What can you do with track abused S2000 coilovers? Well, you don’t have to throw them away! We’re going to be giving some used S2000 coilovers an extra life and get them track-ready.
High mileage daily commutes, weekend spirited driving, and intense track days will put a ton of wear and tear on any moving suspension component, especially your shocks and springs. Once your dampers are blown, and springs start to sag, most car enthusiasts buy a new set of coilovers. But believe it or not, your track-worn coilovers could potentially be rebuilt and revalved with some surgery.
Now we say “potentially” because not all coilovers are rebuildable. Some lower priced Twin-Tube-designed dampers are sealed, and it is usually best to swap them with the same replacement shocks once they need to be serviced. Many monotube coilovers are typically designed to be serviceable with the possibility to be revalved for a more optimized and customized ride experience.
We decided to refurbish a set of used first gen BuddyClub Race Spec Damper S2000 coilovers for a new AP2 we picked up as a track toy. We first disassembled all of the components and gave them all a good scrub to remove the grime built up over the years.
Next, we brought our dampers to a suspension specialist over at S3 Suspension for a rebuilding of their worn internals and revalving for better damping. First, they ran the shocks through a shock dyno to gather baseline results which would help us determine how we wanted to tune them later during the revalving process.
S3 did a full tear down of each coilover to replace the internal wear and tear components with new o-rings, seals, bump stops, shafts, shims, and covers, along with new fluids after everything was put back together.
Before the rebuild process started we had already planned to drastically increase the spring rates to 16KG all around. So we decided to revalve the damper specs to align more with these new spring rates. By adjusting the size, number, and thickness of the internal shims stacked on the shocks piston, the flow of oil moving through the piston can be adjusted. This is what allows the fine-tuning of the compression and rebound characteristics.
Once all the internal components are reassembled, the monotubes are filled with fresh Liqui Moly Full Synthetic Race Shock Absorber oil. Replacing the nasty old factory oil that was drained earlier.
6 comments
On second page bottom – where nut tightening is happening. Isn’t the tech supposed to be holding shocks piston rod ehile doing so? Not to damage valving.
That would be more of a question for them, not us.
If you brace the shaft, you have a chance of scratching the shaft resulting in the shocks as good as blown because they will slash right through the seal
Do you do other shocks?
You would need to reach out to your local suspension or shock specialist to see if they offer rebuild and revalve services. You can reach out to S3 Suspension and see if your shocks are rebuildable and if they can be shipped in for service.
https://s3suspension.com/
Any idea about how many liters of shock oil per coilover? Trying to see how many bottles I would need. Also that link shows its motorbike race shock oil, is that correct?