I'm depressed about suspension - Page 2

Rama · May 4th, 2003, 09:00 PM

I'm with Pat on this one it does make sense that they would be in the middle of the settings that the SS have. But I am asking just in case our intuition is wrong. Oh Pat question I have for you do you have strut towers and/or sway bars on your car?

Rama · May 8th, 2003, 10:19 PM

OK got that answer for you Neil here - The damping force on the Basic is set to the recommend settings on the Super Street and is mainly a street usage kit. Hope this helps that was the answer I got in the email.

OK since Pat is the only person that I am aware that has these on his B14 so Pat this is directed to you mainly what are the ranges on the SS's do they have an actual dampening rate like a spring has a spring rate or is it just set to 1,2,3,4,...etc?

Or better worded is there a rate like 340lb/in or anything like that?

PatScottAKA99XE · May 8th, 2003, 11:12 PM

The spring rates on both the SS and BD kit are 336lbs/in front and 280lbs/in rear. The recomended setting on the SS kit is 8(out of 16) or half stiff. The purpose of damper settings is to control the springs natural osillation frequency or "boing". The stiffer the spring the more "boing" it has and the need for more damping force it needs. If not you will end up with a bouncy ride... just like(and for the same reason) stiffer lowering springs give on stock shocks/struts. The advantages of having the SS kit is that you can put on stiffer springs and compensate for them or(if you dont mind bounce) crank them soft for long rides.

Rama · May 10th, 2003, 06:33 PM

Yeah the boing is the bound/rebound on the shocks/struts but what exactly is half stiff? Is there any incremental rating system for shocks/struts like they do for springs I mean not every manufacturer creates struts the same so how do they judge the stiffness? Is it lbs/in like with springs is it a psi rating? Or do they is with oil weights? and if so what are those weights rated to?

Neil · May 10th, 2003, 11:20 PM

Isnt 336/280 pretty darn stiff? What does that compare to the stock spring rates on a OEM sentra spring?

PatScottAKA99XE · May 11th, 2003, 06:48 PM

IIRC its in units of force. Newtons, Pounds, ect. Its not something you really need to concern your self with unless you are building your own.

It is stiff, but the ride is way better than drop springs becasue of added travel and proper damping. Its feel stock but way more controled.

PatScottAKA99XE · May 11th, 2003, 07:11 PM

Unless you want your head full of knowlege that you or I will probly never use, you dont want to get in depth on how dampers work. While it is interesting stuff, there is a lot of it. You just have to remember that dampers are there to stop the ossilation(boing) of a spring as quickly as possible. If the damping is not properly matched to the spring rate you will have underdamping or overdamping. Neither of which is good for comfort or performance.

I will give you a little taste though.(I cant resist).
Remember a damping force applies in both directions. Compression(pistion pushed inward) and rebound(piston on the way out). I have yet to get any solid info, but I think the adj on the SS kit increases and/or decreases both at the same time. I have no idea if the adj is linear or not. I also dont know how piston speed dependant the damping is. In some dampers the speed at which the piston moves has an affect on how much damping force is applied. Tein has a chart on their japanese page for the HA kit which may or may not be similar. You could also bring heat into the mix. Heat inside the damper can affect it as well. This is just a touch of my limited knowlage on dampers. I will shoot Tein an email asking some of the questions you guys have. Like I said though, dont worry your self with this stuff. If you buy a good quality set of full coilovers you wont have to worry about it because the engineers already did.

LIUSPEED · May 11th, 2003, 07:25 PM

leave it to patt and rama to make me REALLY beggin for my TEINS that i still cant afford.

*sigh*

Neil · May 11th, 2003, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LIUSPEED
leave it to patt and rama to make me REALLY beggin for my TEINS that i still cant afford.

*sigh*

heh tell me about it, the SS cost 1/4 the value of my car

i wish i could tell how this car will perform in the future to see how long i will keep it. Its already got 87,000 miles, don't know how far it will go and if its worth slapping expensive stuff on it.

Thanks for the info guys.

Rama · May 12th, 2003, 01:21 AM

When you ask the questions check and see if they use silicone oil in the dampers because if they do heat would be a non factor I can see if you use a shittier type of oil then I can see heat being more of a factor. Now unless they have concave valves or some other type of system in which they oil passes through a different set of valves on upon compression rather than rebound which would be an amazing system I don't see how they wouldn't affect both at the same time. The piston speed would be affected by the the amount of forced used to compress the shock the spring and valving. I guess the real question is what kind of weight of oil are they using and what are the ranges of the valve holes and how many are in each strut body. I know engineers took the liberty of doing all this thinking for me but my mind thrives for knowledge like this.

I am in the same boat as Neil and Liu I can't yet afford them if I didnt have so much shit to take care of you bet your ass the Tax return money would be going to a set of those.

Oh yeah my B14 has like 130,000 on it i still want this setup but that's just me.

Icej · May 12th, 2003, 09:12 AM

mine has 120,000 and I am thinking about getting the basic dampers, if they ever come out.

PatScottAKA99XE · May 12th, 2003, 11:10 AM

Rama, I can see you do want all of this probably useless, but interesting info in your head. Sounds like me

Ill see what I can come up with for ya. Ill tell you guys who are kinda iffy about spending a grand or more on coilovers, wait for the BDs to be released. The MSRP is $890.00, remember though the retail price of something is always more than the street price. I expect them to sell for around 750ish. Thats only a little more than a fully set-up drop spring install(springs, struts, mounts,stops,ect), and it will be way better.

Icej · May 12th, 2003, 12:45 PM

yea they are great, but do you know when they are going to be for sale, like a rough estimate?

Neil · May 12th, 2003, 01:47 PM

i wonder too if the BDs will lower less than your SS ones PatScott. I remember you saying yours lowered a minimum of around 2 inches or so.

The best part about coilover IMO is you can get an even drop which you just cant get with springs.