Occasionally I see some Ohlins for sale that were meant for JDM integras. They have part numbers like CT4, CT5, or Ct7. All I know is that they are an older part that pre-dates the PCV valving. I was also told that they are monotubes and have a "bleed valve", which means that when you adjust the rebound, the compression changes a bit as well. Other than that, I can't find any info. I basically want to know if these are "better" than the Koni Yellows Sport. The main application would be driving on curvy and bumpy roads, so bump compliance and keeping the car "planted" are important.

 

I have a set of CT7s. They are NOT street friendly, and that was before I had them rebuilt and revalved. On track, they were awesome up until I blew them out (from driving on the street...). I'll be posting the dyno charts when I get them back, which should be within a week or so. I won't have any driving impressions until May though.

Edit: I just saw the "bumpy road" part of your post. The CT7s (not sure about the other ones) are almost definitely not something you'd want.

 

JDM ohlins? LOL

 

It's not a joke. There was a branch of Ohlins that produced shocks in Japan and targeted Japanese cars. While it's nice to have such a company make products for our cars, the age also makes finding replacement parts difficult. I had to wait several weeks for the rebuilders to find parts for my shocks, and two other places I contacted couldn't get parts period.

 

haha oh nevermind i'm dumb

 

There's a branch in europe that produce parts for euro Japanese cars to... wooo..

There is a branch of nearly every manufacturer in every region for that regions sales... point being?

Ohlins is a Swedish company... Not a japanese company, period.


Modified by MSchu at 9:42 AM 3/21/2008

 

They say "Made in Japan" on the shock body. How much more JDM can you get? I've talked with this guy, and he's not doing it BECAUSE it's "JDM BL1nG y0!" He's just looking for a good shock, and knows Ohlins fits that bill. I have them for the same reason, and didn't even know they were made in Japan until I got them home. Finding the PCVs and other newer models lately has been difficult and/or very expensive. The older made-in-Japan models are cheaper and more common.

<--- Doesn't understand what you find funny about it.

Edit: I know they're a Swedish company, what does that have to do with anything?


Modified by Stinkycheezmonky at 9:56 AM 3/21/2008

 

I thought it was funny because I have seen a rash of young guys thinking they are a Japanese company

I stand corrected... they were purchased by Yamaha years ago.

 

LOL at myself

 

Hey wait... Ohlins just bought back over 90% share stake in its self... its a Swedish company again... LOL at OP

 

I have a set as well. Not sure if they are CT7's though. I'll try to post some photos.

I suspect they are bad ***, but haven't gotten a chance to use them yet.

Where did you get yours serviced?

 

Not sure why you find the term JDM Ohlins funny. The only Ohlins that fit our cars are ones that were made in Japan, for the Japanese Domestic Market. I have heard that the early ones were made with Swedish parts, and the more recent ones are made with Japanese parts. I think it would be fairer to accuse me of wanting them "Just because they are Ohlins" rather than because they are JDM.

 

Rotten:

http://performanceshock.com/

The guy here claims to be able to service the JDM Ohlins. Everything I know about these shocks I learned from calling him.

BTW, I see that you have a rally Integra. What shocks do you run on a bumpy tarmac surface?

 

Yep, Bruce at PerformanceShock was my guy. Very nice to work with, I'd recommend them to anyone

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by beanbag &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
BTW, I see that you have a rally Integra. What shocks do you run on a bumpy tarmac surface? </TD></TR></TABLE>

If we were going to a full tarmac event, I would probably put Koni's with fairly soft springs, something in the 350-450lb range, bit stiffer in rear than front. Basically a softer road race setup. Probably with a stock rear sway bar.

If we're running a mixed event, we run our gravel shocks: Hotbits, with ~350lb/in springs front, ~250 rear. No sway bars. Close to full stiff on the shocks for the tarmac stages, close to full soft on gravel.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rotten &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

If we were going to a full tarmac event, I would probably put Koni's with fairly soft springs, something in the 350-450lb range, bit stiffer in rear than front. Basically a softer road race setup. Probably with a stock rear sway bar.

If we're running a mixed event, we run our gravel shocks: Hotbits, with ~350lb/in springs front, ~250 rear. No sway bars. Close to full stiff on the shocks for the tarmac stages, close to full soft on gravel.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Which Koni's are those?
Why would the Hotbits be better at gravel?
And finally, why did you decide to get the Ohlins?

 

Thanks for all the replies so far. If I can manage to get a pair of model numbers for the front and back, then maybe I can have my Japanese friend ask Ohlins in Japan for some info, e.g. what spring rates they originally came with, etc.

So my real motivation is as follows. I currently have the Koni yellow sport, and although I am not horribly displeased with them, I've ridden in another car with the Koni 82 series, and they felt much better. In general, they have better small bump compliance, and the car seemed to settle faster, both after hitting a bump, or after swerving. So I think there is definitely something better out there, even for street driving.

However, I'm not really interested in track driving. I guess my situation would be similar to tarmac rally, albeit less extreme. My current setup is 300f/200r, and only lowered 1/2". I happen to like ground clearance.

So given all that I've read so far about these particular Ohlins, it seems that they will be valved too stiff. But I'm trying to pick up a set cheap and then have them revalved to something more appropriate. The guy at Performance Shock said that he could basically make the shock curve look like whatever, so maybe there's some hope there?

 

beanbag, did you know PSI is REALLY close to you?

 

Beanbag, just FYI, because these are older, the rebuild prices area little higher than what's advertised on the PSI website.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slammed_93_hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">beanbag, did you know PSI is REALLY close to you?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes. That's where my bro went to get his Motons dyno'd.
I was planning to go there and get an in-person consultation about what he could do with these shocks.

Stinky: How much did it cost you for a rebuild and revalve?

 

why oh why do people think öhlins is a JDM company just because they have a facility in japan?

i suppose everyone thinks koni is an american company because they have a facility in kentucky???

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by beanbag &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Which Koni's are those?
Why would the Hotbits be better at gravel?
And finally, why did you decide to get the Ohlins?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Koni Yellows.

We're actually using Koni Yellows on the new rally car (or actually H&R cup kit shocks, which are sourced from Koni) for gravel.

Hotbits shocks are designed and valved for gravel. They have a longer stroke. We run a tender/main spring combination that helps under full droop and over large ruts/holes or jumps).



As to the Ohlins, I got a insanely good deal on them, couldn't pass them up. Figured I'd use them eventually, perhaps as a tarmac setup for one of the rally cars. Right now are sitting on a shelf. May actually use them on the CRX H1 car, and take the Advance Design dampers off. Will test them first.

 

beanbad, sent you a PM.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MAV3RiCK478 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">why oh why do people think öhlins is a JDM company just because they have a facility in japan?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Read the thread, this has already been covered.

 

Stinky:

What type of options did you have in getting them revalved? For example, do you know if he is able to separately tune high and low speed damping, the "knee" where the shock curve becomes digressive, etc etc. Last I called him, he mentioned that I would need to give info like spring rate, motion ratio, ride frequency, etc, and he would tune the shock accordingly. He also mentioned that the rebound and compression settings couldn't be made independent due to some complication involved in putting in a 1 way valve. I've previously read that it would be "better" if the rebound **** didn't also affect compression, but maybe you should also have more compression damping if you increase the rebound? I dunno...

Thanks for the help so far.

 

I didn't get into options with him, as basically, I'm not smart enough to tell him EVERYTHING I want I gave him my vehicle weight, spring rates, and purpose (track), and let him have a go at it. I don't have my motion ratios or ride frequency, etc., but even if I did I wouldn't know what I would WANT from those.

You're right that rebound adjustment separate from compression adjustment is better, but that does make things more complicated, both in design and execution. You sound like an intelligent guy, so I don't mean this in an insulting way. If you have 4-way adjustable shocks, but don't really know HOW to adjust them, what good are those adjustabilities? In addition to that, you're talking about all this on a street car, where all your variables are constantly changing. To simplify all that, I'd say "Don't worry about it."

If that's not the answer you're looking for, can you tell him what kind of curve you're looking for? Like I said earlier, I can post my dyno charts when I get them to give you an idea of what mine will be.