Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Followed up on a recommendation to speak to a bodyshop/repair place in my town called "Rally Repaints" for wheel alignment. They seem to know their stuff and have got all the gear so after a discussion with their gaffer today, we decided on some settings and got me booked in for next wednesday.
The settings he recommended for this car match those recommended by Prodrive which are as follows:
Front Camber = -1° 15’
Front Toe-in (Total) = 0° 06’
Front Caster Standard Subaru (thought I've got more from the ALK, and more is good apparently)
Rear Camber Standard Subaru
Rear Toe-in (Total) = 0° 10’
Thrust angle = 0° 00’
Hopefully my tyres last till then 
Oh, also greased up my rear ARB bushings tonight as they were bone dry and squeeking like bastards...
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Edges 58
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Registered: 30th Mar 10
Location: Nottingham
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They're quite conservative settings, but go for as much caster as possible IMO
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daymoon
Premium Member
Registered: 1st Aug 08
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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How much are they charging if you dont mind me asking?
They once quoted me £600+ to paint a rear quarter and boot 
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Uhm £90 I think he said. It's about in line with other places, though had 150+vat quoted elsewhere
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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daymoon
Premium Member
Registered: 1st Aug 08
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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that is reasonable. I am sure RS in Leeds charge about £100.
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chris_uk
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jul 03
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Your getting your front wheels toe'd in?
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Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Yeah. Something about the suspension toe-ing out under compression so "native" toe-in gives the best balance for stability and turn-in performance.... or something.
The settings are conservative, but it's only supposed to be a baseline after all.
Quite a few people are spinning the front strut top-hats around so that the camber adjustment becomes caster adjustment instead. They manage camber completely with the camber bolts and can rock the caster up a bit more too. Not sure if I'll go for that, need to read into it more.
Additionally, people flip round the anti-lift kit too to gain another degree or so of caster.
What are the down sides to caster? There must be a trade-off surely.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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chris_uk
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Registered: 8th Jul 03
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Caster is whether the wheel is pushed forward or dragged forward.
Think of it like a shopping trolley, the centre of the wheel is behind the mounting point making it drag the wheel forward.
Same here.
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Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Yeah I know what caster is and how it improves geometry but wondered how far is "too far" and what the negative impact is on it.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Wrighty
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Registered: 28th Feb 04
Location: Howden
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quote:
Originally posted by Kyle T
though had 150+vat quoted elsewhere
scoobyclinic + wait all day? 
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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No actually, I don't think SC would be expensive - until they come in and tell me about my required gearbox rebuild and headgasket change
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Tiny bit more fiddling tonight.
I went around all four corners and made sure the preload was set consistently, as the previous owner suggested they may be wound up a bit tight.
Process was simple, lower the locking ring out of the way:
Then drop the spring seat until the springs were loose. Once loose, hand tighten the spring seat up so that all the slack is taken up, but no compression on the spring.
Then hand tighten the locking ring back up to the spring seat, and then using the C spanners tighten the spring seat up until a 4mm gap appears between the seat and the locking ring. 4mm is the recommended preload and is easily measured by the width of the spanner:
Finally I adjusted the ride height slightly. I was getting a slight bit of rub towards the front of the arches on the inside, only the plastic liner which tbf could have been "modified" if I was bothered about properly slamming it - but as I've said a few times, mega lows aint' my thing 
Changing the ride height was just a case of backing off the lower locking ring, then twisting the whole unit out of it's base... a total of 5mm higher:
Got everything torqued back up, car still looks nicely stanced and tbf the 5mm is barely visible - but no more scrubbing on full lock over bumps 
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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p4ult
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Registered: 1st Apr 02
Location: Chadwell Heath, Essex
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Just spent about 5 hours yesterday and a couple today reading your thread from start to finish. I really enjoyed it. I love threads like this.
Seeing you handle mechanical jobs like this when you previously had very little experience has given me inspiration to get more involved with my own car.
Your car looks great btw, I'm very jelious.
Keep up the good work.
Paul
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Cheers Paul, appreciate that. I used to spend hours reading kit-car builds and stuff like that and certainly some were more entertaining than others.
Good luck with your tinkering
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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3CorsaMeal
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Registered: 11th Apr 02
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Do you adjust the coilovers with the wheels on and car on the ground?
Am sure i need to adjust mine, i just keep mucking about every so often and not sure what i've done tbh
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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Nah not for the height or preload. Not sure how I could access the relevant bits with the car on its wheels.
I just jack it up, take reference measurements and work from there.
Not sure regarding camber though, I guess the alignment place might use those metal dish thingies under the tyres so the suspension is loaded but the wheels can still rotate/tilt etc.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Steve
Premium Member
Registered: 30th Mar 02
Location: Worcestershire Drives: Defender
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If you wind the spring cups in 3cms does that mean it heightens the car by 3cm? I think it does
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Gary
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Registered: 22nd Nov 06
Location: West Yorkshire
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Yes.
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VrsTurbo
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jun 10
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quote:
Originally posted by Steve
If you wind the spring cups in 3cms does that mean it heightens the car by 3cm? I think it does
The BC coilovers your springs arnt compressed more/less when you change the height. It goes down into the strut
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Steve
If you wind the spring cups in 3cms does that mean it heightens the car by 3cm? I think it does
Moving the spring seat will change the ride height yes, but it's not the correct way to change ride height.
It would also work the opposite way you described, if I wound the spring seat in/up - it would lower the car as the spring is becoming more compressed. I'm not sure if it would be on a 1:1 ratio either as the springs are progressive in their compression.
The correct way to alter ride height is to move the whole strut up and down into and out of the hub as the whole unit is threaded.
I believe with lesser coilovers the only way to alter the ride height is by compressing and uncompressing the spring via preload (or ofc changing the spring for a shorter/longer one) so as a result, you lose the full progressive range of the spring and you also lose range in the damping and rebound of the shock. Coilovers of this type are probably engineered with a specific ride height in mind, and any variation is sub-optimal... but I am speculating a bit on that.
With my preloads set consistently, I can alter the ride height as much as I want (within the limitations of the wheel arches!) and the amount of compression in the spring and the shock absorbers remains the same.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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3CorsaMeal
Member
Registered: 11th Apr 02
User status: Offline
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on mine, if i wind the spring seat up, the car gets higher.
Have had to lower my car more than i had planned in order to have the springs a lot less compressed.
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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Wee update, I got the CV boot fixed which I destroyed whilst changing the suspension. Paid someone to do it as I wanted to watch it done before attempting one myself.
Glad I did, as the motorfactor CV boot I got was shit and it was a right PITA
Second thing I've done is fix a knock which has been annoying me for a fair amount of time. Basically whenever I let off the gas at slow speed, I'd hear a knocking sound coming from the rear. It occured just as the transmission "took the load" when engine braking if that makes sense.
Did some googling and just found millions of people saying it's normal and due to the design of the Subaru rear diff. After a late night sat on the toilet with the iPad, I read a post from someone who claimed to fix this "normal" knock by re-torquing his rear hub nuts...
Like most hubnuts, these are supposed to be hammered in with a chisel or punch to stop them coming loose. For this reason, they're supposed to be a "one time only" use as the chiseling knackers the thread. I knew for a fact that my front two nuts had been recycled due to the CV boot and the time my driveshaft fell out of my gearbox ( ) so I decided to just replace all four with genuines for a grand total of £20.
Jacked up after work tonight and got it tied away in an hour, most of which was tidying tools up.
Rattlegun is amazing for this job!
JDM Yo,
Old:
New:
Repeat x 3.
Also noticed my ride height at the rear was 10mm lower on the right than the left... so corrected that. No idea how that escaped me.
Test drive time, and holy shit I actually fixed a knock I was sceptical right to the end, but I nailed it.
Only 300 rattles/squeeks/knocks to go.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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djgritt
Premium Member
Registered: 1st Nov 07
Location: Dorset Drives: Focus ST / Hyundai i20N
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Hope those parts came overnight
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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Damnit I knew I'd missed out on a reference opportunity
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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Went to a local "Jap" meet last night, really good turnout with some really nice cars. Ran into a few "famous" cars from Scoobynet which I recognised and got some generous feedback regarding my car, which is always nice!
Looks like I'm on track at 09.20 at Trax on Sunday, so nice and early to give me the rest of the day to ductape my car back together
With that in mind, new purchase today...
Went onto Demon Tweeks, found helmets, sorted by price (low-high) then clicked the first one. That's how much I value my head
It should be enough to satisfy trackday requirements though, and if I really get into it I'll look into a more substantial upgrade.
Next up... an experiment.
It's a replacement domelight which goes between the two front seats, in line with the back of them. Plan is to install a bit of plastic tubing which will come 10 or so inches down from the light fitting, with a camera mount on the end of it. This should place the camera roughly at shoulder height with visibility over the driver hand/wheel movements and good visibility beneath the rear view mirror of the road ahead.
Will be my mobile phone for now, but again if I "get into it" will be a gopro or similar.
The domelight is replaced with two screws in about 20seconds, so would be swapped out for the regular light fitting on a track day.
I guess I could get really clever with it and hijack the 12v feed and wire it into a USB lead to keep the phone/camera charged whilst driving? Is it possible to get a USB port with simply a positive and a negative terminal on it? Would be quite easy to wire in then to the light fitting and switch.
[Edited on 04-09-2013 by Kyle T]
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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