DIY: Full Coilover Lovin'
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DIY: Full Coilover Lovin'
Alright, this is one of those things. Its a pain in the ***, but face it... your suspension is probably one of the most important things on the car, and its expensive, so you need to take care of it. Its one of those things you think about, but then decide you can't see it, so you don't need to clean it "right now". Yes you do. Let me save you the trouble and just give you a couple pointers on how to do this. Its quite simple, if you can clean your engine you can do this, its just a little complicated because everything's kinda squeezed in.
You need:
An old toothbrush
Water
Simple Green or an equivelant degreaser
Anti-Sieze Lubricant
Towel
2 Hours
Spanner Wrenches (should have come with your coilover kit)
Now, Jack the car up and take all 4 wheels off.
You will notice the complete and utter filth that used to be shiny threads.
Time to get scrubbing.
Spray some Simple Green on the coilover making an effort to confine your spraying to the threaded region.
Get your toothbrush, start scrubbin'
Don't forget that they're round, and they have a back side which is just as dirty as the front.... go all the way around. Hose off the junk, repeat if necessary.
PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THIS
Take the 2 spanner wrenches, loosen the 2 lock rings that hold the spring in place. Turn them all the way down to the 3rd lock ring which is holding the coilover's length. DO NOT undo the 3rd lock ring. The spring should come unloaded and you should be able to move it around on the damper.
If you have Tein SS or Basic coilovers, SKIP this step since moving the spring perch will change your drop and more importantly, your alignment.
Use your ability to move the spring around to scrub the remaining dirt off the threads. The other thing you should do is clean all the **** off the lower spring perch. You have no idea how much junk accumulates here until you pull the spring up. More Simple Green, more toothbrushing.
Alright... give it one more rinse, then towel the threads dry. If you don't want to get messy, put some rubber gloves on, anti-sieze tends to get everywhere, and its not the easiest stuff to get off. For those of you who don't know what anti-sieze is, its a moly/graphite grease. Its for marine applications (you'll notice once you open the bottle, it smells like a WWII battleship), and its incredibly waterproof. Junk will get caught in it as time goes on, BUT, your threads will be kept clean and rust free, and you're just going to have to clean the coils again at a later time.
Same way you toothbrushed around with the spring loose, repeat with the antisieze... remembering to go all the way around the back. Work your way down, brushing it onto all the threads, also put some on the lower spring perch where it contacts the bottom of the spring. When you get to the bottom, spin the spring perches back up so the spring cannot move up and down. If you had preload in the spring, reset it. Keep in mind that you're going to need to measure your preload with a ruler from a fixed point (like the top of the lower bracket). Marking a line with a marker is useless, the simple green will take it off. Once you've got the spring back in place, dry off the spot where the perches were, put anti-sieze on that area too. Repeat for the other 3 corners. It took me about 2 hrs. I would think this is a once, maybe twice a year thing, and its worth doing to keep your coils in good shape.
Don't worry about getting antisieze on the spring, it won't hurt it.
If you have pillowball upper mounts, a little anti-sieze in the joint won't do anything but help.
Results: The car is a lot quieter from no grit under the spring, and from greasing that lower perch to give the spring another "bearing" to rotate on... you guys who have popping noises might want to try this. The steering also feels quite a bit smoother (from greasing the pillowballs).
You need:
An old toothbrush
Water
Simple Green or an equivelant degreaser
Anti-Sieze Lubricant
Towel
2 Hours
Spanner Wrenches (should have come with your coilover kit)
Now, Jack the car up and take all 4 wheels off.
You will notice the complete and utter filth that used to be shiny threads.
Time to get scrubbing.
Spray some Simple Green on the coilover making an effort to confine your spraying to the threaded region.
Get your toothbrush, start scrubbin'
Don't forget that they're round, and they have a back side which is just as dirty as the front.... go all the way around. Hose off the junk, repeat if necessary.
PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THIS
Take the 2 spanner wrenches, loosen the 2 lock rings that hold the spring in place. Turn them all the way down to the 3rd lock ring which is holding the coilover's length. DO NOT undo the 3rd lock ring. The spring should come unloaded and you should be able to move it around on the damper.
If you have Tein SS or Basic coilovers, SKIP this step since moving the spring perch will change your drop and more importantly, your alignment.
Use your ability to move the spring around to scrub the remaining dirt off the threads. The other thing you should do is clean all the **** off the lower spring perch. You have no idea how much junk accumulates here until you pull the spring up. More Simple Green, more toothbrushing.
Alright... give it one more rinse, then towel the threads dry. If you don't want to get messy, put some rubber gloves on, anti-sieze tends to get everywhere, and its not the easiest stuff to get off. For those of you who don't know what anti-sieze is, its a moly/graphite grease. Its for marine applications (you'll notice once you open the bottle, it smells like a WWII battleship), and its incredibly waterproof. Junk will get caught in it as time goes on, BUT, your threads will be kept clean and rust free, and you're just going to have to clean the coils again at a later time.
Same way you toothbrushed around with the spring loose, repeat with the antisieze... remembering to go all the way around the back. Work your way down, brushing it onto all the threads, also put some on the lower spring perch where it contacts the bottom of the spring. When you get to the bottom, spin the spring perches back up so the spring cannot move up and down. If you had preload in the spring, reset it. Keep in mind that you're going to need to measure your preload with a ruler from a fixed point (like the top of the lower bracket). Marking a line with a marker is useless, the simple green will take it off. Once you've got the spring back in place, dry off the spot where the perches were, put anti-sieze on that area too. Repeat for the other 3 corners. It took me about 2 hrs. I would think this is a once, maybe twice a year thing, and its worth doing to keep your coils in good shape.
Don't worry about getting antisieze on the spring, it won't hurt it.
If you have pillowball upper mounts, a little anti-sieze in the joint won't do anything but help.
Results: The car is a lot quieter from no grit under the spring, and from greasing that lower perch to give the spring another "bearing" to rotate on... you guys who have popping noises might want to try this. The steering also feels quite a bit smoother (from greasing the pillowballs).
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