[Matt [exz3owner]]

I'm working with them on a possible public release. not sure just yet.

As for my opinions on tein-

I have had no exposure to thier entry level stuff. Just the HA's, Flex, and RAs.

For a street/casual track setup, i guess they are ok. But their marketing builds them up as if they are some super respected japanese race company. And that they are not. I can only speak to the Teins that I have used and also dyno'd. And my experience was that there is an unacceptable variance in the valving from one damper to another. In testing 4 dampers that were supposed to be the same, only 2 of them were remotely similar. They were far enough off that we put another brand coilover on the machine to make sure it was working properly. Suprisingly, we have had the same experience with Advanced Designs.

The other thing I don't really like about them is that thier dampening range is very very small. So small that it hardly seems worth having adjustments at all. This isn't uncommon however for average coilovers.

I would take a set of the KW coilovers with no dampening adjustment any day over a set of Teins. Dampening control is just that much better.

I guess my grip is that Tein bills themselves as a company with racing roots. But in reality, there are no JGTC cars running Tein, and no competitive super T. cars running them either.

Didn't mean to rain on anyone's parade. Just a personal opinion and experience. And you know what they say about opinions...

Matt

 

[revlimiter]

In my humble opinion, it's damping, not dampening. You want to control suspension oscillation, not make it wet.

Yeah, I know what they say about opinions. :wink:

 

[freedomgli]

Tomato, tomato. There may be a preferred usage but I can see how both could be applied to mean the same thing. I've seen them interchanged before and always thought that it was a US English vs. UK English thing.

damp·ing ( P ) Pronunciation Key (dmpng) n.
The capacity built into a mechanical or electrical device to prevent excessive correction and the resulting instability or oscillatory conditions.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

damp·en ( P ) Pronunciation Key (dmpn)
v. damp·ened, damp·en·ing, damp·ens
v. tr.
To make damp.
To deaden, restrain, or depress: ?trade moves... aimed at dampening protectionist pressures in Congress? (Christian Science Monitor).
To soundproof.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

 

[touge miata]

i dunno... my prob with tiens comes from 240s... a friend had the Flex and EDFC on his 240 that i swapped a SR20DET into... it just never felt right and my other friend had the basics on his 01 civic coupe he said they felt ok. i had JICs on my 02 civic SI... and after talking to a couple of others with JICs on their cars (other than civics) they said the same thing "they just blow up" hahahahah :lol: so i dunno... maybe i drove them into the ground or they just suck but i don't think i will ever buy JIC stuff again unless i see someone with them that has a really good story and proof they can/will last. my civic felt GREAT at first... took me three times to align it but... after that it felt great with some fresh tires... then about 5 months later... blam... went to crap... rear started sagging and then the front started getting really bad toe problems... i've kinda stopped driving my civic since i got my miata so... i don't really worry about it... im gonna put my stock suspension on and sell the thing...

haha just a thought... we should have a 'suspension test day' where we meet up and try or ride along with others to test their suspension combos.... it'll prolly never happen cause we're all so far apart but itd be cool!

 

[touge miata]

In my humble opinion, it's damping, not dampening. You want to control suspension oscillation, not make it wet.

Yeah, I know what they say about opinions. :wink:

hahah thats great... my GF says the same **** to me...

 

[TrophyFodder]

i dunno... my prob with tiens comes from 240s... a friend had the Flex and EDFC on his 240 that i swapped a SR20DET into... it just never felt right and my other friend had the basics on his 01 civic coupe he said they felt ok. i had JICs on my 02 civic SI... and after talking to a couple of others with JICs on their cars (other than civics) they said the same thing "they just blow up" hahahahah :lol: so i dunno... maybe i drove them into the ground or they just suck but i don't think i will ever buy JIC stuff again unless i see someone with them that has a really good story and proof they can/will last. my civic felt GREAT at first... took me three times to align it but... after that it felt great with some fresh tires... then about 5 months later... blam... went to crap... rear started sagging and then the front started getting really bad toe problems... i've kinda stopped driving my civic since i got my miata so... i don't really worry about it... im gonna put my stock suspension on and sell the thing...

haha just a thought... we should have a 'suspension test day' where we meet up and try or ride along with others to test their suspension combos.... it'll prolly never happen cause we're all so far apart but itd be cool!

I've heard the same thing on S2KI about the JICs. Now FM sells them. I may have to go with Ohlins...

 

[touge miata]

im sure FM wouldn't sell something they don't trust or like... but i wonder what they really think of the JICs.... they look cool as heck and they feel great.... but then they pop...... :roll: :shock: :roll: :x :roll:

 

[Matt [exz3owner]]

yeah. I'm a little conflicted about the JICs. I believe FM sells good products. They put more thought and testing into things they sell than just about any vendor I know of. So I would believe they have had good experience with them.

I'll wait to make a personal judgement until I've driven them on track. Where I suspect they will preform well. Many high performance shocks have shorter lifespans than less agressive or less performance oriented coilovers. Motons, Advanced Designs, and Penske's all have frequent rebuild requirements...

 

[freedomgli]

Race shocks = more frequent rebuilds
Hypercoils' hydraulic spring perches = rebuild every 6 hours

Real racing is labor intensive. The cars are usually built very stout but they require frequent servicing and rebuilding. I shudder to think what it takes to run a modern GT team, let alone a top-level vintage race car. I used to pit crew for a family friend who had a McLaren M8C. It was fun being invited to all the Can-Am reunions and meeting famous race car drivers but Gary ended up selling the McLaren when it was going to take another $250,000+ to get it ready to vintage race for the upcoming season. You need to completely disassemble race cars and have them checked over meticulously on a routine basis. Old racecars require this even more so. You don't want a suspension member to fail at 190mph at Watkins Glen or anywhere else for that matter.

 

[kung fu jesus]

never went to coilovers on my '03 si, but i heard teh issues about the JICs.

konis under eibachs for that car.

on a DW suspension, sleeves and collars are a great option...no rotating assys. custom-valved konis under ground controls would be pretty good, but autocrossing is boring, what do i know?

 

[Mr.Woolery]

Another Tein Flex setup here...9kg front & 6kg rear. I've been very happy with them.

 

[boogie van]

I am using KYB AGX's with Eibach Pro kit springs. The ride is pretty stiff even on 1 (the AGX's softest setting).

Ive got koni yellows, low and soft, with the eibachs and yeah, a little stiff. I have aftermarket sways front and rear, but after all this talk about people talking off their swaybars has me thinking about going back to stock or losing it completely in the rear.

 

[djsqiigles]

I feel like sharing.

Tein Flex

Set at 5/8 front with mabey 10mm of preload and rear set at 7/8 0 preload. Then absorbers set at 14, out of 16, all around. It is a great set up so far for both driving and looks and isn't too harsh around the streets(for me atleast). Im still playing around with preloads and what not. It is alot of fun learning what makes your car drive better through simple changes.

I wouldn't recomend these for track, alittle too soft for that, but still they are very nice and INCREDIBLY easy to use especially if your a novice like me. The big advantage to tein is the colars, lots of grooves for easy wrench placement and the lower lip on them so as they say, "The wrench won't fall off!".

Yarg, FLEX is nice and im very happy with them.

 

[JGraves]

My '00 Miata had stock everything for the first 60,000 km. I added KYB AGX stocks when the proformance of the stock ones started to fade and later installed a standard GC kit on the AGXs. I found the AGXs fine for the stock springs when set to 1 or 2 and generally stiff on 3 or 4. Once the GC kit was installed, they were either unable to control the spring on the lower settings or harsh with a marginal ability to control the spring at the higher settings. They also didn't last as long as the stock shocks.

When my street car goes back on the road this month it will be riding on stock suspension although I my put the GC sleaves on the stock shocks to drop it a few mm and corner weight it.

I've frequently driven my roommates '90 with the Spec Miata kit, delrin bushings and custom adjustable front lower control arms. The Bilstein's cannot control the kits springs and there is too large of a split between the front and rear spring rates leading to massive understeer. The only way we could it balanced was front bar full soft, rear full stiff, -2.5* front camber, -2.0* rear camber, front 225/45R15 Hoosier R3S03s and 225/45R15 Kumho V700s on the rear. The feedback and cornering attitude was great but the car needs better shocks and more rear spring.

I'm not certain what I will put on the race car yet. I know I want it stiff and low and I have a good idea what it takes to do that right but I hvaen't decided if I'll move the suspension pickup points (haven't even checked to see if its allowed in the rule book) or which shocks I want to run. I suspect I'll stick to someone with good North American support as I don't want to be waiting months for a re-build in Japan.

 

[OneSimpleRoadster]

Let's see, the following is my honest opinion (based on what I have used and tried on other cars):

Progress and Tokico's = Good

Sprint with Tokico Illumina's = Ok

Ground Control Coilovers with Koni's = Good

Skunk2 with Tokico Illumina's = Ok

Tanabe Sustec Pro = Pretty Good

Tein springs with Koni's = Fair

Tein Flex = Pretty Good (Been on 3 of my cars)

Apex'i N1 = Stiff

From my 10 years of tuning cars, I've tried a number of suspension setups. Let me just say that a coilover or spring/shock setup varies based on every other suspension part you have along with changes to weight and height. Also, if it's a street car, street/strip or just strip only. Other things to take in to consideration is if it's installed correctly in the first place. For example, Tein Flex and Apex'i allows you to lower the car from the lower cup. If you lower it from the top, it will alter the damping rate, thus blowing out asap. Not to mention huge effects on ride comfort. Last, what your budget is I guess. What's most important is stick with what works and works for YOU.

Currently rolling on:

Tein Flex with EDFC
Powerflex Bushings (complete)
Racing Beat Front and Rear Swaybar
Racing Beat End Links
Carbing Lower Front Brace

*All the above combined = Very stiff even at the lowest settings. But very functional coming in and out of turns.

 

[adian]

I've got a setup that's totally different from most of you guys over in the US.

As I work in the motorsports industry in Malaysia (Bob Hall now works in the same company as me too, and I hang with him quite often. Heck of a joker I tell ya), I got one of my suppliers (www.hotbits.org) to make up a special 2-way adjustable coilover setup with my own specified damping. The springs are 5kg both front and rear, for maximum steering response for drifting. Front caster 5deg, camber neg 2deg, toe 0. Rear camber 1.4deg, toe 0. So far, it may sound ridiculous but it's true, the word "understeer" is not part of the vocabulary!!

I've also got a Cusco front turret bar, but have chosen to leave the front and rear antiroll bars (swaybars to you guys!) standard for now. I've got a couple of SuperPro PU bushes installed in all my lower arms, and that's it. I'm not yet willing to sacrifice ride-comfort for all out performance as I it's a daily commute racking up 35 miles to work everyday.

/adian

 

[Greg G]

Adian,

Was this a one-off, or can we order this coilover?

Greg

 

[[email protected]]

My turn to chime in with the current set-up on my car, of course the Ohlins coilover set-up, and that is about it. 195K miles on everything else, stock bushings and sway bars, although we have been playing with some sway bar endlinks. It has been the best set-up so far on my car, but also the most expensive. The obligitory(sp?) pic:

 

[Sirnixalot]

currently running on what i THINK are the Japanese R spec Bilsteins (they came off a eunos, but they might be hd's?) and some unknown springs.

Fatcat mounts, bumpstops and an ebay coil over kit are in the works, along with FM sways, self made endlinks and sway mount bracing and some poly bushes.

 

[Matt [exz3owner]]

dave-

you've got these screwed WAY down the perch. what is the ride hieght with the car on the ground?

on another note, I just put the new KW's on this past weekend. I had them short the shock bodies compared to the last set they made me. As a consequence, it appears I have full travel with the car set at only 12" from center of the hub to the fender. I am not convinced this is the optimal hieght yet, as I am worried about rubbing tires in the fenders, but so far it is ok after some horse shoe ramps on r compounds...