coilover problem

[dickyf]

i wondered if anyone could offer some advice. what is wrong with this picture??
the car has coilovers fitted but the ride is currently awful and the bolt at the top is loose.
the strut does not seem to be fitted correctly and made an alarming banging noise..
i am tempted to refit standard units
any help greatly appreciated.

[HorneyMX5]

Hard to say from that. If the top nut is loose then do it up. What brand and model are they?

[dickyf]

not sure on the brand. the rears work ok and are firm. i can try winding the nut tight but im equally concerned with the coil turns on the spring which appear to be doing nothing at all. The ride height is fine so i assume that is what the adjusters are for?
i have only ever used bilstein on other cars which looked a little more robust...

[HorneyMX5]

The bottom coils that are compressed are fine. That's a "helper spring" which is simply there to stop the springs coming unseated when there's no weight on them. Once loaded up they stay fully compressed and have little to no effect on the spring rate and travel.

[HorneyMX5]

Is that picture with the car on it's wheels and no jack? Just looking at it looks like you'll be hitting that yellow bumpstop very quickly with suspension movement. It might we worth swapping those out for some Audi A3 ones which are shorter but nicely progressive when you do lean on them.

[dickyf]

yes, car is on its wheels with no jack.
it does seem to bottom unnecessarily easily. im a little confused why anyone would bother when the standard set up is fine..

[HorneyMX5]

Depends what you want to do with it really. There's plenty of the younger ones dropping them on the floor with wide wheels and loads of camber and then there's folks like me who want a better set up for track work.

If you want to go standard you'll be able to swap those for some OE stuff and end up with a few quid in your pocket as well.

[dickyf]

ok. ill take a proper look at them tomorrow and if i cant get them right then swap back to standard.