i've had function form type 1's, koni/gc, s techs w/ stock shocks, spoon progressive springs w/ spoon fixed dampers and ek9 shocks. not looking to slam my car just want to eliminate wheel gap. i went back to s techs for the look but trying to find something that will last. i blew a shock so any opinions.


Ouch. My bad. I'm actually not a kid tho. But uhh...

Car: 00 ek3 vi-rs
Usage: windy roads
Budget: a grand or so
Details: it'll be going w/ ek9 sway bar and that's about it for suspension parts

 

No car

No usage

No budget

No details


You kids are really dumb nowadays.

 

^ Take it easy old man. Leave the kid alone. BTW, are you coming to this Sat. BBQ at Coyote Point?

 

Sure am! I gotta take the Focus though, the hatch is in a million pieces.

 

KW ST speedtech.

Koni/GC.

Tein Street Flex.

All just over/under $1k.

All have been covered before 10000000 times in 50000000 different threads that can be searched in .0001 seconds.

 

yea.. yea.. yea.. im aware its been covered 1000000000 times and i have searched but every thread I've seen gives the same post like yours. a bunch of names with nothin else to offer. if i wanted name brands id just go to the web pages and look at the suspensions. im trying to get people opinions on what the use and how they like it. so id appreciate it if you've used those sets, which one you liked and how it handled.

 

At that price range you're really limited to just a couple decent options.

Koni/GC

BC/D2/Ksport/Megan/insert taiwanese made coilover here

Tein

Honestly I'd spend the extra $150 and get the Fortune Autos for $1150. They have custom spring rates, and are valved for the springs you pick. They come with a shock dyno, are made in the USA, and the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Oh, they also don't take over 8 months to deliver a set of coilovers.... Looking at you Andy.

The Tein are garbage as far as I'm concerned. The Koni/GC is a popular choice, but honestly unless you're going with generic spring rates, or getting the shocks revalved, then they really aren't as good as other options. I'm not a personal fan of whatever the flavor of the month anodized 'JDM' coilover is, but I know others who run D2 or Ksport and like them a lot.

 

PS... tires are more important than coilovers. Make sure you aren't spending $1000 on shiny coilovers and running Nankangs.

 

Koni/GC for daily. FYI fortune auto are assembled in USA parts built in China

 

Ouch!

 

Lol. $1k isn't a lot to spend on coilovers and you shouldn't really expect much for that price. Koni/GC's...and everything in the $1k range are nice, but not miraculous.

Koni/GC is also not the "perfect" setup for everyone, as the internet claims. But...they probably are the most beneficial....***depending on what you're trying to do with them****.

Tires are ultra important if you're planning on tracking the car. For street use, just make sure you're not getting tires that will be too harsh for the coilover you choose. Since you like to drive spiritedly, but need a setup for street use...something in the "max summer performance" category is probably pretty well matched. This isn't a tire thread, though.

I did a pretty good review/install thread on different sets of coilovers I've used on different cars.

Koni/GC, KW ST, and Tein are all in there. Its semi relevant to your chassis. Lmk if you'd like a link, OP.

 

Teins are not garbage. Just like Koni/GC...you have to choose them correctly, based on the application. If you're going to the race track with your Tein Street Advance....you're going to have a bad time. If you're ONLY street driving and looking for silky smoothness and you buy RE/RA's....you're dumb.

Also...D2 and K sport are not JDM. Or even 'JDM'. They're made/based in Taiwan or China, IIRC.

 

The problem with this thread...and all the others that you have searched is that the OP leaves out so much info that its impossible to answer the question without returning a generic answer.

You say you've tried brand A, B, C, D, E....but....you don't provide details.

What did you like or dislike about each of those?
You say you've had Koni/GC. What rates?
Tein? What model?

Be more specific. Keystrokes are free. If you're more specific...then either you can search more specifically, or you can expect an answer that quantifies. How much can you expect when you ask, "I need a streetable suspension for a civic"? You might as well throw a dart at a slew of brands to see where it lands. Anyone that gives you a firm opinion based on your info probably isn't providing reliable info anyway.

 

That's totally my opinion, but after having 3 sets of them, I'm over it.

I have the Super Streets on my EG right now.

 

I'm aware, but the parts are sourced from Taiwan, and then valved and assembled in Virginia.

Most coilovers are assembled overseas as well.

 

Agree here, only teins I've had great experiences with was Flex

AMR's 85% of parts are manufactured in house and assembled in the US as well.

 

Ok. The SS kinda sucks haha. They've been replaced. Not sure who Tein made SS's for. People who wanted to get beat up on the street AND go slow on a race track?

I think the market has evolved away from users that want "stiff suspsnsorzz" because they feel it has to be overly stiff to handle well. But...I know that that mentality is not completely gone.

Still....I wouldn't say their stuff is garbage. They did have some strange configurations...and probably still have a few oddities left now. The quality has always been pretty solid, however. They're low on features in lieu of being high on quality....which is a sign of a solid company.

OP is bored with this topic though. [yawn] too many questions [/yawn]

You guys wanna talk about bass fishing or something?

 

Gentlemen,

For those of you that have NEVER ridden on a QUALITY suspension please do not overlook the importance of a progressive spring. Please look into H&R full bodied coilovers. They are, without a doubt, the finest DD coilovers I have ever used.

Sincerely,
Bitter Old Man.

 

^You're absolutely right that the H&R SP coils are an excellent street setup. But...there are quite a lot of linear sprung coilovers that work just as well on the street.

H&R's aren't full body adjustable, though. Not sure if you meant something else. "Threaded body", perhaps? Very few european coilovers are full body adjustable.

 

They are fully adjustable threaded coilovers with progressive springs. I don't know what you mean by "full body adjustable. Linear springs "work" just fine on the street BUT you will inevitably hit some undulations in the road that will give you that perfect bounce front to back. Think about your linear rates on a certain stretch of highway that make you seasick.

I've owned countless sets of linear and progressive setups. For a true street car I prefer progressive springs.

 

Full body adjustable coilovers adjust...well...the full body length. The body can be threaded into a lower sleeve. 2 sleeves. Google pictures of "tein street flex", for an example. You can lower the car without affecting shock stroke.

A normal threaded body coiloved like the H&R SP adjusts by lowering the spring position as relative to shock stroke length. Lower the spring...and you lose shock stroke.

Feel me?

My Tein SA's have linear springs. They ride like butter. Progressive springs have their advantages for street driving, I won't disagree. But...properly tuned damper rates and spring rates have a bigger impact.

I believe that most models of Bilstein PSS9 have linear springs. Ever ridden on those?

You're thinking of the weird undulations you get from springs and dampers that control motion of the car in a certain way. Thats just a inherent property of a setup. Not because of linear springs. You ca create the same conditon with progressive springs as well.

Lots and lots of factory cars come with linear springs and ride very comfortably.

Linear spring just means springs that compress at a constant force per length relation. They don't have to be the same rate front and back.

There is no logical explanation why they would directly cause weird undulations.

 

Your H&R's feel good because of the traditional German street suspension formula of relatively soft springs, heavy low speed bump and rebound damping to control roll, and knee'd over high speed damping for comfort.

They're also not marketed at fools that be "tryina slam my **** and get that stiff ride, cuhz". These type of people need 80 levels of damping adjustment, the ability to ride the car on its *********, the ability to go to the race track that they're never going to go to...ever...in a million years, and a price of $350-700.

You know. "Realistic" people.

I feel like suspension manufacturers make perfectly shitty street kits by catering to these people in order to get sales. It works, though. They sell. :/

Your H&Rs are an excellent setup. You're one of like...2 people? On earth? To own these? They're around $900.

How many people own a set of over-equipped garbage that they bought for the same price and use for the same purpose? Millions.

 

I feel like the threaded full body setups you're quoting are due to the cost saving benefits of making one damper body that can he adapted to multiple chassis. I understand not reducing the shock stroke as a side benefit but I doubt that was the priority. What is a priority of budget brand is cost, specifically the expense of "R&D" if you can call it that. The math is much easier to calculate when there is only one rate to consider...

Linear springs will have a harmonic that will hit rhythmically and be most apparent on longer flat straights where they're supposed to be level. Think about sections of 90, 290, 55, etc. Perhaps it's due to poor low-speed damping on budget coilovers but I don't think the sub-$1000 Taiwanese brands can hold a handle to a proper progressive setup. Because there's no linear compression it's much easier to tune out those harmonics.

I'm not bashing at all but too many of the newer import owners don't look at established (read: old school) options. Do you remember a time before all these multi-branded damper assemblies hit the market? Every single manufacturer that designed and built a quality product used adjustable perches instead of interchangeable lower mounts. I'll even counter the relatively soft-spring of the H&R with the entry level Teins. Those are soft!

I think that this is a good article from Hypercoil for people new to the market to consider:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...NaShKNV8ng8a7w

 

That's an interesting take. Maybe there is some dimension sharing going on with full threaded coilovers. But then again...there's probably dimension sharing going on with traditional coilovers as well. Nothing at all wrong with that. As a matter of fact, it can serve to lower cost in places like that in order to benefit other aspects while keeping the end cost the same.

Ohlins DFV's are full body adjustable. They're not thrown together, cheap, or sub-quality coilovers. There are huge benefits to using a full body adjustment, at any budget range. The key is to consider other things as well. If there's a company that favors full body adjustment over damper quality in order to keep the price low enough for people who don't know better (or care enough) to purchase...then that's the market that they're aiming at.

The undulations you're talking about are caused by sub-par damping, and sub-par R&D, or a compromise of some sort. Not because of linear springs.

There are, however, even some high quality suspension that will undulate over bumps becasue of their design. KW V3's for S2000's are known to kind of get into a rythm over bumps. The reason is that S2000's have a ~50/50 weight split, similar front and rear wheel rates, and the V3's come with square spring rates (same spring rate all around). It's not a budget coilover...nor is it a shitty coilover. The reason this is done is to keep the balance of the car using the factory tire stagger. I have switched to 12K/10K springs and adjusted the damping because I have a non-staggered tire setup. The rhythm over highway bumps is gone.

Dampers are what keep the spring in check. Bilsteins, KW's, Teins, Ohlins, and a vast majority of OEM and aftermarket suspensions come with linear springs. Linear springs have advantages in quite a few ways. Namely, travel and consistency.

The springs on Tein SA's are almost surely not softer than the corresponding H&R SP. I have never ever had my TSX get into a rtI have tried tons of different coilover brands, setups, spring rates, etc. Linear springs are not the cause of what you're describing. 100% for sure.

Progressive springs *usually* have the upper hand in comfort, all else being the same. But damping quality and R&D trumps that. If you're buying the right coilover for the right purpose, from the right company, you're usually going to get the right results.

Progressive springs also don't always work in the way that you may think. Most of the time, "soft" coils are usually dead coils. At that point, the spring acts mainly like a linear spring. The dead coils are there to extend the shock in case of over-extension. I'm almost positive that's the way the H&R's are set up. They don't have helper springs...so the "progressive" dead coils are used as helper springs. When the car is on the ground...you have a linear spring.

That's the way it works with stock ITR springs, some models of Eibach sportlines, and every model of H&R progressive spring that I've seen.

I believe German TUV regulations require some sort of helper spring or dead spring in case over over-extension for coilovers to be road approved.

The progressive/digressive nature of the DAMPER is why your setup is comfortable. Linear dampers are more harsh, but again, this all depends on their design.

 

Please understand my responses are not to be taken as an authority on the subject or get in the last word; I'm merely enjoying the conversation.