Coilovers

[BJ]

I want to buy some new coilovers. I have done a search of the forums and read lots of posts, but there is conflicting information, and deciding what to buy is confusing.

It seems that a lot of people recommend BC BRs as a good budget coilover, but some people say they become noisy after about 6 months of use. As I already have noisy coilovers, I don't want to go down that path again. Has anyone had BC BRs on their car for 2 years or 50,000 km or something like that, and can say that they are still happy with them?

Other people say Tein coilovers are the thing to get, but looking at the photos they don't seem to have the same height adjustment as the BC ones, where the height adjustment doesn't vary the spring travel. Also there is a local place who sells and repairs Penske coilovers. They are worth thousands of $ each, so I won't be buying them, but I spoke to someone there who seemed to have a good knowledge of coilovers and he told me that Tein are crap and went on to list about 4 or 5 problems with them. I'm sorry, I can't remember all the problems, but the seals was one of them. He didn't know about BC Racing. Has anyone had Teins on their car for 2 years or 50,000 km or something like that, and can say that they are still happy with them?

Or has anyone had something else for a long time and they are still good? From what I have read here on these forums, it seems you need to spend at least $3000 for something good. I just want something with a good firm ride that will last a reasonable period of time without becoming noisy or too soft.

[hamish_023]

I have teins and have had them for a while, bought them second hand and still not a single issue or noise.

[BJ]

Which model Teins do you have?

[hamish_023]

Tein flexs from phat, come for a drive one day.

[kiks]

Tein are junk.

[hamish_023]

Can you elaborate?

[kiks]

Yes.

[Kekotic]

Yes.

Then please do so.

[THERB3]

Tein are junk.

Waiting

[kiks]

Go drive a car with monoflex, their highest of the 'off the shelf' and spring rates made for the car. Not jap shit 8-10kg stuff.

Turn left then right sharply.

Car is now 1" lower than it was.

Awesome quality there

[kiks]

Just digging up a list of every supercar, F1, WRC, dakar, indy, trophy and LM car that uses tein.

hmm
nope
nope
none

Bringing up a list of those that use ohlins, motion, proflex, reiger, koni, kw, jcw, penske, sachs.

Yep
All of them

We're talking ability to perfom function as a shock, not a single shim linear rate housing adapted to every single car with slightly different clevis and top hats. Sure they might come with the good stuff like oversized pistons, structural rams, even some adjustment, but the fundamentals are wrong from the start. A properly valved spring on perch bilstein/koni/etc performs the job just the same, at a small margin of the cost.

And if you just want the looks, or clearence for big wheels, they are more than adequate and maybe a step above the bottom level of stuff out of taiwan for instance. No argument at all.

Have to remember that every boxed set of shocks/coilovers is made for a non specific duty. They are made to fit a car, not to control it. Bolt in =/ perform job. Not the same. Vehicle sprung weights, leverage positions, sidewall stiffness, road conditions, unsprung weights, brake bias, driving styles and speeds hugely fluctuate across a world market that they make 10,000 units for. They dont change them to suit an australian obsession with stiffer sidewalls, or a japanese obsession with stiffer spring rates, or a euro market of higher frequency rates, or yanks who want a land barge and a sticker.

And that be the same for all boxed shock kits. I am of the opinion that the better quality stuff (ohlins, kw, prodrive (carrozia), and more custom local stuff you can get like MCA and DMS) are a little better suited to task, and when driving libs with plenty of different combinations, that shows very bluntly. They have realistic rebound damping that works, convex and concave damping graphs based on frequency, load and travel. Having been in numerous different setups from BC's through to proflex 60mm subarus the contrast is stark. You really do get what you pay for, and you really need to choose what the intended purpose is and ask...does this really do what I want, or am I buying a sticker a really expensive lowering spring.

[bosc0]

I guess its lucky most of us don't own race teams then

[kiks]

I think you missed the main point which is the good ones perform well all the time, not just on a track, or on a landing, or on a smooth freeway, or at 300, or at 50. etcetc

[bosc0]

I didn't and i totally agree you get what you pay for. But for 99.69% of members, a $1000 set of coilovers will suffice and greatly increase handling over a stock setup. No need at all to spend $3k+ unless you have it burning a hole in your front pocket.... i mean who'd want something burning that close to your balls... !

[Rome_BRZ]

I like cusco