tclmember

Hi, I'm a new honda-tech member, and I've got a 94 Honda Prelude si(h23a1).

I was just wondering what coilovers to choose from. This is my first car, and I haven't had any experience with the brands of coilovers I'm planning on getting.
I'm thinking about function and form type 2's, D2 Racing, or Yellow speed/yellow dps? coilovers. Main purpose would be to lower the car a lot, but still have a smooth ride as it is my DD.

Any input is appreciated.

tclmember

Any other brands I should look into?

saikou

Really low & smooth ride? Not gonna happen. I have D2s which are pretty much exactly like F&F coil overs. They're a pretty good "entry" level coil over but are not going to get you low enough if you want to maintain comfort. As far as I know, for both setups, the rears will lower the car more than the fronts - for the fronts, you'll have to lower the spring perch all the way for it to tuck.

Someone with another setup should chime in soon.

Hawkze_2.3

That's not going to happen without a big investment in time and/or money. What is your budget? Like saikou said the coilovers you listed are entry-level and will not do what you are wanting.

Koni yellows with some sort of lowering spring or quality adjustable coilover sleeve can ride really well depending on the spring rates.

tclmember

Budget around 900 or so. Okay, forgetting the smooth ride, just being able to lower the car and adjust the dampening, would you still recommend those or what other brands, within my budget?

Hawkze_2.3

I'd go with the Konis and some sort of good quality coilover sleeve like Ground Control. The "adjustable" damping on the cheapo coilovers (D2, F&F, BW, Ksport, whatever else) doesn't really do anything.

tclmember

Hmm, I've heard the exact opposite. That the dampening does a whole lot for your car. Damn, lol you call them $700+ coilovers cheapo? you must be made of money or something haha. Hmm are the koni/gc simple enough to install just like a regular coilover? I'm new to suspension. Sorry.

jdmbb68o8

Invest your money in Tein HA's.
Ride quality is awesome at lowest height (IMO).
Got mine for $500 used, Tein doesnt make them anymore but you can find them on eBay for around $700 shipped.
The dampening does a lot to your car don't be fooled. At the lowest height I keep my dampening at a little over half so I don't bottom out. I ride fully stiff all the time though lol.
This is how low you can get on stock wheels, enough to tuck some of the tire:

tclmember

Sounds like a decent investment. But for 700 I could get function and form type 2 new. lol. And ohh wow That's actaully pretty low. How far off the ground are you?

Hawkze_2.3

No, I'm saying the damping on the cheap coilovers doesn't do anything when you rotate the ****....as in you can rotate it all the way one way and all the way back the other way and it feels the same.

The damping does a lot on good adjustable shocks/struts.

BergRacing21

i got a quick question since we're on the topic, it's always better to run stiffer spring rates in the back than front when drag racing. How come most brands don't even give you spring rates or the rears are always less than the fronts? what set up do most guys use? and you're saying like the adjustable kybs, or tokico's don't really do much when you adjust the ****? might be a dumb over beat question but since we're on topic figured i'd ask lol.

BergRacing21

btw i run skunk2's on KYB adjustables and my ride is pretty damn smooth and i have it dumped in the front and rear, especially if you compare it to my buddy's civic running GC's on KYB's

Hawkze_2.3

Some do and some don't...most of the quality coilovers do give you choices. They also probably don't primarily expect people to be using them for drag, mainly road courses and such.

I am only talking about the cheapo or entry level China aluminum coilovers like D2, F&F, BW, KSport, etc that are all basically the same product. The **** on my D2s didn't change anything I could feel going from one extreme setting to the other. KYBs, Tokicos, Konis, etc are not like that at all....

Hawkze_2.3

Yeah, now I have height-adjustable Koni yellows on H&R springs and the ride is almost as good as stock, but the car is still pretty low and the handling is definitely tighter. Worlds better than the cheapo coilovers!

roller3804

I have koni yellows turned all the way up in the front and 1/4 from full in the rear. Ground control coilovers with 400F 350R spring rates. Rides really nice for how low it is and I am pretty low..ask hawkze LOL. BE AWARE you need to make custom tophats an inch taller for the front. The shock will bottom out very easily if you don't.

tclmember

What are some "quality" coilovers that you're talking about?

tclmember

Man this sh*t's hard lol. I was gonna go ahead and just get fnf type 2's for 740 new. as opposed to 900+ new. But Idk.

tclmember

They have dampening adjustment??

Hawkze_2.3

Ground Control, QA1 (muscle car stuff), I think Summit and other places sell the individual parts so you can build your own custom coilover sleeves, etc. These are just sleeves and you still have to get the shocks/struts to go with them.

Hawkze_2.3

For what its worth I have found good setups for my Prelude and RX7 used on eBay for under $400 and they have worked out really well so far (height adjustable Koni yellows w/ H&R race springs for the Prelude, and KYX AGX with Ground Control coilover sleeves for the RX7). Just have to shop around and be patient...

tclmember

Hmm. Ground Control isn't the full coilover correct? Still gotta buy the shock and strut. Any brands you think make good full coilovers? How much different is the assembly/installation for the sleeves/shocks as opposed to the full coilover? Like is one harder to install than the other?

tclmember

The set-up you currently have. Hmm. but they don't have dampening huh?

Hawkze_2.3

Yep. Shock or strut...don't need both

Good complete coilover setups are some of the Tien stuff, Penske, Moton, and I have heard good stuff about JIC and Buddy Club...there's probably a lot more.

A complete coilover is much easier to install because its already put together

Hawkze_2.3

No, they both have adjustable damping.

tclmember

I heard that fnf are of the same quality range as tein??