Who's running Coilovers?

adam cool dude · 21 Mar 2013 at 20:30

Tein super street coilovers for the GT-four with EDFC which means I can control damping on the fly from inside the car. Teins get a bit of stick and are considered unreliable but mine have been fine and are worth it over the cheaper korean brands.

Will · 21 Mar 2013 at 20:43

Had H&R Monotubes on my old Fiesta ST (essentially a Bilsten coilover if you saw the markings stamped on the damper bodies). Cost £900 odd, fantastic handling and amazing on a smooth surface but a bit too stiff for road use much of the time.

Hades · 21 Mar 2013 at 20:59

The Corrado has AP on it. I know little about Coilovers and they were on it before I bought it. But they seem fine to me.

bitslice · 21 Mar 2013 at 22:28

I know nothing about coil overs, but this damper inside a spring arrangement looks just like every car on the road, or do some have them separately mounted?
What obvious bit of engineering am I missing here?

bledd · 21 Mar 2013 at 22:39

Yet to hear a bad thing about mesiterR

This is what I'm going to get when my OEM are shot

Django x2 · 21 Mar 2013 at 22:47

pugheaven said:
Contemplating a nice set this spring....

Pun aside, no, I'm not

Will · 21 Mar 2013 at 22:51

bitslice said:
I know nothing about coil overs, but this damper inside a spring arrangement looks just like every car on the road, or do some have them separately mounted?
What obvious bit of engineering am I missing here?

Coilovers have an adjustable spring perch so you can adjust the ride height of the car by adjusting the suspension (essentially moving where the spring sits on the damper body), most cars with 'normal' spring with a damper inside don't have any ride height adjustment at all so its fully fixed.

Some of the more expensive coilovers also have damping adjustment (bump and/or rebound), so you can adjust the damping as well as the ride height, to make the ride stiffer or softer and adjust how it deals with bumps.

Some also have multiple spring perches so you adjust the spring preload - this is how much tension is in the spring with no compression at all (i.e. without the suspension being compressed at all), again this can have a big impact upon ride quality.

Some will even come with adjustable top mounts so you can change camber and castor angles for the wheels which impact upon handling, steering feel and tyre wear.

Essentially coilovers can give you a lot of adjustment over your suspension, in terms of the cars handling and how it looks, so the owner can adjust it to suit. Whether most people have an optimum setup for the way that they use their cars on the road.....hmm thats another story

bitslice · 21 Mar 2013 at 23:13

Thanks for the info Will,
I'm amazed that anyone outside a F1 team would have the skill to adjust such a setup :eek:

My idea of suspension is you press on the bonnet and see if the car bounces or not

GT3 · 22 Mar 2013 at 03:06

Hmmm all this talk of suspension has made me order these!

$(KGrHqF,!r!E88gTl4g8BPjuUNiRYg~~60_12.JPG

adam cool dude · 22 Mar 2013 at 06:56

bledd. said:
Yet to hear a bad thing about mesiterR

This is what I'm going to get when my OEM are shot

Apex'i , BC Racing, D2, Greddy, Ksport, Megan, Omni, Skunk2, Tanabe, T1R are all made at Bor Chuan in Taiwan. They are built side by side to the same awful specs. The only difference is the color of the paint. Bor Chuan will build you your own brand so long as you order 100 sets, and order them in a color combo that is not yet taken.

I got this from the GT4OC

eidolon · 22 Mar 2013 at 07:59

bledd. said:
Yet to hear a bad thing about mesiterR

This is what I'm going to get when my OEM are shot

Let me change that.

They're the worst coilovers and most uncomfortable suspension I've ever used. I've had coilovers and lowered suspension on most of my cars in the last 20 years and the Meisters were by far the worst. The Elise was like a Bentley in comparison to the Meisters.

Jerrick was a top bloke and tried all sorts to help but ultimately the Meisters weren't suitable for the Mini, the rear shocks were bone shattering and made my internal organs hurt when I crawled over a speed hump. I believe he's since redesigned the rear shocks but he shouldn't have released them before proper testing had been done rather than let the public do the testing. I would imagine they're great on track though.

Muffin` · 22 Mar 2013 at 08:01

bledd. said:
Yet to hear a bad thing about mesiterR

This is what I'm going to get when my OEM are shot

Not gonna go for new OEM? I got them for £500 from Hendy, then some Eibachs. I think they're fantastic but I can't compare; also I didn't want something too track focused for the road.

kona786 · 22 Mar 2013 at 08:10

Matt82 said:
uprated springs on old dampers is likely to be a very bad thing IME

I ran eibach sportlines (fairly big drop) on old stock dampers on my old e36 bmw 328 coupe.

Looked and drove a lot better than stock springs. And that was over the 20k miles I had it.

Relentless81 · 22 Mar 2013 at 08:34

Matt82 said:
uprated springs on old dampers is likely to be a very bad thing IME

kona786 said:
I ran eibach sportlines (fairly big drop) on old stock dampers on my old e36 bmw 328 coupe.

Looked and drove a lot better than stock springs. And that was over the 20k miles I had it.

Yup I've done it before and had no issues with the standard shocks, theres a small element of risk but I'm willing to take it as last time just fitting the springs made enough of a difference for me

There are OEMs that will fit eibach to standard shocks as an option inc Mazda and Skoda

Phil W · 22 Mar 2013 at 10:31

Relentless81 said:
Yup I've done it before and had no issues with the standard shocks, theres a small element of risk but I'm willing to take it as last time just fitting the springs made enough of a difference for me

There are OEMs that will fit eibach to standard shocks as an option inc Mazda and Skoda

Skoda *used* to be MS Designs, I almost bought a new set on eBay from a stock clearance. 30mm drop (about 10mm on vRS) went for £42 but by the time I factored in new shocks the price shot up!

Coilovers for me will be as high as possible to keep near stock ride height, I don't really want to lower it at all if I can avoid it

bledd · 22 Mar 2013 at 13:28

Muffin` said:
Not gonna go for new OEM? I got them for £500 from Hendy, then some Eibachs. I think they're fantastic but I can't compare; also I didn't want something too track focused for the road.

£500 for all 4 sides? I thought it was ~£1200+ for new OEM stuff..

eidolon said:
Let me change that.

They're the worst coilovers and most uncomfortable suspension I've ever used. I've had coilovers and lowered suspension on most of my cars in the last 20 years and the Meisters were by far the worst. The Elise was like a Bentley in comparison to the Meisters.

Jerrick was a top bloke and tried all sorts to help but ultimately the Meisters weren't suitable for the Mini, the rear shocks were bone shattering and made my internal organs hurt when I crawled over a speed hump. I believe he's since redesigned the rear shocks but he shouldn't have released them before proper testing had been done rather than let the public do the testing. I would imagine they're great on track though.

Lots of happy DC2 owners

Muffin` · 22 Mar 2013 at 13:40

bledd. said:
£500 for all 4 sides? I thought it was ~£1200+ for new OEM stuff..

http://www.itr-dc2.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=88541&p=994558&hilit=Shocks#p994558

04 Jan 2012, 20:53

Assembly's are all discontinued - have to buy the parts separate.
FR
4 51605-ST7-R01 ABSORBER UNIT, R. FR. SHOCK (SHOWA) £169.87
5 51606-ST7-R01 ABSORBER UNIT, L. FR. SHOCK (SHOWA) £169.87
R
6 52611-ST7-G01 ABSORBER UNIT, RR. SHOCK (SHOWA) £121.10

These prices include vat - I can do a forum discount on these (roughly 5%) Shipping not included!

Matt82 · 22 Mar 2013 at 17:56

Relentless81 said:
Yup I've done it before and had no issues with the standard shocks, theres a small element of risk but I'm willing to take it as last time just fitting the springs made enough of a difference for me

There are OEMs that will fit eibach to standard shocks as an option inc Mazda and Skoda

on old dampers though. im going to attempt brand new sachs dampers on the M3 with eibach Pros but the M3 would have been quite heavily damped from the factory

Relentless81 · 22 Mar 2013 at 18:01

Relatively low mileage cars, anything above 60K I'd change the shocks, the current car has 49K on it and if I get 10K miles out of the standard shocks before I have to uprate them then thats fine

pugheaven · 28 Mar 2013 at 19:57

Coilovers on, will take some piccies tomorrow... dropped a couple inchs or so (not sure yet, not measured myself lol), maybe more, then setup for road with not as much camber as others would possibly have, will see how this suites.

However, initial drive home... wow, massive difference, feels tighter and deffo no where near as much lean around corners... will report back later this weekend when I've thrashed her a little... however, first impressions, very sweet.

Will also monitor the tyre wear as well over the next couple of thousand... make sure everything is cool. Basically the the hardness is right in the middle for now, think it's number 8 on front and rears, however don't want it hard on the front, I want a little lean on the brakes... might only harden the rear.

Anyhow, will see how it goes...