Quote:
Originally Posted by sperry
Sweet! I'm in no big rush since the car isn't actually tuned yet and I've got no plans to hit the track soon... but the struts are leaking a little bit, so I figure the seals need replacing at the least.
I am a little curious as to the process for evaluating the suspension. Considering I've got only a few thousand miles on these coilovers over the last few years since I got them (virtually all the mileage is at RFR though) to see them already leaking makes me worry they're just too stiff for the punishment RFR doles out. How do you guys go about designing a damper solution for a particular car/use? If 12kg/mm front 9kg/mm rear is just too harsh for a 3000 lb car that sees the frost heaves at Reno-Fernley, what's the best way to figure out the correct rates for my application?
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The process that we use when we start from scratch for a new race car is to do some computer modeling where we feed it inputs such as car geometry, corner weights, tires, springs,etc and that allows us to do some simulations specific to track surfaces and tires. This will get us in the ballpark of where we need to be with the damping forces the shock needs to put out. From there we move to the shock dyno and play with the internals of the shocks to get the damping forces we want. At that point its just track time and tuning to get the shocks fine tuned.
Obviously this is a pretty involved process, and probably pretty overkill for a street car that sees some track time here and there. We can simplify most of that process and still get a shock/spring combination that is more than adequate for 90% of the vehicles out there. Your spring rates sound about right, I suspect your shocks are probably a little on the stiff side though. That very well may be the reason for the leaking seal. I dont have a ton of experience with the Teins, but I know the Penske's have the same issue, if you run the can pressure too high and they take a good bump they'll push a seal out and leak. And I dont need to tell you that RFR has more than its fair share of bumps. What model Teins are they? The dont have a remote canister on them do they?