In my opinion this is such a personal question that everyone’s tolerances of what’s acceptable as a daily are different and therefore could be completely different to your interpretation of "comfy enough". :P
In my opinion this is such a personal question that everyone’s tolerances of what’s acceptable as a daily are different and therefore could be completely different to your interpretation of "comfy enough". :P
^ True
Don't waste your money on softer springs on hard dampers, been there done that and doesn't work, or realignment for that matter. Garage D would have done it just fine.
Accept you join us in the'too hard' camp. The HSD's fan club camp is a lot bigger though so you should get most of your money back.
If you bought them from Driftworks, they used to offer a no quibble money back guarantee if you didn't like them, as did Apex performance on their range of coilovers. Worth checking if they still do, outstanding offer if they still do it tbh
Stock dampers with lowering springs (black Eibach) rides great and feels great from low to mid speeds, at higher speeds feels quite floaty with little feel so I wouldn't recommend them if you wanna make it fun fast too.
Nismo Stune were fantastic, great ride and feel but sat too high with anything other than stock sized wheels, higher than Eibach's. Can't put lowering springs on the Stunes as they are marginal in damper travel with original springs. I only had a brief drive on these at and didn't drive hard as it wasn't my car.
Maybe Apex Limo's are worth researching? I'v not tried Apex/ BC's range of coilovers (there are loads of different options for them) but Mr JW has given them his seal of approval. Probably what I would look at if I was buying new just now.
Have fun wasting money on suspension to never be truly satisfied
Haha I think I am already doing that one! Thanks for the all the info guysOriginally Posted by immy21
Have fun wasting money on suspension to never be truly satisfied
garage d pointed me to Tein's street advance and I think they can do 5/4 ratio but if the bc racing ones are good enough for a 85year old i cant ignore them..might have to start fitting them myself as cant keep paying out to have em fitted if I keep swapping them..
Fitting is a piece of piss, I fitted a set of apex (which are bc racing rebranded) to my s13 at the sxoc weekender a few years ago, I was massively massively hungover/pissed had a shitty halfords jack and tools. Yet did it fine.
there's actually a photo of me, maccy d, daz and a couple others attempting to shift the hub knuckle over on the front membership page. Be warned though, there is plenty of ass crack on show.
Finally teins aren't worth considering from my opinion, their corrosion resistance seems sub par and their softer rates are more like our stiffer rates for some reason.their also ridiculously expensive to get fixed if anything ever goes wrong.
Oh and take note, Johnny is about as anti harsh suspension as anyone could possibly be. If he gives it a thumbs up I'm sure you'll be happy.
Mine are perfectly fine.. need softening a bit.. currently set to 8 clicks on front and rear
So effectively they're around the mid range setting.
Very bumpy atm on the front so need to sort that out
Mine are set to about 6 clicks and feel a little soft so gonna tighten them op with another 2-3 clicks at the weekend I think
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Put a light coating of silicone grease on the threads and you're away. My Tein Mono Flex's have done over 10k miles in all weathers and are still quite fresh.
The damping rates are a bit squiffy though I'll give you that.
I rang GAZ up a while back and asked them about retuning the dampers with new springs and they reckoned they would be able to do it for £80 a corner + springs at £40 each which I thought was quite good. Whether it would actually be worth it though...
Only words of caution I have regards the Limos is that I don't know how well they would work on a seriously lowered car as they provide the nice ride by allowing the wheel a larger range of travel so you may get wheel/arch interaction when they are working hard.... but Mr JW has given them his seal of approval. Probably what I would look at if I was buying new just now.
Have fun wasting money on suspension to never be truly satisfied
You're bang on the money regards never being truly satisfied with suspension though. You could spunk 3K on Ohlins then not manage to get them set up quite right for both track and B-road.
Suspension is always a compromise and its just a matter of finding something that give the best balance between cost, comfort, feel, grip and looks and that balance point is a very personal thing.
Just yo add to this, spring rate doesn't determine how harsh a coilovers is on the road, damper quality does.
My 10kg bilsteins on the s13 were better than my 8kg apex jobbies. Its all down to how good the dampening is. Going for very soft springs to get ride quality back is just masking a bad damper imo
I'm not a big ford fan but the RS500 is a legend, you cannot take away from it its Icon status and to suggest that its a chavvy car is like saying Kirsten Scott Thomas is a council estate slapper
Ohlins have released a new DFV which means they can be setup for track and the the DFV(dual flow valve) sorts them out on b roads. Supposedly very very good and what I'm considering for the z along with KW's
I'm not a big ford fan but the RS500 is a legend, you cannot take away from it its Icon status and to suggest that its a chavvy car is like saying Kirsten Scott Thomas is a council estate slapper
You're right to a point in that dampers can "mask" the spring effect, but stiff springs are hard to ignore even with the best damping at low speed because the energy transmitted in terms of travel in the spring is so low. Personally, that is the facet that annoys me with my Teins. When you're up about 40mph or so, the ride is quite good. Still a little bumpy but everything is handled quite well. Anything below 30 though is bordering on intolerable.
There is a lot to be said for balancing spring stiffness against roll stiffness. On the road, I don't think there is any future in running without ARBs from a road holding perspective. On the track though... different set of rules again.
Last edited by zeppelin101; 22-05-2015 at 08:02.
I went from 7/5 to 5/4 on HSD Monopro's. It's loads better now but you're probably right in that the HSDs aren't really all they're cracked up to be. I've got a ride now that feels like lowering springs and KYB AGXs after adjusting and testing and adjusting and testing etc etc. I reckon I could've saved a fair bit of time and money by just leaving the HKS springs on and switching out the shocks, but I wouldn't be able to adjust height then.
I do like my ride now tho, and it doesn't feel too harsh (although you do feel every bump and while the car isn't frequently airborne, I am if my seatbelt isn't tight).
Anyway the Monopro's, for me, are way better with softer springs and the car handles well on many surface types.
how did you do that I spoke to driftworks and they said that i cant put 5/4 spring rates on?
I spoke to Kam, and he sold me some tein 4kgs springs. Chucked them on the rear, using the 5's for the front and since then been loving driving. Initially I want the HSD smoothies, but they've not been available for a couple of years.
You can deffo put different springs on
nice work..where did you get the tein's 4kg springs from?I spoke to Kam, and he sold me some tein 4kgs springs. Chucked them on the rear, using the 5's for the front and since then been loving driving. Initially I want the HSD smoothies, but they've not been available for a couple of years.
You can deffo put different springs on
Kam at driftworks. £88 I think.
FWIW - I think Scottie has given the perfect advice for a fast road car on the first page of this thread. 5/4's, ARBs and 17 wheels with 45 profiles (my rears are 245 width and 40 profile looked too small on the rear against 235/45 fronts)
Try zero preload, and also keep in mind that the front/rear height has an effect on handling too. Higher rear gives more oversteer as it changes the angle of the roll center. You probably want to get used to the general feel before aligning imo. Six I'm a bit late to the party ain't I? Oops.
Last edited by Sibbers; 22-05-2015 at 09:06.
How high is you car? I have 235/40/18 in the front and they scrape everywhere...
It's fairly sensible height tbh, but I have had the rear arches rolled - I only needed a few mm's and now it'll go very low at the rear. The fronts (235 width) would scrape if they were much lower but I guess I could move the arch liner up and the loom out of the way. I could drop it another 10mm and be ok I think. I'll get a pic.
Nowbut was...
Last edited by Sibbers; 22-05-2015 at 13:12.
To go from 7/5 to 5/4 must have affected the static sag quite considerably. How were you able to adjust the ride height back up to compensate ? ....or did you just leave it on the floor ?I spoke to Kam, and he sold me some tein 4kgs springs. Chucked them on the rear, using the 5's for the front and since then been loving driving. Initially I want the HSD smoothies, but they've not been available for a couple of years.
You can deffo put different springs on
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
