I have a 2005 wrx. I dont autocross but I would like to my be once a month. I am looking for a day to day driving coilover. Just want to know what you guys think I should go with.
i love my megan's, the ride on full soft is better than stock. alot of people like flexs, but both of these are on or near the lower end of coilovers in the grand scheme of things.
^^ Her megans have about 50k miles on them and they've gone from a 2004 STi, to my 96 Outback to her 04 WRX over the course of the last 2 years. They are pretty darn tough and work awesome. I just purchased a brand new set off ebay for $900 shipped, got them within a week and they are on my 04 WRX now. Feel the same as the set of Ashleys car.
If you can swing it the Tein SSP's are damn good from my experience. I say research though, to find out if you like pillow ball mounts or not. They have thier ups and downs.... Other than that the Megans are probably really good.
What are you looking for? They are completely ride height adjustable independent of spring preload...so you can set it to what you want. Otherwise the pics on ebay pretty much depict what they look like before you install them. Some stores have a generic shot, most have the subaru specific ones shown. The SSP's are awesome....however, no ride height adjustment. Just spring preload. The Megans and SSP's have similar ride quality depending on what you set them at. At 16 (16 is middle) or below, the Megans ride awesome. The SSP's in the middle of its range is really nice. Pillow ball mounts FTW! Otherwise, I'd have Group N's.
Tein=ssh: They are so arrogant and cocky. Oh and their part breaks too. Don't buy teins, when they break your SOL. Tein makes me so mad.
If you don't race you don't need coilovers. You can easily get your ride height desired by using a ground control spring a 1/4 of the price. There is nothing wrong with the Tein's. Most cases of coilovers breaking are unique. Tein's aren't the best race coilover, but are great for a street/ocassional race setup. Meghan's are quite similar to the tein's for springs and valving. Most prefer the Meghan's over the Teins.
Exactly. You can also get the desired height out of springs. The Tein springs, either H tech or S tech will get you really low. Prodrives and Pinks are taller than the Teins, but lower than stock by about 1 inch. If you are looking for stiffer ride, but not quite coilover stiff....STi struts w/a good set of springs work good too. The RCE springs are about 1/4~1/2 lower than the pink/prodrive and are stiffer.
just realize what you're wanting to do...the springs may not be stiff enough or the coilovers might be too stiff...take some rides at a g2g...like the Batlground Dyno day on the 4th... see what you like.
One of his three camber plate bolts snapped and they gave him a hard time about it. He took it to TopSpeed and they swapped it out in no time.
the bolt we are talking about fastens the top plate to the body of the car. Those are rather important.
Actually, this thread has caught some of my interest in IWSTi. The topic is coil bind, only 3 spring mfgs have been exempt from it thus far (Swift, Prodrive, STi Pinks), everyone even RCE is admitting they mucked up on this one http://www.iwsti.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90801 My two cents is that if you are like me and want more out of your car dont waste your money on springs. Invest in a nice set of coilovers and enjoy yourself. If you dont like them, they're resale value will still be strong.
If its a daily driver and you want something nice you can take to the track then by the KW V3s. The ride is really nice and they have enough compression and rebound adjustment for the track. Matt
http://www.tein.com/ss1damp.html This is what I have. They do have ride height adjustments and rebound and dampening adjustments.
What I was saying about them is that they do not have ride height adjustment INDEPENDENT of spring preload. But yeah...if you dont care about preload then you can slam them pretty far.
KW v3's... if you don't have enough money to buy them I would suggest waiting till you do. Nothing compares to how nice they handle and just how nice they ride. They will not beat the crap outa you driving around on the crappy streets. And if they ever did need to be serviced they are very fast in turn around. IIRC you can find a set for just under 2k, not much more than the stiffly valved and sprung JDM crap.
See, if I had over torqued them, I would have understood my mistake and admitted it. But they weren't, the car was still on jackstands, and the bolts were hand tight, and I could still move the coilover up and down. The bolt broke loosening it, not tightening it.
something I've noticed sometimes with those stock nuts, is that they will tear into the threads and bind on aftermarket stuff. The Megans i got new came with their own nuts. They are no P-T nuts, but they have locking teeth on the bottom side.
Yeah, I really wish I had been a little more patient when buying coil overs. I still have to figure the damping settings. I've been asking for advice from all these people, and no auto-x time to test it. I think I will be a little less harsh on them. I think it has been a good learning experience. Just remember kids, RESEARCH BEFORE YOU BUY! Can I get better nuts at like autozone? Threadjack to Will: If I corner balance my car after an alignment, will it f up my alignment.
With SMALL adjustments, the alignment will not be TOO far off...but it will STILL change. If you get nuts from some where, make sure the are FLANGE nuts just like/similar to stock, just w/out the prevailing torque part. Its easy to see. just set the teins in the middle to start with and go from there. I'll be seeing you in STU with my WRX soon.
Ace hardware has a nice selection but my fav place is Howard Bros hardware in Duluth off Buford Hwy. They have all kinds of neat stuff in the back of the place. Just walk to the back and ask for help.
Oh ok I get it. I'd never slam any car though. That's way too cheesey for me, but to each his own I guess. I'm actually gonna raise mine about an inch when I get the chance. 245/45's have the slightest rubbing issue when it comes to really aggressive driving, on mountain roads anyway... How much is that going to affect the damping though? I could actually deal with a little less stiffness, so would that be changed at all?