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I fitted them myself, took maybe 2 hours. Very straight-forward!
Only downside is that you need an alignment afterwards, since you alter the geometry.
The pic in my signature is the car with the collars on, but it it borderline too low now. I slammed it down in the rear, max low, and then used the front collars to adjust the correct "rake". It settled a bit low after driving, in my opinion.
I have the H&R lowering springs mounted too.
There is a threaded M5 hole in the collars, to lock it so it cant turn.
I am very happy with the product, super finish and works great. Only downside is that I bought collars to the stock Bilsteins first, and they didnt fit. I feel the FVD website wasnt clear on which Bilsteins they fitted, and I wasnt offered to return the faulty pair for a refund. So make sure you order the right one!
Thanks for the heads up. I will call FVD before ordering. I fitted my Bilstien and H&R a few years ago, maybe 1500km of road use so far. Was going to go the KW V3 route to get my car even lower but since my car is just a street car with maybe a few DE events I have decided to do the camber plates and FVD lowering collars. Going to spend the money on more interior bits like seats, rs door cards and do all the interior in leather or alcantera with french stitching. My interior is in excellent shape but have always wanted a change.
Do you have any current pics of you car settled?
I still have more room in the back to come down but my front is at max and is not low enough for my liking. I would like the fenders to be about 1/2" lower than the top of the tire. Just a very small tuck.
I fitted my Bilstien and H&R a few years ago... I have decided to do the camber plates and FVD lowering collars
That combo won't work for many reasons. You'll need a rear top spring hat that will fit the H&R spring. And you'll either have to run ~US ride height, or you'll be on bump stops 100% of the time. You have to use a shorter bodied shock & strut in order to use camber plates and monoball top mounts at anything lower than ~US height. The rear shocks actually have quite a bit of travel available. The front struts are the problem. They are barely able to get to RS ride height with stock mounts and leave enough compression stroke available to not be hitting the bump stops all the time.
Euro RS suspension will obviously allow RS height with monoball mounts. Supposedly the stock C2/C4 PSS9 and KW V3 kits have enough latitude in the piston travel to get you there too. I opted for the RS version of the KW V3 kit just for this reason.
Hope that saves you from buying incompatible parts!
ps- I have a pair of rear lower rear collars that fit Bilstein HD bodies and are compatible with a standard coilover spring diameter. Brand new from the UK. If anybody is interested.
I am a little confused. Johan has the exact same setup as me and has been able to get his car lower than RS specs with FVD front lowering collars. (Johan, do you hit bump stops with the way you sit?)
This is the way I sit with about another 1 1/2" in the rear more to come down....front is all the way down. The whole purpose of the FVD collars is to get lower without any compromise to the struts bottoming out. I would assume FVD would not produce something that will compromise driving ability...but I could be wrong.
In regards to the camber plates? I am not looking for rear camber plates, only fronts. So basically the camber plates will shorten the stroke and I will be hitting bump stops with this application? If that is the case... I will not be getting the rennline camber plates.
sounds strange, the car handles great and I feel I should know if it bottomed out. I am entirely sure it had a lot of travel left when I installed it. Since then I havent really looked at it, but when I get it back from the shop (in for service) I can verify this.
I just spoke with Tom at Rennline and he is 100% confident that the travel does not change when changing out the camber plates with my setup. It only adjust camber...that is all. I am speaking in regards to front only.
Strut travel doesn't change when installing front camberplates, but ride height 100% does. Monoball top mounts are like putting a spacer between your spring and the body of the car. Monoball mounts raise the ride height a little less than an inch total. It's extremely disingenuous that Rennline doesn't state this. Tom was also convinced that Bilstein + H&R would work with their monoball mounts when I bought them over a year ago. My last tech email to them describing the issues was never answered. Monoball top mounts absolutely do not work with the Bilstein H&R combination unless you settle for Euro ride height or above, and you find a solution for the rear spring hat.
FVD collars have the same effect as using a shorter spring and they do effect travel. They're made to be used only with the stock springs so that you can get down to RS heights. Their purpose is to lower cars using stock springs, not to lower cars on lowered springs. Anytime you use a lower spring or lowering collars, you give up shock compression travel and add rebound travel. And a shock only has so much compression travel to give up.
The RS achieves its ride height by using a shorter shock body as well as shorter springs with its monoball top mounts.
Here's a rough guide for ride heights-
1. Stock springs + standard C2/C4 shocks + stock top mounts = US - Euro ride height using the adjustable collar.
2. FVD + Stock springs + C2/C4 shocks + stock top mounts = RS - Euro height
3. H&R + C2/C4 shocks + stock top mounts = RS - Euro height
4. FVD + H&R + C2/C4 shocks + stock top mounts = <RS height, on bump stops, no go.
5. FVD + H&R + C2/C4 shocks + monoball top mounts = RS - Euro height, on bump stops, no go.
So my understanding is that the Rennline camber plates when fully assembled are taller than stock top mounts? Thus losing strut travel but increase in height?
Any possible way of getting a small negative camber with my setup without the camber plates. Or am I stuck with what I have for adjustment?
Hi Jeff,
That's exactly right! It looks like Rennline just copied the stock RS mounts. I don't know why the original RS mounts are made that way.
You should be able to get plenty of street camber in the front at RS height without camber plates. Maybe up to -2 degrees or so. With the KW's, I can get almost -3 degrees in front with the camber plates at their *least* negative position. Probably an additional -3 available in the plates. FWIW, I run -1.4 front and -2.0 rear. Rear is using all stock alignment parts. Works great for me. No noticeable wear on my iron-clad all-seasons are wearing evenly so far. I expect that my soft summer tires will too, since they see plenty of corners.
You'll want the RS version of the KW V3 to use with monoball top mounts. The KW part number: 35-271013. Vivid Racing had a nice discount. They do take a while to arrive via u-boat. In addition to the shorter shocks/struts, the rear spring rate is slightly higher. It's as big of a transformation as going to Bilstein+H&R from the stock parts.
I really didn't notice much of a difference with the monoball top mounts. Even though my old mounts were original and had some cracks starting in the rubber. Definitely no extra nvh that I notice.
Sorry to push you down the slippery slope! Have fun.
01-23-2015, 06:11 PM
