The subject car is an 88 CRX Si with B16A and a few other mod's. I currently have 205/50-15's on 15x7's and stock suspension. Would like to lower about 1.5".

Adjustable springs or coilovers seem appropriate to tune ride height for both summer (above) and winter wheels. Tein SS and GC/Koni Sport combo seem to be the two front-running choices.

Application is primarily street. Basically I'm just looking for handling that's commensurate with the other mod's. Adjustability of dampening is also desired. It doesn't look like there's too much price difference between the two setups.

The CG's would be a little cheaper, potentially with externally adjustable dampening. Spring rates would also be easy to swap. I'm wondering how much difference there really is between a full coilover and adjustable springs on good shocks - particularly considering that I'm not looking for much drop.

I've made liberal use of SEARCH to get this far. Any additional comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

I cannot help out much but I am also stuck between the two. Just remember that the Koni yellows come with a life time warranty (if you didn't already know). When buying products I like to know of how long they will last.

 

I've ridden in two different Integra's, one with the tein ss's and on with koni yellows and standard spring rate GC's (I think 350f/275r but don't quote me). Both were great suspensions. The teins have a 16 way adjustable shock (good to dial it in for autocrossing and stuff like that). The Integra teins are farily stiff with 440f/336r. I only took a short ride but it was great. It was stiff but bareable. he had the shocks on 6f/6r so he could have softened the ride a bit. Great street and autocross setup. the konis and GC's were great also. It was a softer rider but most of that was due to the spring rates. He also autocrossed his car and it did well. I would ask around for some ideas on the spring rates you would need for the car you're in question for. I think both would be great choices.

 

I have the tein SS's on my EG and i have to say that they are a kick a$$ setup.
Best bang for the buck in my opinion suspension wise. The ride is absolutley astonishing when dialed in the the full stiff setting!!!!
Good Luck
Tein+ =

 

I really like TEIN.

 

you can't really go wrong with tein, because the spring and shock have already been researched and developed to work perfectly in conjunction with each other, providing a very strong setup. that doesn't mean that there still isn't potential for gc's and konis, but the two weren't "made to work together" like a full tein coilover is, so you might not get as good results.

 

Thanks for the replies.

Anyone else?

 

I've got GC's with Koni yellow and really like the ride. The ability to customize spring rates is a plus to me.

 

i've looked at both suspension setups and from talking to blake fuller (winner of the pikes peak challenge in his EG Hatchback) he says stay with GC/Koni's with 550-450 rates over Tein's anyday. Until you start looking at the 2200+ coilover setups they simply aren't as good over a prolonged period of hard driving...ie they lose their consistency.

i'm going with GC/koni's because its less expensive and when i blow my shocks, i will have them revalved by koni to handle the stiffer spring rates.

also, b18c5Rodney says the same thing...and he has 2500 dollar RG Coilovers on his car and knows as much about suspension as anyone i've ever met...including blake.

just my opinion and experience with things...and if you can get away with a setup that will work as well as the teins for less money why not go with that...and spend the other money on something else that will also help performance...like a rear sway bar..etc.

 

The one bad thing I have heard about the Tein SS's is they can rust fairly easy. Might be something to think about.

 

It seems like the main advantage of a full coilover is that its damper is specifically designed to work with the spring over a range of height adjustments.

I don't know how this is accomplished, presumably there is some way of reducing pressure in the strut as ride height is lowered.

I'm only planning to lower the car 1.5" or so. This might be an argument in favor of the GC/Koni setup. It seems like modest lowering would not take full advantage of the Tein.

 

I'd say for your uses, the GC/Koni with custom rates would be perfect for you. I too want to lower my car 1.5 inches and since there is a lack of good 1.5 springs on the market, that leaves me to use GC's and a shock. I think the teins are just out of reach price wise for me.

 

ive been going over the same problem and see that tokico and eibach do NOT have coilover hookups for ef civic/crx// i have ground controls on the rear of my 87 rex and like them very much esp considering the price break

i mean we are not women with gucci purses so whatever works best for a reasonable price seems a good choice

 

I'm deciding on the same decision you are going with Tein SS or ground control and koni yellows. I"m probably going to get the ground control and koni yellows considering that I will be doing autorcrossing. The teins are nice but I need a little something more stiffer in the rear. The tein ss are like 444 front and like 224 rear, something around that. If you just going to cruise around on the street then I would just get the tein ss considering they will probably have a softer ride comfort. My buddy at redshiftmotorsports who is a national champion used koni and ground control, makes you wonder doesn't it.