Reply With Quotei've heard great things about both. the koni yellow and spring setup is hella common. people run it just to run it. they like it.
So yesterday the wife and I went out to the Dragon and met up with Cody(from EPHatch) and his friend Burt. My car is completely stock, and Cody's car has BC coilovers. My wife has given me a hard time about wanting to do shit to my car, but after showing her how much better our cars handle with good suspension, she WANTS me to do shit to my car. lol
So, after thinking this out, I have decided that going with a spring/strut combo would suit me best. (I just want to be able to install the suspension, get an allignment, and be done with it.)
I know a bunch of ya'll that went with the spring/strut combos are running the Koni Yellows. But, after doing a search for KYX AGX's here on the site, there were no hits. I'm looking to do as little modifications as possible when installing my suspenion, so if anyone has any suggestions, or "reviews" of the different adjustable struts, that would be cool.
And who knows, I still may end up going with the Yellows. But for a DD with the occasional mountain road spirited drive, my car won't see much action other than that.
i've heard great things about both. the koni yellow and spring setup is hella common. people run it just to run it. they like it.
I have Racelands, super easy to install and adjust, I've had no problems with them at all (2 years).
are the rear springs the same size as stock?
x 2 I have racelands too, so far so good...(4 months)Originally Posted by sippyyy
they're coilovers so they're adjustable? I'm not sure what you mean by size otherwise. The spring rates on mine are 10k - front and 8k - rear.
Adjustable is just the ride height.
How do you have racelands when their spring rates are close to stock? Also why do you have a backwards springrate?
I'm on BC with 8kf and 10kr
I have pillowball mounts that allows for more camber adjustment in the front and also I have 30way adjustable dampening. I might be setting up for -1.5 camber in the front and .07- neg in the rear. Nothing too aggressive but good enough for a couple of AutoX's a year
If all you are looking for is improved performance for daily driving & ocational spirited driving then you do not need any of that stuff.
#1 Buy the best set of summer tires you can afford.
#2 Buy camber kits for the front & rear; then get the car alligned to these spec's
-1.5 deg camber on the nose, -.75 deg camber on the rear. Keep toe within OEM spec.
Done, and done. Happy driving!
After having driven cars in the past with good suspension, and after having driven a car this weekend with a kick ass suspension, I want more than sticky tires. Not to mention I put too many miles on my tires to keep buying new ones at least once a year. Whatever I go with, it'll be with a good performance all-season tire.
That's my next mod. I've looked into getting hankook ventus v12s as my daily tires and yokohama a048 for my autox/track tires. But for now I have a good amount of thread on my shit nexens. But then again I'm in FL and the only thing I need to worry about is puddles and hydroplaning.
Honestly the reason why I got my coilovers is because my front struts blew. If I'm paying more than 600ish for decent strutsI might as well go with full coilovers for a couple hundred more
Then your handling will be limited by the cohesion between the all season tires and the road. Tires are, after all, the only thing that can actually exert force upon the road to alter the cars trajectory... Furthermore summer tires do not necessarily wear out faster then all seasons, compare the UTQG ratings you may be surprised.
Regardless, what are you looking to improve, the cars handling balance or its maximum grip level? (they are two very different things)
Be wary of inexpensive prebuilt coil overs, as not all dampers are equal. You may end up doing your self a disservice in the end.
If handling performance is, overall, the thing you are focusing on then you should avoid dampers that adjust both bump and rebound with the same knob at the same time. They may give you more leeway as far as ride quality, but they force you to make compromises when it comes to proper bump & rebound settings for your particular driving. Best to stick to single adjustable dampers that just tweak one or the other (bump or rebound).
Last edited by Zzyzx; 10-31-2011 at 11:34 PM.
In a perfect world, where my car was for more than driving it daily, and I didnt have to worry about the things you HAVE to worry about when encountering things like rain, snow, etc., here in the mountains, I would get a sticky tire. Sure, I think at this point everyone knows that the best overall suspension improvement for ANY car is a great set of tires. They help with handling AND braking. But, for the average Joe that doesnt have a lot of money, and has no choice but to drive his car in ALL conditions year round, he has to make a smart choice and get a tire that would suit ALL of his driving needs.
My goal is to have a daily driver that is fun. One that I can occasionally have MORE fun with. I live in the mountains, so there are TONS of places to "have fun." I don't mind a stiff ride. That part I'm not so worried about. Sure, there are times where I will hate having a stiffer ride. But 95% of the time, I will appreciate what my car can do. I am actually talking with Lucid, and I may even drive my car on Road Atlanta every once in awhile. If I have to sacrifice a little comfort to have some fun, then so be it. The tire issue....well, like I said above, I cant afford to buy two different sets of tires. (Summer and winter) I need to buy ONE set of tires that will suit ALL of my needs the best I can. Which means I need a tire that will last longer than 10-15k miles, and can get me through all of the conditions I see here in the mountains.
On coilovers...I cant afford the most expensive stuff out there. Like most others, my budget is limited. I also have to look at wheels and tires (see above), sway bar, brakes, etc. So, I need to make the best decision concerning ALL aspects of what I need my car to do, including meet my budget. I understand the need to have a set of coilvers that adjusts everything individually. But for someone that cant afford a set that CAN do that, is a set that can adjust dampening with one button better or worse than a set that can ONLY adjust ride height?
It's a hard decision to make on EVERY SINGLE PIECE of equipment that someone has to make. Sure, I wish price WASNT an issue. But it is. Fact is is I'm a 35 year-old college student that is using his GI Bill to do something with his life, and has no job. Hell, Im lucky I can do anything PERIOD with my car. Sure, Im sure I probably SHOULDNT use any money to do anything. But if THAT were the case, why would 75% of us be on this site?! lmao
A couple of things to help you on your way:
If you live where it can snow/ice over at any time in the year then allseason tires are a viable option. You'll be sacrificing Dry and wet traction vs summer tires but at least you'll be better off in those occations of snow or ice.
As far as "stiffness" goes... how stiff a cars springs should be for maximum performance is going to be determined by Tire choice, ride height choice & how rough the roads/tracks you drive on are. Softer grippier tires will require more roll resistance then Harder all season tires will; a lower ride height will require greater amounts of roll resistance to keep the suspension gemometry in check & rougher roads will require softer springs to keep the tires on the ground then smoother roads. It may sound counter intuitive but for best handling you want your suspension to be as soft as you can get away with. What you can get away with is the tricky tuning part. As increasing your suspensions stiffness past the minimum needed to keep things in check is just needlessly decreasing the amount of mechanical grip the car has.
With that being said, If I were to start all over and be in your shoes I'd be looking to do this.
1. Camber kits front and rear (absolutly paramount)
2. I would be torn between Bilstien dampers & a set of Progress "coilovers" (note that neither has adjustible dampning)
3. If I went with the Bilstien dampers (I probably would) I'd then mate them up to a spring with amild drop and a mild increase in stiffness Probably the progress springs.
4 from there I'd get the car aligned to around -1.5 deg camber on the nose and -.75 on the rear, being sure to keep toe within OEM spec.
and 5 I'd go drive the car to see if or what may need more tweaking. (suspension tuning is best done slowly and methodically)
6. Durring this testing period I'd chalk the tires to check for roll over and make adjustments with tire PSI (keep reasonable) and camber (camber is more usefull). I'd keep particular tabs on the cars handling balance, is it understeering too much? oversteering? ect ect ect..
7. If I had camber set on the high end of -1.5 & if I have not dumped the cars ride height, I'd be tempted to soften the front anti roll bar (probably the EM2's 15.9mm bar) As the front end is always going to be the weak link when it comes to grip on a FWD car. So anything I can do to increase its potential there is good (hence softer). If I cant get away with softening the front bar then stiffining the rear bar is the next best thing.
8 Once the anti-roll bars are sorted out, time for more "testing" and adjust camber Tire psi as needed.
I have a 1.5" drop with H&R springs that came with the car when I bought it used. I just put on Tokico HP front struts and I'm putting on Tokico HP rear shocks this saturday. I have an Ingalls camber kit in the rear.
So far I'm happy with everything and it cost me under $700 (shocks, struts, new upper mounts, and rear camber kit). I'm not racing or AutoX, so Tokico HP's are the way to go, in my opinion, if your gonna lower your car.
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