The Care and Feeding of Your Coil-overs
Height adjustable suspensions have become quite popular of late-- even to folks who do not track their cars. Often referred to by the blanket term "coil-overs", height adjustable suspensions allow the owner to set and change the ride height of the vehicle for any of a number of reasons: to corner balance for the track, winter/summer ride height changes or just to fine tune the "look". But as high tech as some of these kits are, they do need yearly maintenance.
It is a good idea to exercise those spring perches at least once a year. The spring perch is the ring the spring sits on. On a strut suspension as pictured above, the shock tube is threaded and the spring encapsulates the tube and sits on a two rings, one is the actual perch and the other is a locking ring. Once a season you should take the wheels off, clean up the threads and move the perches up and down. It’s also a good idea to apply a little anti-seize compound to the threads. By moving perches periodically and making sure everything is clean, you will lesson the risk of the parts seizing together. We've had cases at the shop where we have had to cut off the spring perch and replace it with a new one just to adjust the height. A little preventive maintenance can save lots of grief in the long run.