Tein Coilovers - "Street" Or "Performance"

[Daniel]

Bushes are just as soft and last equally short periods as FG lol.. I have done some already and plan on doing the rest at the same time yes.

I am planning on leaving the car at std ride height. I *may* decided to go down 1cm max at the last min before install, but I really don't want it to be looking much different than factory.

Everything I have done so far has been tailored around keeping things factory look or at least very subtle so that it doesn't attract attention from the wrong police/idiots/vandals as it is an every day car...

[XR6TWolf]

I have the performance in my BA. I cant speak for street as I upgraded from a Bilstein/Dobisport combination.

On rough urban roads they are not hugely pleasant and if anything seem to reduce stability though I dont regard that as a big issue....speeds are low anyway.

On open roads, sweeping corners, twisty stuff....WOW, love them.

Ive had one track day....nothing to compare them with in terms of times but massive improvements in predictability, grip, turn in......

If you can handle a rough ride on less than perfect urban streets I'd say dont hesitate.

[Erko]

if you are worried about it, go the Streets with the lower spring rates. I have Performance, and they are excellent from a control stand point, but the ride is less than excellent on imperfect roads.

[seduced]

Suggest you go for a ride first Daniel. Being we are like-minded when it comes to cabin noise, I recently drove a BA on bilstein coilovers. They are not Teins, but far out, the amount of bump/road noise and slamming over corrugations etc was absolutely crap. First set of corners, it all made sense.

For me, I want to maintain as much comfort as I can while adding a bit of performance. 95% of the time, I am "comfort" driving while the rest is spirited fun, and while Teins would increase the level of fun, it would annoy me when Im trying to cruise about. All the efforts I am putting in to reduce road/bump/cabin noise would be undone with coilovers.

I'll be switching to Koni Reds and better springs for this reason.

[straughsberry]

My Teins aren't that noisy at all. This BA on Bilsteins you speak of, did it have any suspension bushes replaced with nolathane or stiffer units anywhere?

[senna_T]

If the BA had coil overs they would've been custom, bilstein don't have an off the shelf coil-over kit for BA's. Being that they are made out of bits and pieces (nothing wrong with that BTW) the sprins could have a very high spring rate, this will lead to a much much firmer feel.

And as Straughsberry said, some aftermarket urethane bushes can cause alot more NVH also.

[seduced]

Not sure exactly, he just said they are bilsteins and "are awesome", which they were through the corners. Held the road beautifully, just amplified every bump and rattled the interior like mad.. Bushes were standard from memory.. I could be wrong.

$3500 for Teins is alot to pay if you dont like the results. I'd sample one first.

[Daniel]

The problem is most shops do not have cars with Teins in them to try out..

I don't make it to meets these days, so I am out of touch with the members and their cars lol

If they were too hard, Id pull them out and go bilsteins with some springs to match; I had them in the past and they were MUCH better than stock, even in comfort.

[Smoke them tyres]

I would personally go for the street setup as the performance 670lb/in rate is BLOODY stiff IMHO and you would need some damn sticky track day tyres to make them work as intended.

The 520lb/in rate of the street setup is more than stiff enough for the camber, caster and tyre width that they have dialled into car.

re the previous posts in this thread.....

If the shocks don't have enough low speed rebound, they will make the springs "appear" stiffer than they actually are (the car will bounce over bumps like the lowered ricers do). This will then amplify the noise from road irregularities into the cabin.....and make it feel more unstable when not cornering. This part of shock tuning is critical as it is where it spends most of it's life.

I have been doing a fair bit with some front Konis (Reds) with King 520lb/in rate. They have been in and out 6 times now. When they were std, they had a linear rebound curve and no amount of their adjustment would stop the front end feeling like a boat. Because the rates are parallel to each other, adjustment does not make much difference. Don't know how Koni feel those rates would be anything like sufficient?????? Good tuneable shock, crap std valving.

I have now had the internal pistons changed/made up with different number and size of holes through the piston (this is how low speed rebound is done), increased fluid viscosity (rated in CentiStokes....go to peterverdonedesigns website and have a good read on suspension setup) and they now have a "digressive" rebound curve. When adjustment is done, a noticeable change in low speed rebound is felt ie actually effective in suspension tuning. This is the rebound curve that the Koni Yellow's get....if we could get them....

The last attempt I made last week by running Dexron III (a thicker oil) instead of the std Shell Tellus 15 (T15) really "calmed down" the chassis, made it more supple over bumps, increased the grip and "appeared" to soften up the spring rate (the result of better spring control).

Next week I will post the shock dyno curves as development had proceeded in Erko's suspension setup sticky for all.

Edited 04/11/09 09:09 AM by Smoke them tyres

[Erko]

great work smoke them tyres I look forward to seeing that

I will put some updates in too when I get a chance