KW Clubsport...good or bad?

[phoenixcsl]

All,

Whats the consensus of KW Clubsports for the CSL?

Thinking of changing my Nitrons, still not happy with them at all, rather than spending more money on them I may sell them and put that towards a different setup.

Had the KW V3's on my old E46 M3 and they were brilliant for road driving if a little limited on the track, but still a overall they were excellent.

Are the CS kits any good?

How do they adjust? do they have a twister knob on the top and a separate adjuster with a pin at the bottom like the V3's?

Any views on the CS kits?

[glendog74]

I have KW Clubsport and have found them very good indeed when set up correctly. I have the older kit with seperate adjusters.

The newer versions have the easier single adjuster knob i believe.

[karbonkid]

Still not sorted then?
Did Simpson not look into the knocking?

[Pooky]

My radical idea is to leave alone and stick with stock suspension...

[phoenixcsl]

Still not sorted then?
Did Simpson not look into the knocking?

Fraid not Alex.

They did, but could find nothing wrong, so rather than throwing more money at it i'll get something else and cut my losses.

Strangely the rear ride height on the Nitrons, they couldn't get it much below stock height, so the car looks / feels unbalanced as the front is lower than the rears.

[shimmy]

Fraid not Alex.

They did, but could find nothing wrong, so rather than throwing more money at it i'll get something else and cut my losses.

Strangely the rear ride height on the Nitrons, they couldn't get it much below stock height, so the car looks / feels unbalanced as the front is lower than the rears.

no such issues with my old NTR Track set of Nitrons - were yours an older set as i know couple of years ago early Nitron users had some trouble getting them to set up properly.

[karbonkid]

Toby seems a shame to start from scratch again. I really would get in touch with Nitron and insist they take a look at them on the car FOC. Something doesn't sound right and sure they will be to sort if anyone, unless it's car related but doesn't sound like it.

Spoken to previous owner to see if he had any similar issues?

Alternatively your more than welcome to come down to me and compare like for like and set up on mine.

[shimmy]

ONeill has Nitron sport and no such issues as far as I know. I'm still betting this is an old set of Nitron. LeonB had a car on Nitron back in 2010 and suffered big ime on set up

[phoenixcsl]

My radical idea is to leave alone and stick with stock suspension...

you sound like my missus on email this morning :whistle:

[phoenixcsl]

no such issues with my old NTR Track set of Nitrons - were yours an older set as i know couple of years ago early Nitron users had some trouble getting them to set up properly.

Those NTR Track ones you had were in a different league to these ones :)

Could well be, according to Nitron they were manufactured in 2010, I see they have revised their range recently, it's a shame as they are a nice bit of kit.

Toby seems a shame to start from scratch again. I really would get in touch with Nitron and insist they take a look at them on the car FOC. Something doesn't sound right and sure they will be to sort if anyone, unless it's car related but doesn't sound like it.

Spoken to previous owner to see if he had any similar issues?

Alternatively your more than welcome to come down to me and compare like for like and set up on mine.

That's not a bad shout Alex, I might call them in a moment, I don't think it's the car as Simpsons had a good look over it and checked my subframe etc the other week.

He said they were fine, but then he was bound to say that really.

Would you be able to take me a side profile shot of your car? My rears are a lot higher than I expected, i.e. I can get nearly 2 fingers into the gap between the wheel and the wheel arch and we all know wheel arch gap is a crime!

I did notice that my left adjuster had no room left for adjustment, where the right hand side had a good 7mm of adjustment left.

[phoenixcsl]

Toby seems a shame to start from scratch again. I really would get in touch with Nitron and insist they take a look at them on the car FOC. Something doesn't sound right and sure they will be to sort if anyone, unless it's car related but doesn't sound like it.

Spoken to previous owner to see if he had any similar issues?

Alternatively your more than welcome to come down to me and compare like for like and set up on mine.

Actually, Alex can you pm me your ride height front & rear (floor to bottom of wheelarch), that would be mega handy :)

[karbonkid]

LeonB had a car on Nitron back in 2010 and suffered big ime on set up

What issues did Leonb have with his?

Actually, Alex can you pm me your ride height front & rear (floor to bottom of wheelarch), that would be mega handy :)

Yea no problem. I have 18s on ATM. I will be back later today so will PM you details. I can also post up pic if you need a visual.

[phoenixcsl]

Right, have spoken to Nitron again, they want me to send back the rear shocks, they reckon they could have been over pressurised, so they want to check them, they have done me a discounted price on their service rates, so i'm going to give that a shot before I get grumpy and buy something else.

Yea no problem. I have 18s on ATM. I will be back later today so will PM you details. I can also post up pic if you need a visual.

Legend thanks Alex. :beer:

[karbonkid]

Actually, Alex can you pm me your ride height front & rear (floor to bottom of wheelarch), that would be mega handy :)

OK my ride heights from floor to w/arch (running 18s)

FR - 645mm
FL - 645mm
RR - 623mm
RL - 648mm

[shimmy]

Can't remember LeonBs Nitron issues, but his car was very difficult to drive on track and he was working with them on it for weeks.

Ride height is better measured from centre of wheel :moan:

[phoenixcsl]

OK my ride heights from floor to w/arch (running 18s)
RR - 623mm
RL - 648mm

sounds a bit wonky to me! :whistle:



Ride height is better measured from centre of wheel :moan:

Is it? Whats the best ride height for coilovered CSL's?

[shimmy]

sounds a bit wonky to me! :whistle:

Is it? Whats the best ride height for coilovered CSL's?

Who knows, certainly not me.:blalalala:


Just hat centre of wheel takes out all selects of tyre/rim size when comparing ride height.

If you set ride height and swap old tyres to knew or 19 to 18 rims, ride height will change of course.

[phoenixcsl]

Who knows, certainly not me.:blalalala:


Just hat centre of wheel takes out all selects of tyre/rim size when comparing ride height.

If you set ride height and swap old tyres to knew or 19 to 18 rims, ride height will change of course.

You're no help at all :finga:

Thats a good point on the height measurements.

I need to find a good ride height balance, for some reason the rears were a tad high when I left Simpsons the other week, I'm going to send off the rear shocks to Nitron on the weekend and get them to have a look / rebuild / re-gas the rear shocks.

[shimmy]

Ride height depends on what you use car for tbh. The only thing I insist on is front to be 5-10mm higher than rear with driver in, corner weighted as best you can and front clearance big enough so I can still park over speed bumps at Stansted airport short term parking!

[phoenixcsl]

Ride height depends on what you use car for tbh. The only thing I insist on is front to be 5-10mm higher than rear with driver in, corner weighted as best you can and front clearance big enough so I can still park over speed bumps at Stansted airport short term parking!

That was the problem I have, the car looked level, where I wanted the rears to be a minimum of 5mm lower than the fronts, to be honest the way it has been set up doesn't look too far from standard.

The chaps at Nitron think the rear shocks may be over pressurised as I cant get the drop I want and my rears are not going as low as Alex's from the numbers he's just given.

[karbonkid]

Can't remember LeonBs Nitron issues, but his car was very difficult to drive on track and he was working with them on it for weeks.

Ride height is better measured from centre of wheel :moan:

Strange. They've worked well for me.

sounds a bit wonky to me! :whistle:

Is it? Whats the best ride height for coilovered CSL's?

Not the most accurate way of getting a reading as shim says. Even a variation in tyre pressure would throw it out but by the sounds of it you wanted a rough height to check yours against.

Reason being rears are not matching is due to car being corner weighted. If focusing on this then this obviously involves adjusting the spring perches to get balanced diagonal weight onto each corner, therefore affecting ride height , resulting in it varying.
Overall ride height I requested a drop circa 20mm iirc.

[cslsuperfan]

having new set set up fitted @ simpsons later this month.
sincerely hope there's none of the above headaches post fit.
20mm lower than standard set up? is that the best height?:(

[Pooky]

Strange. They've worked well for me.



Not the most accurate way of getting a reading as shim says. Even a variation in tyre pressure would throw it out but by the sounds of it you wanted a rough height to check yours against.

Reason being rears are not matching is due to car being corner weighted. If focusing on this then this obviously involves adjusting the spring perches to get balanced diagonal weight onto each corner, therefore affecting ride height , resulting in it varying.
Overall ride height I requested a drop circa 20mm iirc.

If your ride height is varying by that much, corner weighted or not, then something is not right. The ride height itself is just as important as the corner weight and both need to be good but not completely at the expense of the other.

I've witnessed many times corner weights being performed incorrectly, the surface not being properly flat, spring platforms being all over the place etc. When a car is correctly set up for weight, corner weight, spring platforms, ride heights they always come out pretty symetrical.

[karbonkid]

having new set set up fitted @ simpsons later this month.
sincerely hope there's none of the above headaches post fit.
20mm lower than standard set up? is that the best height?:(

Aesthetic reasons, practicality or track use its down to preference really and what its to be used for. Is if for mainly track?

Standard is around 600mm +/- 10mm with around 5mm more on the front.

If your ride height is varying by that much, corner weighted or not, then something is not right. The ride height itself is just as important as the corner weight and both need to be good but not completely at the expense of the other.

I've witnessed many times corner weights being performed incorrectly, the surface not being properly flat, spring platforms being all over the place etc. When a car is correctly set up for weight, corner weight, spring platforms, ride heights they always come out pretty symetrical.

Tbh pooky these were the measurements I made with the car in the driveway having not been moved for some time so not an ideal situation for giving any form of accuracy but a rough guild of height for toby to work from.

Bottom of rim to top of wheel arch is standard form and a better way of measuring ride height but still not 100% accurate. Bodywork could even be out marginally.
When I had my car corner weighted there was a slight variation with rear iirc and you will often see varying slightly, its normal. Sometimes this can even be because the car manufacturers chassis jigs allow a certain amount of tolerance, this means every chassis is slightly different. Combine this with the fact that many cars aren’t balanced to begin with because of fuel tank position, driver and passenger weights etc. and you can sometimes have ride heights different by several millimetres.

In my case as you pointed out Im more than certain this is most probably down to suspension bind where it hasn't been moved for a while and on entry to parking also playing a role.

I'll roll the car and take another measurement this afternoon to give a better and more accurate reading.