Coil over Adjustments

[YaroM3]

You know your BCs have independent ride height adjustment, right? It means you can adjust your height without affecting preload.

Yeah for the fronts , it's a true coilover. But for the rear you have the spring with the perch and the shock separately. The instructions say to keep the perch on top of the shock as well and there's no room to ajust the perch with out unbolting the shock

[eacmen]

Words of advice:

1. Unbolt sway bar from end links while adjusting the ride height. Once desired height is reached re-attach the sway bar to the end links.
2. Make sure when you are adjusting ride height that the parking brake is off.
3. Make adjustments, ride around a fair amount preferably on a bumpy surface, then measure. Some guys will slam the car to the ground when lowering it from a floor jack to get the car settled. Seems dangerous to me.
4. Measure on a known flat surface (like a gas station).
5. Mark painters tape and put on the fender and the wheel to mark where you are measuring from to make sure its consistent. I have found that I am much more consistent with a yardstick than a tape measure fwiw.
6. Weigh yourself, then put the same weight in ballast in the drivers seat when doing the measurements. Water jugs work well. Or old brake rotors dont need to get too crazy with precision just want to get it in the ballpark. Also make sure car is empty of other ballast that would cause it to be lop-sided.

Hope one of the above helps.

[Obioban]

You know your BCs have independent ride height adjustment, right? It means you can adjust your height without affecting preload.

I assume only on the rear-- no?

[YaroM3]

I assume only on the rear-- no?

The fronts you can adjust them with out messing pre load. You set the pre load before you install the coils. In the rear is different because you have a spring and shock instead of it all being one unit. (True coilover) as some call it.

[YaroM3]

Words of advice:

1. Unbolt sway bar from end links while adjusting the ride height. Once desired height is reached re-attach the sway bar to the end links.
2. Make sure when you are adjusting ride height that the parking brake is off.
3. Make adjustments, ride around a fair amount preferably on a bumpy surface, then measure. Some guys will slam the car to the ground when lowering it from a floor jack to get the car settled. Seems dangerous to me.
4. Measure on a known flat surface (like a gas station).
5. Mark painters tape and put on the fender and the wheel to mark where you are measuring from to make sure its consistent. I have found that I am much more consistent with a yardstick than a tape measure fwiw.
6. Weigh yourself, then put the same weight in ballast in the drivers seat when doing the measurements. Water jugs work well. Or old brake rotors dont need to get too crazy with precision just want to get it in the ballpark. Also make sure car is empty of other ballast that would cause it to be lop-sided.

Hope one of the above helps.

Thanks for all the tips, going to use what I can.

[Obioban]

The fronts you can adjust them with out messing pre load. You set the pre load before you install the coils. In the rear is different because you have a spring and shock instead of it all being one unit. (True coilover) as some call it.

How do you change preload without changing ride height up front? Does the shock mounting position changing?

[Epsilon]

How do you change preload without changing ride height up front? Does the shock mounting position changing?

Red arrow in photo below. BC, FA, and even some Ohlins have this.

[Obioban]

Red arrow in photo below. BC, FA, and even some Ohlins have this.

So, yes— lower shock mount position changes.

Interesting— hadn’t seen that before on this chassis.

[YaroM3]

How do you change preload without changing ride height up front? Does the shock mounting position changing?

Epsilons photo of the coils red arrow point to the locking color to ajust ride hight, to change or set pre load it's the 2 locking collars on top.

[pb_e46]

Words of advice:

1. Unbolt sway bar from end links while adjusting the ride height. Once desired height is reached re-attach the sway bar to the end links.
2. Make sure when you are adjusting ride height that the parking brake is off.
3. Make adjustments, ride around a fair amount preferably on a bumpy surface, then measure. Some guys will slam the car to the ground when lowering it from a floor jack to get the car settled. Seems dangerous to me.
4. Measure on a known flat surface (like a gas station).
5. Mark painters tape and put on the fender and the wheel to mark where you are measuring from to make sure its consistent. I have found that I am much more consistent with a yardstick than a tape measure fwiw.
6. Weigh yourself, then put the same weight in ballast in the drivers seat when doing the measurements. Water jugs work well. Or old brake rotors dont need to get too crazy with precision just want to get it in the ballpark. Also make sure car is empty of other ballast that would cause it to be lop-sided.

Hope one of the above helps.

I recommend all of this as well as checking your preload setting, The only point I didn't see people mention is that fact that sometimes (a lot of the time with E46 swiss cheese chassis) that it's not even. Lots of my friends and myself have had to adjust our coils to non-symmetrical measurements to achieve the same gap. If you can't get it with the aforementioned, just adjust it to match.

[YaroM3]

I recommend all of this as well as checking your preload setting, The only point I didn't see people mention is that fact that sometimes (a lot of the time with E46 swiss cheese chassis) that it's not even. Lots of my friends and myself have had to adjust our coils to non-symmetrical measurements to achieve the same gap. If you can't get it with the aforementioned, just adjust it to match.

That's the game plan, replace all the rubber pads with new ones double check everything and if it still off. Ajust it to same hight and go enjoy ripping it.

[speedster]

For what it's worth I also have BC's and my left rear sits a bit lower than the passenger side. I've adjusted the height on several occasions but it seems like the driver's side always sits a bit lower

[YaroM3]

For what it's worth I also have BC's and my left rear sits a bit lower than the passenger side. I've adjusted the height on several occasions but it seems like the driver's side always sits a bit lower

At least I'm not the only one. I'm gonna order some rear perches from fortune auto because there's bolt down to the cups.