Ohlins Road & Track

[Oodis]

I am going to have to verify this next time I pop a wheel off my car (should be in a few days) but it does look like you need to rotate the shock bodies. Your bracket looks like its sitting at the 12 o'clock position and I believe mine are at the 10 and 2 spots (depending on what side of the car).

The shock body is part of the problem but i installed as per Ohlins requirements. I did have another look the other day and believe if you are using a sway bar link that has a thicker shaft then stock you need to rotate the shock body further around to allow more clearance for the thicker link. Having said this i don't believe it will completely remedy the issue as the adjustable part of the link is just to thick for the elongated "J" shaped mount for the sway bar link. I plan to get under the car again sometime next week to install Front lower control arms and tie rod ends so i will have a better gander then.

Unfortunately im not able to use my SPL links any more as one is very bent now and to get them in Australia is very expensive compared to the US, the shipping bends me over and has its way with me.

Sponsored

 

[Oodis]

So the picture he sent was actually from me a while back but I do have more pictures if you want to take a look haha. This was before I had helper springs installed. Let me know if you notice anything wrong!

Yes cobber i did use your photo cause im lazy and it showed the same issue but for different reason
cheers bloke for your photography prowess

 

[decodeddiesel]

I am going to have to verify this next time I pop a wheel off my car (should be in a few days) but it does look like you need to rotate the shock bodies. Your bracket looks like its sitting at the 12 o'clock position and I believe mine are at the 10 and 2 spots (depending on what side of the car).

Oh man, I'm really glad you weighed in here @Evolution . This thread was starting to make me think I should stay away from Ohlins since my front suspension is essentially all SPL at this point.

 

[razorlab]

This is where the sway bar bracket lives on my MCS for reference. Zero issues over 30 track days.

 

[3TMagnetMan]

Yea i'm in the same boat, this whole ordeal has been a nightmare... Sway bars do not fit spl parts unless you do endlinks and endlinks don't fit the ohlins. I'm assuming ohlins just made these coils for stock cars, kinda dissapointed I was very excited to put ohlins on my car. Ohlins Also do not fit the verus universal camber plates

Thanks for the info

 

[Evolution]

Oh man, I'm really glad you weighed in here @Evolution . This thread was starting to make me think I should stay away from Ohlins since my front suspension is essentially all SPL at this point.

I honestly think the issue is that most people/shops dont really give the clocking a second thought. Yes, it will look fine with the steering wheel straight but with it clocked wrong, they do hit. There is no clocking tab like on the factory struts so it takes a bit of trial and error to get it right, especially with thicker links.

@razorlab do the MCS have a clocking tab? Yours seem to be clocked about the same as mine.

 

[razorlab]

I honestly think the issue is that most people/shops dont really give the clocking a second thought. Yes, it will look fine with the steering wheel straight but with it clocked wrong, they do hit. There is no clocking tab like on the factory struts so it takes a bit of trial and error to get it right, especially with thicker links.

@razorlab do the MCS have a clocking tab? Yours seem to be clocked about the same as mine.

Yup, they do. I had no idea the Ohlins do not. This issue makes more sense now.

 

[Evolution]

Yup, they do. I had no idea the Ohlins do not. This issue makes more sense now.

Yep, I can see a lot of people over looking the clocking step....

Kinda sucks that your cant independently adjust ride height and preload on yours though.

 

[razorlab]

Kinda sucks that your cant independently adjust ride height and preload on yours though.

I haven't had any issues with it.

 

[Evolution]

I haven't had any issues with it.

Next time you have your front tires off and car in the air, can you grab me some measurements? Mostly wondering what the difference in shock stroke/droop is between ours.

 

[FLtrackdays]

I honestly think the issue is that most people/shops dont really give the clocking a second thought. Yes, it will look fine with the steering wheel straight but with it clocked wrong, they do hit. There is no clocking tab like on the factory struts so it takes a bit of trial and error to get it right, especially with thicker links.

@razorlab do the MCS have a clocking tab? Yours seem to be clocked about the same as mine.

I figured it had to be an install thing. Mine is SPL loaded and no troubles. I was 3-5 seconds faster on track just screwing around having fun. I’m really really enjoying these Ohlins! I don’t doubt MCS superiority btw. They were just so much more expensive. I couldn’t justify it for me

 

[Evolution]

I figured it had to be an install thing. Mine is SPL loaded and no troubles. I was 3-5 seconds faster on track just screwing around having fun. I’m really really enjoying these Ohlins! I don’t doubt MCS superiority btw. They were just so much more expensive. I couldn’t justify it for me

I just do track days for fun so I couldn't justify the price difference either. I got my Ohlins for $2300 and get no discount on MCS so it was a REALLY big price difference.

 

[Oodis]

Yep, I can see a lot of people over looking the clocking step....

Kinda sucks that your cant independently adjust ride height and preload on yours though.

The problem is ohlins want you to have the sticker facing the brake callipers so you do that, everything looks good, you put car on the ground and check clearances and it doesn't look to bad but it is very hard to see up into the link shock mount and thats where the issue is if they had a locating lug it would be so much better. If i had my time again i most likely would have gone with MCS but i could not justify the extra cash to the minister of war and finance as it was ohlins cost $5500 AUD. Front sway bar end links landed from US cost about $500 AUD

 

[FLtrackdays]

The problem is ohlins want you to have the sticker facing the brake callipers so you do that, everything looks good, you put car on the ground and check clearances and it doesn't look to bad but it is very hard to see up into the link shock mount and thats where the issue is if they had a locating lug it would be so much better. If i had my time again i most likely would have gone with MCS but i could not justify the extra cash to the minister of war and finance as it was ohlins cost $5500 AUD. Front sway bar end links landed from US cost about $500 AUD

Hope you’ll be as happy with yours as I am once you get her setup.

Guess I’ll share the whole story.

My BMW mechanic (Ricky) was definitely impressed with the quality of the Ohlins. He laid it out next to another Supra customers coilovers for comparison. He had two interns at the time and said what a great lesson this will be for them. You could see the parts difference. My Ohlins looked like it had 3x the parts of the other brand coilovers.

Fast forward to after the install. My fav alignment shop called me right away with questions way beyond my pay grade. So I gave him Ricky’s number. I honestly I thought the alignment shop owner was going to drop me. Not exaggerating. He had a long talk with me about much are you willing to spend? I was too far into it at this point, so I told him to do what it takes 🫣. Luckily after our heart to heart, he spoke to SPL, bought some bolts he & SPL agreed upon and luckily for me, it didn’t become the project car he was anticipating

He did say SPL was extremely helpful. I’m not sure what it was. But both the alignment shop and my mechanic agree the Ohlins actually helped my previous SPL stress when I was too low. The mechanics were happy with the results. So I hope it’s just the clocking issue Sean (Evo) mentioned. I’ll ask both of them next time I go back, what it really entailed, now that I know a little bit more.

Bottom line it can be done and they feel great. However, sounds like there should be an instruction manual revision for our cars

 

[PikkaGTR]

I apologize in advance if this is a stupid question
I am running these Ohlins with Swift helper springs.
My preload and ride height is adjusted properly and the car has been aligned to my preference
I can not for the life of me figure out how to adjust the ride height
I know how it's done off the car, but it is not very intuitive on the car
The rear is no brainer but the front has me bamboozled

My only conclusion is that the shock body needs to turn after you turn the bottom orange adjustment collar and spin the shock body, which seems impossible with the shock body having the swaybar endlink and brake line bracket
does this mean in order to adjust ride height without messing with preload I would have to remove the shock , adjust and reinstall each time?

Thanks for any guidance you folks can provide

Sponsored