Caflashbob

Seems a dumb question but I had a local shop install the MeisterR’s today.

They mounted them the way they came out of the box.

Car is really low. Not align able.

so all I need to have them do is to loosen the interlocking collars on the shock body and crank up the top ring till the stock height is attained then use the lower ring to lock the adjustment?

shock was 2” shorter than the oem overall according to them.

Seems easy. Is it?

Caflashbob

Ok talked to Jerrick. Nice of him to answer personally. Turns out you unlock the bottom locking ring then turn out of the lower mounting bracket enough threads on the body to expose 100mm of threads from the bottom preload adjuster locking ring to the top of the ride height adjuster itself.

anyone tried any other settings? How far off will my alignment be at that amount of shock thread exposure.

Caflashbob

Follow up:

picked the car car this morning. Short drive. One steep driveway.

All I can say is wow. No bottoming hitting steep driveway at speed. Stock would bottom and scrape the bumper underside.

No sharp feedback from square edges on road. Much plusher.

much less body roll noticed from the shorter springs.

The sway bars, shock tower bracing. Coil-overs and the 45 series tires fixed 90% of the handling issues.

Money well spent. Especially as this IS a keeper/collector car.

may back off the clickers just to see as I live in so cal with hard riding freeways.

wrote Jerrick at MeisterR and thanked him for his support. He answered his phone at 7pm Texas time on the 24th.

Harold57

Thanks for the reviews. I may have to do this some day. Glad that it worked out for you. (Sorry, but I'm not any help on any of your questions, as I have no experience with this.)

st3rnly

Thanks for the update! Glad to hear your car is properly set up now.

I ordered my coilovers 2 weeks ago, but unfortunately got an email from Jerrick a week later that he is now fully out of stock and won't have new supply for another 6-8 weeks. So in the meantime, I plan to pull my wheels and inspect all suspension components to make sure there's nothing else I need to order before the coilovers arrive.

Did you end up going with the recommended 100mm? If so, do you know how much it dropped your ride height from stock? He recommended the same setting to me as well, but was unable to give me a measured height change. Reason I ask is I plan to install upgraded swaybars at the same time, and from what I've read, I will need to change out the rear end links to the shorter ISF ones if lowering an inch or more.

Post some pictures of your new ride height, I'm curious to see how it looks!

Caflashbob

As far as I know the shop I used went to the recommended 100mm thread setting.

the tires exactly fill the wheel well all the way around. But I have 45 series tires.

the car is firm but not stiff. Totally changed the cars “feel” like a slightly stiffer BMW. Much more progressive.

i think based on the bottoming resistance that I maybe able to soften the cars settings quite a bit from his recommended 15 out front and 20 out rear.

I had the shop cut 2 small rectangular slots in the interior trunk panel for adjuster access.

I read a thread somewhere where an owner had 3D printed a cover for a small rectangular shaped rear adjuster cover to finish his installations looks.

many of the MeisterR coilovers reviews mentioned that they now were using their former track car as a daily driver after the install.

car feels like a medium weigh track capable car now. Flickable other than lagging throttle response and no variable ratio power steering. I have a throttle box uninstalled as of yet to quicken the response.

Can’t fix the steering unless a ls460l’s geared variable ratio steering box could be fit up.

snappier throttle is doable for sure at the cost of some mpg I assume.

Car is so electronic I think the steering box swap might be a can of worms.

oh well need to locate the throttle reset thread here to blank it’s current memory just to see if I can get it to relearn itself to me better.

But then again up to this point I just cruise with the car.

At least I used to.

Was not a cut and thrust flickable car before but it seems like it is more capable of that style now.

will see if I can take a photo and post.

Car has isf sway bar in rear and super pro front bar.

rear uses the stock links.

Jerrick mentioned 25mm drop in height.

He mentioned if i go higher than that I might run into topping out of the suspension bumpers.

Hitting the steep short driveway at normal speeds and not bottoming out and scraping the lower front valence was worth the time and money.

Have to take the car on a real drive but the preliminary feel was zero body roll.

you maybe happy with the coilovers by themselves?

st3rnly

I'm curious to see what your car looks like now. I just installed wheel spacers and my tire is now flush with the wheel well, so hopefully I don't run into any issues if it lowers that much. I guess I will just start with 100mm and see what it looks like from there.

If 100mm preload translates to a 25mm (1 inch) drop, I think you may benefit from running the shorter ISF endlinks.

Everyone says these coilovers transform the car, so I'm excited to get mine in once they arrive. Especially since my stock struts have 130k miles on them, I should feel a huge difference.

If you're looking for more responsiveness, you should consider getting your ECU remapped. I'm currently in the process of doing mine.

Seattle SCone

Good going! I totally agree that the SC430 drives very well once you have the suspension configured to your liking. Mine was totally transformed with similar changes as yours.
So much more fun when you can more assuredly pull hard laterally!

Caflashbob

Backed off the adjusters to full soft. Lost some of the razor sharp turning and lack of nose dive on heavy braking. Not a lot just some.

the taunt feeling was lessened. Now it has eliminated the too much high speed compression dampening that the oem mono tube shocks had. Plus still is progressive on the dampening while not blowing through the travel in sharp dips.

Fixed my oem complaints. Plus the shorter springs hold the car up better than same rate longer oem springs did.

Jerrick at MeisterR truly fixed what was wrong. If I want to play I have 32 clicks of harder when wanted. Like cheating.

still perfectly driveable with 17 more clicks in front and 12 more in the rear.

Funny enough either setting does not feel the rocks and sharp edge bumps like the oem did. Gone.

driving my 08 ls 460 and our 07 Solara convertible today they both have the same exact settings in the suspension where they both have too much high speed compression dampening and are not progressive enough in dampening and blow through their travel in sharp driveways and bottom.

now I notice it. Same everything else and the better dampening design is really notorable. Digressive dampening? Both Meister and BC mention it.

Before I put 19”s and fsport sway bars I intend to put coilovers on that car.

and I had bought a full set of kyb shocks for it already.

Oh well no plan survives the first contact with the enemy.

all a learning experience

Caflashbob

120 mile mixed road drive today.

Very different experience vs stock.

stock: car leaned a lot on turns, deflected sharply on small bumps and blew the travel in dips with bottoming in every deep bump and driveway. Barge with too much high speed compression dampening and not enough low speed and zero bottoming resistance.

Redone: 25mm drop. super pro front sway bar. Isf rear bar. Shock tower brace. MeisterR coil-overs set full soft.

In driveways at medium speeds you cannot bottom the suspension anymore. Little defection on small square edges(asphalt or freeway blocks in so cal) firm but not hard.

Very progressive, definitely race ready. The faster I went the better it was.

Will try another similar drive with the fronts turned in 17 clicks and the rears 12 in from full soft.

car carves turns now. Felt the 45 series in hard corners a little. Tire squirms a little and 36 psi warmed up. 33 cold. Have Tpms on the valve stems.

for aggressive drives maybe 36 cold on the tires and the above settings on the shocks.

wife was along for today’s putt putt drive so railing the corners was not an option.

Hope this helps anyone.

Versus new rims or slammed cars i hope this is of interest to a few.

most owners never noticed the shock and swaybar issues I noticed.

They just drive it.

Not good fast

Caflashbob

Another test. Went back to the recommended first setting which was 15 out on front and 20 out on the rear.

ah a definite increase in the dampening. Not extreme. Slight.

seems most of the improvement is the the same spring rate as stock just much shorter. Shorter is stiffer.

the adjuster is the fine tuning. turned some freeway on and off ramps at speed.

Pushed hard the car still has some body roll.

I am assuming chassis flex at various points.

RichardMor

You have me very interested in doing the same upgrades (Meister, sway bars, stiffeners). Does your wife like the ride now? Mine is gonna want it to ride smooth.

thanks,
Rich

Caflashbob

With the adjusters set as now the car is firm. Backed off to full soft she should be fairly happy. Not a floater. Never was with the oem parts either. Deflected off the little bumps. That’s gone.

just shorter springs

Caflashbob

Tested the suspension today on la freeways. 65 miles from San Juan Capistrano to Griffith park above down town LA. 20 clicks out from hard on the rear and 15 on the front. Firm but not hard.

turned the clickers to full soft for the ride home. Freeways are in medium condition. Not smooth.

ahh. Very nice softer ride. Still spring rate and length firm but soft dampening.

unless I am having an attack day probably will leave them full soft.

Still a firm feeling but less sharp edge input.

quite nice

wife was in the car and did not mention anything either way.

cjinthesky

Hi Bob,
What would be your take on doing the Meisterr upgrade alone without swaybar or other changes?
Thanks
cj