OriginalMadMax

How many of you with coilovers do corner balancing? If you do, what brand coilovers do you use. I'm guessing most get coilovers for a big drop, not performance.

For those unfamiliar with this, the car sits on scales for each tire. The weight front right/rear left should be as close as possible to front left/rear right. This helps compensate for things like the battery in the left corner plus the driver being on the same side (you should sit in the car when it's done). The advantage is left/right handling characteristics of the car are balance. Anyone autocrossing on coilovers should consider doing this. Mine were done to within 1 lb. difference, which is about as close as it gets.

NightRider

iTrader: (6)

I had mine corner balanced. I bought some scales for about $1100 a few months ago. The difference was amazing. It made it so that I could throw the car into a corner, at whatever speed, and still recover and pull out of the corner. If you have coilovers, I highly recommend this procedure.

mzmtg

iTrader: (11)

I thought this was really the whole point of coilovers. Not getting slammed, like some people think it is.

NickStam

iTrader: (3)

how much does this cost to get done at a place?

BEJAY1

iTrader: (19)

Speaking of corner balancing...I learned last week you DON'T HAVE TO HAVE adjustable coilovers ie adj springperches to do corner weighting.

I'm going in Monday for my setup and I'll post what the shop does.

OriginalMadMax

I've figured as much, but it's probably more difficult to get accurate. I imagine some sort of shims would have to be added to various corners. Last time I did it I asked questions: raising a corner adds weight to it by increasing pressure; lowering it takes pressure off.

OriginalMadMax

That doesn't make any sense. Otherwise why do they corner balance any race car? Besides dragsters, that is - never heard of corner balancing them (though they might on nitrous fuelies to keep them straight). In a straight line it makes no difference how your car is weighted. It is exactly in the corners that the imbalance affects it. Corner balancing means the car has the same handling characteristics turning either direction.

I've had a couple of AutoX firsts, and I've been in Street Mod against V8's and M3s. The race shop that did the balancing runs pretty fast turbo RX7s at Sears Point and Buttonwillow. The balancing seems to help; I've never noticed any downside. Maybe I'm smooooooth ...

Nah ... the former Natl. autocross champ who ran fastest PAX of the day in Barry Chafin's corner balanced Maxima, now HE'S smooth! The rest of us just watch and learn.

OriginalMadMax

Sorry, don't get your point at all. Think about it like this. When you put springs and struts on a car, they are not individually tuned for left and right side (unless maybe you have a $600k Daytona racing Porsche). So, if your car is unbalanced, you might have 1400 lbs. on your front left corner and 900 on your front right. How does that help handling? The spring and strut on that left side are going to work a lot harder, while the front right might be too light and lose traction early on right turns, robbing power unless you have an LSD. Corner weight the car so you have 1150 lbs on each corner. Now the car is working in balance, and whether you go left or right, the rate of spring compression and strut rebound will be about the same, and steering effort will be similar both directions.

BTW, these numbers are pretty close to what my car was before and after balancing. In Japan the driver is on the right, so the battery somewhat balances him. Over here both are on the left, so Japanese cars typically are overweighted on the front left. This shows that the original design was for better balance than we get after the switch for export.

OriginalMadMax

Yeah, I've done the bushings and all the goodies, and I got my tire pressures dialed in to where I could oversteer the FWD. Corner balance won't change THAT much, as long as you don't change things. Still, don't have time or $$ to pursue AutoX now, so I've gone back to stock size tires and am thinking (slowly) about selling the coilovers and going softer on the ride.

got rice?

iTrader: (2)

Original is still correct, in my opinion. All things being equal, a weight-balanced vehicle will behave moreso the same going left OR right, braking/accelerating. One that isn't balanced will behave differently going left or right, braking / accelerating.

Throw in off-camber turns, increasing/decreasing radius, turns, etc.. and the unbalanced vehicle becomes even more unpredictable.

OriginalMadMax

Well, the coilovers AND 17" wheels wer too harsh a combo for daily wear and tear on the !#$% main roads around here. Something had to give, and I didn't want it to be a critical part. Just going back to 16" wheels and stock size tires has made the ride much more civilized, though still firm. If I had the 17" tires, then I'd want the softer suspension (I was thinking of Progress springs and AGXs, which hopefully would still firm up enough for some fun). I think it's necessary for "real world" driving to program in where to take up road shock. Hey, I might not have time or $$ for much autocross these days but I'll keep the 17's in case. I do get to take country roads to school, so I keep that smile going It's not a lost cause!

OriginalMadMax

So does that mean the AGX do enough to tighten up the progress, or just enough to make them ok? Too bad I can't hook up more around here. I'd be curious to compare some rides. Maybe Eibach w/AGX is more my speed. Problem is the ladies don't always appreciate the finer points of good handling! I know the linear coilover springs handle great, but aren't terribly forgiving. I had H&Rs a couple of years ago, but with those weak Tokico blues. Fronts were ok, backs way to light for my taste. I've always blamed the Toks for the performance gap, not the springs.

OriginalMadMax

Hey, thanks for the feedback. You seem to know what you're talking about ... So does that mean the AGX do enough to righteously tighten up the Progress, or just enough to make them passable? Too bad I can't hook up more Maximas around here. I'd be curious to compare some rides. Maybe Eibach w/AGX is more my speed. Problem is the ladies don't always appreciate the finer points of good handling! I know the linear coilover springs handle great, but aren't terribly forgiving. I had H&Rs a couple of years ago, but with those weak Tokico blues. Fronts were ok, backs way to light for my taste. I've always blamed the Toks for the performance gap, not the springs.

OriginalMadMax

I figured you would get a kick from the line about the laidies (oops, Freudian slip ... might as well leave it ... I'm in a psych grad program, and I keep laughing over your "autosexual" sig line).

As for the setups you describe, that is like my H&R/Tokico experience. The car was too bouncy because the rear shocks didn't do enough. The fronts were ok. Notice how everyone has a firmer AGX setting on the back than front; maybe 1/2 in front, most go 3/4 in back. That's pretty much where I run my Konis. I turned down a deal for a set of Eibach/Tokicos with camber plates because the guy wouldn't break up the set, and I won't put the blues on my car again.

OriginalMadMax

It's a good line. You've got to hand it to yourself

As for blown struts ... I've gone through a couple of Konis (fronts), though the 2nd gen. Cattman mounts do help. That's why I'm getting bumpstops, to make them more progressive and prevent metal to metal contact. I talked to their tech people today when I ordered the stops. They claim the adjustment range on AGX is only about 1/4 that of the Konis. I wonder if anyone has actually measured this objectively? I asked if Koni could rebuild a strut for a 2" drop and they can do this. A cheap trick they told me is to cut a little of the thread at the bottom of the insert so it sit deeper and gives a bit more range. The thread extension is about 1-1/4" deep, so you could probably cut off 3/8" and still have lots of thread. I'm not sure how that would help, though, since there is a lip on the top of the insert body and I'd think that would limit how far down you go....

OriginalMadMax

Nice!

BEJAY1

iTrader: (19)

Well they weighed my car today and the tuning shop was really pleased with Nissan. 62.2% front, 37.8% rear. Final crossweight was 50.2%/49.8% (positive wedge). I weigh 205lbs and fueltank was 3/8 full. All I had to do is shove the spare towards the pass-side of the wheelwell. I can get within .1% by just filling the gastank or adding more ballast under the spare. Or maybe lose 10lbs myself

Sorry, no education today - no shims or other spring adjustments needed. The Koni's and Eibach Pro's and nearly perfect as is.

MaxSE98

i have eibachs and agxs i run 1 front 8 rear for racing in a straight line and usually 3 front 8 rear for other times, makes the car real stiff makes it easier to drift and its so much fun in gravel and dirt rotates perfectly. now i just need some wider wheels so i can take more advantage of the stiffer setup