Hey guys

This is kinda long but here it goes anyway.

I thought it would be a good idea to share my own personal experiences with my PIC APEX suspension setup. Both good and bad.

In July of 2007 (exactly one year ago now) I did as much research as I possible could to help improve the handling in my 95 Integra sedan. I was not happy with the performance of my old setup which was a set of KYB AGX shocks with GC 425/325lbs coil over sleeves. While they did not give me the handling I would have liked they lasted over 3 years on my car and still looked rather good when I sold them.

Anyway my research led me to purchase a set of PIC Apex 10k/8k full coil-overs. The price was very appealing and with all the great reviews how could I go wrong right? Hmmmm……

The installation was straight forward. They appeared to be made of good quality components. The ride was much harder but I was expecting that. The handling was GREATLY improved. I really like how they perform. The car never handled so well before. I was extremely please with my purchase for now.

So from July of 07 until around mid December it was always riding at a pretty low ride height and since I drive my car thru the winter with snow tires I raised all 4 corners up about 1.5”. I drove thru the winter until around late February when I had the car in the shop I decided to raise it up on the hoist and to my surprise the front and rear coils were badly rusting and the powder coating was flaking off. I was pretty upset that these new coil-overs started to rust out so bad and so fast.

I took a few pictures of the rusted out coils and e-mailed them to Al at PIC expressing my concern about how fast they rusted out. Al was extremely helpful and sent me 4 new coil springs to replace my rusted ones at no charge! He also explained to me that it was either a bad batch of powder coating or the stiffness of the springs caused the coating to chip off and start rusting right away. Either way I was extremely happy with the customer service. AL came thru and stood by his product. PIC gets an A+ in that department.

So I quickly swapped out the coils for the rest of the winter time no problem. From around late march to mid April the weather was starting to get better so it was time to pull off the snow tires, lower the suspension again and put on the summer tires. Simple right? Wrong. All 4 corners every single aluminium adjusting perches were corroded/seized to the shock body. I cursed and sweared for over a month spraying all kinds of penetrating fluids on the threads and even used a plumber’s pipe wrench to try and loosen them. They were ALL completely seized. I was again upset with the fact that these things were not even a year old and im running into all these issues.

Granted it clearly states in the instructions that come with the suspension that you are supposed to keep the threads of the shocks clean to prevent rusting etc…but it’s impossible to keep the suspension clean during the winter months. It’s to cold and there is so much snow crap under the car there is no way anyone can keep them clean.

So I contacted AL again and I offered to purchase all the aluminium rings so I can replace them all. He said sure you can buy them but what is wrong with the original ones….when I told him they were ALL seized and I cant get them to move he said no problem I will send you the complete set of rings no charge! I was in shock at the awesome customer service! I was willing to pay for them since they were seized from salt/rust/lack of cleaning but Al sent out a new set of rings no charge!

So I spent the whole day today removing all the suspension components. I had to use a large plumber’s pipe wrench with some torch heat on the lower aluminium shock mounts and loosen the shock body from there. Then I had to use my angle grinder to cut off all the old seized aluminium rings. I had to clean as best I could all the corrosion/rust out of the threads and slowly work/thread the new rings on. It was NOT an easy task at all. Allot of the threads were rusted/damaged so it was really hard to thread the new rings on. It took a while but I managed to get them all on along with a good thick coat of anti-seize lubricant on all the threads. It looks like crap but it will prevent it from happening again.

I know most people just set their coil-overs and leave them at one ride height but I like to be able to raise and lower the car for summer/winter months. To all the people who live in crappy snow/salt/slush covered roads with coil-over suspension you should check out your adjusters. Chances are they are seized no matter what brand they are.

Anyway enough of my long *** rambling on you are probably all bored from reading all this.

So what are my pro’s/con’s for PIC suspension coil-overs:

Pro’s:
Excellent customer service. Top notch.
Excellent performance. Handling is great.
Good value

Con’s:
Could have been made of better more rust/corrosion resistant materials and/or coatings.

 

nice review...but you didnt talk much about the handling of them..just that it was good. good customer service review lol sorry to hear about that. maybe pic didnt take crappy winter conditions into consideration but hopefully they will in the future.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by yc_dc4mar &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">nice review...but take crappy winter conditions into consideration </TD></TR></TABLE>

none the less, for PIC's customer service.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by yc_dc4mar &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">nice review...but you didnt talk much about the handling of them..just that it was good. good customer service review lol sorry to hear about that. maybe pic didnt take crappy winter conditions into consideration but hopefully they will in the future. </TD></TR></TABLE>

you are right. i didnt mention much on how they perform. my bad.

my old suspension setup was pretty soft and was great for daily driving. very smooth over bumps. on the track they were terrible. the front of the car nose dived allot under hard braking and cornering. also there was to much body roll.

after the PIC's were installed. they were noticeable stiffer of course. the car felt more planted. much less body roll around corners and much less nose diving when coming into a corner and braking hard. the car is much more controllable and you can carry more speed thru the turns without the feeling of loosing control.

 

um..........
now i have to think again........

thx for the review
its really helpfull

I live in Vancouver
Vancouver doesn't have crazy snow like Toronto
but gov still put salt on the road
& I dont like to due w/ rust

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Derek128 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">um..........
now i have to think again........

thx for the review
its really helpfull

I live in Vancouver
Vancouver doesn't have crazy snow like Toronto
but gov still put salt on the road
& I dont like to due w/ rust </TD></TR></TABLE>

honestly i think most if not all coil-overs are exactly the same unless someone makes a full stainless steel threaded shock body.

you will be fine as long as you take the components apart while they are NEW and coat all moving/adjustible peicies and threads with anti-seize compound.

 

Customer service goes a long way, Al as never done me wrong. Thanks for the review

 

o........
u didn't do that?