im 90% sure im going to purchase tein coilovers now which should i get the tein ss or the tein flex im planning on also buying the edfc it seems that there is only a 200 dollar average difference i admit little out of my league on all the info but im trying to learn about spring rates and how they equate to driving comfort/handling i plan on driving the car semi daily, touge, and maybe autocross so please any info /opinions will help
I personally would not get TEIN's and have 2 sets of flex. I know there are much better alternatives for the price. Not saying they don't handle well but beat you up as with most any CO but don't cost 2K with edfc. But, if you decide to go with the TEIN's I have an extra edfc.
Stay away from Japanese\Chinese coilovers. The ride quality is terrible and the adjustment is ineffective. If you want something that actually works get something German. The KWs are great and they are actually a real functioning coilover. I hear the ASTs are good but haven't driven on them. The Racecomps are revalved KWs and are really nice thats whats on my car now.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.7; en-us; ADR6400L Build/FRG83D; CyanogenMod-7.2.0) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1) I second the kW/rce tarmac 2s. Yes I have them, the adjustability to go from DD comfy to a pretty aggressive track feel is amazing. One thing of note along with revalving the rce's come with linear rate springs over progressive springs on the kw. so they can feel a bit stiffer/low speed bouncy. For me its not all that harsh and the cornering gains make it worth it.
the KW Variant 2's in J_P's car were the most amazing coilovers i've ever ridden on. Jason (Jason) has tein flex's and has used them for well over 30k miles with no rebuild. they are great mountain/autocross coilovers, but beat the piss out of you on a daily basis. i wouldn't recommend tein unless your car was completely suspension'd out (sways, links, bushings, control arms, etc). end even then, there are better options out there
ive always liked tein for some reason. i have a few friends whose cars have them and they seemed good(none were subbies) i really like the edfc so i dont have to get out and change it all(guess i like the idea of being lazy) well after the coils come ill have everything but the sways i currently have the whiteline alk kit bump steer kit eibach rear control arms and trailing arms every bushing you can find on the interwebs all in poly(all haven been ordered yet but comming soon) cusco motor/tranny mount greddy strut bars hbrace im sure there are others but i cant think of it
my next question is who has them and can i meet u somewhere to ride/ maybe drive to see how they feel (ill buy lunch and cover gas) and by this i mean not just the teins(id like to check out other options) i wanna do this right and again im lost on all the numbers and how they equate to real life handling
Tein flexes SUCK on the street. I had Milo's old set with custom spring rates. On the track it was a beast. On the street they sucked. For example there is an off ramp here near work and I could only run 55mph before I could feel the front pass tire lift off the ground. Switched to Dspec struts and RCE black springs and no other changes (alignment specs stayed the same) and I was taking the same off ramp at 65 mph with ease. Didn't dare go faster on a public road.
mine were set a little above half. Anything less and it was all spongy. Adjustability is for the birds for me....set it once and be done with it....lol.
i looked up kw's and there way more expensive then the flex i may have looked in the wrong place but the kw's club sports 3648.00(with top hats) variant 1 1627.00(no tophats) variant 3 2300.00(no top hats) tein ss 1437.00 (with pillow ball mounts) flex 1637.00 (with pillow ball mounts)
Yes the Kw's are definitely in a different price range, but I personally feel its very much a case of you get what you pay for. Also, going by all of the chassis and suspension work you've got going already, handling seems to be very important to you. So maybe it would make sense for you to jump up a bit in price point? As I've told someone else on here, you should really call up Myles at Racecomp Engineering, yes he is the developer/seller of the tarmac2 coilovers that I and several others run. However, he is well known for spending more time talking people out of coilovers when it sounds like its not necessary. He is extremely knowledgeable and will take into account all of your modifications, goals, and intended use of the car. I only have my 'negativeness' to the tein's because I felt they're much harsher than my T2's in daily drive scenarios, especially in downtown Atlanta.
I almost pulled the trigger on a set of Tein COs with the EDFC. I did finally end up with the RCE Tarmac 2s which are just revalved KWs. Not all struts or COs are created equal. My suggestion would be to stay away from Tein all together. If you don't (or can't) want to spend $3000 on a set of CO's Koni and Bilstein are the struts I would recommend with some RCE springs. Riding with a few different people is a really good idea, but make sure to note what the rest of the setup includes like tires, swaybars, ect. Good Luck!
i have the cash for the teins i have police academy in the fall(im paying for it all out of pocket 5000+-) and im picking up a dd so my actual budget ill have 3000 to 3500 dollars are the rce tarmacs and kws the same
the rce tarmac 2's are kw variant 3's but they are valved differently and also default with a stiffer linear rate spring. If you talke to RCE you can get the tarmac2 customized with different spring rates. Actually RCE also carries the Kw's and they can probably put different springs on that also (not sure).
i ended up purchasing the tein flex from someone for 440 shipped. called tein for a rebuild its 400 plus shipping total for the rebuild i was going to get the kws but this was a good deal that i couldnt pass up
As matt stated above I do have Tein Flex on my car and it's nice for young guys. They are pretty harsh even on the softest setting I have them on now. City driving sucks balls but those same city streets taken at 45mph or higher the COs just glide over them.
are you certain they need a rebuild? I had mine done because I had 2 scored rods allowing the fluid to leak.
the back left is kinda noisy if u hit a good bump im having them rebuilt anyways since im sitting on the cash now.... i have them set on 6 clicks and it feels about like a sport suspension on a bmw took some friends from douglasville about a 30 minute drive and let them also drive.. both of them agreed that it wasnt bad (idk about driving threw atl tho its alot smoother out here) plus my daily commute to work is less then 2 miles