update: so i got impatient and ended up jacking the car up, taking the wheel off and unbolting the rear shocks. it was surprisingly easy! i took a few shots along the way and ill post a DIY tomorrow for those of us with inaccessible rear shock dampening *****!

 

You have Kw Variant 2's, correct?

What did you set them to from full soft, number of clicks?

Reason I ask is I recently ran the Variant 2 on the shock dyno and we came away with a recommended setting of no more then 9 clicks in the front and 6 clicks in the rear up from full soft.

 

yep, i have kw v2

err thats weird, usually clicks are dictated from full stiff. i think i originally had 6 front, 9 rear from full stiff. i have changed it to 9 front and 12 rear from full stiff. the ride was a tad too rough over bad freeways for me.... not girlfriend friendly at all. do you know if theres a max of 18 or 24? i will run out and check in a bit if you dont know off the top of your head

 

just checked, its 18 in the front so i am going to assume its also 18 in the rear. that would put me at 9 front, 6 rear from soft which just so happens to match your findings!

just curious, i am not familiar with what a shock dyno is. can you explain? what kind of data did it present that would lead you to conclude that anything stiffer than 9/6 is undesirable? thanks!

 

Since it's never advised to start out with a setup set to full stiff, baseline starting points should alway's be based on starting at full soft.

Full soft in acheived by turning each damper all the way counter clockwise until it stops. 6 clicks equal one full turn of the adjustment system.

I only had the dampers in my hands for a couple of hours before I had to return them to their actual owner. IIRC the front had 15 clicks total with on final click that had a little too much resistance to get to. Again, IIRC the rear had 18 clicks and just like the front, one final remaining click that had a lot of resistance to get to.

Based on what I saw and heard on the dyno, I do not recommend running them past the half way point front or rear. Up until that point, in spite of being a twin tube design, the dampers did extreamly well. After that point things take a noise dive and pressure imbalances creates excessive cavitation which will lead to shearing of the shock oil and the to change it. It was worse in the rear, hence the lower recommendation to set rear rebound at 6 clicks from full soft. Things were bad enough at the higher settings that in addition to oil life, I'd worry about internal wear around the edges of the shim stacks.

 

HKS!!!!

 

My HKS Hipermax III's have a **** in the lower rear damper which I can access by just sticking my hand through the wheel.

 

errr, cmon somebody has to do the research so we know what does and doesn't work! i for one appreciate the input. people dissect tuning so much... why not suspension too? Gsedan35 has contributed so much to this forum in the areas of suspension and more.

anyways, back on topic... at the settings listed above, the ride feels fantastic! i havent had a chance to throw it around in the turns yet since its raining out here.

 

Given the products your considering, I totally see your point.

 

C'mon guys, lets get back on topic! I posted a DIY. For those with experience please give feedback!

https://g35driver.com/forums/brakes-...ml#post3898100

 

i didnt know coupes didnt have reclinable rear seats. good write up btw.

 

they dont! guide is for coupes... and sedans with reclineablerear seats