i have searched and im getting mixed information. so please help a fellow member out.

currently i have ground control with kyb agx on my 2000 civic coupe. im not satisfied with the comfort level (prefer a "lower" comfortable ride). i have an option to get tein SS for a pretty good price and sell my current suspension. prolly at the end spending $250 to go from GC/agx to tein SS. i was thinking would tein SS provide a more comfortable ride(meaning not as bouncy) or would be the same or would it be even worse.

is it true that tein SS are made from Vietnam???

 

With the SS setup you will definitely have a better ride, you cant compare a 4way adjustability to 16 man, it just nonsense. Since you can get a real good deal for the Tein SS, jump on it

 

tein are expesive, so go with that.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by distortedfuture &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">tein are expesive, so go with that.</TD></TR></TABLE>

He has a chance to get the SS for cheaper. Go with the SS better adjustablility.

 

Dont skimp out on suspension. I believe this is the best mod you will do to your car. I've had the tein ss and would never go back, they are truelly comfortable and have 16 different settings , what more do you want? Nowadays you can get them for like $900 brand new and maybe even cheaper..............Just do it ........

 

go with tein, they are rebuildable when they go bad, and they have a repair facility here in socal.... email them to find out the location... cost from$75-$??? to repair each shock....expensive but they will be good as new

 

I have GC with Koni yellows for over 100,000 miles/4-5 years now. Never had a problem and it is my daily driver.

-Bert

 

everyones comfor levels are different, so my opinion may not be the right one but i always found the agx where a tad to stiff, tokicos where good but blew to fast. if your only going to be paying 250 outa pocket doit. Otherwise i would say grab some koni yellows and keep the groundcontrol

 

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

I have GC with Koni yellows for over 100,000 miles/4-5 years now. Never had a problem and it is my daily driver.

-Bert</TD></TR></TABLE>

I am as well... running custom spring rates

 

thanx u guys for the opinions...picked it up for 650.00 brand new..

 

I hate these kind of treads, because 90% of the time people never have experience with the products.

 

i ahve skunk2 coils with kyb-agx. i'm thinking about going with tein ss as well. are skunk2's stiffer springs than the ones used for the SS system?

for the record kyb's are 8 way not 6 way somebody mentioned above.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by distortedfuture &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">tein are expesive, so go with that.</TD></TR></TABLE>


hahaha i will sell **** to this dude,

just cause there expensive doens't mean there good, not saying they aren't but you CAN'T make statments like that

 

<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">


hahaha i will sell **** to this dude,

just cause there expensive doens't mean there good, not saying they aren't but you CAN'T make statments like that</TD></TR></TABLE>

I think he Was Joking?

 

i've had my tein ss for almost 2 years. When i first got them i couldn't get the settings to a nice 'comfortable' setting. I've tried adjusting the shocks, firm, soft, medium, etc. etc. If i set it too soft, its too bouncy. If i set it too stiff, its too bouncy. LOL

I can't seem to find the right setting. Meaning, not too bouncy, but not too stiff.

 

I'm running on tein SS right now, and I still haven't taken 'em down from the hardest setting...

I don't wanna lift my car up any more, and there's speed bumps EVERYWHERE on maui, so I figure a rough ride is easier to take than a torn up undercarriage...

How high are you guys off the ground if you're running soft-ish settings? I've got about 6 cm of thread under the nut on the rear and 5&1/2 on the front with hardest, and I still scrape on a bunch of stuff if there's anyone else in the car with me...

 

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

I have GC with Koni yellows for over 100,000 miles/4-5 years now. Never had a problem and it is my daily driver.

-Bert</TD></TR></TABLE>

same here. I didn't realize adjustability was the biggest selling point on suspension, not reputation and warranty.

 

a friend of mine has tein SS and they dont even compare to my tokico illumina's.
for a comfortable ride i
would get softer springs, maybe around the 300lb mark and match it with tokico blues. thats only if you're
not too serious about handling.

 

i voted tein ss for comfort. my roommate has tein basics on his DA teg, and i have the gc/agx combo on my eg. his spring rates are something like 500/280, mine are 350/250 lb/in, front/rear. even though his rates are higher, his rides softer.. more body roll, but more comfortable. this is probably because his car is heavier. the other reason is that i think the springs and shocks are properly matched, so the system is critically damped, not overly bouncy, not overly stiff.

Mr. Choi - Hwy 9 ROCKS!!! i'm from that area.. went to lynbrook high school.

 

ss is definitely more soft ride

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MaxSterling &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ss is definitely more soft ride</TD></TR></TABLE>

i've never ridden in a civic with tein SS before, but my frined 99 lude with tein SS rides really stiff, pretty jarring if you ask me. My GC on AGX setup is waaaay smoother. then again, i'm only dropped 2" all around on tall *** 185/65-14 tires. if you want to try to smooth out ur ride, try getting the GC spring hats to modify the shock mounting position.

 

So it sounds to me that spring rates are what determines smooth ride quality. What spring rates are the best for a daily driver?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by drunknmunkypow &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">currently i have ground control with kyb agx on my 2000 civic coupe. im not satisfied with the comfort level (prefer a "lower" comfortable ride). i have an option to get tein SS for a pretty good price and sell my current suspension. prolly at the end spending $250 to go from GC/agx to tein SS. i was thinking would tein SS provide a more comfortable ride(meaning not as bouncy) or would be the same or would it be even worse.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Ride quality and handling are determined by the spring rate and the damper (anti-roll bars also play an important role, but that is beyond the scope of this thread). On one end of the spectrum, you have a smooth, comfortable ride - and on the other end of the spectrum, you have stiff, kart-like handling. You can't really have both, you have to compromise between one or the other and find the balance that suits your needs. Good handling and reduced body roll will require higher spring rates and sport dampers with more damping force to go along with the springs - however, the stiffer springs will make for a more bumpy ride on anything other than smooth pavement. For a comfortable, smooth ride, you will want softer spring rates along with the proper dampers to match - however this will allow more body roll, which is undesireable for handling.

"Bounciness" is something altogether different, This is caused by poor suspension tuning, i.e. some idiot putting a spring/damper combo together when he has no idea what he is doing. Bouncing is caused by a damper that does not have enough damping force for the spring rate it is being used with. Solution: upgrade dampers.

Also, ride height has little to do with ride quality; the only time height matters is when you are too low for the spring rates you are using. If you are using soft spring rates, the suspension will travel further over bumps than it would with stiffer spring rates - thus you risk "bottoming out." Solution: stiffer spring rates, or a higher ride height.

So pretty much the lower you go, the higher of a spring rate you will need to keep from bottoming out, and thus the less comfortable the ride.

Ground Control's default spring rates (which you probably have, unless you specified custom rates when you ordered them from GC) are 350 lbs-in front, 250 lbs-in rear. For comparison, Tein SS spring rates are 448 lbs-in front, 224 lbs-in rear. The rear rate affects ride quality slightly more than the front rate. Generally, a higher rear spring rate will make the car more neutral, while a higher front rate will keep the car safely biased toward understeer.

I would suggest that if you are having "bouncing" problems with your current dampers (and you've already tried turning up the AGX as high as they will go), then instead of blowing $1000 on a set of Tein SS, just spend $580 on a set of Koni Sport dampers for your Ground Controls. It's a much more cost-effective solution. Or, you could buy softer Eibach ERS springs and solve the bouncing problem at the expense of handling; Eibach springs generally run around $50-75 apiece, and you can try replacing them in pairs (front/rear) at a time - i.e. keep the 250 lbs-in springs and replace the 350 lbs-in springs with something softer.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Deluzional &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">With the SS setup you will definitely have a better ride, you cant compare a 4way adjustability to 16 man, it just nonsense.</TD></TR></TABLE>
You obviously don't know what you're talking about.

 

^^^ i agree with everything you said 100%. nice post.

i hate my SS. what a bunch of hyped up BS. i finally got the car to start to rotate at autox a little bit last weekend: shocks full soft up front, full stiff in rear. it's still understeering a little too ... the car just feels questionable still, but much better. i'm gonna try letting some air out of the rear tires.

getting some oversteer would be much easier with stiffer springs in back. i could change them to 336 w/o paying $150 to have them revalved. not worth it. konis or bilstiens with custom rates owns tein. it just boils down to those terrible out of the box spring rates you're stuck wth.

if you're more concerened with ride comfort than handling, i suggest you put the stock suspension back on, or go test drive some cadalliacs.

 

I have gc's with agx's, and the combo works fine for me. I dont really feel any bouciness, more like a rough ride over pothole infested streets. Oh btw nice informative post targa I actually learned a lot.