Discussion
Ok bit of a curve ball this.... I would like to raise yes raise the ride hight on my s1 for practical resons, the lane at work is horrendous and will often scrape the exhaust also I would like to limit my squat so....... will fitting slightly longer and stiffer springs help or am I forgetting something? I already have a set of referbed front avos not yet fitted and the springs on there already look longer than standard. have already pondered how this may affect handeling but figured I dont drive that fast anyway.......usually.
Hello Mikel,
Both longer springs of the same rate or stiffer springs of the same length would result in raised ride height if fitted to otherwise unadjusted dampers. However, if your dampers have adjustable height bottom spring seats, you should be able to raise the ride height simply by raising the spring seats without needing to change the springs. If you have dampers with fixed spring seats I would suggest you throw them away because you'll never get the ride height correct and balanced without this adjustment unless you are very lucky.
How low is your car currently? May we see a side-on picture?
Graham
Both longer springs of the same rate or stiffer springs of the same length would result in raised ride height if fitted to otherwise unadjusted dampers. However, if your dampers have adjustable height bottom spring seats, you should be able to raise the ride height simply by raising the spring seats without needing to change the springs. If you have dampers with fixed spring seats I would suggest you throw them away because you'll never get the ride height correct and balanced without this adjustment unless you are very lucky.
How low is your car currently? May we see a side-on picture?
Graham
Ragtop said:
If you have dampers with fixed spring seats I would suggest you throw them away because you'll never get the ride height correct and balanced without this adjustment unless you are very lucky.
I don't know why you say that. If the springs are the right length for the dampers, the ride height will be correct. The original dampers wouldn't be adjustable because they're fixed at the right length. It's only with the aftermarket dampers where the damper length is not set for a specific car model that you need spring seat adjusters.How much ground clearance were you hoping to gain?
GreenV8S said:
If the springs are the right length for the dampers, the ride height will be correct. The original dampers wouldn't be adjustable because they're fixed at the right length.
In theory, yes. If the springs are the right length and rate for the dampers, and the chassis and suspension geometry is spot on, the ride height may then be 'correct', although not necessarily what you want. But with TVRs being TVRs, and from personal experience with two Ss, with the front dampers initially of equal length and the rears also of equal length (but not necessarily the same as the fronts) you are likely to end up with (a) a lopsided car, and (b) one diagonally opposite pair of wheels carrying more weight than the other, unless you're lucky.Ragtop said:
In theory, yes. If the springs are the right length and rate for the dampers, and the chassis and suspension geometry is spot on, the ride height may then be 'correct', although not necessarily what you want. But with TVRs being TVRs, and from personal experience with two Ss, with the front dampers initially of equal length and the rears also of equal length (but not necessarily the same as the fronts) you are likely to end up with (a) a lopsided car, and (b) one diagonally opposite pair of wheels carrying more weight than the other, unless you're lucky.
Yes I was talking about springs that had been specced for the dampers and the car, as the original springs would have been. It's only when you have got aftermarket 'generic' dampers on that you need adjustable spring seats.If your springs are uneven length or rate, you need to replace them. But I think the majority of people 'fixing' ride height problems with the spring seats are actually trying to use the springs to compensate for uneven bodywork clearances, which won't actually help that problem but will mess up the corner weights. If you have a production TVR with unequal spring seat positions side to side, either you have a mechanical fault or you have got the corner weights wrong.
GreenV8S said:
I think the majority of people 'fixing' ride height problems with the spring seats are actually trying to use the springs to compensate for uneven bodywork clearances, which won't actually help that problem but will mess up the corner weights.
Peter, that may be true but I think Mikel is trying to fix ground clearance problems, not uneven bodywork clearances. Mikel, as I said earlier, with adjustable spring seats it's a simple matter of raising the spring seat base to raise the ride height. If you have fixed spring seat bases on your dampers and you want to keep the dampers, by all means fit longer springs, but bear in mind that you need to do a bit of measurement and trigonometry to work out the relationship between spring length and wheel/chassis height. Every time you get it wrong it's a new pair of springs needed...
If you fail to duplicate the spring rate of the springs you're replacing, your calculations based on free length of the original springs will be wrong and a new pair of springs will be needed...
If you get some height-adjustable dampers, everything gets a little easier...
GreenV8S said:
If you have a production TVR with unequal spring seat positions side to side, either you have a mechanical fault or you have got the corner weights wrong.
Peter, I see where you're coming from, but I don't share your confidence in the original build tolerances. Have fun!
Graham
Ragtop said:
Peter, I see where you're coming from, but I don't share your confidence in the original build tolerances.
Have fun!
Graham
Evidently you've seen worse chassis than I have.Have fun!
Graham
If you have springs and dampers in good working order and just want to raise the ride height half an inch without splashing out on new suspension, you can either fit a spring seat spacer or coil clamps. I'm not recommending either approach, but they're both available. You haven't said how much ground clearance you're hoping to gain though, or whereabouts on the car you need to gain it. Typically in my experience the front of the exhaust is more likely to suffer from ground clearance problems, although of course you can always provoke problems at the back if you boot the throttle at the wrong time.
i had 205/55/15's when i bought the car last summer, was a nightmare on bumps and grounded on my not steep drive, change of springs/shocks to gaz gold helped, & i changed tyre to 205/65's which gave another inch of ride height, seems to handle fine so far but im not pushing it too hard, exhaust has gone from 3" to 5" off deck
bobbybo said:
exhaust has gone from 3" to 5" off deck
That's quite a big change in ride height. 
If it's grounding at the front you may find it helps to replace the standard U bolt clamp with a Mikalor Supra T bolt clamp, this has almost no thickness to it which saves you half an inch or so ground clearance.
i have also found this to be an issue - but have pushed the exhaust up to within 3mm of the chassis all the way and fitted supra clips to the front pipes.
I wonder whether you could design exhaust pipes that are oval at the exposed areas where you cant get them higher???? or even fit sacrificial 3mm strips of stainless to take the pressure off?
I wonder whether you could design exhaust pipes that are oval at the exposed areas where you cant get them higher???? or even fit sacrificial 3mm strips of stainless to take the pressure off?
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