Coilovers - bump stops?

[AlarmedBread]

Cliffs : Insatalled c3 kit 500/850, I pushed the stop up all the way and put the zip tie at the bottom, ran an autox and was obviously bottoming out.

I recently installed coilovers with short koni SA's, I did not shorten my strut housings because I wanted to have about 6" frame clearance for some events. I took them out for the first time at an autox, adjusters were at nearly their highest settings, I have about 5.5" to the frame, still only a couple inches to the bump stop. This worried me so I used the zip ties on the strut shaft trick, pushed the bump stop up all the way, set the zip tie on the top nut and set off. When I got home I saw that the zip tie was pressed into the bottom of the bump stop, so obviously I was bottoming out. I drove about 2miles to the autocross, did my runs and drove back, no big jumps or potholes, just your normal stuff.

The c3 site says you may need to shorten your bump stops if you want to lower your car more, but at the highest settings I'm hitting it. So my question is, should I just shorten the bump stop (how much?) or is something wrong with my setup?

Pic before install.

[twistednut]

Just talked to Jeremy at Ireland today about the exact same thing. He told me that I could cut off the bump stop just above the beginning of the taper.

[AlarmedBread]

Thanks, thats what I ended up doing and all is well now. :)

[PiercedE30]

Yea, with my H&R races I cut the bumpstops in half.

[Sean]

I cut mine in half too, with my IE3s and Konis.

[erik325i]

I never installed bumpstops on mine... Haven't had any problems though.
Almost all coilovers I install though, I chop the bumpstop down.

-Erik

[rsafier]

I'm surprised your botteming them out, but then I only have run Koni DAs and I did shorten the housing. Honestly its not that hard, only takes about an hour per strut to do, you can still obtain the height you want by relocating your spring perch up some. I left mine at stockish location and at full height it was about a 2.5" drop. that was with a 6" spring, you can also always get a taller spring.
Anything else is really a bandaid as without choping the strut you are out little over 2" of strut travel.

[DSP74]

Agreed. Shorten the housing. Those stops are tapered. And are much more progressive than a "progressive spring". A nice soft "bottoming" is going to keep the tires alot happier than a later, but harder hit on the bump stop......................The right way to do it is shorten the housing.

[AlarmedBread]

I don't see how just shortening the housing will fix anything? My adjusters are all the way at the top, so if I shortened the housing 1-2 inches, I would be 1-2 inches lower with the adjusters all the way up and still have the exact same issue unless I ran a taller spring.

This is the same spring lengnth that many gc and c3 kits come with, which is what has me puzzled. Guess I will order 8" springs and shorten the housings 2-3 inches.

[rsafier]

yeah you can do that. That is keeping the spring mount same location and shortening housings. Or when you shorten the housing you move your mount up.
The issue when you don't shorten the housing you are instantly losing out of on piston travel inside the shock.
I was running 500/600 springrates (25mm front sway, no rear) dropped about 2.5" and never hit a bumpstop in any event (full bumpstops not cut down), but I had shortened housings. You never want to have to hit bumpstops, they are safety devices not to really be used hopefully.