What springs for my vr4?

[amulday]

I've got some KYB struts that are damper adjustable. Handling is the main priority but I'm also looking for about 5cms from the front and 3cms from the back, not low, just a slightly lower more aggressive look.

Anybody with whitelines in? How much lower does the car sit?
Any suggestions on what other springs would suit?

~sam

 

[tharaka]

barrys vr4 has whiteline springs
http://forums.team4g.com/viewtopic.php?t=2837

 

[LETSGO]

my vr4 has whitelines
for me they actually raised my car as the previous springs were really low...

the car is still low and i do sometimes scrape my muffler or exhaust coming out of a driveway, but at least i dont' scrape along speed humps :lol:

the springs aren't too hard, but still feel good during hard corners

 

[NZVR4]

one option is to go to a spring maker and have custom springs wound up to suit how low you want and your own spring rate,not sure about OZ but here in NZ its way cheaper than buying aftermarket springs,and for abit of extra suspension travel in the back,swap your struts for a set from a fwd galant it gives about another inch of travel if you want to go quite low

here is a pic of my old vr4 with 3 1/2 ich lowered springs

 

[87vr4]

i dunno what front wheel drive galant ur talking about but the rear struts from a gsr or se galant in aust definatly wont fit. they bolt up at the bottom completly different, vr4 has a quick change style stub that the ring on the bottom of the shock simply slides over & then u just bang in the big screw & the bottoms are done,

the fwd non irs galants have a bolt & nut setup that requires a bit more fucking about to line up & thread the bolt through.

 

[matress]

i've got pedders sports ryder springs in my vr4... photos in the members rides section.

 

[NZVR4]

in NZ any fwd e39 galant rear strut will swap into the e39 vr4
you just need to replace the bottom bush with the vr4's one and it will bolt in,thats the only mod i needed to do,gives me an extra inch of suspension travel,the front struts in my old vr4 were also from a e39 fwd galant as i had a fwd previous to owning the vr4 and i wanted the suspension from the fwd as it handled great so i simply swapped both over

 

[JAP63]

in NZ any fwd e39 galant rear strut will swap into the e39 vr4
you just need to replace the bottom bush with the vr4's one and it will bolt in,thats the only mod i needed to do,gives me an extra inch of suspension travel,the front struts in my old vr4 were also from a e39 fwd galant as i had a fwd previous to owning the vr4 and i wanted the suspension from the fwd as it handled great so i simply swapped both over

The rubber at the bottom is vulcanised in..

R u telling me u pulled out the ring/rubber from the bottom of the vr4 struts and put them into the FWD rear shocks?

I couldnt see how that rubber would come out...its set in there you'd surely damage it...

wat did u use to get it out?

 

[NZVR4]

perhaps aus spec vr4's are slightly different in rear suspension?
but the bushes came out easy and every one i know who has a e39 vr4 has done this exact mod with no difficulty,i admit that a bit of force was required to pop them out but nothing anyone with a hammer couldn't do

edit-i used a hammer and solid dowel of wood to knock the bush out,was as simple as that

 

[JAP63]

perhaps aus spec vr4's are slightly different in rear suspension?
but the bushes came out easy and every one i know who has a e39 vr4 has done this exact mod with no difficulty,i admit that a bit of force was required to pop them out but nothing anyone with a hammer couldn't do

edit-i used a hammer and solid dowel of wood to knock the bush out,was as simple as that

My car is japspec.
As far as i know,theres only one IRS type
And one non IRS (beam type)
And the GSR Airbag setup..which is the Beam Non IRS.

Can you confirm that the Beam rear end shocks have more travel.
I didnt think itd be different,I know the fronts are though.
You say theres an inch more of travel,does that mean the spring seat sits lower too? so the car will be lower even with the same spring...?

 

[NZVR4]

yes by swapping to a fwd e39 galant rear strut it will give more suspension travel,im not sure if it will go lower with the same spring or that the spring seat is physicly lower,but if you put in 3 1/2 inch lowered springs then it will lower it the same as if you had vr4 rear struts

the difference is if you go past 4inches which in a vr4 would have it sitting on the bump stops but with the fwd struts it will sit 4inches lower and have about an inch more travel before hitting the bump stops

when i first got the vr4 i had a another set of springs that i had lowered 4inches and obviously the fronts sat on the bump stops and so did the rears,as i was young at the time i liked it that way but the shocks soon crapped out and only by chance i brought fwd struts as i didnt wanna pay for overpriced vr4 items and thats how i found out they had xtra travel so i swapped in my fwd struts that i had from my previous fwd as the springs were custom made and swapped it all in

the front struts will bolt straight in but have no mountings for the ABS lines to bolt to,so i just cable tied them and cut the bump stops down to a 1/4 of their size and although it did hit the bump stops once i had the custom springs in with a stiffer rate it hardly did and as i said earlier the rears go in easy

heres the photo of the car with the 4inch lowered springs and fwd shocks,although it sits at the height of being on the stops it actually wasn't

i did get hassled by the cops abit but once i pushed down on the boot to proove it had travel they were fine,the only problem i ever had with this set up was too much stress on the drive shafts from being the wrong angle,once i had swapped to the custom springs it was fine

 

[JAP63]

That looks fkin sweet.
The front would have to be on bumpstops though,even at that height,ive got the fronts out of a FWD and its a bit higher than yours and there aint fuk all travel left.

Does the car handly terriblly at that height?

Who made your springs? over here no one will bother if you walk in off the street and try and customize a spring for your car,king springs are terrified of the legalities involved,they will just sell you an off the shelf item.
I had to go and get my King springs reset 20mm at the rear and they ummed and arerd about that,stating they wont be captive etc..which they werent but anyway.......
They were a KCRL-29 Lancer spring,i reset them 20 mm,gave me a guard to centre of 285mm on the gsr,now i got the vr4 my guard to centre is bout 300mm.

Whats yours in that pic.?

Are the 4 inch springs u have captive at full extension,i doubt they would be,if so theyd be pretty nuch coil binded up when seated.

By the way AMULDAY id reccomend the KCRL-29 For the rear And the KFFL-25 for the front.From King springs.

Heres a pic of my old gsr with KCRL-29 Reset 20mm to give a guard to centre of 285mm.The front had coilovers.
Sorry i didnt resize it.

 

[matress]

i just found king springs' ride quality to be shizenhausen in the last few cars i've had them in.

 

[NZVR4]

i never measured it so dont know the guard height,no the springs werent captive if left as is but at the time of having my car certed they were wired in and the certifier either never picked up on it or didnt care,nowadays they make an issue of it but 7yrs ago they didnt

the handling was way to stiff due to the higher spring rate but thats the way i wanted it so it suited me,and no the springs werent coil binding as you put it as they never used the same number of coils as the factory spring,i took my struts into a company called snells springs and gave them the height i wanted and that i wanted approximatly a 50%stiffer rate in the front and 25% stiffer rate in the rears,they didnt end up doing those rates and after explaing how low the car would be they did their own rates

i wish i still had pics of the springs as i had a photo of all of the sets i had compared to the standard height ones,they were also powder coated yellow which helped come cert time

in the pic i posted earlier the bump stops had been cut right down and with the stiffer spring rate it would ride quite well and just and i mean only just sit off the bump stop so alot of the time if riding on rough roads it would ride on the stops and if smooth roads then a fair amount of the time it would bounce between riding on and riding just off

i had a few gearboxes break due to stress from the wrong angle of the driveshafts so the last set of springs i had were only 3inch lowered custom springs and was much better ride quality,i must have had about 10set of struts and about 5 different sets of springs made up so i wasted a bit of money experimenting but i feel i came up with a better combination for my own needs than what i could get with off the shelf items

i tried using reset factory springs hence the many struts i had lying around but the spring rate was too soft,also i only ever used factory replacement shocks,when brand new they are actually quite a firm ride and i got bloody excellent prices through a freind so replacing them was a cheap option for me

your car looks great although i'd imagine you would cop a fair bit of attention from the aussie cops?

 

[JAP63]

i just found king springs' ride quality to be shizenhausen in the last few cars i've had them in.

Thats interesting..
What shocks did u have?,i'll admit,theyre not super performance parts,but a springs a spring,the rate will determine the compressibility,which determines body roll.
The king springs are qiute soft though.
I think the rates of my rear is around 320 lb.

 

[JAP63]

your car looks great although i'd imagine you would cop a fair bit of attention from the aussie cops?

I thought i was the only one that played around with different spring combos,ive got a few myself.

Yeah well i sold it now,It looked good at the time but the floor pan was literally 50mm of the ground,which scared me,as the fuel lines were getting close to shit,i once dragged a sprite can that was rolling on its side past a cop who was deffecting a car,it got me a few looks,as the car had 5 passengers,the car was over the rim...I got lucky, so i left.

And as you said,the front driveshafts were on the wrong angle,and the C.V's didnt like it,the car handled incredible,Seriously,it was the flatetst and most uniform feeling ever,it had levels of grip my vr4 only wishes for....but the only downfall was that during hard turns with acceleration the front wanted to axle tramp,because of the driveshaft angles.(front wheel drive).The front were zeal coilovers.I once wound the front down till the Wheel bottomed out in the well,the front rim was tucked,They were lower leg adjustable,so it still had travel,but was obviously undrivable.

So your saying you actually fuked gearboxs from being that low?
Shit..What failed?...I thought itd just be the C.V's that'd die.

fell like im hijacking the thread a little,but theres some interesting info to be learned here.

 

[NZVR4]

the gear casing itself would split from the pressure,it stopped happening after i raised it up

my first ever car was a 89 GLX fwd galant in which i removed the rear springs altogether and the bump stops and the front was sitting on the stops i couldnt even get a jack under it,it broke numerous cv's the exhaust ripped clean off once

this second pic was when i removed the springs etc and the first pic is when i bolted up the 18's only the front was on the stops,the rear springs on this car are 3 1/2 inch,for me id rather experiment with my car and find modify it to how i like it instead of relying on what the aftermarket wants to give us,especialy springs,short of going for coilovers ive never found any decent height springs,now that im older the height issue is no longer relavant,but superior handling is still important and as you said ive also found kings to be too soft for my liking

 

[matress]

i just found king springs' ride quality to be shizenhausen in the last few cars i've had them in.

Thats interesting..
What shocks did u have?,i'll admit,theyre not super performance parts,but a springs a spring,the rate will determine the compressibility,which determines body roll.
The king springs are qiute soft though.
I think the rates of my rear is around 320 lb.

in my rx7 i had KYB super sport or something like that, not sure on the spring rate of the kings.
in my gemini i had some monroe gas shocks with the kings, again, not sure what spring rate.

 

[amulday]

Thanks for the info guys, I've decided I'll go the whiteline route, they seem to be more what I'm looking for plus I don't want the car to low, I want the drive shaft angles to be working for me not against me :wink:

sam

 

[bazeng]

u interested in buying my whiteline springs off my vr4???
i can sell with the gab shocks also (8 way adjustable rear, 4 way fronts) but front left needs a rebuild / replacement

let me know if your keen

the whitelines are 300 for the set rrp...