Hi All,

I just received my Ohlins Dampers and camber plates for my GP2. I talked to the shop that has installed ohlins already here in my country, and they claim the installation is $1,800 dollars because they have to corner balance the car along with the regular instalation and alignment.

Does this make any sense? First it seems ridiculously expensive even with the corner balance.

Second what does the corner balance do ? is it necesarry? would i notice a difference?

Thanks

 

If you plan on tracking the car, a corner balance can help with the consistency of the car between turning left or right. Do you need it? Not really. Get the ride height even left to right on the car, and should be close enough.

 

Thanks for the tip ill try that first. Im sure its helpful, but the shop is charging about $1K for it, seems ridiculously expensive.

 

Expensive because it’s very labor intensive. You have to set the ride height, drop the car on scales, take measurements, readjust coilover height, remeasure weights, readjust, lather, rinse, repeat. I would be willing to bet the corner balance would be pretty close just by setting the ride heights. If you have big track plans for the car, and want to get every last bit out of your set up, it would make sense to pay for the corner balance.

 

Wow, that's a crazy price. Can't DIY? Not to sound offensive, but if you're asking if you would notice the difference with our without a corner balance, then you don't need a corner balance. Just set your preferred ride height and go have fun.

 

That sounds unusually expensive.
I payed about 140CAD (can’t remember exactly) to corner balance my old Honda race car and they came to my location to do the work as well. Took about 2 hours start to finish. Replacing all four corners on an R56 usually takes about 2-3 hours. Add $100 for alignment and I’d expect to pay around 5-600 plus taxes for the whole job.

Is the corner balancing necessary? Depends on your skill level, how often the car sees a track and how picky you are about setup. I’d say probably not if it’s a standard R56 with the typical aftermarket parts, 200TW+ tires and used primarily on the street.

 

I believe that, YES, the corner balance... on a suspension upgrade where all 4 corners are spring-height adjustable IS important.

When you have shocks that have fully adjustable installed spring height... you have a better chance of being outside of the sweet-spot than you do hitting the sweet-spot without weight balancing the corners...

When you buy a set of lowering springs to install on stock or non spring adjustable struts/shocks.... if from a reputable mfg ... Those are already 'calibrated' for F/R balance.

Non adjustable strut/shock kits (in terms of spring perch position) .... like Koni Yellow/SRT/FST, Bilstein B-4/6/12, etc ... Are pre-'calibrated' for balance... with stock springs or a well engineered set of lowering springs.

In an adjustable spring height strut/shock or coil-over kit... you will not have this dialed in calibration as the F/R and L/R bias can be changed and is not calibrated as shipped... Like with our Ohlins R&T or other kits with adjustable spring perches.

Stock Ride height measurements... or even evenly dropped measurements mean nothing, IMO, when you are talking about a fully adjustable perch like the Ohlins R&T's
These heights must also take into consideration the spring force/rates involved.... A given measured ride height will give different performance, safety and character for different force/rate springs.

Even for NON tracked cars I believe this should be considered.

You can get lucky as some do... but you could also throw it off enough to to make handling worse than stock (also IMO).
Lots of rides out there with expensive hardware on the suspensions... that may handle "flat"... but perform worse than even a worn out stocker.


All that being said... That is a crazy expensive price for the service. (Ludicrous)

The efficient shops that Ive seen have stands that bolt to the hubs (with the wheels/tires off) that allow the suspension to be adjusted while it is on the scales.... shops without this will have to remove/install the wheels multiple times to get the weight balance dialed in.

 

Just thinking out loud as I’m due a suspension set-up at the end of this week, with a track day next Monday
how much will using older worn rear tyres impact the final result?

I think the weight will have marginal effect, but 1/4” of tread depth might on ride heights and corner balance,
how much will 1/4” of thread on a coil over change overall weight balance, or should I ask for 1/4 plywood under the rear wheels ?

the rear ado8r have enough life for a good track day, I don’t want make them off for the sake of the geo, equally i don’t want another setup session for new rubber, I might also be overthinking all this as it’s static thing across the same axel, dynamic loads and bends will change everything anyway ?

Spec - bilstien pss10/16, 26/20mm arb front and rear, Adjustable drop links all SuperPro, Gp2 free camber, 2 degrees caster bushes, giken clutch, quaife diff, 215/45/17 on et37 oz

i have rear arms to fit if needed,

handles very well at the moment so not expecting any night and day improvements, but I might be surprised.










these are how the rears looked 18 months ago after a morning at Rockingham, after some provocation
just above wear bars now, to be replaced this summer with A052 215/45/17 all around


I should add that currently I have decided not add camber plates, as the car is mostly a summer Sunday afternoon street car, and the Gp2 strut-top slots are ok for now, I like the sleeper look even under the hood,

 

Just done today, 1249kg with just over 1/2 tank of fuel, on track Monday with forecast showing sunshine all day
cross weight within a kg or so, will report back what I find on the track

FYI for anyone considering the gp2 strut-tower slots, this “free-camber” gave me some very interesting front toe numbers when combined with caster bushes and lowering
please book or check your alignment after, as I am sure it cost me more than a few thousand miles on additional tyre tread last summer, compared to the mileage I was getting on Ad08r from my more powerful r53 a few years back

so yes to opening post, everything is worth looking at again after a fresh install, the law of unintended consequences will bite your butt otherwise.

ps my adjustment was 2 hours labour and £200.00 this side of the pond from a “proper” motorsport shop,

 

Of course any camber change will affect toe significantly and require alignment thereafter. Remember a single angle minute doesn't matter for camber and caster, but it does for toe. I did notice this fact is missing in many 'free camber mod' discussions. It's free if you do your own alignment. I still recommend adding front camber though.

 

removed some rear rake, and some toe, note the caster is improved via superpro front wishbone rear bush (spf 4476-80k ) to help the dynamic camber.

on track I actually felt I missed some toe on the tight hair pin corners, but I’m sure my tyres will thank me longer term.

 

Are these numbers after performing a corner balance? They look pretty good.

 

yes but they weren’t too far out from original installation, I had the B16 coilovers second hand, and used a good shop for the initial install, along with lsd and roll bars

I had driven nearly 10k and several track days, it was after my own free camber modifications and adding the gp2/135i calipers that I thought it would be a good time to check the car out properly on the scales.

 

I Am impressed that the Mini is that close to balanced out the box.

I am investigating this path for my Clubman. If you have any insights to share, plaese send me a PM.