ack5252

Ha sounds good, thanks for your help guys!

CoolGuy094

ack - Anything that you loosen to get the old coilover out is what you need to tighten to proper torque spec after jacking up the control arm. This should be "good enough" for what you will use your car for. You don't need to worry too much about the stuff the macr88 mentioned unless you are serious about autox/tracking the car like he is.

RedCelica

I find no reason you have to keep the control arm bolts loose prior pre-load...maybe you could explain that one to me.

vividracing.com

If there's not adjustable collars, then you can't adjust spring preload.

macr88

There's so much confusion in this thread

I'll post up explaining things a bit more or maybe a DIY

kulo

I put 5mm preload on my bc coilovers 10kg all round

RedCelica

Sorry if I was a source

SOHCNightmare

I'm noticing a lot of confusion as well lol... Perchaps I can shed some light?

Bushing pre-load is completely different from spring pre-load.

Pre-loading your bushings is to help preserve them long term, to avoid them from being torn.
When you tighten all the bolts on the suspension with the control arms in full droop, the bushings are naturally at rest, they aren't in a bind or trying to be twisted. Once you set the car down, and the control arm moves up, the bushings are now slightly in a bind. This bind will cause them to wear at a much faster rate. Therefore you need to place a jack under the control arm that you're ready to secure. Jack it to approximatly where it will rest with the cars weight on it. Then tighten all your bolts. So when the car is back on it's wheels. The bushings are in as close to a neutral state as possible.

Hope this helps.

RedCelica

Would you agree that bushing pre-load will achieve a spring pre-load as well?

This seems to be a good illustration of spring preload: http://zilvia.net/f/tech-talk/58103-...tml#post513617

ack5252

Thanks SOHC I am definitely talking about bushing pre-load not spring pre-load. My bad if that wasnt clear. By the way that forum link is definitely a great explanation for spring pre-load, that was really helpful.

So now it sounds like I need to jack the arm up with ALL bolts loose is that right? Or is it just the bolts that attach the spring/shock assembly as mentioned before?