Yellow Speed Racing coilovers

[reflex]

@ david_syd_au you mention the adjustment is taking you 30 seconds per corner, to which I agree, but what have you done to allow instant access to the front strut tops/aduster holes in regards to the strut tower brace? I would think it would take a couple of spanners and at least 5-10 minutes to unbolt/bolt up the brace for each and every time you adjust the shock settings.
Also, you mentioned you dropped the front ride height an extra 10mm, did you do this via the spring pre load or did you have to disassemble the whole lower suspension to allow adjustment of the shock body?

Thanks in advance.

[david_syd_au]

An update on my NC YSR coilovers after 3 weeks.

First a brief timeline to give context:
27/6: YSR coilovers installed in my 2006 NC by MX5 Mania
9/7: I measured the ride heights, and lowered the front an additional 10 mm, leaving front at 335 mm and rear at 345 mm, hub centre to guard.
16/7: Wheel alignment by Stu at Spinning Wheel Tyres
17/7: MX5 club run to Hunter Valley

My MX5 has about 55k kms, and is stock, apart from the YSR coilovers, and after-market wheels which were on the car when I bought it earlier this year, and which I believe are same size as the OEM alloys.

Overall, I am very happy with the YSRs. They provide a much more controlled ride than the original springs & shocks, substantially improved handling, with the trade-off being some loss in comfort on rough surfaces.

Damping adjustment

The YSR coilovers allow adjustment of compression and rebound damping, with a range of 0 to 32, where 0 is softest and 32 is firmest.

I want to be able to adjust the YSR damping for 3 scenarios
1. A comfort setting, for cruises with my wife
2. A sport setting, for daily driving, and the odd weekend blast
3. A track setting, for the occasional track day

I initially tried 0 & 0 (0/32 front and 0/32 rear) for the comfort setting, but found that although it was better damped than the original suspension, it was still too bouncy which reduced the ride comfort.
I have settled on 4 & 6 as a good compromise. We used these settings for the club run to the Hunter Valley yesterday (17/7), and both enjoyed the feel and handling of the car, with only a few moments of discomfort on rough and/or patched roads.

For the sport setting I am using 8 & 12, which gives a firm ride that I like, and seems to sharpen the handling a little.

I haven't yet done a track day, and so can't report on suitable track settings.

Clearance

No clearance issues to report. I have only had one grounding so far, of the nose, and that was on a driveway entrance which had been a problem even before the YSRs were fitted and the car lowered.

I am of course being more careful now, so this situation may change as I inevitably become less timid about scrapping.

Handling

First, I must declare that I am not a car expert, not an expert driver, and that these are just my impressions.

My initial reaction on the changed handling of the car with the YSRs was "Wow!". The ride was much, much more controlled, the turn in to corners felt like a go kart, it sat much flatter round corners, and it followed a line around corners like it was on the proverbial rails. There were a couple of issues, like the steering wheel being slightly offset when travelling straight, and some skitishness when travelling straight, which I put down to the alignment being affected by the changed suspension setup. This was expected, and the original plan was to have the alignment done after the YSRs had been given a few weeks to settle.

When I took the car to Stu at Spinning Wheel Tyres last Saturday, he found that there was over 2 deg of negative camber at the front, which would have helped the go kart turn-in, of course, at the expense of tyre wear. He performed the wheel alignment, using his standard NC road car settings, but with slightly more caster to improve the camber on turns at track days.

It was with the new alignment that we did the Hunter Valley run yesterday, using my "comfort" shock settings. The turn in to corners was not quite as sharp as before the alignment, but not that much different, and certainly much better than stock. It still tracked around corners flat and on rails. The skitishness was gone too.
Thumbs up.

Issues

I have removed some of the plastic panelling from the boot to allow for easy access when adjusting the rear shocks, and would like to find some means of remotely adjusting those shock, so the boot can be returned to normal. I have asked MX5 Mania to enquire about options from Yellow Speed Racing.

There are 2 C-spanners supplied with the YSRs shocks which fit the collars used to set the spring preload and ride height. The spanners are a little weak, and I bent one of the buggers when loosening the shock collars to adjust the front ride height. Maybe I am just ham-fisted. Anyway, I straightened the spanner ok, and it should be right to use in the future. Not a big issue, as I don't expect to be changing the ride height too often.

[david_syd_au]

@ david_syd_au you mention the adjustment is taking you 30 seconds per corner, to which I agree, but what have you done to allow instant access to the front strut tops/aduster holes in regards to the strut tower brace? I would think it would take a couple of spanners and at least 5-10 minutes to unbolt/bolt up the brace for each and every time you adjust the shock settings.

David from MX5 Mania drilled an 8'ish mm hole in the bracket of the brace, allowing access for the shaft of the adjuster to the top of the shock. I don't expect it would make any difference to the strength or integrity of the brace.

Also, you mentioned you dropped the front ride height an extra 10mm, did you do this via the spring pre load or did you have to disassemble the whole lower suspension to allow adjustment of the shock body?

I did it via the ride height adjustment, not spring preload, and no disassembly was necessary.
A mate has a car repair/maintenance shop, so I put the car up on his hoist. Used one of the YSR supplied C-spanners to loosen the locking collar on the ride height, I then loosened the main collar, and screwed it up the thread on the shock body so that about 10mm of thread was exposed. I then turned the entire shock body in place, using a c-spanner on the spring preload locking collar for leverage (but not changing the preload), and kept turning the shock body, screwing it into the base, until the 10mm gap to the collar was closed, then tightened the locking collar. I could have done this without the hoist, by jacking each corner of the car and crawling under, but it was more comfortable using the hoist.
It took about 10 mins per shock. Someone who was a more competent with mechanical stuff could have probably done it in 2 minutes.

[reflex]

thanks for the feedback and answers David.
The drilled hole was what I was thinking, but wasn't sure about the 'integrity' issue, so glad to hear Mania did that as I will now go and dig out my drill!

Interesting your description of how you've gone about adjusting the ride height by turning the shock body. I did not install the ysr's, and when the mechanic initially set the heights it was far too high all round, and he had a bit of a whinge about how much of a pain it was to adjust the front as he had to disassemble the whole lower suspension as the shock body couldn't be adjusted as you have described. I wonder i this is another 'design update' between your YSR's and mine, or whether my mech was having a bad day. I'll crawl under and see what I find. Further investigation required! thanks again.

[david_syd_au]

thanks for the feedback and answers David.
The drilled hole was what I was thinking, but wasn't sure about the 'integrity' issue, so glad to hear Mania did that as I will now go and dig out my drill!

The hole was a pain to drill, as it is difficult to determine the right location.
David ended up making a cardboard template of the brace mounting bracket after removing the brace, and then pushed the template against the mounting bolts and shock top to get the positions marked.
The template could then be used to locate the hole on that side, and then reversed for the other side.
Hmm, not a good explanation, but once you starting looking at it, you will understand.

The hole only needs to be big enough for the adjuster shaft, about 3 or 4mm from memory, but because it was difficult to get the location spot on, he made the hole a little larger.

I would suggest starting with the smallest hole that will accept the adjuster shaft, refit the brace, and only enlarge the hole if necessary to compensate from the location being slightly off.

Interesting your description of how you've gone about adjusting the ride height by turning the shock body. I did not install the ysr's, and when the mechanic initially set the heights it was far too high all round, and he had a bit of a whinge about how much of a pain it was to adjust the front as he had to disassemble the whole lower suspension as the shock body couldn't be adjusted as you have described. I wonder i this is another 'design update' between your YSR's and mine, or whether my mech was having a bad day. I'll crawl under and see what I find. Further investigation required! thanks again.

FYI, You may need to loosen the ride height collar and locking collar to turn the shock. Going down for sure, going up, not sure.
For me, once that was done, it turned easily using the c-spanner on the preload collar for leverage.
Probably a good idea to clean the thread up first too.

If you are up my way, I am glad to demonstrate or help, but then, as I only live 5 mins from MX5 Mania, you might as well go there!

[emx005]

Got mine installed today (NA6) and the boys at Mania showed me all the adjustments. The rear was a little low so they raised it for me in a matter of minutes. While they are new you can turn the actual shock pretty easily once the locking collar is loosened. Over time it would have to be done with the C spanner.

My right rear is about 5-10mm lower than the left at the moment after a long day of driving. Going in to get a wheel alignment tomorrow ahead of the Sydney-Gold Coast run Thursday morning so when they have the wheels off to balance I'll just adjust that coilover while it's up on the hoist. It looks doable with a jack though so it's not a massive pain... just more time consuming.

On the standard settings (8 clicks and 12 clicks) it's an awesome ride on nice roads. Corners are amazing after removing 19 year old shocks and springs. I'll soften them up a couple of clicks for the long drive and then work them back up when I get there for day to day driving. Very happy with the result but I'm sure my wife will find them a little too stiff. Oh well... she can drive her car more often!

[NitroDann]

An update on my NC YSR coilovers after 3 weeks.

1. A comfort setting, for cruises with my wife


I initially tried 0 & 0 (0/32 front and 0/32 rear) for the comfort setting, but found that although it was better damped than the original suspension, it was still too bouncy which reduced the ride comfort.
I have settled on 4 & 6 as a good compromise.

Pepejesus: If I had a shock dyno chart for these, i promise, you would be the first person Id sell a copy to.
But heres proof above.

Dann

[Mr nanotech]

Out of curiousity, how low can these actually go?

[david_syd_au]

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

I sent a query about YSR remote adjuster cables to MX5 Mania, and they advised yesterday that YSR are providing a set to trial in my car.

David & AJ were not sure if these are an existing part that YSR have for some other application and that they suggest will work for an MX5, or whether they are a newly designed part.

They should be here in a week or so, and I will report then on how they work.

If they seem ok, I will also ask MX5 Mania about what the supply arrangements will be for past and future YSR users.

[david_syd_au]

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

I sent a query about YSR remote adjuster cables to MX5 Mania, and they advised yesterday that YSR are providing a set to trial in my car.

David & AJ were not sure if these are an existing part that YSR have for some other application and that they suggest will work for an MX5, or whether they are a newly designed part.

They should be here in a week or so, and I will report then on how they work.

If they seem ok, I will also ask MX5 Mania about what the supply arrangements will be for past and future YSR users.

Adjusters have arrived



They screw onto the top of the rear YSR shocks in the boot of my NC.

They appear to be long enough to extend past the plastic paneling into the boot, but I can't for sure until I replace that paneling on the weekend.

When using the extended adjuster, it is not as easy to feel the 'clicks' as when using an adjuster directly in the top of the shock, but still can feel them ok.

MX5 Mania is not sure whether these will be supplied with future shock orders, or whether they will be an optional extra.

They reckon the extended adjusters should work for the rear shocks in both NCs and NBs, but for NAs the spare tyre would block access to the right shock.

[slug_dub]

So, winding out the shock body for height... They can wound all the way off so what's the most you should wind them down to raise height?

[slug_dub]

So far we think the YSR's have made a very good change in the car. For the money I think the amount of adjustment and their behaviour in general is well worth it when compared to buying a set of new shocks, springs and FCM bits (which I would consider almost necessary for getting the best out of shock/spring combos).

Ride height is set at around 13" hub to guard and I won't be running it lower, but will change it slightly to give a quarter to half an inch less on the front.
They seem to work much better when set stiffer, even on the crappy roads we have. I started with 24 clicks front, 16 rear as Nanotech suggested but I'm still playing around going stiffer on the rears as there was still too much bounce at 16. Considering now playing with the spring preload on the rears to fine tune the bouncing. The front is great at 24 though.

Very happy with the handling qualities, its stiff but I'm used to that now. Despite stiffness in my opinion the ride quality is better than the old stock stuff and the 2nd hand Billies/Kings on the other car.

[Mr nanotech]

Are helper springs available for these yet? I'm happy with the ride and look of how mine is set up but I get a bit of bounce in the rear as the springs are floating.
Helper springs like on some of the tein's and so on should fix this as far as I can tell.

I'll be mailing Mania about this soonish but if anyone already has the answer already, it would be fantastic if you could let me know!

[project.r.racing]

Why not set them up correctly? If the springs are not captive, then you have the preload incorrectly threaded. Move the spring perch higher.

As the height adjustment is not on the spring perch, then they should be captive at all times, as the shock stroke shouldn't change when the height does.

[project.r.racing]

Also - Anyone know where else these can be brought from other than Mania?