Roush Stage 1 & 3 Coilover Suspension

[TorkN8R]

Does anyone have the Roush coilover suspention, 1 or 3 ?

Could you offer up any comments and or reviews.

Sponsored

 

[madsedan]

I was thinking the same thing earlier today when I was reading about them, would love to hear some independent feedback on quality and performance.

 

[POOPonYOU]

Roush makes great stuff. You could always PM hypermotive who is an authorized dealer. I bet they would happily provide you with some honest feedback.

 

[Rocketboy]

Roush is #1 in my Book.
Went to the open house last Thursday and toured the Roush Performance. Some some Stage 2's,3's and Warrior's getting the Suspension installed. Cannot wait to see the road reviews. As this is a mod I plan for in the Spring.

 

[jayman33]

I personally went to Roush up in Livonia to ask about the coilover setup. Took a look at them and also went for a test drive in their phase 3 car that had a set of Roush Stage 1 coilovers. Very well balanced, the drop I want to was about 1.5 in the rear and 1 in the front (estimate) for a good straight look front and back.

I personally feel those who use them will not be disappointed. Give us a shout if you have any questions.

 

[tweekdout]

has anyone heard what a good starting place is for setting up the three ways, or are they neutral-set out of the box?

 

[bam2002]

I have the 3 way adjustable ones. I got them on sale during Black Friday they are currently sitting on a shelf.
I have a track day in Jan ( Sebring) when I will run the car and record my lap times and G force with the car 99.9% stock.. Only brake pads will be updated.
I then will add the Coil overs before my next track day in Feb.. Record the data and see what a difference they made.
Swap out wheels - tires for the afternoon session. to 19x10.. with 275s all the way around.

Then I have the Steeda, Rear suspension - anti wheel hop kit to install.
GO back out to the track..

Rinse.. Repeat.

 

[SteveW]

I got a set too during BF sales. Here are some detail pics. I know there were a few things I was curious about that I couldn't find detailed info on like the adjusters so here they are.

I purchased some MM camber/caster plates and new OEM upper spring seats so I can build up a complete front strut assembly instead or taking apart the factory struts for the upper strut mount. My car's primary use is autocross so I want to run the max amount of camber I can get.

Full set

Fr Strut top adjustment hole

Fr Strut with adjuster

Fr strut slotted clevis bracket

Fr strut compression adjuster

Rear shock has knob for compression adj. That will make it easier to adj than having to stick a pin in there and swing it. The rebound adj is at the top just like the front struts.

 

[SteveW]

I finally installed my set this past weekend and can report on some basic things about the kit.

I installed the kit with Maximum Motorsports camber plates on the front struts with fresh upper spring seat because I didn't want to have to take apart the OEM front struts and springs to reuse any of those parts. Plus, I wanted camber plates to maximize front camber for autocross.

- Front ride height dropped 7/8" with the Roush preset collars

- Rear ride height dropped an avg of about 3/8". I had a 3/16" variance in OEM height between L and R sides for some reason. It is now an 1/8" but eventually I will corner weight the car so who knows where it really needs to be at this time.

- The Roush rear shock, spring and perch weigh 17.6 lbs. The OEM parts weigh 15.4 lbs for a difference of 2.2 lbs per side. Ugh, it is heavier!

-The Roush front strut, spring and MM upper mount weigh 17.6 lbs. The OEM parts weigh 19.2 lbs for a difference of 1.6 lbs. Lighter - yay!

I preset all the compression and rebound adjusters to zero before install. A short ride to seat everything and get a feel for the car tells me that's way too soft. I turned all the compression knobs up 5 clicks and will drive it again in the morning. I will fiddle with compression and rebound for the best feel on the street and call it my rain/street settings. I'll go up from that for the best dry autocross settings for asphalt and concrete surfaces as I run in autocross events and tests.

BTW, compression changes are a piece of cake with this set. Since the shocks and struts have knobs to turn at their bases all you have to do is lay on the ground and reach around the tire to the bottom of shock/strut and turn it. As long as you know which direction is zero and how many clicks from that you're golden. No need to jack up the car or even remove the wheel to get to it.

Rebound on the rear shock will require raising the car to get at the top of the shock, though.

Alignment: you definitely should get the car aligned afterwards. My front toe changed 5/8" more outwards but rear toe only a 1/16" more in according to my tape measure. I adjusted the front toe close to zero myself and will put it on the alignment rack in a couple weeks when I get a better feel for what I think the car needs. The rear toe change isn't enough to make me concerned about excessive tire wear for the time being. I might be lucky to put 500 miles on the car before loading it on the trailer for a trip to Cali for an autocross in a couple weeks.

 

[bam2002]

I am interested how you set them - IE rebound and Compression.
I wont put my set on for about 3 months.
I want to do a few track events with the stock suspension as a base line.

 

[SteveW]

I've got about 100 miles from a couple different drives on the car with this suspension now. Apparently, I got mixed up on which way was firmer vs softer on the compression settings. On the first drive after installing them I mistakenly had them set to full firm on compression. It bounced along like it did with the PP shocks and with the "PP bounce" lots of us complain about.

Softer is counter-clockwise on the adjusters. For rebound it is as if you are looking down on the top of the shock. For compression it is counter-clockwise when looking up at the bottom of the shock.

Resetting each corner to full soft, plus one click up made a world of difference. No more bounce and the ride is 100x better than stock. I went up another 2 clicks on compression all around (so at 3) and the ride is still great and just a touch firmer. I want to keep going up until what I now know is the overdamped compression performance reappears.

It will be hard to gauge where any settings need to be for autocross until it warms up and I get on course with sticky tires. These days it is winter time, cold (teens to mid-30s) and I'm running around on UHP all-seasons trying not to get surprised by ice and snow patches.

 

[MustangCollector]

I have set these up and the Kwv3 versions and have extensive testing and settings that i can share with you guys if you like. i found 3 specific setups that works awesome for DD, street aggressive use and track. these are good kits overall i just dislike the rear height adjustment process and the lower compression. I tested a prototype Kw kit from Germany and the new kits have a wheel to turn on the lower rear shock making it a ton easier to adjust. only issue is you need to jack and remove the rear wheel to see what your doing unless you mark the shock with a sharpie and just count the turns left to right by sticking your arm under the car.

 

[SteveW]

I have set these up and the Kwv3 versions and have extensive testing and settings that i can share with you guys if you like. i found 3 specific setups that works awesome for DD, street aggressive use and track. these are good kits overall i just dislike the rear height adjustment process and the lower compression. I tested a prototype Kw kit from Germany and the new kits have a wheel to turn on the lower rear shock making it a ton easier to adjust. only issue is you need to jack and remove the rear wheel to see what your doing unless you mark the shock with a sharpie and just count the turns left to right by sticking your arm under the car.

For sure, pass along what you came up with for track settings, please. I have an autocross coming up but won't have any real time to experiment with much. Your settings would give me somewhere to start with.

I don't think the rear shock compression adjuster is a big deal. So long as you know how many knubs from one extreme or the other you need to be then why do you have to "see it"? I can reach it with the wheels on by reaching around the tire and up through a hole in the control atm. It's similar to the front strut access.

 

[tweekdout]

Ditto - I'd be interested in hearing what balance you found on the KWs also. I'm starting to think the better mix might be more towards the lower side of compression and rebound

 

[MustangCollector]

ok here is how i set these cars up. I set the rear height collar at .65 with a caliper so this is where my ride height was set. the fronts i had the car dropped about the same as an Eibach Pro kit, i didnt slam it down as i wanted some suspension travel to get a feel for the kits.

My favorite setting which i would call a track setting is the following
Front Compressior, turn to full hard and back off 4 clicks, rebound turn to full hard and back off 5 clicks
rear compression turn to full hard and back off 6 clicks, rebound turn to full hard and back off 7 clicks

the car felt awesome but isnt very DD comfortable in NYC but on a good road the car felt incredible and like a real sports tuned car for once. it takes some playing around with what you like.

For DD use the settings that worked best were
Front. Compression to full hard then backed off 11 clicks, rebound to full hard then backed off 10 clicks
rear compression to full hard and backed off 10 clicks and rebound full hard and backed off 8 clicks.

Sponsored