A bit of setup help ;)

[ashleyt33]

I have had my Gaz coilovers on for a while now, and am happy apart from a bit of under steer.

I have just fitted a whiteline anti roll bar kit, and it does handle better, but still loads of understeer before it will oversteer.

Any ideas how to dial out a bit of understeer?

Rear dampers are set quite firm, I softened the fronts a bit more when I fitted the roll bar, Good tyres all round set @ 31psi front / 30psi rear.

Camber bolts up front with 1.5deg neg camber and +4mm toe in.

Any help would be great

 

[JackJack]

Take a look at the table near the bottom of the page in the link below. Id suggest a little more camber and some toe out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile_handling

 

[ashleyt33]

Having annoying problems with this now........

I have dropped the front tyre pressures.
Stiffened up the rear dampers.
Stiffened up the rear ARB.
Softened the front dampers.
Raised the rear ride height.
Set the front toe to + - 0

And it still understeers like mad!

 

[ashleyt33]

Forgot to mention, I also have 25mm spacers up front.

Could that affect understeer?

 

[MonkeyKnifeFight]

This sounds odd tbh i have Gaz setup on my 182 and camber bolts, i cant remember the last time i had understeer!! i would get the geometry checked for starters then move forwards from there.

What tyres you running?? which Gaz you running Gha or Gold

Also i run firm up front and soft at the rear, i find the ride is much smoother that way.

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Weird.

It's FWD .. of course it will understeer before it oversteers.

Unless you've got ditchfinders on there, I can only guess some driving lessons are in order :rasp:

Is the car full up or stripped ? Try dropping a couple of psi all round... the less weight in it, the less the pressures need to be. You probably know this already...

 

[ashleyt33]

It's not driving lessons I need , lift off oversteer does not happen, just under steer.

Pirelli Pzero on the front, and S drives on the rear.

I could get round most bends quicker without the ARB fitted, which is strange.

Gonna take the spacers off and see what happens.

 

[ashleyt33]

Spacers off, no difference really.

Still have all the seats in, removed the spare wheel.

Gas gha kit.

Camber bolts up front with around -2deg now.

Front Tyres seem to be scrubbing right on the edge like the pressure is low after a quick blast.

 

[JackJack]

Had the geometry set up?

 

[ashleyt33]

I setup up the camber, and toe at work on our 4 wheel alignment gear.

Front toe is at 0 at the moment.

 

[CraigIrl]

Does a little toe in not help it turn into the corners. Mines set like that with no arb or coilovers and I don't get understeer.

 

[ashleyt33]

Might give that a go today after I lift it back to near STD ride height.

 

[gtrnav]

Having annoying problems with this now........

I have dropped the front tyre pressures.
Stiffened up the rear dampers.
Stiffened up the rear ARB.
Softened the front dampers.
Raised the rear ride height.
Set the front toe to + - 0

And it still understeers like mad!

You have made all the right set up moves, agree so far. As has been suggested, try a bit of toe out. I run 2mm toe out. Tyre imbalance as you are using different front and rears seems the only other possibility.

If you find you cannot dial it out, and your own personal track driving style is for an oversteering car, then another possibility is to reduce the amount of toe in on the rear using shims. do this with great care, as it is easy to create a lairy oversteering monster! Clive Trickey used to set his minis up with toe out on the rear, which meant he could flick it through a corner with a small input of steering, followed rapidly by lots of wild opposite lock!!!! Suited him, but could easily result in a backwards visit to the armco!

Nick at Pure Motorsport does rear shims.

 

[ashleyt33]

Just tracked it to 2mm toe out, and started again from scratch with my damper settings and ride height, and its sorted!

Much better now.

Still dont think the P-Zero's on the front are great, think thats had a lot to do with it.

 

[Soot1e]

Being afront drive car it is harder to get rid off understeer, if at all possible. The easy answer is to get a rear wheel drive car.

 

[Kam.]

did you try swapping the tyres to the rear?

 

[Cr33do]

Just out of interest, what damper click settings are you running? We gave Gaz (non gold I think) and are currently experimenting.

At the mo I have ours set to 8 clicks (out of 40) on the rear and 1 turn on the front (out of 5). Must stress this is only after minimal time behind the wheel.

 

[Kam.]

I've always stuck dampers on softest and then played from there. Actually I've always tended to sway towards soft with the right spring choice front and rear to get the required balance.
Not my area of expertise though so I would go to a clever person like Fred and get him to set it up, then drive it for the seat of my pants feeling of whether its right or not.

 

[MonkeyKnifeFight]

When i first had my Gaz coils they came with 250lb front springs i changed them for 400lbs and sent my front shocks back to Gaz to have the bump increased (made the front shocks firmer) the adjustment on the my front Gaz shocks adjusts rebound (how quick the shock returns from being compressed) not damping adjustment as i first thought!! i run the fronts about a 3rd of the adjustment available and i personally run the rears as soft as they will go, if im feeling in the mood i'll turn the rears to 10 but even that for the road is very stiff. The car feels great like this and corners very well