Roads up here are a lot worse than you believe.. It will be Koni's the bilstein coilovers are lowering between 20 and 40 mm it seems. I'm scraping the front splitter on snow on our roads as it is now..

Slowswede said:

Roads up here are a lot worse than you believe.. It will be Koni's the bilstein coilovers are lowering between 20 and 40 mm it seems. I'm scraping the front splitter on snow on our roads as it is now..

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True. If you bring that into it then the only choice really is FSD's Unless of course you've got another car.

No matter what dampers or full suspension kit is fitted, the one over riding unresolved flaw on the Abarth is the fact that the car only has about 30mm of travel before it hits the rear bump stops. The SS equipped cars have about 15mm travel makes them unbearable. I believe the bumpstops are the same across all 500's so you don't need to be an engineer to work out the more you lower the car, the closer it gets to them. Fiats answer stiff springs doesn't quite work at resolving this.

So even fitting the Koni FSD dampers, if the bump stops are not removed or modified the car will still hit them frequently meaning a poor unsettled rear end. I believe that some through placebo effect believe them to be a vast improvement and in terms of damping they will be at the front, but the rear is not going to be vastly different, there is not much damping going on in 30mm of travel.

The benefit of the AVO kit is it has it's own bumpstop fitted to the dampers & being adjustable for damping can be made softer or firmer than standard and on the front at least you can spec any poundage of spring you want, kit is sold with springs that are close to standard.

PS the Konis are same part number across a 500 are not specifically developed for the Abarth & I pointed them out to a leading Abarth forum person at Gaydon Auto Italia meet last year as being available to be told inwas wrong, yet there they were listed on Konis website. 6 weeks later they were miraculously the best thing since sliced bread.

I haven't noticed it crashing off the bump stops since I had the Koni's fitted personally, but you should probably buy the AVO kit

Took a long time, but yesterday evening i fitted Bilstein B14's. Wow!

What else would you intend to fit? (Body? exhaust, etc)

Slowswede said:

Took a long time, but yesterday evening i fitted Bilstein B14's. Wow!

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Do you see the review on the 500 side ?
https://www.fiatforum.com/500/213503-bilstein-b14-review.html

I take it that handling was you main priority. Big drop on the front 45mm ?

Slowswede said:

Took a long time, but yesterday evening i fitted Bilstein B14's. Wow!

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Have fun in the snow

There is always a great demand for snow ploughs in Sweden.

Thanks for your comments

Quite satisfied with the car as is is now (have to do something about that squeeky rear brake though). perhaps something about the backbox later, but I'm content for now..

Regarding the drop, it is not as drastic as I thought, set the height midways in regard to bilsteins recomendation (10mm higher than delivered). I'll measure wheel center to fender edge later. The ride is a lot more comfortable than the original suspenders actually.

Off to read that link...

/B

Slowswede said:

Thanks for your comments

Quite satisfied with the car as is is now (have to do something about that squeeky rear brake though). perhaps something about the backbox later, but I'm content for now..

Regarding the drop, it is not as drastic as I thought, set the height midways in regard to bilsteins recomendation (10mm higher than delivered). I'll measure wheel center to fender edge later. The ride is a lot more comfortable than the original suspenders actually.

Off to read that link...

/B

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Slowswede, the main thing is that you are satisfied with the mod and it is interesting to find out that the comfort level has improved, seems as though you have the best of both worlds.

There has been a lot of discussions on the topic or rear wheel squeak and it is suggested that there may be a design flaw with the rear calipers. Some owners have had calipers replaced under warranty, some have had the brakes cleaned and the mechanism lubricated, again under warranty whilst others have had to pay for the privilege. Hope you get yours sorted OK.

If you get a chance post a couple of photos to show us all how the car looks.

Ok, measured the drop now that it had time to bed in for a few days. Vertical distance from center of hub to wheelarch is about 340 to 345mm's both front and rear, this is with the height adjustment midways both front and rear (10mm to go each way). Regards to ride comfort, perhaps you had the sensation that felt the stock suspension get smoother when speeding on the motorway? (say at 160-170kph, not that I'll ever admit dong that ). The car now rides that smooth at 120kph . The pogo stick nonsense is gone!

Slowswede said:

The pogo stick nonsense is gone!

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That is me completely and utterly sold on getting these then. Just need to get myself a job so I can buy lewey's complete suspension including new spec rear beam.......

Slowswede said:

Ok, measured the drop now that it had time to bed in for a few days. Vertical distance from center of hub to wheelarch is about 340 to 345mm's both front and rear, this is with the height adjustment midways both front and rear (10mm to go each way). Regards to ride comfort, perhaps you had the sensation that felt the stock suspension get smoother when speeding on the motorway? (say at 160-170kph, not that I'll ever admit dong that ). The car now rides that smooth at 120kph . The pogo stick nonsense is gone!

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Do you reckon that a few days is sufficient before they are lowered ?

No. but a month or two should have them settled

Slowswede said:

No. but a month or two should have them settled

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On the very little that I know about shocks I understood that it was recommended that you leave the shocks on the highest setting so that they 'break in' better and then after a month or so drop the height to the right level.
Looking at the pictures on the 'old link' they look the business.

Height adjustment should not matter regards to springs settling, the springs have to take the same load (weight of car) wherever the adjustment ring is and will be compressed the same ammount as long as something i not binding (spring constant is usually measured in Newtons/mm or something like that)

Adjustment is quite easy to do with just a low profile garage jack and supplied adjustment spanners anyway: Fronts can be done with wheels on it seems, rears might be a wheels off affair or maybe not (have not investigated how much elbow room needed to do that yet)

loveshandbags said:

On the very little that I know about shocks I understood that it was recommended that you leave the shocks on the highest setting so that they 'break in' better and then after a month or so drop the height to the right level.
Looking at the pictures on the 'old link' they look the business.

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But the adjustment on the Bilstein's is merely the ride height and not a damper setting.

306maxi said:

But the adjustment on the Bilstein's is merely the ride height and not a damper setting.

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I used the word 'shock' incorrectly - I meant the 'knob' on the whole unit i.e. the shock and the spring - which of course only applies to the front ones since the rears...
At least with a reputable make like Bilstein you should be able to get them re-conditioned when the 'time' comes.

loveshandbags said:

I used the word 'shock' incorrectly - I meant the 'knob' on the whole unit i.e. the shock and the spring - which of course only applies to the front ones since the rears...
At least with a reputable make like Bilstein you should be able to get them re-conditioned when the 'time' comes.

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Like I said there is no knob on this unit.