Are there any general differences, performance wise, between coilovers and springs? i know coilovers are adjustable height.

 

Prepare for a fire.

 

well first, they are far from the same thing. A spring, consists of just that a spring. You can get lowering springs to just lower the car. A coilover alows you to adjust the ride height of you car. That's the simplest way to put it i think. I don't believe you will get better performance out of one or the other. I would always recommend using a coilover vs. spring just because say you want to lower your car and you go get a set of springs. You put them on the car is lowered and you don't like the ride height. Now you have to go back to the shop, pay them to take them off and try something else. Or you could just get a set of coilovers and raise or lower it till you find your desired height.

 

Keep this is mind though. The spring in a sleeve kit ('low end' coilover) is shorter than a regular spring. When you lift a wheel or do anything that will extend the shock any significant amount the spring will actually come loose around the shock. When you put that corner of the car back down its possible to slam it all back together. 'Higher end' coilover systems include a helper spring to aleviate this problem. I think you could probably order this spring seperately and make it work with a sleeve kit but you might just want to look into this issue a little more before you order a sleeve kit.

BTW. Im speaking from experience. I have a gc kit on my 2k hatch. I will soon be swapping my setup in favor of eibach sportlines/koni yellows.

Brian

 

Technically, a coilover is any kind of suspension with the spring around the damper shaft...ie, a typical Honda double wishbone, a MacPherson strut, etc. So a magazine doing a review on a BMW can say that the front suspension (MacPherson strut design) is a coilover suspension.

A spring can be a coil spring, a leaf spring, or a torsion bar.

In regards to Hondas, springs generally refer to the coil springs alone. "Coilovers" refer to some kind of combination spring and damper unit that costs at least a grand and has adjustments for ride height and dampers (compression/rebound). "Coilovers" also refer to the sleeve-type kits.

In the automotive world, terms are used loosely...struts, shocks, dampers are used interchangeably so people do get confused from time to time.

Another example is "drift" where people swear up and down that it can ony be done on the rear wheels in a RWD vehicle, even though that is incorrect.

 

Performance wise there is a Huge Differnce.... depending on what you do. With Thread sock bodies or sleeves("coilovers") You of course can adjust the height howver more importantly you can corner-weight you car, which is import on how well the car handels in corners at speed. With Just Lowering springs there is know way to corner weigh you car because you cannot adjust the height of each wheel and thus change the weight on that tire. Is this important for the genral street driver? No. For a person who is racing on road corses or serious track day events yes it is import.

 

With springs the driver side of hondas always kind of leans if it matters to you

 

what about springs with adjustable koni struts? just curious

 

I've already tryed sleeve coilovers and I havent been satisfied... I'm going to try springs next.

 

If that doesn't work then i'll have to save up for Tein full coilover system.