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How well are your dampers working?


Mark Durrant

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I have used a set of two way adjustable Ohlins dampers on my R500 K for the past 4 years which I removed before selling the car. On removal there were no signs of any leaks and all adjustments appeared to be in good working order. However, I decided that before fitting them to the Busa I would ask Simon at Meteor Motorsport to test them on his suspension dyno as I was interested to see if the dampers were equally matched as there are 24 adjustments for both bump and rebound.

 

Simon tested the dampers and identified that the O/S/R was not working properly and the rebound adjustment was not working despite the adjuster moving freely. Simon arranged for the dampers to be rebuilt and serviced by Aurok, UK agent for Ohlins. I collected the dampers today which have been fitted with shorter hoses for the front remote reservoirs (necessary for the Busa) and the rears were rebuilt with one requiring the gas to be topped up.

 

So how well matched are your dampers, Simon has found other makes to be 4 clicks different and I would suggest a check on a dyno is value for money. I will obviously now need another excuse for any poor results this season.

 

 

Edited by - mark durrant on 15 Jan 2014 18:56:18

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2 years ago I decided it was time to update my 15 year old steel body AVO dampers with nice new alloy AVO units.

 

I took both into work and tested them, not only were the steel bodied units identical Lh to Rh, they were also identical to the new units. The only variance was a slight differential in damping for each adjustment old to new.

 

So from a performance perspective there was little point changing, but they looked nice :-)

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you'd better wear your lightest pair of underpants then...

 

 

If your dampers aren't working optimally, then you'll have less grip at your disposal. You're making the assumption that you're always driving only just under the maximum grip available to you at any time. You'd be doing very well if that were the case :)

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Charlie

 

I am not going to disclose the style my underwear on this forum 😳 however, I believe in attention to detail. Why go to the trouble of setting up a car correctly and then not check it is working properly. I apply the same to engines where I will look to ensure the cams are timed correctly etc and that the engine mapped to ensure it is operating at its optimum. I use my car for competition and enjoy the preparation as much as the driving.

 

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Whatever speed you drive at when you compete, it's 100% to you. So if your car isn't right then you will be slower. It's like saying, it's understeering, but I don't believe in changing the roll bar settings so I'll live with it

 

Jez, wondering whether his 3yo suspension should be tested ...

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I agree Jez, you may not be at the limit of the car but you are likely to be close to your own limit which would not be sided by poorly performing components. When I was racing you could instantly tell the difference 1 click made on the adjusters, you become attuned to the car.
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I have now seen Simon using his dyno, well in pressed. The spring is removed and the damper is attached to the dyno. it does its stuff and you see the graph. What is interesting is the effects on 2 ways the compression or damping does. On normal dampers it just good to know they are the same.

 

Simon you need to do a ytube thing...

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