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Vauxhall Corsa B Coilovers on a Nissan Micra K11

Vauxhall Corsa B Coilovers on a Nissan Micra K11

Im writing this blog to explain the modifications you need to do to fit Corsa B coilovers on a Nissan Micra.

Tools

20mm swanneck spanner
17mm spanner
Allen key
File
Grinder
Drill

Parts

Vauxhall Corsa B coilovers
Nissan Micra K11 rear lowering springs (30mm lowered)
Washers


Brief

As most of us may already know, Coilovers for a corsa are alot cheaper than the ones for a micra, in some cases you looking at a couple of a hundred quid.

First of all you need to get your coilovers,

i found some off ebay for around £120, brand new
I then got some old micra springs that with lower by 30mm that i had lying about, i think i paid £80 from Demontweaks in Wrexham, but you can go on http://www.demontweaks.com/

your kit should look something like this;

P6290348.jpg



But you wont need all of this,

Whatyoudontneed.jpg


You dont' need the the coilover rear springs, the coilover spacer or bottom shock spring, you also don't need the front black spring

Now you should know what you need (i didn't include washers in the picture) you need about six for each of the two coilovers (twelve in total)


Modifications

There are only two small modifications you need to do on the actual coilovers;

P6290352.jpg


I had to file the top of the bottom two holes using the round file, its only a slight file, you can hardly see it, but it needs to be done,

The second modification is on the rear coil overs, again the is only a slight grind;

P6290354.jpg


Just be careful not to destroy the rubber


Modifications you have to do to the car is on the top suspention strut mount, I've not included a photo with this, but you need to drill through the strut hole to allow the coilover strut to fit in the mount.


Lastly the last modification is for the rear spring, i dread to say it the dreaded "cutting of the springs";

Conwy-20120713-00250.jpg


with the springs i've used, it's hard to tell thatt they've been cut


Building it together

With all the modification's complete, it's time to build it together

The rear shocks and spring's go on like... well shocks and springs,
for the coilovers, you need to put a couple of washers as spacers so you don't knacker your bearings and coilover's, it should look like this;

Conwy-20120713-00252.jpg


Ive used a large washer underneath the original nissan micra spring plate and about 6 washers under that, so that the coilover spring plate and the nissan spring plate aren't pressing each other and making it a weird angle, thus knackering your strut bearing and possibaly your coilover.

All you need to do know is tighten the strut mount to the coilover and tighten the springs up

Note* the coilover spring set up, should only contain the larger of the two springs, i would love to see someone place the two springs in place with ease.

The total cost for this was around £200

Thanks for reading, i hope this is useful, and please, any way that anyone could improve this thread would be greatly apricated.

Thank you, Steven Williams



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Additional Information

The coilover should look like this
Conwy-20120714-00253.jpg


Another thing is, you may need to replace the rear bolts holding the bottom of the shock inplace, the orginal bolt wont fit through the coilover hole
 
I bet this gonna get moved to the guide section and unpayed members wont be able to see it. good write up though. I think the method using the corsa topmounts is better though
 
mckenziecz said:
I bet this gonna get moved to the guide section and unpayed members wont be able to see it. good write up though. I think the method using the corsa topmounts is better though

hoopdub said:
yep, much better to use corsa top mount

I tried to say this last night but it wouldnt let me post :(
 
OP
OP
FFsteven
thanks for the feedback, i'll try and repost this, if ever it should go, and i wasn't aware of using corsa top mounts, the way ive done it seems to be perfectly working, theres no knocking whilst driving
 
also cant you use corsa rear springs if you cut them a bit :? ?? but i read it once in that thread where there was a big old argument
 
OP
OP
FFsteven
When i first got the coilovers i did try and use the rear blue springs with the blue raisers (ive not included the raisers in the picture) but the ride and the noise was horrible, i was lucky not the damage the shock,

the only thing ive noticed with the current setup is the rear springs are not as stiff as the front coilovers, and in the glorious back roads of north wales the ride can be abit bouncy, but i does stick to the road round corners
 

frank

Club Member
also cant you use corsa rear springs if you cut them a bit :? ?? but i read it once in that thread where there was a big old argument
what argument would that be lol :rolleyes:
i think the problem with not using corsa front topmounts is that the top of the spring should be pushing directly against the thrust bearing (so that the weight of the car is supported by that thrust bearing.
but using the micra topmount means that the weight of the car is pushing against the rubber insert in the topmount ? (and not the thrustrace)
the one that i saw that had been running with the k11 topmounts had really bad wear on the top of the shaft :eek:
 
yeah I spose with the different spring rates then it will be differences :/ its a really good walkthrough tho just thought i would mention that as like when i try it i want to try it with the rear corsa springs to try and save money on buying springs
 
OP
OP
FFsteven
The way i did it last was not to have any spacers.... £30 later replacing the bearings i learnt my lesson. The thing you need to look at whilst setting the coilover up is, is everything level, is there any play, and is there an restriction to the bearing, thats what i made sure before letting the weight of my car on the coilovers
 
OP
OP
FFsteven
The way i did it last was not to have any spacers.... £30 later replacing the bearings i learnt my lesson. The thing you need to look at whilst setting the coilover up is, is everything level, is there any play, and is there an restriction to the bearing, thats what i made sure before letting the weight of my car on the coilovers

Should of worded that better, what caused my bearings to fail was, because of my own offishness and lack of research on the subject, the bearing had 200Kg/cm on the side of each bearing, and i wasn't equal, because the strut caused the top spring plate to be off-center, causing the 200kg/cm of pressure on the side of the bearing because the plate wanst meeting the mount properly, it is absolutely important to have everything lined up.
 

frank

Club Member
Should of worded that better, what caused my bearings to fail was, because of my own offishness and lack of research on the subject, the bearing had 200Kg/cm on the side of each bearing, and i wasn't equal, because the strut caused the top spring plate to be off-center, causing the 200kg/cm of pressure on the side of the bearing because the plate wanst meeting the mount properly, it is absolutely important to have everything lined up.
i think the bearings problem is caused by, when you tighten the topnut you compress the bearing, as you tighten it up.
with the corsa topmount the step on the damper shaft is bolted "only" to the rubber insert, and the top spring perch is bearing "only" on the thrust race (whereas using the k11 topmount means that the spring top perch and thrust race and rubber insert are all bolted together/binding)
 
franks reasoning makes allot of sense in my eyes but I'm not saying each way is wrong but i think i would do it with the corsa topmount :/
 

frank

Club Member
i think you can still safely use the k11 topmount if you have the coilover top perch sat inside the k11 top perch, and you have the spacers ontop of the rubber insert/embedded washer (directly under the nut) which is what we did karl ;)
so long as the top perch,s can freely swivel under the thrust race it should be ok, which means that the weight of the car is carried "only" by the spring, and the damper shaft is fixed/attached "only" to the rubber insert.
i prefered to use the corsa topmounts mainly because they were designed for the job, and also because they raised the car about 40mm (so that the adjusting collars were,nt fully wound up/at their limits)
 
I ran my polo coilovers with the micra top mount ontop of the coilover spring cup, which I think is how frank explains it? never had any problems.
 
I'm still not in the clear, do I need Micra specific rear Springs or can I use Corsa rear springs? Is there a specific coilover kit that fits Micra that's cheaper than Micra kit? And can I use original rear Springs with adjustable strut from Corsa B kit?
Love the thread, Will enjoy my Micra on couple od days. Gonna keep you guys posted.
 
Micra rear springs with corsa b rear shocks. However this thread is really old now. I've seen alot of people complain they give a really poor ride also the micra top mounts aren't strong enough for the added stress and break after a few months. Better just saving for a proper kit from matt Humphreys or bc coilovers
 
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