Coilovers - who, what, where, and how much?

[Guest]

Oh hey man...ha

Yeah im pretty certain im going with the ISC's next set on a 12/8..

might try n sell the cuscos too if anyone is interested ha

 

[Bad-Karma]

My Tein Wagons Basics arrived today ! :bigsmile:

 

[Guest]

Oh sweet let us know what you think of them

 

[steveP]

woo my ISC's just came. they are no longer blue, but a nice clean and subtle black. springs have a rubber coating too, to reduce road noise. ill get pics up soon.

 

[Guest]

oh nice what spring rate mate?

 

[unclepaulie]

hey steve, why they black? did u paint them? or do they come like that now?

 

[steveP]

they come in black now.. which i prefer. sorry will get pics up soon, my net is being a homosexual.

oh and spring rates are 10/6.

 

[steveP]

 

[ygoslo]

They look cool in black. I do still like my shiny blue bits on the Sil though.

 

[Guest]

they look sweet... damper adjust and height yeah?

 

[ygoslo]

they look sweet... damper adjust and height yeah?

Correct.

 

[steveP]

yep correct.

on the box it says..

- 32 way damping adjustable
- ride height adjustable
- SAE 9254 spring
- international standard salt spray fog test
- pillowball upper mount
- monotube design
- steel braket
- ARTC durability test.


will be fun installing them 2morow and see how they turn out.

btw this is my 2nd set of ISC's.. the ones on my silvia are in the blue.

 

[Guest]

so you would endorse them yeah steve?

 

[steveP]

yep would def recommend them. however ill do a write up 2morow with how it all goes.

 

[steveP]

ok, ok .....ok!

everything is all in, set and sweet.

ill start with the installation.


INSTALLATION

rears went in no probs at all, seeing its just the single bolt at the bottom of the coilover. same as my silvia and most other cars. fronts were a little tricky, seeing i wasnt sure what i was doing at first. i unbolted all the obvious bolts and the strut wouldnt drop down far enough to get it out. so used a breaker bar, and bent it, thought hmm im doing something wrong, so tried to undo the bottom of the wishbone suspension so there would be plenty of play for the strut to drop out. nope the socket shattered. so had another look at what i was doing, seeing everything else was easy, and if this isnt easy, i must be doing something wrong. then realised i had to removed the upper control arm, the bolts next to the top of the strut. then everything dropped out easy as, duh!

ok so coilovers were in and with a bit of mucking around with height, i got it set like this..

DAMPENING

Ok, after reading the review on the BC coilovers, i was expecting the worst with vr4 coilovers and dampening. so what i did was set the dampening to the hardest setting and took off expecting the worst, like my wheels were gona feel oval shaped. to my surprise there was no bouncy-ness, everything felt smooth and flat. wtf, that couldnt be right. so got out and turned the dampening to the softest setting. pulling out of the driveway i could already feel the difference, i was getting guard scrubbage, and everything felt very floaty like stock suspension. so im like hmm, thats good, full use of the dampening. anyway after trial and error, i ended up with the fronts being set to 25 clicks from softest, and rears 30 clicks from softest (out of 32 steps). i found that the rear had much more body roll than the front due to weight balance of the car being more nose heavy. having the rears slightly harder also got rid of the understeer and im getting a bit of oversteer now. which i prefer as its much easier to control.


RIDE QUALITY/HANDLING

i can quite safely say i was blown away by the quality of the ride, especially on the harsher end of the dampening. the car feels toally normal, passengers wouldnt even guess im running coilovers. i actually feel that the car is MORE comfortable vs the stock suspension. as when u hit a crack or pot hole, u dont get such a large amount of suspension travel. everything feels firmer, yes, but really really smooth and comfortable. this may be a warning to people wanting a really stiff ride, i would go up to the 12/8 springs rates.
Handling, as u would expect from coilovers is awesome, dead flat around corners, no body roll, the car hugs the road like its on rails. Coilovers exceeded my expectations. Even tho i got the older model coilovers in my silvia, these just feel much more refined and comfortable to drive on.


MODDING GUARDS/RIMS

Ok as u can see with my ride height, the wheels have cambered in to about -2.0 degrees, front and rear. which im really happy about, seeing i got the same camber front and rear. i dont have to worry about the front sticking out further than the rears. and im very lucky i got stretched tyres. i can barely fit my pinky finger betweet tyre and guard. a wider tyre would munch the guards. and i get a slight gaurd scrub under heavy cornering. but theres an easy fix, i just got trim the inner lip of the flare and everything will clear by miles. ill get around to that when i got a weekend free. but atm as long as i dont go thrashing, i wont get any scrubbing.

Now rim fitment. obviously rims have the sunken look now. i calculated and measured i would need a 17mm spacer to bring them out to flush. but i also calculated a 18x9 +30 rim will protrude 16.5mm more than the TE37's. so im thinking i may as well get wider rims that i know will fit and have epic flushness with stretch.


so if u wanted perfect fitment and handling:
- ISC's - spring rates 10/6
- dampening F-25 R-30 (0 is softest)
- 18x9 +30 rims
- 215/45's tyres
- trim the guards
- rear camber fix

 

[unclepaulie]

woohoo!!!

i got 18x8.5+35 so i think ill be happy

isc will be gettin an order soon i belive

PS: steveP your car is noaw teh secks!!!!!

 

[steveP]

yeah ur rims will be fine. maybe a 10mm slip on spacer with longer studs if u wana be fussy like me. btw what tyres will u be using?

 

[ygoslo]

Now your car looks good! Amazing what taking a couple of metres out of the ride height will do.

 

[pu-11-me]

It looks odd with wheels arch flares and the car sitting that low..... Maybe its just me lol

Have you been hassled for ride height yet? Its pretty damn low now

 

[steveP]

haha couple of meters. and no, no hassels yet. and i doubt i will be as cops dont seem to go for magna looking cars. but ill keep u guys updated. the lowest point of the car is 15cm off the ground, which is plenty from the 10cm rule. hub to guard height, ill be screwed, but as far as i know, cops here dont have that measurement yet. and i doubt they will as these cars are pretty rare.

better pic i took this morning..