Springs v. Coilovers Options

[HectortheRican]

Can someone tell me the difference? I want to lower my car but I'm not sure which way to go

[sips]

Well, I seem to be in the minority in this thread. Maybe it's because I actually race cars, maybe it's because I like to drive my cars in real life situations and not have them ride like a hay wagon or scrape on every bump or pothole ... regardless, I don't like 'coilovers'.

I have owned 4 cars with adjustable 'coilover' suspensions (Cusco, Silkroad, Tein). The ride quality on all of them sucked. I have seen shock dynos of these JDM brands and they all suck. They are overdamped, their adjustment knobs do almost nothing, do way too much or do the wrong thing. On the track they don't seem to perform as well either unless it is perfectly smooth asphalt with no dips. The only thing they do well is height adjustment. If you are looking for a suspension that you can slam and don't care about how rough it is get these cheap coilovers (anything under $3000 is a cheap coilover).

If you want good ride quality and performance stick to a quality brand shock and properly matched spring. I suggest Bilstein or Koni (rebound adjustable), plus a mild drop spring with 20-40% increase in stiffness. This will give you a comfortable ride and good performance.

This post has been edited by sips: Feb 5, 2010 - 9:07 PM

[Edophus]

Well, I seem to be in the minority in this thread. Maybe it's because I actually race cars, maybe it's because I like to drive my cars in real life situations and not have them ride like a hay wagon or scrape on every bump or pothole ... regardless, I don't like 'coilovers'.

I have owned 4 cars with adjustable 'coilover' suspensions (Cusco, Silkroad, Tein). The ride quality on all of them sucked. I have seen shock dynos of these JDM brands and they all suck. They are overdamped, their adjustment knobs do almost nothing, do way too much or do the wrong thing. On the track they don't seem to perform as well either unless it is perfectly smooth asphalt with no dips. The only thing they do well is height adjustment. If you are looking for a suspension that you can slam and don't care about how rough it is get these cheap coilovers (anything under $3000 is a cheap coilover).

If you want good ride quality and performance stick to a quality brand shock and properly matched spring. I suggest Bilstein or Koni (rebound adjustable), plus a mild drop spring with 20-40% increase in stiffness. This will give you a comfortable ride and good performance.

i would agree with that for the most part, generally any coilovers i have tried that cost less than about $3000 are not very great, high spring rates and poor ride quality do not always need to go together, with correct dampening you can still have an acceptable ride, the only exception i've come across so far was a set of KW variant 2's, they were excellent and not to far from the stock ride comfort on my corolla i had at the time, even with 8kg springs. I dont think you can expect a set of coilovers that come with pillowball top mounts etc, all for the same price as a set of normal shocks/springs, to be very good, the cost cutting will probably be in the damper, which is exactly where you dont want to be cutting corners for best handling/ride. If i just wanted the look then the likes of d2/ksport/megan/bc etc would be fine but personally if i wanted good handling and ride i'd either stump up for good coilovers or get a quality set of dampers and springs.