Bilstein Coilover fitment issues

[Straight-Sixx]

I have just fitted new Bilstein B14 coilovers to my mk5 R32 Golf. While everything has seemingly gone to plan I have the annoying situation that the passanger side front sits a lot higher than the drivers side. Drivers side sits spot on and car has had time to settle.

Easy fix I thought, just lower the passenger side! I have done this by making it around 15mm lower on the coilover from the drivers side and it has made no difference. That side still sits at that exact height as before?

Is there anything in the assembly I have done possibly that would make the coil not lower the car? Anywhere obvious to look?

I checked that both struts were seated correctly in the hub and took the measurement, both are exactly the same and all the way into the hub. I have new top mounts fitted also.

When driving the car last night I heard on full lock the anti roll bar fouling the driveshaft (I think). Now these are adjustable ones so as the car has gone from being on it’s arse im going to lengthen them when I get home later to OEM minus the drop. Would this push the passenger side up at all compared to drivers side?

Is there something I could have over tightened or not got right? Car drove great (except the full lock) no bangs or knocks etc

Many thanks

Adam

[Straight-Sixx]

I have now altered the drop links and it seems to have made a slight difference on the passenger side front. Looking now at possibly raining the rear right corner slightly as that sits a little lower, hopefully that may bring the front down a little also. Got to say though it rides firm but absolutely lovely. Cannot wait now to get it set up properly, unsure where to get that done.

Rear spacers and set up and should be golden

[E-bmw]

To set them up properly you really need to get it to somewhere that car do it properly by adjusting on the corner weights.

[littleredrooster]

The common reason for this is that someone has tightened the bottom-arm inner pivot bolts with the suspension on full droop - i.e. jacked up with no load on the wheel(s). This leaves the bush with a huge preload making the car sit too high.

Easy fix if you have a pit- with the weight of the car on the wheels, loosen and re-torque the bolts to allow the bushes to regain their proper position..

[E-bmw]

littleredrooster said:

The common reason for this is that someone has tightened the bottom-arm inner pivot bolts with the suspension on full droop - i.e. jacked up with no load on the wheel(s). This leaves the bush with a huge preload making the car sit too high.

Easy fix if you have a pit- with the weight of the car on the wheels, loosen and re-torque the bolts to allow the bushes to regain their proper position..

Good point also, that can certainly make some difference, however unlikely to be the only issue as the weight of the car would generally take up most of any residual torque from incorrectly torqued bushes.

[Hawkshaw]

Straight-Sixx said:

I have now altered the drop links and it seems to have made a slight difference on the passenger side front. Looking now at possibly raining the rear right corner slightly as that sits a little lower, hopefully that may bring the front down a little also. Got to say though it rides firm but absolutely lovely. Cannot wait now to get it set up properly, unsure where to get that done.

Rear spacers and set up and should be golden

Just an observation - if the car was sitting level before changing the front end, then the rear is probably perfectly OK. Your problem is at the front, and you should not adjust the rear to try and correct it. Check that the front springs are a matched pair?

[E-bmw]

Hawkshaw said:

Straight-Sixx said:

I have now altered the drop links and it seems to have made a slight difference on the passenger side front. Looking now at possibly raining the rear right corner slightly as that sits a little lower, hopefully that may bring the front down a little also. Got to say though it rides firm but absolutely lovely. Cannot wait now to get it set up properly, unsure where to get that done.

Rear spacers and set up and should be golden

Just an observation - if the car was sitting level before changing the front end, then the rear is probably perfectly OK. Your problem is at the front, and you should not adjust the rear to try and correct it. Check that the front springs are a matched pair?

I fundamentally disagree that anyone can actually say that without checking corner weights in the car.

Whilst an over-sprung corner can lift that corner, so can an under-sprung opposite corner, and the only way to get it right is to set it up by corner-weighting.

Not doing so CAN exhibit all-sorts of weird & (NOT) wonderful handling traits.

[Straight-Sixx]

Good points, I preloaded the rear when I tightened all bolts. I could ask the guys doing the alignment to just undo the front bolt and re-torque to try and eliminate this. Everything coils/springs and mounts wise are brand new so should all be matched…