First drive with powertrix coilover
 

So I got the coilovers on and set up. Did a longer drive today and I'm not so sure they are for me. It's as I feared I think the rates are just too high for me, especially the rear. Going over some humps in freeway you can get airborne off your seat once the rear goes over, similar to what happens in a heavy duty truck with the bed unloaded. Over small ripple bumps and bots dots they feel good and maybe even less jarring than oem but I'm not sure I can take the trade off. Nothing against the built quality or anything there, all that looks nice quality.

So a nice product but maybe not the right product for me. I have a track event dec5 so I'll probably keep them until after that unless I get an offer before then and can switch it out in time and then I think I'll consider what I was thinking before and try the rs-r.

1. I'd drive them for a bit to let the suspension settle before making a final decision.
2. Have you adjusted any of the dampening settings?

Put some seat time on them before making a big decision. Back off of the shocks some.

wat spring rates does da kit come with? and the damping is adjustable?

Which set of their coilers did you pick up? Also am wondering about which spring rates you chose/if you've played with the dampening settings yet

been sayin this from the start

you need a different car

getting air on the freeway, seriously?

Springs are the 12/11 swifts that are speced. Dampers are at full soft.

Option thanks for your opinion but it's not needed. You seem to enjoy driving a super firm car on the street, I don't.

I was after a setup that can match oem for daily driving and then be firmed up for track use. This for me doesn't fit. Why would I need a different vehicle if overall happy with the oem? Yes air of the seat not the car getting air but again adding comprehension sucks. I'll try slowing the rear rebound as it seems it is bucking but also with every other manufacture running in the 8-9k rears this might be why.

Now the shocks are obviously better than oem as they are smoother over bots dots and ripples, so it's just the wrong setup for me which is why I think the rs-r might fit my needs more, same oem rates but better monotube dampers and adjustable.

Hopefully u like them at the track, but if not and you end up selling them let me know.


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How much did you lower the car?

I would call Charles up and talk with him. He can get it the way you want it. Everybody has a different opinion on what is good. He can fix you up. That is the advantage of having coilovers.

Assuming installation was all correct, I second what Spooler said on giving it some more seat time first. Going from stock rate and rubber top mount to your current rate and pillow ball mount is going to be a jump in sensation.

Not discounting your feeling, just think it's a good idea to let it sink in a little further before changing again.

Currently at .5 lower but the height shouldn't really effect ride feel with this setup as you aren't changing preload.

Yea Charles is a cool guy which is why I decided to try these even knowing the rates seemed higher than I wanted. Again not a bad product at all and the dampers feel very good just some harshness over freeway splits etc. I do think the rebound is a bit fast so that doesn't help with the bucking so I'll have to play with that. Oddly they did appear to be a little smoother on the way home even though there really should be a break in but maybe it's settling a little.

I'll give them a week and then decide. What price do you think would be fair (above poster). Oh and I went with the SS line and they are quiet with the rubber vs solid mounts so that is a plus (for me) they definitely are quiet. If the offer is right I may just go for the rsr as that probably fits my needs better.

I'm going to get my Powertrix installed by Charles next weekend so I'll give my input on them as well, although Ive heard nothing but great things about them and I'm looking forward to going airborne off my seat lol. I do like a stiff and firm ride tho but hopefully these aren't super crazy.

Coilover set up doesnt happen overnight. Takes a multiple runs with multiple dialing of your prefered dumping set up. Plus including adjusting the height. Been using my coilovers for about 4k now and Im still experimenting on different set up On different driving conditions.
Get a pen and notebook log in your different set up until you find whats best for you.

Ive learned coilovers are not a typical plug and play. You need to learn it to fit with your driving behavior.

Over all I find the coilovers are much better ride feel than OEM but if your considering to change to RS-R it wont be any different if you dont have the patience to learn it.

Just sell your powertrix coilovers. Coilovers might not be for you.
If you do intend to sell I might be of interest as I heard good things about this coilovers.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind having a 2nd set laying around. I already have the swift springs to go on them. 12k/11k

Adjustable coil-overs take time to set-up to your liking. With what you said about getting air time. Sounds like you need to stiffen the rebound. Put all your settings in the middle of adjustable and start from there. Another thing. You street settings should be/ will be different from your track settings.

Does having the shocks on stiffer settings tame the going airborne on freeway dips?

Would it be fair to say that the reason OP is flying off the seat like he's riding on a heavy duty truck wth the bed unloaded, is cause he has the shocks on soft?

Believe me I understand suspension tuning doesn't happen overnight, I do off road with 6 way adjustable suspension (air spring rate, air spring progressive curve, low speed compression, high speed compression, low speed rebound and high speed rebound. But all damper adjustments revolve around spring rate first. If the spring rate is wrong there is really only so much you can do (not saying his rate is wrong for everyone it just may be too firm for what I wanted). The rs-r run 8k/8k so essentially stock but a higher performance (better frequency response, faster reaction time and less hysteresis than a low pressure twin tube) adjustable monotube damper which may be all I need. Again I can't stress enough I do not mean to slam his product for how firm the rates are they are smoother than oem over ripple bumps so that is saying something, it just may not be for me is all.

This may very well be the case since the soft/firm is actually referring to rebound damping so yes it may be. So I will try to firm it up a bit and retest before I condemn it. It for me. Downside is the more rebound then the more the suspension packs up of over ripple bumps and then I lose the whole thing I like about them over oem. If I could adjust just the high speed rebound and not the low speed then I could leave the low speed faster for the stutters and firm the high speed for the g out returns.

Like I said, call Charles and have a conversation with him about it. You have coilovers, you can change the springs with no shock adjustment if the shocks can handle it. He can help you set them up to your liking.

I did before I ordered and unfortunately he only has one rate for the swift in the rear which is 11k. Since they are custom made I am sure they are costly which is probably why he had to choose one rate to try to appease most users.

You could have the compression set too stiff and the shock will not move fast enough. Or the rebound too soft and the shock springs back too quickly. Since the OP has everything set full soft. It's the later. And if he never has played around with adjustable shocks before. He might be pulling his hair out until he learns the in's and out's about them.

Assuming your install and damper settings are correct, what you are feeling is normal especially when you mention freeway splits where you have poor grade points and grade separation. If you voted for a bullet train for CA instead of fixing out freeways, that's your fault. Kidding aside, do you have anything on how your car steers? No mention of over/understeer to help us out.

Lol **** ca is never going to fix its roads we all know that. To above poster there is no compression adjust in the powertrix it is only rebound. In a sense that is a good thing as that means they actually spent the money for a one way piston bolt to eliminate cross talk. But yes I think the rebound may be a bit too fast I'll have to test it a bit over the week, just giving my honest initial impressions before I try to conivince myself it's what I want (as a lot of people do after spending lot of money on something). Smooth roads and OMG awesome setup but as I stressed from day one this car is daily driven and 99.5% street and I'm not in a race league so not competing just want a touch better than oem, if oem is level 5 then I'm ok with level 7, not trying to hit 11. As this setup has proven there is definey improvement to be had by just the shocks, however most if not all the aftermarket shocks tend to have a very steep digressive setup with a bias to a jacking down rebound which is horrible for rough road (oem is jacking down bias). Was hoping to get something that can be a touch jacking up or neutral for street and then a jacking down bias for track/smooth.

I'll let you guys know how I feel after a bit but initial impressions are it's a solid product but just not right for my purpose.

Oh as for oversteer/understeer I really can't say as I didn't push it on the uneven surfaces which is another thing, stiffer is not always better, hit a bump with hard suspension and it upsets the car and loses mechanical grip, after a few dips and getting ejected I didn't feel very confident in pushing the car in a turn. That said the few sweeper I did try it felt very good and like a flatter oem, which makes sense as oem f/r rates are very close to each other and so are the powertrix so I give them points there for following oem balance and not gaining a bunch of understeer.

Yes, firm up the shocks a bit and let us know if that improves the ride quality.. I know that forum member Axmea dialed in a 5 front and 4 rear setting when he installed his so hopefully he can chime in as well.

I don't have PT but just changed out my springs from 11k front and 8k rear to 13k and 10k. I love the stiffer set up. If you want we can work something out on my 8k springs if they will fit. The size can be depicted by the color of the springs. Mine are blue.http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...e027e8383b.jpg

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Hmm interesting, fortune uses a standard coil on rear so more options, I would need their spring seats though. In theory is should work though since PT standard non swift rates are 12/10 and theory states can go up or down 2k so I guess I could go all the way to 10/8 provided the rears fit.

I was informed that Swift springs tend to be less stiff than other springs at the same spring rate.

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Ok set rebounds at 11 clicks out front and rear and major improvement in the bucking. May set rear one slower than fronts since they seem to be the one bucking (less weight on them). Still a bit firmer feel than I desired but at least the ride is staying flat. Need to tweak my ride heights as they are a bit off and a bit lower than I had desired. I'll keep posted but just the same short trip with the same dip that was horrible yesterday is 100% better now (not sure who would drive these in full soft, scary ejection seat lol).

Glad to hear it. I am looking forward to tuning mine. I am going to try and install mine over Thanksgiving holiday. I will doing Black Friday under the car I hope. :)

Spoke to Charles and he will look into getting some 10/8 swift setup, I'll have to see if fortune will sell me just the spring seats, I can't use the blue swifts up front as they are a smaller diameter, so I'll need orange 10k up front and blue 8k rear maybe even 11k F 8k R. Also did some more adjustment on the rear as I think there was some confusion on proper shock length vs spring collar adjustment, doing it the way Charles described left the springs loose at extension so I just adjusted the shocks to have the springs just barely engaged. I think this still had too little spring preload and it appears I was hitting the bump stops quiet a bit, so after talking to charles he wasnt really certain as they usually install the spring and then the shock (also they usually set them up much lower) but he also think the shock may have been too long (so not enough shock stoke at ride height), so now I have shortened the shock as short as I can by hand (so as much preload as possible with just hand tension on the body) and made both side =.

No I'll test for the week and see what I think.

Fixed it. :rofl2:

NAh, I have a good wife. I will probably have to enlist her help since I am a one armed bandit.

So took freeway 87 home today (bumpy *** freeway) and surprisingly I think I am really starting to like these coilovers. Not sure if they had to settle or if after re adjusting the rear shocks heights/spring preloads made all the difference but pretty damn nice. A little bouncy over some stuff so I will slow the rebounds another two clicks but it's starting to grow on me. Good news is I'm not full soft so worst case I drop to a 10/9 setup and I'll still have enough rebound to take out so the softer spring doesn't pack up, so either way the shocks will work for me.

lmao, sorry brother but i cant stop laughing at that

Lol, but if you haven't driven the freeways in the LA metropolitan area you can only imagine. It really is not hard to get airborne on some of those highways!

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Good that things are getting close to your liking. Charles' help will get you there. I was quite happy on the onset with my 12kg/11kg set up. Going on 3 years now and no issues. It's a personal decision and very pleased with Powetrix w/Swifts after having experienced OEM, H&R's, and Powertrix's factory springs.

We all agree that some CA freeways are a bitch. I vote the entire 405.

Lol yea but at leas so cal freeways were built on solid ground. While 87 is better than it used to be it's still built on marshland (following Guadalupe river) so pretty much not an even stretch the whole way. Now I have the setup at one click towards fast from middle for the front (so 8 clicks out) and rear one click in from half (7 clicks out). Now it finally feels much flatter and more compelled over humps etc while still not packing up over ripples. Now I just need to test full slow to hopefully make sure it can be slowed down enough for smooth track course. I know Charles said he uses them at full soft so that's where I started at but man that seems unreal to me. Usually I always start at middles and tune from there, with the exception of a couple suspension companies that for some strange reason start their usable compression damping at full open so then you start full open compression and middle on rebound (fox).

So I forget who's installing theirs next week but I say start at middles and save yourself the ejection seat lol.

Good news is with the wide range of rebound, not sure about full slow yet but there is absolutely enough range to drop a couple rates if needed which I may actually do and still keep these 12/11 as they are not so bad after all but might do like a winter/summer setup with softer in winter when road are shittier and more slippery requiring more mechanical grip and I won't be tracking in winter anyway so don't need as much rate.

Planning to go with swifts upgraded on these coils. would u guys recommend 12k or 13k fronts? rears are set to 11k.

First drive with powertrix coilover
 

I've only had mine on for a few weeks, I have the 13k and don't think they're too harsh on the street, I'd go with those


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