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      09-22-2019, 07:38 PM   #1
TheBreeze
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PSS10 installed on non-edc f80! Updated

Spent the day installing and setting up PSS10 coilovers and ground control camber plates. So far I'm absolutely loving the look. Paired with 17.5mm/15mm spacers front/back using stock tires. So far I'm loving the ride, very comfortable. Going to give it a couple of weeks to break in before alignment and final adjustments.
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      09-23-2019, 11:29 AM   #2
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Looks great! I am without EDC as well and have considered these coilovers as the lowering doesnt seem to be as extreme as some of the others out there.
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      09-23-2019, 12:57 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gatorfast View Post
Looks great! I am without EDC as well and have considered these coilovers as the lowering doesnt seem to be as extreme as some of the others out there.
The height adjustment range is far greater than the quoted range provided by Bilstein. You can set the rears to stock or higher than stock height if you really wanted to, and the fronts can go much higher than the quoted -30mm minimum drop. Not sure if this info was useful or not, but thought I'd chime in in case it helped you make a decision.
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      09-23-2019, 03:04 PM   #4
TheBreeze
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I have the fronts down all the way, the rears could probably drop another 2+ inches. I was really looking for consistent fender gap all around, and I got it pretty close. The rears are a bitch to adjust height. The provided wrench is too long, so I cut a couple of inches off of it, so I could actually turn the wrench without having to remove the fender liners. Still took a while, but it's close now, so any more adjustments shouldn't take too long.
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      09-23-2019, 03:50 PM   #5
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Please provide more info on how it rides when you rack up some more miles, I'm also non-EDC, on 18's.
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      09-23-2019, 11:05 PM   #6
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Looks Great!!! Are those 18s or 19s?
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      09-24-2019, 05:18 AM   #7
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Looks Great!!! Are those 18s or 19s?
OEM 19s
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      09-24-2019, 05:44 AM   #8
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Looks great. I'm in Rolesville but I'm sure I'll run into you around town.
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      09-24-2019, 11:25 AM   #9
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Looks perfect for my taste. What sucks is that my rears look exactly like that with Eibachs and spacers but the front has a larger gap, this makes everything look like it should.
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      09-24-2019, 01:58 PM   #10
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Looks fantastic!
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      09-24-2019, 02:47 PM   #11
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Looks good! I have PSS10's and love em. Have done two long road trips and like them a lot. Height adjustment range is great and you can dial them to have no wheel gap.

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      11-12-2019, 08:56 AM   #12
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Update

Figured I'd give folks an update now that it's been 6 weeks. I'm very happy with the PSS10 and Ground Control setup. The car appears to have settled a touch lower, stance is perfect for my taste. I do have to be careful on some driveways and have to take some of them on an angle, but speed bumps and such haven't posed a problem. Car feels really tight, is still comfortable around town, and NVH is manageable. Now that it's broken in, I'm currently using setting 4 on the front and 3 on the rear. It's definitely stiffer than the factory non-EDC suspension, but still comfortable the vast majority of the time.

That said, hitting pot holes or uneven expansion joints at speeds above 30 is extremely harsh and jarring. If the roads are bad where you live, you may want to think twice before going to a system like this. I'm sure the Ground Control plates contribute to the problem, as does having the front coilovers all the way down. YMMV.

NVH is increased, but it''s very dependent on the road surface. Smooth blacktop is very quiet. Abrasive surfaces and rain-grooved concrete transfers quite a bit of tire noise. It's not like these roads were quiet on the stock suspensions either, but it's definitely more pronounced with the coilovers/camber plates installed.

I won't hit the track until next spring, so I'll add comments on track performance then.
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      11-13-2019, 05:26 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheBreeze View Post
Figured I'd give folks an update now that it's been 6 weeks. I'm very happy with the PSS10 and Ground Control setup. The car appears to have settled a touch lower, stance is perfect for my taste. I do have to be careful on some driveways and have to take some of them on an angle, but speed bumps and such haven't posed a problem. Car feels really tight, is still comfortable around town, and NVH is manageable. Now that it's broken in, I'm currently using setting 4 on the front and 3 on the rear. It's definitely stiffer than the factory non-EDC suspension, but still comfortable the vast majority of the time.

That said, hitting even shallow pot holes or uneven expansion at speeds above 30 is extremely harsh and jarring. If the roads are bad where you live, you may want to think twice before going to a system like this. I'm sure the Ground Control plates contribute to the problem, as does having the front coilovers all the way down. YMMV.

NVH is increased, but it''s very dependent on the road surface. Smooth blacktop is very quiet. Abrasive surfaces and rain-grooved concrete transfers quite a bit of tire noise. It's not like these roads were quiet on the stock suspensions either, but it's definitely more pronounced with the coilovers/camber plates installed.

I won't hit the track until next spring, so I'll add comments on track performance then.
Thanks for the update.

The fact that it feels harsh and jarring at city speeds even at your soft settings (out of the 10 clicks available) is no bueno.

I live in a shithole full of potholes so I for sure don't want it any stiffer than it is now on non-EDC dampers and stock 18's. I find it great at higher speeds, but around town, it is stiff and bouncy enough for me.
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      11-13-2019, 08:46 AM   #14
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Agree, thanks for the update and I am also surprised at the reported harshness of this setup. The PSS10 were supposedly the best street coilover option.
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      11-13-2019, 09:10 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gatorfast View Post
Agree, thanks for the update and I am also surprised at the reported harshness of this setup. The PSS10 were supposedly the best street coilover option.
I think I'm going to try increasing the damping and see what that does. The issue only occurs where there are sharp and pronounced elevation changes, and it's quite possible that it's crashing up against the internal bump stop. That's what it feels like anyway.
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      11-28-2019, 02:45 AM   #16
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I've been running PSS10 coilovers for about 3 yrs and 22K+ miles now. I think the harshness you are experiencing is because the car is WAY too low. You need raise the car up to let the suspension do it's job. Increasing damping to stiffer may help as it will keep the suspension off the bump stops a bit more, but the reality is, with so little suspension travel up front, ain't no amt of damping adjustments that will really fix the issue.

My car was lowered modestly - still a good 2 finger gap up front and 1 finger gap in rear. This makes the car look massively better than stock but does not look slammed. With this ride height and dampers set at 4 front and 5 rear, I thought the car rode extremely well - better than stock in virtually all situations and eons better than when I had the KW HAS springs on stock dampers.

Now, with just 22K miles on the coilovers, I do feel that the damping is pretty worn and the suspension is feeling more harsh than I like as it is blowing through the suspension travel and bottoming out more and rebound damping is not as strong as when newer. Still feels better than KW HAS on stock shocks, but not as good as when I first installed the PSS10s.

If you really want to improve ride quality AND reduce the tire gap, go up 10mm front and rear in tire size. I'm running 265/35/19 F and 285/35/19 R. I have tires set at 32 PSI all around. This nicely closes the wheel well gap while also noticeably increasing traction and improving ride quality.

Personally, I don't know how people drive around with little or no front end gap AND run real carbon fiber front lips. I can only imagine how crappy the ride quality is with like .5" of suspension travel, no matter what coilover or spring set up people have. But, I guess some people just prioritize looks over handling and ride quality.
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      12-20-2019, 11:10 AM   #17
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Another update

I decided to make some changes to see if I could improve the ride and noise qualities. First up was to increase damping to 5 front and rear. To my surprise, this actually made the ride better - more controlled without being bouncy or harsh. I'm thinking that the lower settings simply don't have enough compression damping for the spring rates.

Next up, I swapped out my nearly new PSS tires (stock size) for a +1 PS4S setup. This made a very noticeable improvement in ride quality and noise. I'm quite impressed with the PS4S tire (and I've always been a big fan of the PSS as a street tire). Going over expansion joints or other rode irregularities is much improved over the PSS, tire noise has decreased markedly, and the slightly larger size does fill the wheel well better. Handling seems at least as good as the PSS, dry and wet grip are improved, especially in colder temps. I'll be tracking the car in the spring, and am interested to see how it performs as a wet track tire (I run NT01s on the track, but they are like driving on ice in the wet). On the negative side, I'm not a big fan of the round sidewalls on the PS4S, kinda looks like a donut, but hey, I'm just being really nit-picky now.

Lastly, I decided to raise the car 10mm all around, mainly to gain some ground clearance for my driveway and to add a bit more insurance against bottoming out. The car doesn't really look that much different from the pictures I posted in my original post, no obnoxious wheel gap, and I'm happy to report that I've not had any bottoming issues since the change.

Regarding the bump in tire size, I did have rubbing issues. Reducing the spacers from 17.5/15 front/rear to 15/12 front/rear got rid of the slight rear rub, but the fronts still rubbed. I ended up having to remold the plastic fender a bit using a heat gun and that got rid of almost all of it. I still get a very slight rub on the left front when making a quick hard left. I decided to stop messing with it since it's really a very minor rub, and I think it will go away on it's own as the tire wears, or it wears the fender liner in that one small spot.

All told, the ride and noise are now much improved, so much so that my wife even commented on how much better her passenger experience is, and that she may actually want to drive the car on occasion now.
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