Quote:
Originally Posted by Dean
And the spring rates for those were??? And how much did they lower it? Not to 13" I bet. And they were probably designed for the stock dampers... So how is that a valid comparison.?
So how much Preload if any is on the current springs?
Your future numbers have the negative at the wrong end for better handling, and you may think it handles OK now, but unless you have the Strano front bar, your outside tire is is lifting the inside edge by quite bit in the corners at that ride height. That is just how the Impreza suspension geometry works.
Bring it out to autocross next weekend and we can probably take pictures of it if you don't believe us.
Oh, and what the heck is the "critical damping setting"?
In general, you adjust bump to damp the unsprung weight and rebound to allow for maximum contact for a given surface condition. Unfortunately, you have a single adjuster that either adjusts both or rebound only. In either case, unless the engineers really screwed up at Megan, it is unlikely you will find spring rates that match the Megan dampers better than the ones that came with them.
I wouldn't spend any money trying other springs on them.
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I know my old lowering springs are not the greatest comparison and they did not lower it to 13 inchs. I agree that it would handle better if I raised it up, which is what I will do. I'm sure my tires go into positive camber when i'm cornering hard, no need for the attack, I never said I didn't believe you. I never auto-x'ed it, but if I did I would adjust the camber plates to get as much negative camber as possible. It should handle at least a little better than. Also, If I was riding with my front wheels at -2 degrees, the insides of my tires would not last. I would be going through tires quickly.
FYI,
Critically damped is when the spring settles to equilibrium position the fastest, without overshoot. Critically damped is inbetween under and overdamped, pretty much the best setting for a spring and damper(maybe not for comfort). For underdamped, zeta<1, crit zeta=1, overdamped zeta>1. Check this link out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damping
also here:
http://cat.sckans.edu/physics/shm.htm
You calculate zeta from k(spring rate), c(damping coef), and m(mass). If Megan designed the spring and damper, then they should have differential equations that solve for zeta at different damped setting. Therefore, they should know what the critically damped setting is. If I knew what that setting was, I would know were under and overdamped settings would be.
On most non performance cars, suspension is designed underdamped for comfort.
If I were to get softer springs, they would have more of a chance of being overdamped. The softest setting may work if I try this. It would cost $120 for the different springs and $80 for alignment. so the most I would lose is $200. Plus I would raise the car up for handleing purposes. The other choice is to get a completly different setup, so maybe this is worth a try.