Today I've been frustrated by...
Discussion
Sounds nice. My fiancee is Croatian and I've driven down here and back a few times. I'm in Vodice right now, hope the weather improves for you as it's been sketchy the last week, today is the first day my partner and I have been able to get to the beach...
Can't vouch for all the roads on the coast here, but the highways will be fine, even the non-peage smaller ones. Local roads can be perfectly smooth or some can have some bad surfacing but you shouldn't need to be doing any off-roading unless the roads get very small... Its no Type-R but the Volvo handles it just fine without having to drive like a paranoid tourist...
If it were me I wouldn't worry too much, I don't think your ride height will give you any insurmountable problems out here...
Can't vouch for all the roads on the coast here, but the highways will be fine, even the non-peage smaller ones. Local roads can be perfectly smooth or some can have some bad surfacing but you shouldn't need to be doing any off-roading unless the roads get very small... Its no Type-R but the Volvo handles it just fine without having to drive like a paranoid tourist...
If it were me I wouldn't worry too much, I don't think your ride height will give you any insurmountable problems out here...
the_lone_wolf said:
Sounds nice. My fiancee is Croatian and I've driven down here and back a few times. I'm in Vodice right now, hope the weather improves for you as it's been sketchy the last week, today is the first day my partner and I have been able to get to the beach...
Can't vouch for all the roads on the coast here, but the highways will be fine, even the non-peage smaller ones. Local roads can be perfectly smooth or some can have some bad surfacing but you shouldn't need to be doing any off-roading unless the roads get very small... Its no Type-R but the Volvo handles it just fine without having to drive like a paranoid tourist...
If it were me I wouldn't worry too much, I don't think your ride height will give you any insurmountable problems out here...
Thats good to know at least, fingers crossed the weather improves for us, we arrive on Sunday 23rd June so still a little while left yet, just got to avoid the potholes & Speedhumps when out and about as it grounds out on most of the latter!Can't vouch for all the roads on the coast here, but the highways will be fine, even the non-peage smaller ones. Local roads can be perfectly smooth or some can have some bad surfacing but you shouldn't need to be doing any off-roading unless the roads get very small... Its no Type-R but the Volvo handles it just fine without having to drive like a paranoid tourist...
If it were me I wouldn't worry too much, I don't think your ride height will give you any insurmountable problems out here...
SteellFJ said:
I feel your pain, I just swapped the Type R out for a 320d because I had to limit where we went and how many passengers I had in the car, plus the Koni's were to bouncy (set to half the stiffness they would go to) to have our 4/5 month old boy in it for to long.
I miss it sooooooooooo F'n much. I have vowed to get another EP3 one day, just so much fun to drive compared to the BMW (Ultimate Driving Machine My ARSE!!)
Yeah its a little bit of an issue, rarely have passengers though so i guess that helps. We have sort of done it the opposite way as I came from a BMW 335i, trying to cut some costs to save for a place of my own whilst retaining some fun. I do miss RWD and the point and squirt efforltess go though, hindsight I wish i had a JB4 box on it before it went, would have been great fun I miss it sooooooooooo F'n much. I have vowed to get another EP3 one day, just so much fun to drive compared to the BMW (Ultimate Driving Machine My ARSE!!)
kiethton said:
Riknos said:
1. Unlock the bottom collar first with a C spanner (hopefully you have one) remember - left loosey.
2. Then once unlocked, tighten the top collar up quite a bit. Don't do it up by an inch, thinking you'll get an inch extra height - it doesn't work like that
You have cheap coilovers (They look like Rokkors or one of their other names they go by) so it will increase the height by compressing the spring basically - so will also make the car stiffer! You could probably then go all the way to the top, or near the top, and it will still be lower than OEM but will be much stiffer, and higher than it is now.
3. Make sure you lock the collars together - by 'loosening' the top one, and tightening the bottom one at the same time - ideally you need 2 x C spanners for this.
I imagine the thread is corroded so may need to bath in WD40 or similar for a while before attempting it. It's an easy job, don't bother with a garage, if you can jack a car up and turn a spanner, you can do it yourself.
Thanks for this, i think hearing that it'll make the car stiffer I may just swap out for the other springs I have to replace the coilovers all together to match the front suspension.2. Then once unlocked, tighten the top collar up quite a bit. Don't do it up by an inch, thinking you'll get an inch extra height - it doesn't work like that
You have cheap coilovers (They look like Rokkors or one of their other names they go by) so it will increase the height by compressing the spring basically - so will also make the car stiffer! You could probably then go all the way to the top, or near the top, and it will still be lower than OEM but will be much stiffer, and higher than it is now.
3. Make sure you lock the collars together - by 'loosening' the top one, and tightening the bottom one at the same time - ideally you need 2 x C spanners for this.
I imagine the thread is corroded so may need to bath in WD40 or similar for a while before attempting it. It's an easy job, don't bother with a garage, if you can jack a car up and turn a spanner, you can do it yourself.
Seems to then just be a case of jacking it up (not on the suspension) removing the lower and upper bolt (after soaking with WD40) removing it (whilst chocking the Piston) and installing the replacement units?
imagine you lower the car onto the wheels and the wheel moves 1 inch thereby compressing the spring by an inch which will take lets say 200Kg. Now get a fat bloke to sit in the car the car will go down an extra inch so the load is now at 400Kg and 2 inch of movement
Remove the fat bloke
Now jack it back up and wind the collars up by an inch, you have compressed the spring by an inch. To compress it this inch you must have a load of 200Kg. When you lower it to the ground then the wheel won't move as it already has 200Kg on it. Now reapply the fat bloke and your car sinks by an inch. Suspension movement is 1 inch and load on the spring is 400Kg
This is increasing the preload not the spring rate.
kiethton said:
the_lone_wolf said:
Sounds nice. My fiancee is Croatian and I've driven down here and back a few times. I'm in Vodice right now, hope the weather improves for you as it's been sketchy the last week, today is the first day my partner and I have been able to get to the beach...
Can't vouch for all the roads on the coast here, but the highways will be fine, even the non-peage smaller ones. Local roads can be perfectly smooth or some can have some bad surfacing but you shouldn't need to be doing any off-roading unless the roads get very small... Its no Type-R but the Volvo handles it just fine without having to drive like a paranoid tourist...
If it were me I wouldn't worry too much, I don't think your ride height will give you any insurmountable problems out here...
Thats good to know at least, fingers crossed the weather improves for us, we arrive on Sunday 23rd June so still a little while left yet, just got to avoid the potholes & Speedhumps when out and about as it grounds out on most of the latter!Can't vouch for all the roads on the coast here, but the highways will be fine, even the non-peage smaller ones. Local roads can be perfectly smooth or some can have some bad surfacing but you shouldn't need to be doing any off-roading unless the roads get very small... Its no Type-R but the Volvo handles it just fine without having to drive like a paranoid tourist...
If it were me I wouldn't worry too much, I don't think your ride height will give you any insurmountable problems out here...
By the end of June it'll be HOT - make sure your A/C is working 100% or you'll regret it...
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