Suspension advice

[Sleipnir]

Hi all

My car came with Tein superstreets but they are just too hard/harsh with the roads around here. It's like being in a cement mixer full of bricks.

Currently considering my options.

BC coilovers: worried they will still be too harsh and also aware proper shock absorbers will provide a better ride. They are a good price and as I understand it can be set up reasonably well for fast road use.

Black/yellow Bilsteins (not exactly sure what the difference is) I'd want a slight lowering but afaik lowering springs are liable to screw shocks over time...

Konis (apparently the best combo of ride/handling) with appropriate springs (again fishing for thoughts) have a great warranty , not sure if these are just inserts for shocks or are available as full units :/

Thoughts /advice appreciated

[Race Idiot]

Superstreets shouldn't be that bad on the road? Have you checked they aren't set to full stiffness? If not they are probably worn out, might be worth seeing if they can be rebuilt but Tein uk isn't very good at that from what i've heard.

BC's are probably fine, I didn't have a good experience with mine but that was more because the previous owner had wound them down to the lowest setting possible.

Yellow Billstein's have stiffer damping than the black oem ones, both are easily serviced by billstein uk also if you need a rebuild.

Konis are inserts, so if you'd need a set of strut casings from a UK car with a hex nut at the base of the shock. They aren't that cheap though and mine didn't last too long although I was using them on a car that did a load of miles.

I'd say go for the oem bilsteins, or if you can't get em new get some used and go to bilstein uk for a rebuild.

UK spec shocks are more compliant, but are geared towards the NA due to having the lighter NA engine instead of the heavier turbo one.

Springs i'd say go for something progressive like the softer H&R's, Eibach if you can still get em. Avoid linear springs like Tein S tech.

Combine a nice damper spring setup with some whiteline antirollbars and you've got a nice fast road setup

[CalMac]

I like my Koni yellows but have a feeling one of them is knocking after only 4000 miles (at a guess).

As for springs I'm still hunting for a set which I'm really happy with - currently running Apex rears with unknown fronts as the Apex fronts were wayyyy too high. Happy with them though, and I've tried quite a few suspension set ups now

[Sleipnir]

Starting to lean towards yellow Bilsteins and H&R springs, it's the least faff and probs cheaper than getting n/a struts to rebuild with koni inserts and h&r springs.

Also hadn't considered the konis are theoretically intended for use on n/a...

[raptor95GTS]

yeah I did that on my rev3 turbo, turns out the drop the spring manufacturers state is pretty far out http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=192553

Handles pretty good apart from the rubbing and the utter b0ll0cks look it gives the car

[Sleipnir]

Do you have yellow Bilsteins then ?

That stance looks s*** shouldn't it be an even 20mm drop at both ends ?

Kinda ruins my plans as I thought a 20mm drop would be spot on, kinda looks like 20mm at front and nearer 40 at rear...

Is this because the engine is heavy though and these springs are matched ? Seems they should be different to account for weight distribution.

[L14HRE]

There is a Koni sport kit that comes with full dampers and H&R springs and come in at around the £600 mark.

Thats what i will be putting on my rev 5,

I have already ordered the whiteline front and rear arbs

[CalMac]

I would say you cut half a coil from the front springs of whatever brand you go for but I tried this and ruined a brand new pair of front Apex springs

Half a coil should be safe enough with a thin cutting disc but unfortunately even that small amount made the spring too loose and it didn't sit in the perch correctly. in fact it didn't sit in the perch very well to begin with so I figured I had nothing to lose

[Race Idiot]

If yer more worried about how it looks just get some coilovers lol.

I think the spring manufacturers are giving you the drop from the 4x4 rideheight rev1's rather than the rev3 onwards stuff.

I mean the other option is to look at buying springs from japan, i'm pretty sure tanabe and swift still make sw20 ones but yer gonna have to wait for em to get here first.

[Race Idiot]

edit:oops

[Sleipnir]

Swift are supposed to be the very best afaik ? How does one obtain those here?

I'm looking for fit and forget tbh , konis are all well and good but only go into n/a struts and suspect they are tuned for the n/a as opposed to the heavier turbo engine.

Yellow Bilsteins plus decent springs certainly seems to be ticking my boxes , they should outlast coilovers too right ?

Cheers all

[raptor95GTS]

Do you have yellow Bilsteins then ?

That stance looks s*** shouldn't it be an even 20mm drop at both ends ?

Kinda ruins my plans as I thought a 20mm drop would be spot on, kinda looks like 20mm at front and nearer 40 at rear...

Is this because the engine is heavy though and these springs are matched ? Seems they should be different to account for weight distribution.

yeah yellow bilsteins which were replacing yellow bilsteins haha. It's a xxxx stance, makes me sad esp as the OEM springs it sat nice though I a little high. Yeah the drop is not the same all round but I need to do some work to find out what's up. Certainly a pain in the ass

[2barGee]

I run BC coilovers.

For the road i run around 5-8 clicks from the softest setting and it's perfectly fine. It's an mr2 at the end of the day so the ride is never going to be amazing.

For more spirited driving and track use i crank up the damper setting.

What tyre profile do you run? I used to run a 35mm and it made the ride awful.

[raptor95GTS]

geeman, profile is 40, 215 on front and 255 rear. I checked the part number of the rear springs and they're on the H&R German site at -20mmm but everywhere else states 1.4inch drop which is waay more than 20mm! Fronts, no numbers but again everywhere esel says 1.4 inch drop Wish I'd gone coilovers as at least you can play with heights (of course I'd need new front wheels as 8inch 35ET won't clear) but hey ho done now and will need to play with it and figure it out

[Herts66]

There is a Koni sport kit that comes with full dampers and H&R springs and come in at around the £600 mark.

Thats what i will be putting on my rev 5,

I have already ordered the whiteline front and rear arbs

Hi - where can you get a Koni sport kit for £600?

[raptor95GTS]

I've seen that on ebay, good price but that's only dampers and springs so if you have none rebuildable struts then there's another cost to factor in