Well, the suspension was going to be changed later in the cars life but as I'm always on the look out for a deal and a set of KWV3's came on the horizon I couldn't say no.
Nick Barnes was stripping his LCR which had these fitted for approx 10,000 miles. The price was good enough that even if these needed servicing/redressing/regassing it was still a steal. I got these for £550 delivered to my house which is cheaper than the cheapest Weitec coilovers.
So for the MOT the ball joints were changed, this cured my vibration/rattle over slow speed bumps an everything was feeling tight again. I didn't get the 4 wheel alignment done after this as I knew I'd be fitting the coilovers soon.
So on Sunday arme with all the tools, a mate in the know and a very handy copy of ELSAWIN.
So initially measuring the ride height of the car (from the inner edge of the wheel arch to hub centre) I got;
- Offside front 14 3/8"
- Nearside front 14 1/2"
-Offside rear 14 3/8"
-Nearside rear 14 1/2"
From these measurements it seems like the car's ride height was set up for a left hand drive. Would be very interested to see if this is common in all OEM ride height LCR's??
So with the rear wheels off and car jacked up the OEM stuff was removed. The way the height adjusters work there is a threaded spring seat. This was adjusted to give what was thought to be a 25mm drop. The shocks were set as per the KW recommendations.
i have a 28mm rear ARB, this has been fitted for 3 1/2 years approx and has never been touched in that time. When removing the tie rod I had planned to clean this up and adjust it, on trying this it was found that the ends are alloy and cheap assed. I ended up bending these which was totally unavoidable. These are shite!! and will be changed ASAP with proper steel/stainless steel ones
Rebound 2 turns, bump 1 turn towards stiff.
This was fitted with new top mount bushes and the rear ARB was set to its stiffest setting.
Fitting these went well as I had cleaned these up ready to fit.
Wheels were refitted and car was lowered and wheels torqued to 120 NM.
Front end was jacked up and wheels removed.
The hub captive nut was removed, involving a hammer and pin punch as this had never been done before. The springs were both compressed with spring compressors. On the drivers side the drive shaft ended up hitting the sub frame before I could get the strutt free of the hub. I have been having what I think is sub frame problems I wasn't keen on messing about with this. So with a piece of wood on top of the hub and the standard car jack (widow maker) between this and the cup of the strutt these were popped apart.
The coilovers were set up with the KW recommended settings;
Rebound 1.5 turns, bump 1 turns to stiff.
These were fitted with the bearings and bushes that were on as these are only 3 months old. When fitting the shocks it was planned to use the OEM strutt bolts. As these shocks have adjustment on top of the coilovers there is no preparation to have a back up to resist the torque of the bolts , ie the OEM ones have a allen key hole. So these were fitted and a vise grip was used on the shock as a back up. This seemed rough as but the top of the shock is never used and it didn't mark anyway. for the top nut I didn't have a dog leg spanner to fit this with but the nyloc nuts that came with the system were 22mm which I did have so this aloud a 10mm spanner to be a back up (on the flats) to get the torque. The hub bolts were changed for new ones and all were torqued to the required firgure, the drop link was changed for a new ones.
Initially before the wheel was fitted the coilovers were adjusted to the same length to give approx 20mm drop. The wheels were refitted and car dropped.
Initially the car was though to be only lower at the rear. The front was still sitting at the OEM height. after a quick drive to settle things the ride height was adjusted. It was sussed out that each turn of the front adjuster dropped the car 1/12th of an inch.
Eventually through adjusting and driving I have ended up with a 1" drop all over.
Front 13 1/2" from the inner arch to the centre of the hub nut.
Rear 13 1/2" from the inner arch to the centre of the hub nut.
Initially the right felt good and a little bumpy. After two days this handles the small bumps well, the large bumps well but the medium bumps are not good. The car feels like its going to go ass over tit. The cornering is very very flat with zero body roll. I have noticed a bit of tyre side wall flex so will check and raise the pressure to its max figure and see how that goes.
Before
After