Yellow Speed Racing coilovers

[coreys]

OK, I have been following this thread for a while now and i have noticed rather mixed reviews for the YSRs. I am after a set of coilovers and at the moment what i have in my range would be YSR BC or HSD TT. I was starting to lean towards the YSR because it was looking good for them, but then i saw a few comments on the rears not dropping as low as people would like, which would be an issue for me as i dont want to preload the springs. Now i am considering the HSD TTs as i have heard good things from other forums on other cars, but not much here. When my tax comes in im most likely going to get the HSD, so it would be nice if some people with experience with YSR could tell me that i have misinterpreted what i read, or even if someone with HSD TTs can share their experience with me.

BTW, this is on an '89 NA

Thanks, Corey.

[NitroDann]

Mania set the dampers to 12 at the front and 6 at the rear, in both cases, that is "clicks" from full soft, with the maximum being 32. This gave a firm and well controlled ride, with a little harshness, but overall, seemed like a good compromise for enthusiastic driving.
However, I was concerned that it may be too harsh for trips with my wife, so I experimented with setting all shocks to full soft. This gave a ride that is still firmer than stock, without any harshness, while still being well controlled, and so should be suitable for weekend cruises.

Id be amazed if you keep this setting, shocks and springs work as a matched package. If you run the dampers soft that all well and good but the springs are still very stiff, with a setting like this the dampers can no longer control the oscillation of the spring as they aren't effectively strong enough.
This gives a ride like being in a work ute with nothing in the tray and no fuel in the tank, and after a little while youll be busting to pee.
I guarantee you that you will find the car more comfortable with the shocks a little better damped unless the spring rates are horribly poorly matched to the damping, which I doubt, but who knows they are still under development right?

Dann

[plohl]

someone should throw them on a shock dyno....

[gslender]

I also thought it was better to have the front softer than the rear? .... Or is 32 full soft? (in which case it is softer front than rear).

G

[david_syd_au]

Mania set the dampers to 12 at the front and 6 at the rear, in both cases, that is "clicks" from full soft, with the maximum being 32. This gave a firm and well controlled ride, with a little harshness, but overall, seemed like a good compromise for enthusiastic driving.
However, I was concerned that it may be too harsh for trips with my wife, so I experimented with setting all shocks to full soft. This gave a ride that is still firmer than stock, without any harshness, while still being well controlled, and so should be suitable for weekend cruises.

Id be amazed if you keep this setting, shocks and springs work as a matched package. If you run the dampers soft that all well and good but the springs are still very stiff, with a setting like this the dampers can no longer control the oscillation of the spring as they aren't effectively strong enough.
This gives a ride like being in a work ute with nothing in the tray and no fuel in the tank, and after a little while youll be busting to pee.
I guarantee you that you will find the car more comfortable with the shocks a little better damped unless the spring rates are horribly poorly matched to the damping, which I doubt, but who knows they are still under development right?

Dann

I agree that under damping would be horrible, however I found that even on full soft the damping was sufficient, and especially in the back, was still much better than the 55k km old OEM shocks.

Subsequently I put them back to 12 in front and 6 in rear, as this is better for me commuting, but I will try a softer setting again for the next weekend outing with my wife.

.... I was starting to lean towards the YSR because it was looking good for them, but then i saw a few comments on the rears not dropping as low as people would like, which would be an issue for me as i dont want to preload the springs. ...

I was aware from this thread that there had been an issue with the range of ride height adjustment available in the YSR rear shocks for NCs, but I didn't think this was an issue for NAs and NBs ?

I also thought it was better to have the front softer than the rear? .... Or is 32 full soft? (in which case it is softer front than rear).

I can't comment on the best front/rear relationship, other than that MX5 Mania provided me a set of settings which had the front shocks set to 12 out of 32, and the rear to 6 out of 32, where 1 is softest, and 32 is hardest. So front harder than rear.

Of course, it may be that the damping range on the front and rear shocks are different so that setting them both to 'x' out of 32 doesn't mean that they match, and maybe 12/32 on the front is actually softer than 6/32 on the rear. I don't think so, but don't know for sure.

For now 12/6 (front/rear) works ok for me when commuting, and I will probably get to try-out some other settings at the next MX-5 club track day at Wakefield Park in September.

[emx005]

Thanks David,

Can I ask how low you went? Mine are going in on Monday and next Thursday I'm off on a drive from Sydney to Gold Coast. I want to drop the front only a little and the rear about 20-25mm. Curious as to whether I should soften them up for the long drive or not and then revert to a harder setting when I get up there.

Cheers

[david_syd_au]

Thanks David,

Can I ask how low you went? Mine are going in on Monday and next Thursday I'm off on a drive from Sydney to Gold Coast. I want to drop the front only a little and the rear about 20-25mm. Curious as to whether I should soften them up for the long drive or not and then revert to a harder setting when I get up there.

Cheers

With my original OEM shocks the hub centre to guard vertical distances were 375'ish at the front and 365'ish at the back. There was some variation left/right as well.

With the YSRs, as set by MX5 Mania, it went to around 345 all round. Subsequently, I have slightly lowered the front so that it is now 335, leaving the rear at 345.

My primary motivation for changing from the OEMs to YSRs was to fix the perceived under-damping, especially at the rear, and to have the capability for some adjustment to suit cruising, scratching and maybe track days. Improved looks from lowering, especially by removing the huge wheel to guard gap at the front, is a secondary benefit.

For the damping settings, I am using 12 at the front and 8 at the rear (both out of 32, where 1 is softest and 32 is hardest). This gives handling performance that I like, while still being comfortable on smooth roads, but can be too harsh if the road is not good.

As adjusting the shocks only takes about 30 seconds per corner, if I were taking a trip on main roads, I would probably change to a softer setting for the trip and firm up as necessary, as you plan.

Last weekend we happened to be travelling down the F3, and took the turn off at Mt White to the Old Pacific Hwy. I stopped for a short time for a leg stretch, and also firmed up the shocks. Worked out well, as a BMW driver discovered in the twisties leading up to the PITS :-)

Good luck on your trip

[PaulF]

Forgive me for the noob question, but I understand that coilovers will generally need some time/km's to "settle" after being installed or having the ride height changed. Is this also the case for adjusting the damping, or can that be done basically on the fly?

[david_syd_au]

Forgive me for the noob question, but I understand that coilovers will generally need some time/km's to "settle" after being installed or having the ride height changed. Is this also the case for adjusting the damping, or can that be done basically on the fly?

There are no noob questions Paul, just noob answers, like this one :-)

I believe that both springs and dampers require time to settle when first used, that springs will compress slightly, while dampers will loose a little of their initial resistance. This would be the case for coilovers, or for separate springs & dampers.

I wasn't aware that there might subsequently be some settling time after a ride height adjustment. I made a small (10mm) adjustment to the front ride height of my car last weekend, and wasn't aware of any settling effects. Of course, the settling could have been too small to have mattered, or maybe I was having too much fun to notice!

The YSR coilovers have an adjustment slot at the top of each shock, with a removable tool that is used to turn the adjuster. Once an adjustment is made, which takes around 30 seconds or so per shock (depending on your co-ordination), it takes effect immediately.

So if I am driving along a road, and decide I want to firm up the suspension, I can stop, adjust the shocks, hop back in the car, and start driving with the new settings.

[pepejesus]

Id be amazed if you keep this setting, shocks and springs work as a matched package. If you run the dampers soft that all well and good but the springs are still very stiff, with a setting like this the dampers can no longer control the oscillation of the spring as they aren't effectively strong enough.
This gives a ride like being in a work ute with nothing in the tray and no fuel in the tank, and after a little while youll be busting to pee.
I guarantee you that you will find the car more comfortable with the shocks a little better damped unless the spring rates are horribly poorly matched to the damping, which I doubt, but who knows they are still under development right?

Dann

Dann, to say this with any accuracy whatsover you'd have to know what effect the adjusters have on the damping sweep... for which you'd need shock dyno plots...

Care to share? ;)

[gslender]

The YSR coilovers have an adjustment slot at the top of each shock, with a removable tool that is used to turn the adjuster. Once an adjustment is made, which takes around 30 seconds or so per shock (depending on your co-ordination), it takes effect immediately.

So if I am driving along a road, and decide I want to firm up the suspension, I can stop, adjust the shocks, hop back in the car, and start driving with the new settings.

I've got HSDs but same concept for height and shock adjustment.

Question: when adjusting on the fly, is the rear a pain in the a&$e due to a) the fuel filler pipes and b) the spare tyre?

G

[david_syd_au]

The YSR coilovers have an adjustment slot at the top of each shock, with a removable tool that is used to turn the adjuster. Once an adjustment is made, which takes around 30 seconds or so per shock (depending on your co-ordination), it takes effect immediately.

So if I am driving along a road, and decide I want to firm up the suspension, I can stop, adjust the shocks, hop back in the car, and start driving with the new settings.

I've got HSDs but same concept for height and shock adjustment.

Question: when adjusting on the fly, is the rear a pain in the a&$e due to a) the fuel filler pipes and b) the spare tyre?

G

The YSRs are installed in my NC, so no spare tyre, and less shielding around the fuel filler than on a NB.

For now, I have left out the plastic dress panels on both sides of the boot, to allow easy access to the shocks. I plan to look for some form of remote adjuster, which would allow be to replace the dress panels, and still be able to adjust the shocks.

Sounds like you have a similar need?

[gslender]

Sounds like you have a similar need?

Yep. Perhaps RC servos would do it?

G

[david_syd_au]

Sounds like you have a similar need?

Yep. Perhaps RC servos would do it?

G

Servos may be an option, although they would not be able to sense the tactile feedback of the clicks a user feels when adjusting the shocks.

The collar around the adjuster at the top of the YSR shocks is threaded. I though an option would be some form of cable that could attach to that thread, be passed through a gap in the boot paneling to allow remote adjustment. Like this:

http://blackhaloracing.com/?page_id=60& ... uct_id=156

I haven't yet done an extensive search, and then evaluated compatibility with the YSR shocks.

[gslender]

Nice idea. The HSDs have a cam face, and you attach a collar button with thumb screw to secure it. Adapting this to a simple solid cable/rod system would be the go!!

G