Good Spring & Shock setup or Coilovers??

[dom200]

Hi guys,

Recently had my S13 coilovers raised slightly, I do around 10k a year in it so it needs to be at a sensible height or I end up scraping everywhere.
Mechanic noticed that the front left shock is leaking slightly.
Car is currently on Jap Cusco coilovers, so the ride is rather harsh.

My question is do I go for a good spring and shock setup vs a coilover?

The spring and shock worries me because I cannot adjust it, my wheels do poke out a little, so id rather buy the adjust-ability as I love my wheels. Anyone had a similar dilemma?

[m17ch]

Same situation here.. Ended up investing in a HSD Monopro two days ago, hope it's not too harsh.
There are only three possible options for spring-shock setups.
1. Bilstein B6 + lowering springs - b6 are not built for lowering springs
2. Koni sport - too harsh, and a pain to adjust. Also not plug and play, but the front shock goes inside the OEM one.
3. KYB AGX + lowering springs - too soft and hard to find.

IMO not going coilovers in the first place will end up buying suspension twice.


Good luck

[arry]

A long time ago Apex did Johnny Wilkinson a set of 'limo spec' coilovers for his s13. They were - as you'd expect with JW specifying them - spot on.

Never know your luck....

[Jonny Wilkinson]

Apex still do them. You can't run lows with them though. 25mm drop is probably about all. They are Bob on for the road though. Apex comfy s are a little firmer allowing more drop but less good ride.

Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk

[Slamz]

Get some Apex Comfy's or HSD's. They don't run mental hard spring rates, so are fine on the road, and will offer the adjustability needed

[autosri]

Hsd DT with Gaz springs 5/4kg F/R fine for the road 7/5kg they came with were a bit harsh for me

[GarageSR]

Nismo S-tune are absolutely the best for the uk roads without going for a coilover set up, as has been said there are "comfy" coilovers on the market which are usually a 6/5 spring rate rather than the normal 8/6.

[Jonny Wilkinson]

Comfy are 5/4, Stu. Limo are 4/3.

Standard are something like 1.8/2.2 (Can't remember exactly).

[bennyboy]

Same situation here.. Ended up investing in a HSD Monopro two days ago, hope it's not too harsh.
There are only three possible options for spring-shock setups.
1. Bilstein B6 + lowering springs - b6 are not built for lowering springs
2. Koni sport - too harsh, and a pain to adjust. Also not plug and play, but the front shock goes inside the OEM one.
3. KYB AGX + lowering springs - too soft and hard to find.

IMO not going coilovers in the first place will end up buying suspension twice.


Good luck

My hsd are savage feel every bump hurts like hell lol

[walton_motorsport]

What about some Tein Steet Flex? Nice ride (although I have never personally driven the S13 variant) and they don't have to be low, recommended drop on them is between 55mm and 30mm front and 35mm to 15mm out back

[auz200sx]

My hsd are savage feel every bump hurts like hell lol

Must be set up wrong or defected

My mono pros are 8 clicks from hard and dropped about an inch and are perfect on pretty shit roads infact i dont even have tarmac for about 3ks to my property just dirt road rally style.

Either that or your spring rate is to high.

[cleanhands]

When people talk about whether suspension is comfy or not they really ought to say what profile tyre they have.

I would get coilovers rather than the shock/ springs that are available for S13s

[dom200]

thanks for all of the comments, definitely going to be going coilover without stupid lows, undecided on what ones yet, if I can decide soon enough I may be able to get the 10% off that DW are doing until the 8th as well.
Think I need to research a little more into the spring rates and how that actually works, anyone know of a good source on information for learning that sort of thing?

[Jonny Wilkinson]

On here ?

There have been a couple of threads where quite detailed discussions were had around what suspension does.

I'll see if there is anything obvious in TechS13.

[dom200]

On here ?

There have been a couple of threads where quite detailed discussions were had around what suspension does.

I'll see if there is anything obvious in TechS13.

Anything really, where did you get all of your knowledge from?
From your write ups you seem to be a bit of a guru

[Jonny Wilkinson]

I learned a bit about suspension in Physics at school, from trying to ride bikes fast round a track and getting advice from racers. Also from looking in the library (this was pre-internet ) and reading a couple of books on Macpherson Struts and suspension in general.

Motorcycle suspension is quite different to car suspension but you are still trying to keep a decent sized contact patch with the road as much of the time as possible whilst resisting sideways and upward forces.

If you look at the different components of a suspension, most have a primary and a secondary (and sometimes tertiary) purpose.

You need to learn a bit about the different components and what their purpose is then try to put together a combination of parts that gives you a good result for the problem you are trying to solve.

I could fit hard springs, struts with 3-way adjustable damping, strut braces to triangulate everything and slicks and the vehicle would go well around a flat billiard-table smooth race track but it would be horrid and try to kill me if I tried to drive it down back roads or even round a lumperty-bumperty track like Lydden Hill.

I've just tried to have a look on the internet for something like "howstuffworks" to point you in the right direction but it seems there is a lot of guff out there.

I'd start with a list of stuff you need to know like what makes up the suspension on a 200SX.

Shocks
ARBs
Arms
Track rods
Tyres
Subframe bushes
Strut braces

Then look at each one and what it is made up of...

Shock is a spring with a rod and piston and damping valves/shims/oil/gas, bump stops, seals etc.

It has two major forces acting on it, Compression and Rebound and most compression is either high speed or low speed depending on what is happening e.g. hitting a pothole or accelerating or cornering and so on.

You need to understand stuff like Static sag, preload and suspension travel.

On the steering side you need to understand the basics of Ackermann steering, bump steer, centres of gravity and stuff like that.

On the tyre side, you need to understand the basics of tyre construction, compounds, sidewall softness and deflection, heat cycles, how block movement affects tyre temperatures, how tyres wear nice and not nicely and so on.

What soon becomes apparent is that everything is affected by everything else and so its really about finding the best compromise for your needs and that its not just a simple case of hard springs in = speed out.

However, you don't need to know most of that to buy a decent set of shocks. Just think about what you want the car for, then pick a spring weight and find a shock that is in your budget and fit it.

Its hard to change springs alone if you get the spring weight wrong as the shocks other characteristics are set to match the spring weight.

Experience shows that man maths will most likely make you pick a spring that is harder than you need so pick a spring then go one grade softer.

Even Limos are stiffer than OEM and reduce bodyroll somewhat.

[Slamz]

My hsd are savage feel every bump hurts like hell lol

Doesn't sound right to me. I have HSD's with 7/5 springs, car is caged with my bucket seat literally touching the floor, polybushed subframe, Hardrace rear arms/lower arms with black powerflex bushes, front end has rose jointed adjustable arms and tension rods. 255/35r18 R 225/40r18 F tyres, and I wouldn't even say mine are harsh even with compression dampening set quite hard, and bumps don't hurt unless you hammer a pothole too quick
Considering the track nature of the car, I find it unbelievably comfortable for what it is. You don't by any chance have the dampening set max. hard do you? Or too much preload? A friend set his full hard and added extra preload to stop his tyres rubbing and it was shit. I finally convinced him to raise the car a bit and soften it up, and it was a million times better.

[bennyboy]

Doesn't sound right to me. I have HSD's with 7/5 springs, car is caged with my bucket seat literally touching the floor, polybushed subframe, Hardrace rear arms/lower arms with black powerflex bushes, front end has rose jointed adjustable arms and tension rods. 255/35r18 R 225/40r18 F tyres, and I wouldn't even say mine are harsh even with compression dampening set quite hard, and bumps don't hurt unless you hammer a pothole too quick
Considering the track nature of the car, I find it unbelievably comfortable for what it is. You don't by any chance have the dampening set max. hard do you? Or too much preload? A friend set his full hard and added extra preload to stop his tyres rubbing and it was shit. I finally convinced him to raise the car a bit and soften it up, and it was a million times better.

I will have to look into this tbf it has buged me for a bit now

[GarageSR]

Comfy are 5/4, Stu. Limo are 4/3.

Standard are something like 1.8/2.2 (Can't remember exactly).

My bad, Its the apex "fast road" that are 6/5.

[CMR]

I will have to look into this tbf it has buged me for a bit now

Which model HSD's are they out of interest?