suspension drop, the best solution... Options

[celiracer]

O, well i'm buying dan's aerospeed coilovers. Would they come with struts then? I woudn't have to use my stock struts?? Let me know thanks

[playr158]

get a set of KYB GR2 or KONI if you got the cash for them

[celiracer]

ok, thanks so i'm just getting the adjustable springs? And then i gotta buy all new struts for them? Sorry don't know much about coilovers.

[Silver94CelicaOw...]

Tein SS coilovers are great if you can afford them, I bought a set late last year and I love them. However, I realized that the design and dimensions of the strut and spring assembly compared to the stock design results in a much harder ride.

If you look at the Tein's, the whole assembly is very narrow and thin compared to stock or aftermarket springs for our cars.....heres a picture to show you what I mean by this.



The Teins are more narrow and the spring really hugs the strut unlike stock which has a great big seat for the spring to sit in and "give" a little more....If you look at the stock fronts you'll see what I mean. Obvously the springs that come with these have a pretty high spring rate also, so that adds to the roughness a little. But I think that because the impact of hitting a bump is expressed through such a narrow shock and spring as opposed to dispersing the impact over a wider area with a stock configuration or even Tein springs with KYB's, the ride is obvously rougher than if you went with the latter.

So I would go out on a limb and say that if you want a better balance between ride comfort by design and handling as well as saving a wad of money, Tein springs and a set of stock replacement shocks is for you. If you want a better handling car and can sacrifice some comfort for your car feeling like a go-kart, then go Tein SS.

how easy/hard was it to put those ss teins on? what major difficulties did you under go, if any?

The install was very straightfoward....you just need to ditch your old shocks and springs, and the coilovers bolt right in place of them. Defgeph came over and helped alot on my install, however it really isn't very difficult aside from getting the bolts unseized and off the car and removing the rear sway bar end links from the factory struts. Chances are you'll need to replace them since they use allen key ends and will strip easily. If you have some mechanical skill its really not a hard install, just time consuming.

[deliriouzgtfour]

anyone know where i can find new sperical balls for the stock setup or upper pillow ball mounts taht work wqith the GC's? Thanks

[soulshadow]

Lowering springs will cause an unstable alignment in your wheels even if you align them every week.
You will need the custom struts to fix that problem. Most people do not understand that so They end up like me who gets there tires chewed out at every hard cornering. The coilovers is what you really need to fix alingment problems and def the top pillow mount. Lowering springs have less than then OEM springs in terms of strength, cause they expand and contract a lot faster than stock. Even though they are the same length.

[Coomer]

Lowering springs will cause an unstable alignment in your wheels even if you align them every week.
You will need the custom struts to fix that problem. Most people do not understand that so They end up like me who gets there tires chewed out at every hard cornering. The coilovers is what you really need to fix alingment problems and def the top pillow mount. Lowering springs have less than then OEM springs in terms of strength, cause they expand and contract a lot faster than stock. Even though they are the same length.

What are you talking about? Quality lowering springs do not cause an unstable alignment. You just need to get your car properly aligned. I suspect that you've got something else wrong with your car.

And just out of curiosity, why do you think custom struts fix the problem anyway? In what way(s) would the struts have to be customized?

[playr158]

yea i'm in agreeance with coomer on this...

springs aren't unstable provided you don't buy ebay specials
and will align just fine provided you go to a quality shop.

[My2Celi]

soooo.. go with springs instead of coilover. for comfort and drops. and custom struts. am i right?

[soven]

forget the custom strut

[playr158]

its all going to depend....no "custom" struts"

go with KYB gr2 or koni yellow adjustables for struts

springs for a mild drop and good comfort
or
coilover for 0-extreme drop sacraficing some comfort

although if you have the bank get some TEIN SS coilover system which have a nice ride to them along with the ride height adjustability