours is set at the same levels front and rear, as I mentioned before they told me my car wouldn't sit level without me in it so they will be slightly different.I'll try and measure it tomorrow/friday if I get the chance.

 

[BabyGodzillaGTi-R]

Sorry to hijack your thread.
Need your views (skiddus, usagi, trip).

I find the setup kinda understeery (like a safe neutral) handling but it gets better the higher the speed.

What would you do if i want to dail in more oversteery bias (the rear feels a tad stucked in slow 2nd gear corners).
Currently it's running -1.5deg front camber 0 rear camber and 0 toe all round. Rear whiteline ARB is in the middle settings.
I'm curious to find out what's your ride height you guys are running now (btw from which point to which point you guys take your measure from?)

Which ideal order of tweaking should i start out to setup the car again?

Do you think i should dial in more toe out in the rear for a start at 1 deg intervals (btw that works out how much in mm)?
Or dial in more camber up front like -2.5deg?
How about raising the rear ride height up like 15mm?

End of the day i'm trying to get back the setup i missed from the previous JICs (the damping feels about right) just the handling balance is not to my liking.

 

[campbellju]

Measure ride height from tyour wheel centre to the body.
Front ride height is 325mm to 345mm (I run 340mm which I like for street use)
Rear ride height 10mm to 15mm higher than the front.

For a street car, front camber of -1.5degs to -2degs is plenty.
Set your rear ARB to full stiff put also set your rear camber to about 2/3 your front camber.

Toe, leave it alone for the moment, it's good enough.

I think your problem is in your other thread Which I'll reply to

 

[BabyGodzillaGTi-R]

Measure ride height from tyour wheel centre to the body.
Front ride height is 325mm to 345mm (I run 340mm which I like for street use)
Rear ride height 10mm to 15mm higher than the front.

For a street car, front camber of -1.5degs to -2degs is plenty.
Set your rear ARB to full stiff put also set your rear camber to about 2/3 your front camber.

Toe, leave it alone for the moment, it's good enough.

I think your problem is in your other thread Which I'll reply to

Thanks for the head ups.
Just realised you posted your setup after replying to the other thread.

 

[Braveheart]

Nice thread and good timing!
I'm going to get my car set-up on Wednesday.
I'm limited however as I'm still running MF struts with no adjustable topmounts but will try to squeeze as much as possible on the camber side using whiteline adj bolts.

 

[campbellju]

Grind your hole on the strut and use the normal bolt, you can give yourself as much camber as you want.