FK/Koni Coilovers, and Speedline Turini's Fitted !!!!
Well the day started with a visit to my local tyre fitters. One of my wheels' weight strip fell off, so I had to get it rebalanced.
Coilovers
Ive been wanting to do this for ages, so got stuck right in. I followed Freds [Yozzasport] guide that he posted on Cliosport.net.
The most important thing that I would like to note is to buy an electronic 12v Impact Gun, it made getting off seized bolts an effortless job.
It went something like this [Ive added a few things]:-
REAR
1] Stick head under car
2] Undo 18mm bolts on bottom of rear shocks (1 per side) [Impact gun]
3] Jack up rear of car with a trolley jack and place an axle stand on each side on sills
4] Rear springs will fall out
5] Put in new spring adjusters
6] Put in new springs
7] Feed new shocks up into the hole and tighten to keep in place - leave dangling.
8] You will have to lower the car bit by bit until the springs locate ( a mate is useful here) [I did it on my own OK]
9] Put bolts back in, job done (use jack to help you line shock holes up with rear subframe holes)
FRONT
1] BEFORE you jack the car up undo the 2 21mm top mount caps under the bonnet (soak them in WD40 the night before) don't remove them completely yet [Impact gun]
2] Jack up BOTH sides of the car.
3] Remove wheels
4] Undo lower shock bolts (21mm) - [Impact gun]
5] When the shock is free, remove it by pushing the lower part towards the rear of the car (between the steering arm and the wishbone)
6] Take line bracket off strut and put it on your coilover strut.
7] Once strut is off the car undo 17mm top nut (if its a 172/182, there's no need for compressors)
8] Take the nuts off the end of your coilovers and discard.
8] Take everything off old strut in order [down to top cap] and transfer to your coilover strut - tighten bolt up
9] Fit the coilover to the car, making sure you set the ride height correctly - job done
The hardest parts were:-
1] Getting strut out of the drivers side arch as the wishbone was adamant it wasn't going to drop lower!
2] Setting the front ride height
3] Setting the camber - yes my FK's have inbuilt camber adjustment!
The Outcome?
This is money well spent! The coilovers are fully adjustable, both ride height and damping, front and back. On taking the 172 out on some of my back roads and throwing it into some nice sweeping bends it is evident that all the body roll that was present before has disappeared. Turn in is much more balanced, and the scary feeling that the back end is going to go at any time has also disappeared. Out of a scale of 0-4 I set the stiffness to 3... this is a little too firm for bumpy B/unclassified roads, I might set it to a 2.5 when I get chance to play with the settings. I haven't been able to take them fully in anger yet because I have brand new Toyo Proxes T1-Rs on, which are notorious for their greasiness when scrubbing in. My VX220's T1-R's took about 500 miles before full stickiness.
Eventhough the Clio has been lowered quite considerably I would say the cars dynamics have improved by 200%. The wheels surprisingly don't even scrub the arched mid corner or over bad bumps. I take speed bumps with respect [Hey I'm used to that, I'm an ex Lotus Elise and VX220 owner!] The FK/Koni springs are very hard - perfect for the track, but I can see why some normal road users dont like it this hard.
I am so pleased!
Some pics of the work carried out:-
Some pics of what it looks like now:-
My Yozzasport package came today too! Some Brembo disks and Ferodo DS2500 Track Pads!
Coilovers
Ive been wanting to do this for ages, so got stuck right in. I followed Freds [Yozzasport] guide that he posted on Cliosport.net.
The most important thing that I would like to note is to buy an electronic 12v Impact Gun, it made getting off seized bolts an effortless job.
It went something like this [Ive added a few things]:-
REAR
1] Stick head under car
2] Undo 18mm bolts on bottom of rear shocks (1 per side) [Impact gun]
3] Jack up rear of car with a trolley jack and place an axle stand on each side on sills
4] Rear springs will fall out
5] Put in new spring adjusters
6] Put in new springs
7] Feed new shocks up into the hole and tighten to keep in place - leave dangling.
8] You will have to lower the car bit by bit until the springs locate ( a mate is useful here) [I did it on my own OK]
9] Put bolts back in, job done (use jack to help you line shock holes up with rear subframe holes)
FRONT
1] BEFORE you jack the car up undo the 2 21mm top mount caps under the bonnet (soak them in WD40 the night before) don't remove them completely yet [Impact gun]
2] Jack up BOTH sides of the car.
3] Remove wheels
4] Undo lower shock bolts (21mm) - [Impact gun]
5] When the shock is free, remove it by pushing the lower part towards the rear of the car (between the steering arm and the wishbone)
6] Take line bracket off strut and put it on your coilover strut.
7] Once strut is off the car undo 17mm top nut (if its a 172/182, there's no need for compressors)
8] Take the nuts off the end of your coilovers and discard.
8] Take everything off old strut in order [down to top cap] and transfer to your coilover strut - tighten bolt up
9] Fit the coilover to the car, making sure you set the ride height correctly - job done
The hardest parts were:-
1] Getting strut out of the drivers side arch as the wishbone was adamant it wasn't going to drop lower!
2] Setting the front ride height
3] Setting the camber - yes my FK's have inbuilt camber adjustment!
The Outcome?
This is money well spent! The coilovers are fully adjustable, both ride height and damping, front and back. On taking the 172 out on some of my back roads and throwing it into some nice sweeping bends it is evident that all the body roll that was present before has disappeared. Turn in is much more balanced, and the scary feeling that the back end is going to go at any time has also disappeared. Out of a scale of 0-4 I set the stiffness to 3... this is a little too firm for bumpy B/unclassified roads, I might set it to a 2.5 when I get chance to play with the settings. I haven't been able to take them fully in anger yet because I have brand new Toyo Proxes T1-Rs on, which are notorious for their greasiness when scrubbing in. My VX220's T1-R's took about 500 miles before full stickiness.
Eventhough the Clio has been lowered quite considerably I would say the cars dynamics have improved by 200%. The wheels surprisingly don't even scrub the arched mid corner or over bad bumps. I take speed bumps with respect [Hey I'm used to that, I'm an ex Lotus Elise and VX220 owner!] The FK/Koni springs are very hard - perfect for the track, but I can see why some normal road users dont like it this hard.
I am so pleased!
Some pics of the work carried out:-
Some pics of what it looks like now:-
My Yozzasport package came today too! Some Brembo disks and Ferodo DS2500 Track Pads!
posted by C Mac at 7:14 pm
2 Comments:
Great blog..luv the mods, keep up the good work!!
Cheers bud.... Its coming on nicely! :)
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