Nitron pre-load and ride height

Hi there-

I recently installed Nitron 3 way for M2 Comp- the only way to adjust height is to change pre-load- the car sits way too low so I tightened up the pre-load but did not see significant change in ride height- the helper spring is compressed pretty good- also when I bounce the car I can hear the spring rattling- should I keep tightening the pre-load to position 2 until I see ride height change? Thanks!

Those NITRON coil-overs use standard 2 1/4" springs, which are available from many manufacturers in a range of free lengths and spring rates.

You need longer main springs, perhaps 2" longer? Normally I would expect the main spring to be replaced but, if on a tight budget, the helper/anti-rattle spring may be replaced with a higher rate, longer one - exactly what I couldn't advise off-hand.

There are some very switched on chaps, though, who can give more in-depth suggestions if you can give the vehicle details, use, etc, of it.

Thank you Gord- it’s a BMW M2 Comp using 20 inch wheels- I’ve heard that Nitron is supposed to work best on 18 inch wheels out of the box- the 20 inch wheels can lead to height adjustment problem because of larger wheel diameter that Nitron wasn’t designed for- is it correct? Thank you!

Hi Arwin, just to confirm here - you are lowering the spring platform adjuster to try to raise that car, correct? Lowering the spring platform will raise the car, so you just need to keep going until you start measuring a change. Make sure the suspension isn't getting held up on anything and that the car is not sitting on its bump stops or anything like that. That is one situation where if the car is set far too low, you may need to shift the spring platforms quite a bit if the bump stops are supporting the main weight of the car, but that would be a pretty extreme situation!

The rattle you talk about, is this with the car on the ground? When the car is sitting with weight on the springs, there should be no way for anything to rattle.

Let us know how you get on.

Thank you Tim- car is not sitting on the bump stop- I kept lowering spring platform but still the ride heights stays the same- the helper is compressed pretty good after lowering the spring perch- as well as the spring itself- but still no change in ride height- I'm a bit reluctant to go further as the spring makes the adjuster quite hard to turn already-

The rattle only appears when I physically bounce the car on the corner- don't hear anything during normal driving- however when the car sits on the ground- I can hear clicking sound coming from the springs every half minute or so- when I raised the spring perch back up and freed the springs- the clicking and rattle sound went away- but still no matter how I adjust the spring perch there's zero ride height change-

I heard from somewhere that Nitron is mostly designed for 18 inch wheels- in this case would using 20 inch wheels impact the adjustability in any way if the adjustment window for the coilover is already small?

Thank you!

Are you adjusting both spring perches on the same end of the car (or is any anti-roll bar disconnected). You can really get fooled if the ARB is transferring the load to the other side of the car while you're adjusting the spring perches.

As David suggests, there must be something else - adjusting the spring seat MUST affect the ride height, unless the damper is already at one extreme of it's travel.

Wheel diameter isn't the issue - it's the overall tyre diameter that is the important thing for ride height.

Not sure what the 'clicking' sound is, but it may be some settling of the springs on their seats?

As both David and Gord have said, it seems like something quite fundamentally wrong going on that's causing your issues Arwin. When everything is working normally, moving the spring perch will always change the ride height, unless something else is supporting the car. Whether it is a component getting stuck or jammed that's preventing travel, the damper being maxed out, a stiff ARB or something? For a start, it would be worth disconnecting the anti-roll bar, removing the spring and moving the suspension through its travel and working from there.

Let us know how you get on