Installing Coilovers, Part 1, the rear
05-03-2019, 06:32 PM
#1
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Installing Coilovers, Part 1, the rear
OK, time to get on installing the Bilstein PSS9 coilovers I have. I made an appointment for May 17th for corner balance/alignment, so my plan is to do the rears today and the fronts next Friday.
First off, I need to remove the Bose subwoofer that's behind the front seats. Sharkwerks has a very good DIY on their website but here's the jist of it.
Squash yourself into the back seats. Fold down the seat backs. Using a 6mm allen, remove the rear seat posts on either side.
Use your fingers to pull off the plastic surrounds that say "Bose" on them. That reveals a T30 torx on either side. Remove it. Pull the subwoofer forward and unclip the wiring harness on the drivers side by pinching the plug together and pulling it towards the passenger side.
Pull the carpet up and out from either side that covers the rear shock tops. Remove the large piece of carpet in the middle. Remove the silver brackets that hold the subwoofer into place with a 10mm rachet. Now you should be looking at this...
Here's the subwoofer and carpet out of the car...
OK, time to get underneath the car. Remove the wheel. I bought this super cool plastic lined deep well socket, which I've used once and now it seems to be plugged up? WTF! Anyways....
Remove the swaybar endlink. I have a larger H&R bar, it was an 8mm allen.
Now remove the bolt that holds the bottom of the shock in. You'll want to get a jack underneath it, as the whole assembly will droop and you can't drive the bolt out.
Now remove the three 15mm nuts from the top of the shocks. Using a prybar, pop the rear shock eyelet out and carefully remove the entire assembly out of the car.
OK, now use some spring compressors and take the stock rear shock mount off. It's an 18mm nut and you need to hold the top of the shock shaft to keep it from turning.
Here's where the Bilstein instructions really suck. They don't really show you what to reuse from the stock stuff, or how to put together the rear adjustment ****. Which rather oddly, is on the top, where it's covered by carpet and the subwoofer. Awesome.
Anyways, you want to use the entirety of the rear shock top mount with the exception of the rubber stock spring seat. Go ahead and put them on and run down the one nut from bilstein. Now put on the washer/spacer Bilstein gave you, then run down the silver shoulder nut. On top of the shoulder nut goes the black washer with the dowel in it. Have the dowel facing up and line it up with the notch in the top of the shock, after you turned the top of the shock counter clockwise. This is important! You need to start out with the shock set on full soft.
It should look like this...
Now index the adjuster ****. Since these are PSS9's, that means 9 distinct clicks clockwise. Tighten the set screw. Time to install! Research on Rennlist showed that I want to set these at "5", so I did. Bilstein has very specific ride heights for these, they call for 205-210mm from the center of the bottom eyelet to the bottom of the top spring seat.
So not a whole lot of adjustment. I set them at 210mm, once I get the car on the ground I'll see what the ride height is. Stock was basically 26.5" ground to fender lip all the way around. I want to set it at 25.75", so lower the car 3/4". Hopefully it'll be ok.
So I put the tops in and the nuts finger tight. I then pushed down on the rear hub and popped the rear shock eyelet in. Here's where a friend is really helpful. I lined up the hub to the coilover eyelet and he pushed the bolt through. Once that got done I torqued it to 81ft lbs. Then I torqued the upper nuts to 34ft lbs.
I attached the swaybar endlink to both the swaybar and the coilover body and torqued to the coilover body 31 ft lbs. I did not torque the other end as that needs to be done when the car is on its wheels with weight on it.
I left the carpet etc out from inside the cabin until I drive the car some and figure out if I want to leave them set at "5" or not. Access to the rear adjusters looks like removing the rear subwoofer and carpet every time, unless I can sneak out just the carpet over the rear shocks. I'll have to look at that.
Next up is installing the Elephant Racing rear toe locking plates, then installing the front PSS9's.
First off, I need to remove the Bose subwoofer that's behind the front seats. Sharkwerks has a very good DIY on their website but here's the jist of it.
Squash yourself into the back seats. Fold down the seat backs. Using a 6mm allen, remove the rear seat posts on either side.
Use your fingers to pull off the plastic surrounds that say "Bose" on them. That reveals a T30 torx on either side. Remove it. Pull the subwoofer forward and unclip the wiring harness on the drivers side by pinching the plug together and pulling it towards the passenger side.
Pull the carpet up and out from either side that covers the rear shock tops. Remove the large piece of carpet in the middle. Remove the silver brackets that hold the subwoofer into place with a 10mm rachet. Now you should be looking at this...
Here's the subwoofer and carpet out of the car...
OK, time to get underneath the car. Remove the wheel. I bought this super cool plastic lined deep well socket, which I've used once and now it seems to be plugged up? WTF! Anyways....
Remove the swaybar endlink. I have a larger H&R bar, it was an 8mm allen.
Now remove the bolt that holds the bottom of the shock in. You'll want to get a jack underneath it, as the whole assembly will droop and you can't drive the bolt out.
Now remove the three 15mm nuts from the top of the shocks. Using a prybar, pop the rear shock eyelet out and carefully remove the entire assembly out of the car.
OK, now use some spring compressors and take the stock rear shock mount off. It's an 18mm nut and you need to hold the top of the shock shaft to keep it from turning.
Here's where the Bilstein instructions really suck. They don't really show you what to reuse from the stock stuff, or how to put together the rear adjustment ****. Which rather oddly, is on the top, where it's covered by carpet and the subwoofer. Awesome.
Anyways, you want to use the entirety of the rear shock top mount with the exception of the rubber stock spring seat. Go ahead and put them on and run down the one nut from bilstein. Now put on the washer/spacer Bilstein gave you, then run down the silver shoulder nut. On top of the shoulder nut goes the black washer with the dowel in it. Have the dowel facing up and line it up with the notch in the top of the shock, after you turned the top of the shock counter clockwise. This is important! You need to start out with the shock set on full soft.
It should look like this...
Now index the adjuster ****. Since these are PSS9's, that means 9 distinct clicks clockwise. Tighten the set screw. Time to install! Research on Rennlist showed that I want to set these at "5", so I did. Bilstein has very specific ride heights for these, they call for 205-210mm from the center of the bottom eyelet to the bottom of the top spring seat.
So not a whole lot of adjustment. I set them at 210mm, once I get the car on the ground I'll see what the ride height is. Stock was basically 26.5" ground to fender lip all the way around. I want to set it at 25.75", so lower the car 3/4". Hopefully it'll be ok.
So I put the tops in and the nuts finger tight. I then pushed down on the rear hub and popped the rear shock eyelet in. Here's where a friend is really helpful. I lined up the hub to the coilover eyelet and he pushed the bolt through. Once that got done I torqued it to 81ft lbs. Then I torqued the upper nuts to 34ft lbs.
I attached the swaybar endlink to both the swaybar and the coilover body and torqued to the coilover body 31 ft lbs. I did not torque the other end as that needs to be done when the car is on its wheels with weight on it.
I left the carpet etc out from inside the cabin until I drive the car some and figure out if I want to leave them set at "5" or not. Access to the rear adjusters looks like removing the rear subwoofer and carpet every time, unless I can sneak out just the carpet over the rear shocks. I'll have to look at that.
Next up is installing the Elephant Racing rear toe locking plates, then installing the front PSS9's.
05-04-2019, 02:58 AM
#6
Rennlist Member
Very nice upgrade and write up! Looking forward to seeing how the fronts go on and how you like it.