Coilover install addendum for Yellow Speed

Rotus

Member
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07 MS3
First, let me say that this is not a full coilover install guide, there are plenty of those out there. This how-to will address specifics I found when installing the Yellow Speeds and a couple of tips I have for those that have not done this.

Second, thanks to Rotus8 for a nice install write up and tip about the damping adjustment tool for the rear. I will be making one soon.

Lastly, it's damping, not dampening. (bang) Dampening is making something slightly wetter whereas damping is controlling something, whether it be the movement of a spring or level of sound, etc.

OK, on to it...

I had noticed a degradation in handling for a while and when I replaced my front brake pads recently, I noticed my right front strut had sprayed all it's fluid in the wheel well. I also found that one rear strut had a busted stop. Yay! Now I can finally justify coilovers! I decided to go with Yellow mainly because of price, but I'm pretty happy with the decision. They are quality units with good value for the money. Thanks to Ken for the hook up.

Installation is very straightforward with just a couple of hiccups.

The abs sensor wire bracket will not bolt up correctly to the end link mount on the Yellows because of gusseting on the Yellows. First pic is the stock end link tab, second shows the Yellow's tab and gusseting. If you are wondering about the brake line, I left it loose. I'll check on that soon when I make the final adjustments to the ride height.

stock%20tab.jpg


yellow%20tab.jpg


I recalled something about swapping sides with the brackets from (I think) a thread on BC coils, so I tried this. What I found was that it was a pretty good fit, but the bracket would hit the end link and the shock adjustment lock ring. I trimmed off a corner and ground it down a bit where the end link would hit and it was an almost perfect fit. You can see which corner to trim from this picture (it's the driver's side mount being used for the passenger side):

bracket%20right%20modified.jpg


Here it is installed. I used a bit of rubber hose around the end link to make sure they didn't touch (not in this pic).

tab%20installed.jpg


Tips:

Something I found out while doing this install was that it was difficult to pull the end link from the old strut and install it on the new strut. If you use a jack, you can ease some of the tension from the sway bar and the end link will just slide out. Only jack it up enough to get the end link bolt to slide out easily. In this picture, my car is sitting on my floor jack while I use the widow-maker on the hub.

install%20end%20link.jpg


Another problem I had was getting the old struts out. Rotus8 used a metal shim to spread the lower strut mount apart. If you do this, make sure you have a fairly thick piece of steel so the bolt will not make dents in it. I used a "gimme" wrench that I got when I bought my stove. You know, those flat steel open ended wrenches. Also, make sure you open it up enough that you can wiggle the strut when you take the shim out. My struts were stuck in there pretty good, so I had to use the 2x4 and dead blow hammer method to push the hub assembly down. It didn't come all the way off, but once you can see the bottom of the strut peeking out, you can undo the three bolts that hold the top of the strut in place and rotate the assembly so the strut can come out.

Adjusting Ride Height:

Seems like it would be pretty straightforward, except I've never done this before and the instructions were a little sketchy. Basically, the front and rear adjust a little differently. The struts on this system are adjustable as well as the spring preload. To adjust the ride height of the front struts, you just lower or raise the strut assembly (spring and all) in the strut bottom. You don't touch the spring preload at all (unless you want to, I guess). The rear strut adjusts the same way, however, since the spring is separate from the strut, you need adjust the height of the seat also. The instructions are cloudy on this, but I think they were trying to say that you need to keep the ratio between the strut and spring the same. At this point I did a little math and tried to figure out the ratio from the strut and spring seat out of the box. After some trial and error, I think the best way to do this is figure out how much lowering you want via the spring seat and install the spring and replace the bolt that holds the spring carrier to the hub assembly. Now adjust the strut's length so that you compress the spring only a little to get the strut up into position.

I got about 2" down in the front and 1.5" in the back. On the front strut, the strut lower is 3" down from the top of the strut (where the rod goes into the strut). In the back, the spring perch is 2" up from he bottom and the strut is showing about 6" of thread.

car.jpg
 
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Price tag on those kinda scare me. Let me know how they are after a little bit. I'm intrigued.
 
I'm trying to achieve stock height in the rear until I get the fenders rolled. I was gonna set the spring as high as It goes but I don't know how high to set the shocks to not blow them. The same thing goes when I go to lower the springs. How low or what length should I leave the shocks to not blow them? I don't wanna eyeball it. Also did you put the spring in first then the shock or vice versa? Sorry so many questions. Thx
 
I'm not sure how they are set up out of the box, but I would try that first, reassemble and see how it sits. If you are using stock rims/tire size, you might not have a problem with rubbing as the suspension will sit with more negative camber as you go lower. I'm running wider wheels and 235 section tires. I was rubbing before and after the drop so I rolled my fenders.

As far as blowing the shock, this system is set up so that if you leave the preload adjustment alone, you should have plenty of travel in the shock itself. The only thing I adjusted was the shock lower to achieve the drop.

I rewrote the instructions for Yellow not long after I installed my set. Not sure if they were including that now. If you like, PM me your email and I can forward that to you.
 
Hitting up an old thread, but I just installed the Yellow DPS coils on my 09 speed3.

Some thoughts/advice:
As Rotus mentioned, the instructions for the rear were a little iffy, and asked you do some simple math to make sure the strut stroke was appropriate. but unless you do something stupid with the settings, you shouldn't need to worry about it. it was basically trial and error for me. the instructions tell you to set the height FIRST with the hi-low kit (spring seat), but i just found it to compress the spring more/less once installed; and it seemed that the strut length did more of the height adjusting.

the end link brackets - everything seemed to fit fine, but once i test drove, the bracket was hitting my wheel (stock). i hammered it out of the way.
 
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