Skunk2 Coilover? Camber Plate set up?

[ddub]

I currently have King lowering springs and they have been treating me pretty well. I would like to be able to lower the front of my car a little more. Has anyone heard anything about Skunk2 Coilovers? They are cheap, but are they cheap in Quality? Eventually I would like to get Tein's with the EDFC system, but don't have enough money right now.
Also, I have cusco camber plates and the right side one was put on for camber and caster. I think it was just put on wrong. It has been like this for a while and my wheels are aligned but my steering wheel as been off center to the right while driving straight. If I switch the right side camber plate for only camber adjustment, would this fix the problem. If so, how hard is it to just rotate the camber plate so its only set up for camber adjustment? Do I need a spring compressor? I am riding on the stock struts and king springs.

Thanks, Dave

[sperry]

I see Skunk2's for sale on eBay all the time, and no one I know has 'em. That, plus their dirt cheap price, make me think they're not exactly a quality part... but I've got no real experience w/ 'em so take my opinion w/ a grain of salt.

From your description of the camber plates, it sounds like one's rotated and installed improperly. To fix that, you should only have to put that corner in the air, remove the tire, remove the 3 nuts on the top mount, grab the strut from below, drop it down, rotate the top mount, and reinstall it correctly. The OEM torque for those top nuts is 14.5 ft/lbs, not too tight at all. If you've never done a strut install before, you'll probably spend some time wrestling with getting the top back into the 3 holes... I know MattR and I had some issues when we did his rear top mounts, an we've done suspension a bunch of times before.

Good luck!

[ddub]

Yeah, I've seen the skunk2's on ebay as well for dirt cheap, it does make me think that they are cheap.

I never messed with my suspension myself, but do understand how camber works and I am willing to try if I can get everything back together. Its the right front side. Will I need to take the spring out or only disconnect the strut? I'm sure I will run into some trouble.

Thanks.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by ddub

Yeah, I've seen the skunk2's on ebay as well for dirt cheap, it does make me think that they are cheap.

I never messed with my suspension myself, but do understand how camber works and I am willing to try if I can get everything back together. Its the right front side. Will I need to take the spring out or only disconnect the strut? I'm sure I will run into some trouble.

Thanks.

You don't have to take anything off the car... just remove the 3 nuts, drop the suspention into the wheel well, reach under there and rotate the top mount by hand, and put it back up into place.

The top mount should remain attached to the top of the strut, and the strut should remain attached to the knuckle. There's enough flex in the lower control arm to push the strut down enough to correct the top mount.

[ddub]

Thanks for the info, I will probably try it this weekend.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by sperry

You don't have to take anything off the car... just remove the 3 nuts, drop the suspention into the wheel well, reach under there and rotate the top mount by hand, and put it back up into place.

The top mount should remain attached to the top of the strut, and the strut should remain attached to the knuckle. There's enough flex in the lower control arm to push the strut down enough to correct the top mount.

Just to clarify, so it doesn't drop out and hurt something...

1. Undo the nuts with the tire still on the ground.
2. Jack that corner up from the corrsponding jack point under the front of the door sil slowly until the studs start to drop and eventually clear their holes. you may need to nudge the wheel to get the threads on the studs to let go of the sheet metal.
3. If the tire lifts off before the studs come out, the sawy bar ma be preventing that side from drooping enough. Put it down, and put ehe other side up on a jack stand and try again.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Dean

Just to clarify, so it doesn't drop out and hurt something...

1. Undo the nuts with the tire still on the ground.
2. Jack that corner up from the corrsponding jack point under the front of the door sil slowly until the studs start to drop and eventually clear their holes. you may need to nudge the wheel to get the threads on the studs to let go of the sheet metal.
3. If the tire lifts off before the studs come out, the sawy bar ma be preventing that side from drooping enough. Put it down, and put ehe other side up on a jack stand and try again.

Bad idea.

Put the corner of the car in the air on a jack stand and take the wheel off.

If you're under there twisting the top mount to the correct orientation and the jack lets go, you'll lose your hand. Plus, you'll more than likely need to wrangle the strut a bit to get it back up into position, which you can't easily do with the tire on, and would be risky to your safety to do w/ the car only on a jack.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by sperry

Bad idea.

Put the corner of the car in the air on a jack stand and take the wheel off.

If you're under there twisting the top mount to the correct orientation and the jack lets go, you'll lose your hand. Plus, you'll more than likely need to wrangle the strut a bit to get it back up into position, which you can't easily do with the tire on, and would be risky to your safety to do w/ the car only on a jack.

My concern was for the strut dropping out as you undo the last nut, and it flies accross the room.

So put it up on 2 jack stands in front, and put the jack under the strut to take the pressure off the nuts, and then let it down slow after removing the nuts.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Dean

My concern was for the strut dropping out as you undo the last nut, and it flies accross the room.

So put it up on 2 jack stands in front, and put the jack under the strut to take the pressure off the nuts, and then let it down slow after removing the nuts.

The strut is fully intact and bolted to the knuckle... it can't fly anywhere. In fact, he'll take the three top mount nuts off, and have to actually yank on it to get it to drop. Matt and I just did this on his car like 3 weeks ago... the procedure I outlined is the easiest way to fix the top mount.

[MattR]

I'd have to agree, we just did this 3 weeks ago on my car.

We should have a race between you two.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by sperry

The strut is fully intact and bolted to the knuckle... it can't fly anywhere. In fact, he'll take the three top mount nuts off, and have to actually yank on it to get it to drop. Matt and I just did this on his car like 3 weeks ago... the procedure I outlined is the easiest way to fix the top mount.

Gravity says it should drop to the extent the sway bar and lower arm allow unless it is bound up on something. The paint, or cosmoleen, or whatever it is spreayted on the fender well, or the threads off the studs may hold it, but there is no magic supporting it once those nuts are off?

Maybe Matt's Titan Physics exemption extends to his STI struts. A jack under the strut can't hurt.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Dean

Gravity says it should drop to the extent the sway bar and lower arm allow unless it is bound up on something. The paint, or cosmoleen, or whatever it is spreayted on the fender well, or the threads off the studs may hold it, but there is no magic supporting it once those nuts are off?

Maybe Matt's Titan Physics exemption extends to his STI struts. A jack under the strut can't hurt.

There's just the small matter of friction in the LCA bushing. You have to physically push down on the strut to get it to drop enough to get to the top mount under the fender.

When the car's in the air, the suspension is already at full droop, to gotta push on it to make it go further, especially if the swaybat is left hooked up. Hell, if the whole front end isn't in the air, you may need to actually disconnect the swaybar just to be able to get the wheel to drop at all.

In fact, add that to my instructions... before getting the car in the air, disconnect the front swaybar on the corner that needs to be fixed.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by sperry

There's just the small matter of friction in the LCA bushing. You have to physically push down on the strut to get it to drop enough to get to the top mount under the fender.

When the car's in the air, the suspension is already at full droop, to gotta push on it to make it go further, especially if the swaybat is left hooked up. Hell, if the whole front end isn't in the air, you may need to actually disconnect the swaybar just to be able to get the wheel to drop at all.

In fact, add that to my instructions... before getting the car in the air, disconnect the front swaybar on the corner that needs to be fixed.

OK, use Scott's instructions, with adendum, and if you want to be extra safe, throw the jack under teh strut before losening the last nut just to be safe. After all, I appear to be on a safety kick this week.

[ddub]

All I have right now is a jack, I need to go out and get some jack stands. It seems like if I had the front of the car jacked up, I should be able to drop the strut enough to rotate it without disconnecting the sway bar. Hopefully I don't run into to many problems when I try it. Do you think I will have to realligned the tire after I rotate my camber plate?

[sperry]

Originally Posted by ddub

All I have right now is a jack, I need to go out and get some jack stands. It seems like if I had the front of the car jacked up, I should be able to drop the strut enough to rotate it without disconnecting the sway bar. Hopefully I don't run into to many problems when I try it. Do you think I will have to realligned the tire after I rotate my camber plate?

Get jackstands... they're cheap, much cheaper than the medical bills to reconstruct a crushed hand.

The alignment will be close, so you certainly can drive around on it, but to protect your tire longevity in the long term, you should re-align the front tires. Set the camber plates to zero, then have the alignment shop use the stock camber bolts. That way you know setting the top mounts to zero = stock camber. Then you can use the top mount adjustment yourself to play w/ the camber for handling.

[M3n2c3]

Out of curiosity, wouldn't it be a decent idea to have them re-aligned after playing with camber to undo the toe changes you'll encounter?

[sperry]

Originally Posted by M3n2c3

Out of curiosity, wouldn't it be a decent idea to have them re-aligned after playing with camber to undo the toe changes you'll encounter?

Toe changes as a result of camber is predictable. As camber goes negative, toe goes out. It's actually the ideal situation, at least for autocross. If you set the car to a little bit of toe in for the street, when you throw the camber negative for autocross, you end up with a decent amount of toe out, which is great for slow-speed handling, i.e. autocross.

Just don't go driving around on the street like that, since the car will be very darty and the tires will wear quickly on the freeway.

[ddub]

I just got done rotating my camber plate, I did have to disconnect the sway bar to allow the plate to drop down. I took my car for a ride and the steering wheel is still off center when I'm driving straight. It did this ever since I had my springs put on and had the wheels aligned. Does anyone know why my steering wheel would be off center(droped to the right) while the car is driving straight?

[MikeK]

Originally Posted by ddub

Does anyone know why my steering wheel would be off center(droped to the right) while the car is driving straight?

The steering wheel can be set to any position during an alignment. The person who did the alignment must have set it off centre.

[M3n2c3]

Yep. Since you've been moving stuff around in there, it'd be a good idea to have that sucker realigned. They can re-set the steering wheel for you at the same time.