kbreese

What do you have it set to, both height and dampers, and how is the ride quality on the street?

Does anyone have it set to the highest and softest setting? Curious how high it can go relative to stock. (I’m assuming even at its highest and softest setting it is still lower and firmer than stock.)

I’m no stranger to lowered cars as my muscle/sports cars have always been lowered, either on stock bolts or with aftermarket springs & dampers. Never had coilovers before. But I just don't want a super firm and harsh ride as NY/LI roads are not the best. Especially in the spring when you are dodging potholes.

NOTE: They were installed on the car I am buying about 4 years ago, so I'm not sure which version they are.

kbreese

Anyone?

kbreese

No one here has these coilovers?

l98tpi

I just removed some. They were nice. If you just run the car on the street, you may not notice much of a difference unless you went from full soft to full hard. But to get the best feel, set them at full hard, drive the car for several miles and try to drive on rough road. Your goal is to get the car to ride as smooth as possible.

If you are tracking or autoxing; there is more to do and you need to set ride heights and then work to get the smoothest you can

kbreese

Ok so actually setting them to full soft may ride worse then somewhere in between?

Also, I'm assuming the front and rear should always be set on the same click position? (Rebound setting)

Larry Myers

I'm assuming you have the Pfadt Featherlight Single Adjustable Coilovers.

I run mine at the following settings. On the street: front-20, rear-14. On the track: front-16, rear-12. These settings are Pfadt's recommended starting settings. Suggest you start here and adjust according to your preference. Start by turning the damping adjustment **** to the fully hard setting, then back off as specified above.

The Pfadt recommended ride height is front, 26.4 inches, rear 27.3. This is on stock tires.

It takes six turns on the front spring perches to achieve 1/2 inch change is ride height. On the rear it requires 5.5 turns for a 1/2 inch change.

kbreese

Thanks so much. Yes they are SA featherlights. Since I posted this, I got the original Pfadt owners manual from the original owner, and I think it does explain this inside.

What ride height do you have it at and how do you like it on the street with those street settings?

Also, do you happen to know the spring rates? Are the ones on the DA stiffer then these? I've heard some negative things about the DA springs being too stiff.

Here is my car here. As you can see the previous owner had it setup pretty low. Looks awesome, but I think I need to raise it a bit for the NY roads & entrance ramps.

l98tpi

For street use, you can set at whatever height you want to get the look you want. Setting up for the best handling and max grip is totally different game. You have to scale the car and adjust ride heights at all four corners to get tit dialed in. The ride heights may be and probably end up different at all four corners.

The stance on your car is nice. Raise it just a little if you feel you need to, but it does look good.

Bossdog

I am in the same position as KBreese, I purchased my C5 Z06 this fall with the Pfadt Coilovers installed. I only drove it a short time this fall before I put it into storage. Street driving seemed fine. I don't know what the coilover settings were set at. I'll be adjusting the suspension in the spring for track use. camber, corner balance and alignment. I guess I'll start with the Pfadt recommended Track settings and go from there.

l98tpi

Get it corner balanced, then aligned, and after that find the bumpiest road you can and adjust to the smoothest and least amount of bounce you can. Also, the front and rear will typically be a little different.

Bossdog

Here is what I have learned over the past year. The manual the previous owner gave me when I purchased the car says the front has 40 clicks adjustment and the rear has 30. When I checked mine, the Front had 30 clicks and the rear has 25. I called AFE Pfadt and spoke to the guy who was supposed to be the most knowledgeable on these and he could not clarify this situation.

For track use I put the front on 10 clicks off full stiff (1/3 of the range) and the rear was 8 clicks off full stiff (1/3 off full stiff). The manual recommendations for track settings are 40% off full stiff, front and rear
I have stock Z06 sway bars. This seemed to work OK on the track for me.

I have not moved these settings off that for street use. I change the tires at the track so it should be easy to set them softer for the ride home but I am usually so tired and in a hurry to get rolling toward home at the end of the weekend, I forget to do it while I'm putting my street tires back on.

kbreese

Thanks for the feedback, Bossdog. got any pics?

Bossdog

kbreese

Wow, that's with the pfadt coilovers? Mine must be set about 3" lower than yours, as I have almost no gap at all. Granted yours is a C5 so I am not sure if that makes a difference but I didn't even think they could be raised that high. You pic looks factory stock height.

Bossdog

No, i'm an inch lower than stock. The big wheel well gap in the rear is because I have a square tire set up for the track. The photo has 19" rear and 18" front for street. To get the proper rake with the square 18" track set up I need to get the rear higher than normal to compensate for the 18's Front and rear. If I bring the rear down I then need to bring the front Down to keep proper rake and the front gets too low quick. Stock frame rail height is about 6 inches with a 1/4" rake, I'm less than 5" with my track tires on, a little higher with the street tires on.

MTPZ06

You should see what stock C5Z wheel gap looked like...could stick your head in there.