bilstien adjustments

[mk3 for life!]

OK this may be a dumb question, but i dont know much about suspension dynamics so here it goes.


The bilstiens have 3 slots for the snap rings that hold the bottom spring perch. Which one would make the car lowest?

My guess is the top groove because the spring is more compressed, and therefore shorter. BUT something in the back of my head tells me that if it were more stretched out (on the bottom groove) that the weight of the car it's self would compress the springs more, but it seems this would make the spring "softer" of "bouncier".

Again I'm sorry if this seems like a dumbass question, but then again i have no idea and i cant find anything about it

 

[suprarx7nut]

I'm going to take stab in the dark here and guess that the lowest perch = lowest ride height.

 

[jmanbball]

The spring will be compressed by the weight of the car by the same amount, regardless of the spring perch position. This means that the lowest position will lower the car the most.

 

[mk3 for life!]

so the less compressed the spring is the lower it will be?

 

[jmanbball]

The amount the spring is compressed to be fitted to the shock has no bearing on final ride height.

 

[mk3 for life!]

i see. . . well here is another question. Those cheesy little spring tensioners that you can get at o' really, they pull a couple of the coils together right? If this lowers the vehicle more then that would mean that the closer the bottom perch is to the top(highest perch) would make it lower. . . i dunno im just not able to coprehend, sorry if im being frustrating

 

[BorHor]

The lower the spring sits the lower the car will be. That is hard to understand????

 

[mk3 for life!]

The lower the spring sits the lower the car will be. That is hard to understand????

haha yea i have a tendency to over analyze things and i just keep thinking that ths shorter the spring the lower it will be but im going to take everyones word for it and set it on the bottom one, like i said i have never used height adjustable suspension before so it's all new to me

 

[BorHor]

Yeah I hate it when that happens haha. It sucks when the simplest answer is right in front of you yet you look around it for a more in-depth answer where in the end makes no sense.

 

[SupraOfDoom]

I had them on the highest perch when I first bought them... but I just took them off again and put it on the bottom.

 

[SupraDrew]

I had them on the highest perch when I first bought them... but I just took them off again and put it on the bottom.

How does it look on the different setting?

My thought that the spring size (length) makes the car lower. When i changed from eibach to H&R the spring was shorter. I just bought the bilstein and am going to be putting them on soon so i would like to know for sure. When you look at the strut as being the constant, having the highest perch setting would give you the shorter spring. But is you have a short spring (H&R) I can see the lower perch getting the car lower. Where is you are using stock springs would you want to use the highest to make the spring shorter? I have thought about this a lot and it is kicking my a$$.

 

[SupraOfDoom]

It lowered it maybe .5 or .75 more dropping from top to bottom. Yes, this kind of thinking confused the heck out of me when I first got them.

 

[BorHor]

Think about it this way. When you put your car wight on it it will compress the spring the same way every time to about the same compression. So if you put it at the highest it will be at the highest and at the lowest it will be the lowest. When you put it at the highest it might seem like the spring is shorter but it is going to get compressed about the same amount as when it is at the bottom.

 

[mk3 for life!]

yea i get it now, i just needed a mental image of it, it's hard for me sometimes to just think about how things work i have to actually see them

 

[SupraDrew]

Thanks for all the help, i only have to redo two now.