HKS Coilovers - Dampening Problem?

[drumerboyben]

Hi All,

This isn't actually on a Toyota but I figure it'd generic enough a question and that you guys are more than awesome enough to help out here anyway!

I've got his Lancer Evolution VII which I imported from Japan but have got a bit of a problem with the HKS Hipermax Performer Coilovers which came with it - they're stiff as anything and just about knock your teeth out whenever you go over a pebble!

The car isn't absurdly low (there's still room on coilovers to go lower) and given this its been suggested to me that it could be the dampening that's causing the problem?

I've tried turning the tops (there's also a HKS camber kit on it) with an allen key but it feels like I'm about to snap the key without anything moving...

Prolly also worth mentioning that when is jack the car up the wheels don't droop much all all - infact they barely move compared to when the car's on the ground!

Any help/ideas on what to do or what the problem is would be rad!

Some pics:


Cheers,
Ben

[MWP]

Those springs look pretty beefy.
Is there anything written/stamped on them that would indicate a spring rate?

The allen key at the top of the strut is probably just to stop if from spinning when doing up the top nut.
Not for adjustment.

Have you looked for a HKS manual for the struts?

[ara_ara_ara]

by the look of the thickness of the spring i'd guess they are over +16 spring rates.
but due to the such high springs , no matter how much you play with the damping.
it wont make a single diff to the ride comfort of the car.
but also due to such high spring rates you will also need to have high damping settings.
in japan you can get away with having ridicules hard settings for the road cars since roads are so much better.

[drumerboyben]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the reply.
I'm looking for a manual at the moment (no luck with the googling so I'm emailing all sorts of distributors and weird online stores that stock them...)

I couldn't see anything stamped anywhere on the springs (or anything else apart from a part no) but I did come across this site which in addition to suggesting that these would be well suited to normal road use mentions the spring rates of Front=69N/mm (7kgf/mm) and Rear=59N/mm(6kgf/mm) - not that I understand what this means as far as ride comfort goes...

It also says that you can adjust the dampening with a tool so I'm thinking that's what's meant to work in the top ( I'm guessing that's the thing 2nd from left in the image below, although I'm not sure how different it would be to a regular hex key)?


(gallery this pic is from)

I'm a bit of a suspension n00b so sorry if I'm making an ass of myself, any ideas on where to go from here?

Cheers,
Ben

[ara_ara_ara]

the HKS shocks are known to get the damping adjuster stuck after long periods of use without changing them time to time.
and as you guess if they are stuck and you try force it.
it will break.
maybe take to a shock specialist to see if they can have a look.
if it needs rebuild then get a new ones.
rebuild on the HKS shocks cost way too much...