adjusting rebound

[gtlegacy]

Heya,

i have some ohlins aftermarket shocks with sti wagon springs in my legacy (modified wrx rear top hats)

anyways they are 32 click rebound adjustable

just wanting a few pointers on setting them up i have them soft now

is there a certain way they should be slightly harder on the front harder on the rear?

also what does stiffening(slowing the weight transfer) of the front and rear do to the car?

[Guest]

My advice for setting them up is to drive around on one extreme for a few weeks and get a feel for the car then switch them to the other extreme and see what effects it has (i.e. start off on 1 click front/1 click rear then switch to 32 clicks front/32 click rear, then maybe 32 clicks front/1 click rear etc.).

This way you really get a feel for how the adjustments will affect the characteristics of the car.

Then after that start adjusting them in increments of 4-6 clicks so you can still feel the difference but you are more or less fine tuning the shocks.

Stiffening up the front of the car in relation to the rear will create a car more prone to understeer and vice versa. Overall, stiffening will also make your car more responsive to inputs.

Your Legacy should be prone to understeer, as are most Subaru's, so a setup that is more stiff in the rear than up front will neutralize the understeer.

If you are driving the car 100% on the street I think you will come to the conclusion that a softer setup works best.

[gtlegacy]

thanks that is a huge help! ;D

[Reka]

Just an fyi... i've got Tein SS Dampers and they have ~30 clicks, with complete clockwise being the hardest. BUT, they can only be dialed 16 clicks to the left to reach the softest setting. Apparently if they're turned any further the shocks can be damaged.

Seems like a bit of an engineering fuckup to me, but might want to research if it's similar with your adjusties. Unless you know already... then carry on, nothing to see here.

[gtlegacy]

what happens in a subaru if you have to much rebound in the front and the back? and this may sound stupid but is suspension tuning about getting the correct amount of compression and rebound for your purpose and also getting a good balance of over and understeer

the reason i ask is im new at this and im still learning to feel what does what and why is does this and how far i can go to make it better

also if anyone else has ohlins in there car can you let me know how much you adjusted them and how you felt they changed your car in different areas

[BC5RA]

The idea is to keep the wheel in contact with the road.

Too stiff and the car will pogo, too soft and it will wallow.

By increasing stiffness in the front or rear will create certain handling traits, but I would start with the same settings at all four and increase gradually.

[gtlegacy]

i orginally started at 1/2 (16 clicks out of 32) allround and the car felt really nice

should the front and rear be adjusted together? what i understand is the post about understeer and overstter with adjusting the front and rear seperately but how do i know when the front is at the right spot and the rear needs adjusting and so on

what do you mean by pogo? bounce/hop?

[gtlegacy]

i dont know if that last post made any sense at all when do i need to say add or remove rebound from the front and the rear seperatly

[dubbedup]

I just got Ohlins (thanks notafoz) but have only got them in the front untill my rears come, sometime this week, i will be having a play once i got both setups in, i just put them in and they are quite similar to kings as far as bumps are concerned but turn in response has improved and now my tyres feel like they are pretty average....(only had them in a few days and only driven round the block so far)

[Koom]

I jsut started soft all round on mine (super, super hard springs so needed to for traction) and adjusted them up until it felt nice. Then played with changing one end at a time and noting down the changes and how it felt to drive. Took ages of playing like this to get it feeling balanced. Also by then I'd corner weighted it and did similar adjustments to the rear height to get a nice balance all round.

[gtlegacy]

ok sweet az i think i will learn alot from track day lol is there a baseline set up i can do to get me started for the track day or just start soft ?

[Koom]

It probably depends entirely on your shocks/springs but I like to start soft and go from there.

[gtlegacy]

yea ok i have ohlins struts and sti wagon springs in them i will experiment with that

[G-unit]

i also have some ohlins that are very hard, the adjuster doesnt have any arrow too say what way is soft/hard, would winding them down/out as such make them softer?

[BC5RA]

Clockwise = stiffer

Anticlockwise = softer

[G-unit]

ok thanks

[Swindog]

Daiyamas only have 5 clicks soft to hard. The new Tein HA i have in the rear have 24 clicks soft to hard...i normally run half way when i have dampers as hard it TOO hard and only good on the gravel and soft will root the shafts.

Run equal damper on both front and rear.

[G-unit]

mine are 30 clicks, myt start with 10 soft then work way up if 2 soft

[gtlegacy]

yea when i had mine off when i put them on my car the compression i thought was softer than my bilsteins but when you set the rebound real hard its extremely stiff

im still have trouble deciding where i w\should set mine as in the semi dry/wet the car understeers like crazy at about 12f and 16r clicks maybe its the springs in my car? they are from an sti wagon should i be stiffening the back up abit more or take some out of the front? i also got told if i have to much of both the car with get loose

[Swindog]

you want just a touch of understeer but depends how you drive. If you make alot of oversteer youll get in trouble

[G-unit]

im just trying 2 get used too them as my previous rs had kings in kybs, the kybs were very soft compared to these, the shaft was so thin compared, the ohlins are nice @ 100ks, i have them at 10clicks all round, just wound them down the 10up, seems better

[Koom]

Start soft and work up, especially if its badly understeering. If I turn mine up anywhere over halfway, the car just completely looses traction at both ends. Makes it fun trying to negotiate chicanes at high speed

Out of 16 clicks, mine are 4f, 2r and it sticks well and lets go at both ends when loosing traction i.e. loading it up going through the sweeper. Although my springs are stiff enough that you can't get the suspension to move even when jumping up and down in the boot of the car. Takes two people to get ~5mm of travel.

[pl0x]

When setting up spring adjustable,

winding the bottom of the spring up the shaft more will make it stiffer and higher?

so winding it down will make it softer & lower? but can get to low and bottom out shocks which F's them?

[G-unit]

 Koom said:

Start soft and work up, especially if its badly understeering. If I turn mine up anywhere over halfway, the car just completely looses traction at both ends. Makes it fun trying to negotiate chicanes at high speed

Out of 16 clicks, mine are 4f, 2r and it sticks well and lets go at both ends when loosing traction i.e. loading it up going through the sweeper. Although my springs are stiff enough that you can't get the suspension to move even when jumping up and down in the boot of the car. Takes two people to get ~5mm of travel.

sound like we have similar spring rates lol mine arnt that bad but its not very low either, may change that down the track