I've raised the rear about 10mm higher than the recommended range. Been driving it like this for about two weeks, no issues so far. Some knocking that was present before but I think it is my end links.

Will be lowering my Rear Passenger perch by about 5mm-7mm soon too.

 

I have uneven ride height in the rear of my Rx8 due to my wife grounding out the rear suspension by going over a curb. it bent the lower control arm of the suspension that the sway bar sits on raising that side of the car by 5-10mm. It might be worth checking for some damage.

 

Saw your comment on my YouTube channel. I'll send you a pm later tonight....

 

Thanks for the PM. I think I will be getting the PSS9's soon.

 

You're welcome. The PSS9's are great for a daily driven RX-8. With a few minor changes they can be quite solid on a car that's used for autocross as well.

Good luck!

 

Well I just read through all 20 pages of this post and loads of great information. JUst got to persuade the wife that coilovers are a good investment lol. I loved the info about adding washers to the sway bar bushing isn't it amazing how 10 minutes and a couple of dollars can help make the car handle better.
(The tip was either adding washers to the bolts as the urathane bushings are normally too tight or cutting away a little bit of the bushing to stop it binding.)

I think I will definitely get a set of PSS9's. I race in Ft Myers we have an amazing location and very strong competition so I doubt I will be the fastest but might get top few places. I am running CS on street tires but the STX Pax would have place me 10th of 72 this weekend. Not bad seeing as my car is almost stock.

 

I am selling the PSS9's that were on Chike car.



Simmons

 

I just received mine set of PSS9 yesterday and I found the installation manual very confusing. They don’t “recommend” a specific height adjustment, but a “safe range”. Could somebody on this thread give me some advice about the height adjustment for those coilover? The car is mounted on 245/35/19 on 4 wheels. I don’t know much about suspension, and I don’t want to degrade the handling by messing up the adjustment.

 

They don't recommend specific height since most folks want to adjust height based on the stance they envision.

 

Mine were set at 13 1/4" from center of hub to fender.


Simmons

 

Put my Bilsteins on about 3 weeks ago and its been a huge increase in the feel and appearance of the car. I can't wait to hit up the upcoming AutoX and see if all that money spent was for not.

 

I'm selling my set of Bilstein PSS9's. Used for ~15,000 miles. $950, not including shipping.

 

Hello everyone! I installed a used set of pss9's Saturday but i think I did something wrong because the car feels rough when going to bumpy roads. Maybe I forgot to install a part. I followed the instructions from a few pages back and did everything step by step. I notice the small spring on the front shocks , I think is called the "helper spring" is fully compressed when the car is on the ground, is that the way it should be? Did i have to use the oem bump stops? I didn't use them because i didn't see them on any of the pictures.

My ride height is 14'' from center cap to the fender and i have stock wheels and tires.

Any help will be appreciated.

 

I have my PSS9 for 4 month and it is normal to have the helper spring fully compressed when the car doesn't move.

The ride is not supposed to be rough. What setting are you running ? For the every day usage, I run 5 in the front and 6 in the back. Just a little reminder: 1 is the stiffest and 9 is the softest.

Personally, I found that a slice turn can have a huge effect. For example, if I set the rear to 5 instead of 6, the ride comes very uncomfortable on a bumpy road.

 

I took the front shocks off yesterday and I found all the bushings backward and I was missing a washer, I guess that's what happens when you try to be a mechanic and drinking beer at the same time lol. Now they running smooth. I have to check the rear next and make sure everything is good. Thanks for the advice.

 

Has anyone else had a problem with the adjustment ***** not 'clicking'? two of my four don't give any feedback when the **** is turned. Does this affect their performance?

 

The 'click' is very weak on one of mine. Since you can set it to the desired position and it stay there, it's correct. I don't think that this affect the performance. Your suspension would probably 'tell' you if something is wrong. On the PSS9, this is a huge difference between the setting '1' and the setting '9'

 

Is the soft click in the front? If so, you might want to check the installation of the adjusters. The lock nut location has to be very precise to achieve a very positive click.

It is interesting to me that many of you are setting the rear one click softer than the front. That seems counter-intuitive to achieving the correct bump frequency. I set mine the opposite way, so that the rear rebounds slightly faster than the front to keep the car from see-sawing down the road. My daily settings are 8 front / 7 rear. My track settings are 5 front / 4 rear. Anyone care to discuss the thinking here?

 

Bumping this thread for some install info! Can someone please clarify which pieces I'd need from the stock setup to install the Bilsteins? I may sell my old assemblies as a whole and I don't want to swap any parts over. Plus these parts are not expensive and it'd be nice to have nice shiny new ones after 9 years, anyway. Certain pieces like the upper strut mount and gasket are obvious but I'm not 100% about some of the bushings and other parts.

Here are the front and rear parts diagrams for reference:

Front:


Rear:


Thanks in advance.

 

The fronts reuse parts 10, 11, 12, 14. The rears reuse 9, 11, 12, 15, 17, 18, 19.

 

Agree on the front being 10, 11, 12, 14

You missed 5 on the rear and I'm not exactly sure if your suppose to use 8 or 19 in the rear (don't think it really matters). So I used on the rear 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 17, 18

 

Yep. You are correct. Part 5 is also reused in the rear.

 

Thanks guys. Looking forward to getting these on the car!

 

Did anyone else get an extreme amount og drop from these things?? I set them to the highest of the Bilstein recommended range in the front and got about 2" of drop as the car came down and the jack broke off my sideskirt. I had to raise the spring perch way above Bilsteins recommended range to get a decent ride height.

Did I preload too much? Can you actually do that?

 

I did not experience that problem. I set mine to the top of the recommended range and saw about 1" of drop. I drove on them that way for 1 month to settle them in, and ended up lowering the fronts about 0.25" and raising the left rear about 0.25". My total drop is just over 1.25" front and 1" rear.