Sweeeeet! Looking good

 

Thanks bud.

I made some more progress on it today. I got the drivers side done. I'll do the passenger side tomorrow and flush/bleed the system. Got chased out of the shop by Mosquitos. High temps are only supposed to be in the 40s tomorrow so hopefully the little flying blood suckers will not be out.
If anyone is wondering, 15" Knonig Helium will clear the R56/JCW front brakes but weight placement is critical. I got lucky on the drivers side. Hopefully I'll have the same luck on the passenger side.


Pile of parts waiting to be installed.


What I started with.


276mm vs 294mm.


R53 vs R56 calipers


New setup.


Paper thin clearance between caliper and weights on rim.


Lots of clearance lol.


SS lines on the rear



Edit: I'm running 20mm wheel spacers on the front. I didn't try fitting the heliums over the R56 brakes without them. If I remember tomorrow, I'll see if they clear as I haven't seen anyone run these wheels with the R56/JCW setup.

 

Nice Job

 

Thanks!

Forgot to try the wheel on without a spacer. But honestly if your running Heliums your probably running spacers anyway because they have a lot of offset.

Brakes are strong. Still don't feel as strong as my R50 but the pads might need more time to bed in. It will lock the wheels at any speed I tried. So it might not feel as strong with the abs kicking in. The R50 wouldn't lock the tires so I was able to use 100% of the braking power. This car needs better tires anyway. Can't put the power to the ground til 3rd gear.

 

Last major bit of maintenance this car needed when purchased was the suspension. I replaced the control arm bushings with purple poly bits when I replaced all the worn ball joints and whatnot. The hammered Racelands have annoyed the crap out of me all along. They are ridiculously clunky and the rears bottom out constantly. I was on the fence for some time over what to go with. I had narrowed it down to Koni STRT with H&R or Eibach springs or SoloWerks coilovers. I came to the conclusion that spending a quarter what I paid for the car on suspension for a daily driver was not the best idea I've had this year and went with SoloWerks. Since it already had coilovers on it replacing it was a plug and play operation. Going back to a factory style setup would also mean tracking down a bunch of random parts the po didn't keep so cheap and easy fit the bill in this case.

As far as quality and finish these "entry level" coilovers seem to be a LOT higher quality than the price would suggest. The welds are excellent, the zinc plating and powder coating look really nice, and they came with bump stops designed specifically for the application. Having spring rates and dampening matched from the same manufacturer are also a plus. I'm not expecting ohlins quality ride and handling but so far they look a lot better than what I'd expect for a $500 kit. They are also advertised as daily driver use. So a softer more compliant ride. Which is what I'm looking for given 99% of the cars use is to drive back and forth to work.
I only have the fronts on so far and haven't driven it yet as I found a bad wheel bearing while installing these so may be next weekend before I get it back on the road. I'll update the thread with my opinion of the ride and handling once I put some miles on them.

As always, here's some pictures:

 

I got the rear suspension mounted last night. Still waiting on the wheel bearing before I drop it back down on the ground.






I also replaced the seal on the hobo intercooler shroud. The other one I had on there was a piece of garage door seal. It didn't stay put very well and also didn't seal off the intercooler very well. Hopefully this works a little better.

 

I finally got this thing off the jack stands this morning. I have a couple thoughts on the SoloWerks. First, the lock collars and spanners are thin which can make adjustments difficult. Second, they are low. Like very low. I cranked the front up pretty high and it's still sitting only about 1/4" above what the instructions say is minimum ride height. The rear seems to have a lot more adjustment but the front almost seems like it needs a longer or stiffer spring. It was a busy day and I didn't get a chance to drive it so I have no idea if the ride is even any better than the Racelands.
I'll post some pics and report back later on the week after I put some miles on it.


This is with the collars a little less than half way up the shock body.


Here's how it sits now. Collars are probably 3/4 or better up the shock body. Cranking it up like that is preloading the spring and removing travel at the same time. Idk. I guess I'll see how it drives.

 

Forgot to post this. It's the instructions for the SoloWerks. It shows what the ride height they say is required to not void the warranty.

 

Jer - While I realize their are fan-boys here on aftermarket coilovers for this series, my own objectives of restoring ground clearance from prior too-low Eibach springs prompted my decision to retain conventional (but performance oriented) struts/shocks/springs. I'll continue to monitor your results with interest...

 

My original plan was Koni dampeners and H&R springs. I had a similar combo on a mustang years ago and the ride and handling was exceptional. I'll put it bluntly though, I cheaped out. This car is just a fun daily driver and I was looking for a cost effective alternative to the absolute crap that was on it. SoloWerks is claimed to be American made and for daily drivers. My assumption was that the ride would be more comfortable and ride height would be higher than the average cheap coilover. I still haven't driven it yet as I've been very busy with family activities on this holiday weekend but the extremely low ride height is a little concerning. I may just be misinterpreting the required amount of spring preload for this kit. I've never messed with coilovers before owning this car. My R50 had Tein springs and Bilstein B4 dampeners. Teins are stiff and low and Bilsteins are also fairly stiff and not really meant for lowering springs iirc. The ride was harsh. Very harsh. But the handling was every bit as good as our C5 Corvette. I had contemplated that combo on the R53 but decided I wanted a nicer ride.
I'll update this thread later in the week to inform the good people of this forum if I wasted $500 😆

 

Well after a week of driving on the SoloWerks I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. The ride is very smooth. It is firm but not harsh or jarring in any way. The handling is fantastic though. Spring rate and shock dampening are matched well. ALL the God awful sounds the Racelands made are gone. There is no noise from the suspension and the entire car is quieter from the whole thing having a smoother ride. Only time will tell how long they'll last but for a cheap kit my initial thought is they're worth the money. I am going to raise the ride height a bit more. I also noticed bad bushings in the rca's so I ordered a pair. Should help with the terrible tire wear on the inside of the rear tires. I've only been getting 12k to 15k out of the tires on this car.

 

I raised the springs another 1/4", 1/2" RR, that one was a little low for some reason, and installed the new lower control arms. I bought adjustable arms to replace the stamped steel that was on there from the OEM. Rear tire wear was terrible so hopefully this will help. No camber adjustment from the factory on a 2005 S if anyone is wondering. I set the camber to -1° and I'll watch tire wear for awhile. The fronts are at -0.5° from the factory and front tires wear almost perfectly flat. I have plenty more threads to raise the rear more but the fronts are maxed out. So don't buy SoloWerks if you don't want to lower your car lol.

 

I run wheel spacers with the Konig Heliums. I have a 20mm in front and 15mm in back. I bought Honda spacers thinking there was no difference other than the fact they're half the price. I was wrong. The hub depth is different and the 15mm spacer wouldn't work without adding a 5mm behind it. That obviously is a no go because the tires run the fender if the suspension compresses enough. Lucky for me a have a coworker who was kind enough to throw my rear spacers on the lathe in the machine shop and cut the hub a little deeper. Works great now and I didn't have to spend another $70 on Mini spec wheel spacers.

 

The taillights we're almost milky looking when I bought this car so I put some cheap blackout film on it. It looked great imo but failed state inspection last time around. And more recently one of the reverse light sockets melted and quit working. Since replacements were in order I decided to upgrade at the same time. Found some led units with built in resistors and dot approved light smoke lenses.