Tein coilovers or Koni Yellows & Eibach Pro-Kit?

[deevergote]

I'm trying to figure out what I want here. I could use a little help!

My heart was set on some Koni Yellows and the Eibach Pro-Kit. Shox.com has a package for something like $675. Now, I know that the Konis are pretty much the best within my price range, and the Pro-Kit would give me the subtle drop that I want. However, once they're there, I'm pretty much stuck with it.

Now I've been looking at Tein. I know their reputation seems to be great. I can get a set of Tein Basic coilovers for about the same price as the Koni/Eibach setup, and have a fully adjustible system. OR I could spend a little more and go for the SS (roughly $200 more). I like the idea of the adjustible coilovers... so I can make my car low when I want, and raise it when I want to look stock.


So, your opinions please!

I'm really not interested in KYB or Tociko, so no sugestions on those. I just want to know what you guys can offer regarding my two (three) options here!

Also, if you know of any great places to buy either, let me know! I'm looking at about $700 for a setup (unless I go SS) so anything less would be wonderful!

[BustedLX]

Well coil overs suck no matter who makes them. Tien just makes a higher quality coil over but it sucks just the same. Besides everyone I've ever seen with coil overs sufferes from nasty wheel hop at the track so they get the from me.

I personally have Koni Yellows with Pro-Kit's and am very happy with the setup. I would choose that from your two options. I was thinking about purcahsing another set of springs in the future to get lower and if I do I'll probably go with Tien springs. But for now I have to focus on buying the wheels I want and getting the car painted.

Either that or go with the SS that's sweet to.

[deevergote]

Yeah, I guess the Basics are out... The Tein website doesn't even mention a race setup with those. They DO mention it with the SS though, so that might work out. I wouldn't see how a high quality coilover would cause more wheel hop than any other setup. In fact, I would think the higher possible ride height of the Pro-Kit would be worse in that regard than a race setting on something like the SS.

[92coupe]

I am driving with Koni yellows/ Sus.tech. springs. it handles quite well, but after riding around the same corners I love to take in my friends CB7 with the Tein SS coilovers. the difference is something I still cant explain. in my car I was able to tackle a certain corner at about 70mph, my friends CB7 however was ripping through at 85mph and probably could have handled them at 90mph. that was all it took for me to see the differences between my suspension set-up and the Tein SS Coilover system.

[deevergote]

That's a big help! Thanks!

Would you say that the SS is well worth the extra $200 over the Koni setup I'm looking at? How much of a drop do your springs give? The Pro-Kit springs give about 1.2"

[Andrew]

Fully adjustable coilovers (FACOS) don't inherently suck, they're just a pain to setup properly. Lots of companies bill their threaded spring sleeves and FACOS as something to change ride height on the fly thereby accomplishing terrific handling, which is a complete fallacy. Yes, having the car lower to the ground, up to a certain point dictated by the environment the vehicle is operated in, will increase the available traction because the mass of the vehicle is closer to the ground. However the process to change the ride height of the car is long and obnoxious:

1) Adjust threaded perches to achieve desired ride height
2) Put on scales and readjust the threaded perches to achieve proper corner wieghting (http://www.bira.org/coilover.html written by Greg Amy, 2003 IT2 Champion [Nissan NX2000])
3) If all four corners are substantially different heights thanks to the corner wieghting start over at number 1.
4) Get an alignment.

So, really, FACOS systems don't always decrease performance, they're just very hard to setup for the street.

[92coupe]

for the koni drop you can see the basic drop in my members rides pics....to let you know I am not on the lowest perch lock for the front or rear springs. as for the tein SS, oh yes $200 more is well worth it. just make sure to have it installed professionally to get everything just right for your specific car. if you wanted to save the $200 then go with koni's, but you will want the tein's SS and it won't go away, trust me on this one.

[93accordEX]

it depends exactly what this is for, but i also would not reccomend the teins. this is purely a street car right? and drag a little bit I guess. I still have to do some more research on the tein spring rates, but I definetly think you can get a better set up for the price. I would say koni/ ground control sleeves, eibach custom springs (not as expensive as it sounds)

[Andrew]

I'd stay away from the Tein's as well, they're nothing special. Think about it this way: you're paying for a company to valve dampers to springs that they decided that you should use and then using all their proprietary equipment. The GC sleeves are quite popular among people that do actually race, in the Solo and Road venues, so you know that they work just as well as anything else (really, this isn't a "performance" item; you choose the GC sleeves over say, another generic brands because they're super durable). Then you can go with something like Koni Yellows and, if you want to run super high spring rates, get them revalved for whatever rates you choose.

I doubt you'll run into a problem that would require you to run anything more than 500lb springs or get the dampers revalved, so this wouldn't even be a problem. Don't use a lowering spring in this instance, though, it would be redundant and do things wierd that'd be hard to predict.

The best advice I could give would be to buy a book on race suspension setup and to go from there. By understanding the concepts you're working with you'll be able to pick the right setup (for less money!) and sound really smart doing it. I'd be happy to correspond with you via email or something to get you started down this path, if you'd like.