I've had my KW V3's on for a fortnight now and I'm please to say that they're settling down nicely

It was VERY bouncy (especially at low speed) for the first week after fitting, but it's now getting better.

I'm sure someone wrote a KW set-up guide on here, but I can't seem to find it....does anyone know the link?

The car sits quite low, maybe 40mm lower all round.

It looks great, but I'm finding when cornering hard that the ASR system cuts the power.

I think (??) that as the car is now much stiffer that when cornering the un-loaded wheel loses traction, sets off the traction control and cuts the throttle. Turning the ASR off does fix this, but I wonder if I can improve things by softening the damper 're-bound'?

Would this also give me a slight softer ride or is that the 'bound' i need to adjust?

TIA

I've no idea how to set up KWs, but I think you're confusing spring and damper rates.

The only way that changing the damper rates will affect traction is if you've got them set so stiff that the damper rather than the size of the bump is controlling how far the suspension moves (super-critical damping). Accodingly, I suspect that what you need to do is raise the car slightly, and reduce the spring pre-load.

:( Thats kind of what I expected.

Just hoped that some fine tuning of the damper settings might go someway to reducing the problem.

You might be on the bumpstops. There are 2 black travel limiters on the front, which you can remove. Take it apart or cut them off with a stanley knife. They are only needed for some models, to prevent arb touching the driveshaft. You can remove both on the Vrs as the arb set-up is different.

I've found rebound 1 1/2 turns open front and back, and bump 1 1/4 turn open front and back to be good for the street. This may be different for you if you've uprated the roll bars. You can run less bump with a thicker bar, but keep the rebound the same. Only change one thing at a time, in the quest for perfect set up. You'll be pulling your hair out otherwise. Also try 1/16 toe out each side on the front. Its within alignment specs and makes a big difference. The car rides the bumps and turns in better. I found zero toe very bumpy but slight toe out was a vast improvement.

Hope this is of some help.

There are fully trained Suspension Guru's out there that load balance each corner for your preferred height.

I would advise seeking a professional suspension consultation and highly recommend load balancing - which is also my issue - i have some contact details for a very good person who does this work @ per corner rates...

I also think the rebound / return rates for the dampers can be adjusted too in some way to aid the mentioned lack of wheel to road issues.

Em, if you're hitting the bump stops regularly in normal road driving, you're too low and/or not stiff enough. Bump stops are fitted to control the rise in spring rate when the arms get close to the bodywork, so you don't just bottom out and promptly lose it when the spring rate effectively goes from a few hundred lb/in to infinite!

That said, ARB travel limitters would be a different matter, and I'd agree that you should remove them unless they're needed.

Oh and take note, I know enough to diagnose likely problems and correct basic misconceptions, but nothing like enough to set up a suspension myself (well not yet anyway).

You don't need to pay someone to set the suspension. You set the suspension to your own taste, not the person whose doing the adjustments. Yes corner weights are useful, but its easy enough to do it yourself. Make one adjustment at a time and see how the changes feel. Its all part of the fun of tuning.

Set the front ride height, then measure from the wheel centre to the arch. Set the rear to the same. Go for a drive and see how it feels. Too much understeer raise the rear. Oversteer, lower the rear. Raising the rear will make that axle heavier ie oversteer, or lower makes it lighter. Also if you are adjusting the rear only, there are no alignment issues. Try raising and lowering the rear by just 5mm. You'll be amazed how different the car behaves with just a turn of the spanner. Your aim is to equalise understeer and oversteer to make the car handle in a neutral way.

And here was me thinking that, with constant spring and damper rates, changing the ride height changed the axle CoG height, and hence the axle roll rate, not the applied mass.

Setting corner weights can only be done with a known flat plane to work on, and works on the "shave a bit off one leg to stop a shoogly table shoogling" principle.

The V3s are very difficult to get right, as you can adjust the bump and rebound. IIRC there is no spring preloading at any ride height when there is no load the spring compression is the same at normal height or the lowest setting because when you adjust the height you are basically altering the length of the damper.

It sounds like you may also be to low, I had V2s on my old vRS and started off thinking this looks good but it drove like pants. Everytime I went round a slightly bumpy left hand corner very quickly the O/S drive shaft was bashing on the inner wing. If you are to low, you will also destroy the CV joint rubbers and maybe damage the joints themselves. I raised the car slightly, and not only was handling better, I was content that I was no longer wrecking the drive shafts and CV Joints/boots.

V3s as standard have progressive springs, you have to specify if you want the non progressive type.

When adjusting, Bump is the initial shock, and rebound is the way the damper reacts afterwards. To get a softer ride you need to fiddle with both, neither one or the other makes the ride softer.

If anyone knows anyone whoss good at tuning suspension & setting up cars Im interested, Ive got V3's but not 100% sure how to tweak them without loosing all the good points

If anyone knows anyone whoss good at tuning suspension & setting up cars Im interested, Ive got V3's but not 100% sure how to tweak them without loosing all the good points

You are better off staying close to the kw settings mate. Unless you're willing to part with plenty of coin to rectify the chassis faults that the Octy has, it will never handle like a subaru. Why pay someone to corner weight and set it up, when it will all go out the window when you have passengers or more/less fuel in the tank.

I've changed nearly everything on mine. TT hubs and Lca's, spherical bearings, camber plates, revised camber and castor settings, arb's, strut braces and sub frame strengthening... the list goes on. You can, however, make the car too sensitive. I could change my suspension settings everytime I drive it, depending on whether I've got a 1/4 or a full tank, or something in the boot and so on. The recommended settings from KW are a good compromise.

You are better off staying close to the kw settings mate. Unless you're willing to part with plenty of coin to rectify the chassis faults that the Octy has, it will never handle like a subaru. Why pay someone to corner weight and set it up, when it will all go out the window when you have passengers or more/less fuel in the tank.

I've changed nearly everything on mine. TT hubs and Lca's, spherical bearings, camber plates, revised camber and castor settings, arb's, strut braces and sub frame strengthening... the list goes on. You can, however, make the car too sensitive. I could change my suspension settings everytime I drive it, depending on whether I've got a 1/4 or a full tank, or something in the boot and so on. The recommended settings from KW are a good compromise.

The std settings are agree are very good, I just wonder if they can be improved on somewhere, perhaps Im just wishing tooooooo much