MK3 2GR handling issues

[hudster]

Recently picked up my MK3 after the engine conversion, as soon as i hit 50mph the car felt really light on the front end,very sensitive to any steering input,i took it for 4 wheel alignment but its still the same,its got tein coilovers amd some underbody and front stut bracing, it would be interesting to hear what other MK3 2GR owners think or any one else with any ideas or suggestions on setup

[loadswine]

Interesting Mike. Could it be that the car is now lighter? This one was unique before as it was the only 3VZ converted Roadster and I wondered if it might be a shift in weight. How does it compare with the 1MZs you have, feel wise?

[OlberJ]

Get it corner weighted by a specialist. Anything else is just guess work.

Set up right, it'll be a joy to drive.

[Paul Woods]

From speaking to Mike i feel something suspension wise is not right with the car, he describes it as dangerous at speed, so unless he gets to the bottom of it i will be having the car in to have a close look at what is going on with the suspension, it sat idle for a very long time so there could be something amiss with shocks etc.

[Goldy]

Suspension settings and damping may need a tweak if the engine weight has changed?

[hudster]

yes Nige the car is lighter now but i wouldnt expect it to make the front feel lighter,it does feel more nimble than before however i haven't had a good chance to get a feel for it, cheers Ollie and Goldy i'll check those out,got a few things to check after speaking to Paul so we'll solve this mystery hopefully soon

[Star_69]

Something's not quite right there. Being a mk3 2gr owner myself, I have to say it handles superbly. Better than ever in fact. Upgraded to BC Racing coil overs (5kg/7kg front/rear) and a TTE style underbody brace at the time of the conversion, have a front brace, so very similar set up. Had 4 wheel laser alignment done and the garage was very curious of the swap, put it on the scales (I think he was interested in replacing a turboed k20a in his Series 1 Elise). Here's a pic on the stats of it on the scales. 2568

Pretty light considering I had half a tank. Almost ideal cross weight, but he said it wouldnt be worth the hassle corner weighting as unless I was competition racing, wouldnt notice the difference. If anything the lightness on the front and understeer nearer the limit has gone completely. Feels very balanced and the car's got more cornering ability than I have balls/skill.

I would of said the spring rate is not hard enough for the surge of acceleration (which I bet you're doing whenever you see a straight :icon_razz:) causing it to be light on the front, although of course feeling dangerous at speed is definitely not right, especially if cruising..Hope you get to the bottom of it. They are a blast aren't they!

[snowtigger]

I have teins mk2 coilovers only on the rear since last year and it feels skittish without any weight in the boot, not keen on the teins maybe ok for a mk2 but not in a lite car.

I know that feeling your talking a out do you have adjustable tie rods, as the new ones on my car were also on the softest setting made it feel terrible, have lengthened them and the car feels tons better but only for the track as on the road it's too hard.

[racerADS]

Tiggs please remember me if you change your rear suspension at all as those teins might be just the thing to stop my ass dragging :-)

[snowtigger]

Tiggs please remember me if you change your rear suspension at all as those teins might be just the thing to stop my ass dragging :-)

Mate as soon as there off you can have em for the price I paid (which isn't much), I haven't even fitted the fronts it will certainly stop your arse dragging.

[racerADS]

Mate as soon as there off you can have em for the price I paid (which isn't much), I haven't even fitted the fronts it will certainly stop your arse dragging.

That is very kind mate, appreciate it :-)

dibs...

[snowtigger]

I could even bring the fronts down to jae if you want sadly I need the backs on the car as haven't got the replacements yet sad face .

[racerADS]

You have a pm mate.

[snowtigger]

You have a pm mate.

I have replied dude lol.

[loadswine]

This might sound like a stupid question, but are the splitters, that sit on the lower trailing edge of the bumper and in front of the front wheels, still in place?
The car can feel a bit odd without them. The car did have a full geo setup done while I owned it. Not sure exactly what was done, but it took 2 hours to do. Could be it was set up with the old weight in mind. It was done at what was AFR tuning in Crawley, by Matt himself.

[Paul Woods]

Nige before i let the car go i found the rear wheel alignment was horribly out, you could see by eye that they were toeing in badly, NSR was 15mm in and OSR was 11mm in..... hugely out. I set the rear wheels at roughly 1mm in before Mike took it home so he could get it properly done at a laser alignment centre. I have no idea why it was so far out when i saw it.

There must be something wrong with a shock absorber or play in the suspension somewhere, Mike is having another look at it this week and if all else fails i'm taking the car back to find out why the handling is so bad.

[loadswine]

Wow, that is a fair old chunk out. Be good to nail the source of the problem for sure. Hope its not too hard to find.

[Paul Woods]

Yes that's what i thought, 15mm toe in is massively out, the rear tyres were shot, from the rear you could see the wheels pointing towards the centreline of the car maybe 30ft ahead of the car, just crazy tracking.... if Mike doesn't find it i will here, but i would have thought it should be fairly obvious.

[HurleyRaceEngineering]

15mm toe in?!!!!!!! No wonder there wasn't a tyre left!

Is the car lowered of still on original parts?

[Paul Woods]

That was my reaction when i spotted it, the car is on coilovers, but Mike reports it is still handling badly even after a laser alignment.

[hudster]

After getting the car back from the local garage i noticed due to the bodykit the car is set quite high and on further investigation the tein coilovers aren't the same as the BC ones in the way that they are adjusted,to raise the ride height the spring has to be compressed, i'm assuming this would affect the handling,can someone confirm this and if thats the case lowering it should improve the handling

[headcase]

Yes the teins you adjust the spring , but some are the same as the bc you set preload on spring then adjust the the whole shocker through the hub bracket .:-)

[HurleyRaceEngineering]

Lowering doesn't always improve the handling. It can mess up the suspension geometry,you can even have the car rolling or bumping to toe out depending on the original geometry and how drastically you have altered it.

Has it been lowered a lot? i presume the spring rates are for the mk3 in standard form, how much heavier is the 2gr , is it positioned much differently etc? these will all have an effect

[hudster]

Not sure of the spring rates as they were on the car when i bought it,i assume they are a lot stiffer than standard, the coilovers are set as high as possible because the bodykit sits low which means the springs are compressed, i guess the only way to find out is to lower them,fit the standard suspension or the BC coilovers,i don't know what suspension other conversions are running but no one has reported having these issues

[loadswine]

I raised it up when I first got it Mike. Yes, completely due to the bodykit. They have been in that configuration ever since. yes, it would affect the spring rates, but the handling was fine in its PE turbo on the 1zz configuration and also the 3VZ-FE. I obviously had to have the geo set up after the V6 conversion , as the cross member had been off and the settings would have been out. It was superb after that and I never experienced any wayward handling. It almost sounds like one of the suspension arms has a worn bush or isn't located fully. One of the ROC members had a bout of odd handling recently with steering all over the place and it turned out it was his adjustable rear suspension arms going loose from their settings. Have any adjustable arms been put on? I'm assuming they haven't.

[Paul Woods]

Good suggestions Nige, although i've triple checked all of the suspension arms and joints/bolts already before the car went, i've also asked Mike to check the rear hubs for play (the geo place should have picked up on this anyway).

I still think it must be something like a shocker issue, as Mk3s handle really well even with a 2gr installed.