BC Coilovers

Hey all

Just wanting to know how many days does it take for justJap to send Coilovers from their warehouse in Sydney?

Cheers

3 business or so..

Cheers mickB

I bought a set on Tuesday morning, and received it on Wednesday.
Very quick!

(From Just Jap to Melbourne)

Cheers :)

Which is better to ge? The VA or VT?

pillow ball ftw

Okay Joel thanks :) will be ordering them this week hopefully

yeah recommend VA pillow ball

although the pillow ball will need occasional cleaning & oiling to rotate freely, else they'll bind while ur turning and the spring will then annoyingly stutter/shift along its seat and possibly loosen the upper or lower lock rings

see the bottom of post #917 on my blog
http://www.micra.org.uk/threads/35251-PollyMobiles-Rebuild/page19

thanks for the tips poly, reminds me to do the same.

;)

Thanks asdame

well i went to go purchase those VAs coilovers and they are out of stock, should i wait or buy the VTs?

They were 'out of stock' when I ordered a set, took them a few days to get them in, then sent on to me.
Have you enquired on lead time for them?

Nah not yet, that's why I asked first?

100% worth waiting for the pillow balls!

other wise you may as well just lower the car with cut springs.

if the wait is too long, contact this mate of mine, Matt.

https://www.facebook.com/AngryIndustries

he sells the Emotion coilovers, very similar price, maybe cheaper i cant remember.

Import time is less than a week from memory.

He has the part number for the K11, as i'm ordering a set through him this month.

I have the Daewoo matiz set up going but the only problem is that in running like -3 degrees camber, that's why I asked about should I wait

Well I rang JustJap they said they have none in stock but they can get more in will take 5-7 working days from their supplier then 3-5 posted to me :) I brought a set haha

Yeah mine took awhile to make & post but worth it

When fitted, its essential to corner balance em to get their full potential, thats what they're meant for

has anyone got any feedback regarding these in a micra? not looking to purchase any.just curious as have a set that came in my 180sx and personally think they are ubber gay. settings are either hard as fuck, or omg thats really fucking hard. shocks lock up, noisy, squeeky. the actual visual quality doesn't look to bad.

^i'm quite busy at the mo but i'll write about em for ya soon

They are good for what you pay for them.. (which is f all really as far as coilovers go) I have a set currently, only driven 10kms or so to set them up. Yep them seem hard! On brand new roads at speed they are good, but don't cope well with anything else. I haven't taken the springs out of them to test the damper return but with different springs I think (or hope) they will be better.. I will let you know how they go with swifts.

sweet bro. lemme know. was gonna order some swifts for the 180, just didn't know whether the damper would cope well

I got them Friday installed the fronts today CBF doing rears at the moment, set my front dampers to about 15clicks, and about 2inchs left to completely lowered

MickB - What spring rates on your BC'S?

i know that i can order different spring rates for the emotion coilovers. would like to suss it out before i order.
4kg is the softest i can get. so thinking 5kg on the front and 4kg on the rears.

i've got 10/8kg swifts in my micra and they feel too soft :S kinda hard to say what spring rates will be good with which shock as the valving etc would be different to another brand. spring rates in my 180 are 12/10 and thats hard as all hell even on the softest shock setting.

Once I put the rears in I'll tell you how it feels, I had the Daewoo matiz set up in the front and now with BCs it feels more stiff but softer

hi sorry bout the delay, was busy welding up my turbo IC piping and was upto my neck with work.

anyway check my blog page 12 for full details of when i first fitted the BC coilover and page 32 for when i corner balanced it

http://www.micra.org.uk/threads/pollymobiles-rebuild.35251/page-12

first off i say its a superb quality piece of kit when its properly setup.
corner balancing it up is soo important after fitting it.

note that the lower the ride height, the less damper stroke you have available before hitting the bumpstops (or the wheel strikes the arch, whichever's more uncomfortable n damaging), in which to prevent, requires a higher spring rate and thus generally harsher response over street bumps as more bump force is transferred to the body, apart from very hard damper bump settings.

i first took out the springs and adjust the lower collar of the front strut and adjust the rear damper body height (keep settings equal left/right) till it only hits the bumpstop when the tyre is just about the touch the arch, thats what its for.

refit the springs and adjust the fronts upper preload collar & rear spring collar equally left/right till its generally at ur ideal height.
i set mine at -50mm cos any lower and i can't get my trolley jack under the rear wishbone mount, i'll risk hitting the speedbumps and i risk hitting the bumpstops or exhaust more often.

cos my front left was abit lighter thus higher, i weighed that corner down with ballast so the ride height, spring preload, and weight distribution are equally the same.

previously i had a Bilstein streetline kit which uses 35mm lowering apex progressive springs.
compared to stock, it reduced the boat-like bodyroll & pitching handling and over speedbumps the progressive coils provide a soft cusion but when cornering over rough tarmac i sense the rear dampers caused the back end to destabilise n move about abit.

on the track the bilstein was good but felt the springs n dampers were too soft as the back end perks up high under braking then the body rolls as it turns.

then i fitted the BC coilovers. initially the dampers are set near hard from factory so it was quite a shock when i was going down my street and boucing about. trying it at full hard was hilarious cos i never knew the street roads were this oscillating lol but gets annoying after awhile.

so then i turned it full soft and wow its soo smooth n well behaved. tis almost as soft as the old bilsteins but when i corner over the same bumpy road it feels soo much grippier n stabler which improves confidence.

the BC V1 comes with 4/3kg F/R springs. on track with full hard setting overall it feels so planted n consistant. i thought the fronts were abit soft so i upgraded to 6kg fronts to help the bodyroll under trail braking.

my back end is lighter cos of the removed spare tyre so take note the rear spring/damper might be abit harsh for rear passengers when driving over the rough London bumps.

I later found that the rear stock bumpstop/cover i was using was actually thicker than the short ones that came with the BC. so after fitting the correct ones in, the rear damper had alot more available travel rather than bouncing on the stock bumpstops, thus a less harsh back end.

if you have abs, the front struts don't have the sensor cable support bracket so mines ziptied on.

the pillowball top mount will need occasional cleaning oiling as mentioned before to prevent it binding when going full lock.

finally with such expensive kit exposed to the rough elements from the wheels I'd advise making some covers for the front/rear coilovers like mine to protect ur investment.

expenisive kit? these are almost the cheapest coilovers on the market here ;s. i agree that for track a harder spring is required, but the bc's don't seem to handle the 12/10kg springs they came with for my car. as for corner balancing it, i saw no difference in mine after i had it done. again i'm talking about experience from the bc's on a 180sx, so the lighter chasis of the micra with bc's might be better.

I have a complete BC set up I my micra now feels a lot smoother to drive, over my previous set up, but I had to run camber bolt due to hectic rubbing my guards till I get a wheel alignment and a adjustable panhard rod

how much camber can you get out of the pillow tops?
ive heard only 1.5 deg or so.
then get some more with the camber bolts or the frank spec drill mod?

I wouldnt be game drill out the holes on these, cambers bolts would be the best +2.5 to -2.5 then use your tops

Mine are maxed out and giving -1.25 deg either side.

Well relative to other fully threaded adjustable coilovers, yeah its one of the lowest cost but £700 is still a shock to the wallet :p

Before balancing i once took it to a slalom and was abit inconsistant as it was firm on left turns yet too soft on right turns as the front left digs and rear right pops up.

After balancing the weight distribution with equal left right settings till the scales under the wheels are almost equal, she feels much more consistant left to right especially on track.

Different car configs would behave differently to each other so the bc may work for some if its setup to suit the condition

My 195/50/15 used to rub the plastic inner guard so i've long gone thrown em away, dont need em :)

After lowering by 50mm i can't use anymore than 1deg cos the tyre will rub the chassis rail at full lock when i'm parking.

I'm running 195-60r14s and I have a lot of toe on the wheels do that's why they rub, my plastic inner guards are long gone before the car hit the road haha

thats a big tyre RTK !
what settings are you running on the dampers btw ?

I am wanting to run 185-50r14 and I'm running it on about 15 which I feel it nice and pleasure without going over the top

ta, #1 being hard ? and (25 ?) being soft ?

Yeah something like that, I turned completely left and counted how many clicks it took then went half :)

mines on full soft for the brilliant british roads :p then whack it full hard for the smooth tracks

OK, just went for a brief spin with replacement springs in the front suspension (Swift 9kg linear, 4mm pre-load), surprisingly quite good over rough parts of the road, although slight loss of traction on mid-corner bumps (hopefully a wheel alignment/better tyres, will fix this)

The springs that were in it were 4kgs. I would go as far as saying I could daily it with these 9kg springs, but I will more time on the road to know. I have the damper adjusters set on 10 clicks from hard.

Rears, I am waiting on some adapters so I can fit different springs in...

If anyone is looking at getting a/m springs for their bc's, the springs that are in it are ID 60 (60mm internal dia) and approx 225mm in length.




They were 4 front, 3 rear, although I did order them with 8/6 (not sure whether they actually take heed of what you as for)
Keep in mind all manufacturers are essentially different, ie BC's 4 is not the same as Swifts 4 etc.

don't be a girl man, you said your bcrews were hard as a rock. they felt like stock suspension to me. harden up and put some 15kg's in there lol. imo, around 9front 7rear on the swifts is good for a daily, but too soft for the track.

haha. What I was trying to say was, I would easily daily it, is it bearable for passengers (missus etc) that don't love hard suspension.. maybe, time will tell.
But realistically it will never be a daily anyway, so who cares :)

It was the dampers (or lack of dampening) on the bcrews I didn't like.

I see a lot of Japanese K11's running around on 6kg front springs and 4kg rears, however I have seen one car running as much as 10kg fronts and 8kg rears. Whatever, they always seem to stick with a 2kg split between front and rear.

The 10kg/8kg setup sounds like you'd be keeping your dentist well paid if you used it on the road but if it's a track machine then it's probably warranted with seam welding, full weld in cage, slicks etc etc.

I will more than likely opt for the MeisterR units, as I don't like any of the cheaper coilovers without an adjustable spring perch for ride height tweaks, but they will have to come with some stiffer springs than the 4kg/3kg road spring combo they are supplied with. I think I will start with a 6kg/4kg combo and see how it goes, seeing as it's not a road car ;)

One thing I will make sure of is the front suspension is properly setup, (some good mods in the pipeline there). Many people are opting for coilovers over our way for something called 'lows' and in the process they bugger up the handling nicely :p

yeh, i dunno what the go there was. my set was completely different to yours. even with similar spring rates to what i had in my red car to yours, yours still felt very soft, and kinda panzy lol. like the shock was too soft for the spring. my bcrews go from soft as to rock hard :S need stiffer springs but 12/10 :)

Yeah. ordered a few sets of swifts, we'll see when they get here.
With different springs I think the BC's are good..

With the adjustments I have made with height and dampening, I reckon the are a good set of coilovers