Quote:
Originally Posted by OBEEWON
The dampening has more to do with the rebound not feeling every bump.
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Usually all the "JDM" coilovers have a really high compression rate on their damping, with relatively low rebound rates.
Rebound controls the damper's rate of expansion, like after you hit a bump.
Compression is what controls the dampers rate of being compressed, which is usually when you first HIT the bump.
Most "JDM" coilovers are underdamped for the spring rates that they come with, thus bouncy and harsh feeling, as the spring's inertia isn't controlled by the damper.
How does that translate to real world experience?
I have Stance GR+ coilovers on my S13, and I have had them on for a year and a half, and have the 9/7 springs on there.
There is a paved section on a road nearby my house, and it's not smoothed out to create a seamless transition, so it's actually a pretty rough bump. For the last 3 months, I've hit it and felt the jarring effects, and hated it.
Upon reading more about suspension and damping effects, I decided to do the opposite of what the normal person would do, which is to turn the damping UP on my coilovers, 1 click on each corner.
Now, not only is it much SMOOTHER when I hit that bump, the car is much more composed AFTER it hits the bump, as the bump is now being absorbed by the dampers doing their job.
I've felt D2s, which are the exact same thing as K-Sport coilovers, with 9/7 springs on them and the dampers turned all the way to stiff before, and it was horrible compared to my Stance, which are still not top shelf stuff. The D2 and K-Sport were very bouncy, very under damped in the high speed damping section. Low speed damping felt OK, but the road was smooth and we were on a couple of sweeping left/right handers, so couldn't really judge if it was just the spring rate controlling the body roll or if the dampers did anything there, but the car did seem to settle down and not feel as bumpy as when the car was being drive at like 35mph and hitting bumps on the road.
So, to answer the dude with the 19 inch wheels that feels his car riding rough. Try to up the damping on the coilovers and see if you feel a difference.
PS - sorry for the novel.