Coilovers ?????????????


Topher-EK9

Topher-EK9

Killa B !!
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Joined
Jan 4, 2009
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5,094
Hello
i have some shitty koni springs on my stock dampers on my ek4 and they are just not good at all. they have lowered the front about 35 mm but the back about 5 - 10 mm so it looks **** its tilted forwards basically which i have been told is bad for the geometry of the suspension . to be hoest i can feel it it is a bit twitchy ya know..

I want some coilovers but don't know where to start i know makes like tein and cusco wil be good but i really can't warrant paying £600 plus for them.
i will track my car maybe twice a year but i only really have a budget of £400

any suggestions would be a great help or if someone has some for sale? even better.
also will i need to get some camber adjusters and go to a performance shop to get them set-up right as i'm worried that local garages will just fit them and forget about them.....


cheers guys.
 
The buddy club n+ is the lowest priced brand name adjustable coilover i know of, perhaps look into that.
 
IMHO coilovers are overkill. Uprated dampers and springs will do the job just fine.
 
Hi
I have a set of adjustable aftermarket Jap shocks and lowering springs for sale not sure on the make but there is a load of Jap writing on them.
PM me if you are interested.
Dunx
 
I have a set of Tein Basic coilovers that will be available very shortly

£250
 
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Kozy said:
IMHO coilovers are overkill. Uprated dampers and springs will do the job just fine.
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What uprated dampers & springs can you recommend & how much does it cost?
 
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I have gone for Tein Superstreets on my Teg (@£500)

Good quality piece of kit with sensible ride quality on the road, & no need to wind down past the -20mm lowering i have on mine (no camber adjusters used etc etc) Just get a geometry setup once fitted & bobs-your-uncle:nice:

If you are doing track work id suggest some form of adjustable damping in any case
 
JDM 101 said:
What uprated dampers & springs can you recommend & how much does it cost?
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I will shortly be changing over to Eibach springs in conjuction with my Koni Sport adjustable dampers ont he back of many reccomendations from here and many other sources of how well suited they are together. The springs are £160 from Funkypower, the dampers I am not so sure. I already have them fitted but I know the previous owner simply bought a complete Koni spring a damper kit as it was cheaper than buying individual dampers. You can sell the Koni springs on as I did for around £50 which cuts the price a bit.

Others can feel free to correct me, but all coilovers are, is a spring and damper combined as one unit rather than seperate entities. They used to be THE upgrade on cars where the spring was completely seperate from the damper as they were more compact and lightwieght, but now virtually all cars use coil-over-shock systems so this point is worthless. Manufacturers still cash in peoples naivity thinking they are getting the dogs bollocks in suspension when in actual fact, they are essentially no different from the stock equipment. Ok, so they can thow in height and damping adjustment, but essentially all they are doing is packing a spring and damper togther, calling it a different name and charging a premium for it. I would say, and have heard it said many times before but people in the motorsport industry, that a well set up and matched spring and damper combo combined with a good geo setup will be a match for any coilover system. Thats not to say coilovers are bad in anyway, just that everyone thinks they need coilovers when they really don't.

I await a flaming for my views on coilovers... :D
 
Kozy said:
Ok, so they can thow in height and damping adjustment, but essentially all they are doing is packing a spring and damper togther, calling it a different name and charging a premium for it. I would say, and have heard it said many times before but people in the motorsport industry, that a well set up and matched spring and damper combo combined with a good geo setup will be a match for any coilover system. Thats not to say coilovers are bad in anyway, just that everyone thinks they need coilovers when they really they don't
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Any "serious" motorsport requires corner-weighting, thus height adjustment, & damping adjustment is required to fine tune the car over a given surface/circuit so there is no way they would used a fixed damping/spring setup. It would be too much of a compromise

Sure, a good spring/damper combo & geo setup can work well ON THE ROAD (as the stock EK9 setup shows) & give good results....HOWEVER a properly set-up quality coilover system will be superior & totally come into its own in a track situation where its adjustability can be used to alter the cars handling characteristics to suit a particular driving style/circuit etc etc

The biggest problem with Japanese aftermarket stuff is that you cant really get decent adjustable dampers Koni aside...i realise Konis are decent & can probably be used with Eibachs to give a decent setup, but with decent quality Coilovers, the damping range is matched to the spring rates so much of the hassle is taken out for the average fast-road driver/trackday regular...

That is my take on it:)
 
Kozy said:
I will shortly be changing over to Eibach springs in conjuction with my Koni Sport adjustable dampers ont he back of many reccomendations from here and many other sources of how well suited they are together. The springs are £160 from Funkypower, the dampers I am not so sure. I already have them fitted but I know the previous owner simply bought a complete Koni spring a damper kit as it was cheaper than buying individual dampers. You can sell the Koni springs on as I did for around £50 which cuts the price a bit.

Others can feel free to correct me, but all coilovers are, is a spring and damper combined as one unit rather than seperate entities. They used to be THE upgrade on cars where the spring was completely seperate from the damper as they were more compact and lightwieght, but now virtually all cars use coil-over-shock systems so this point is worthless. Manufacturers still cash in peoples naivity thinking they are getting the dogs bollocks in suspension when in actual fact, they are essentially no different from the stock equipment. Ok, so they can thow in height and damping adjustment, but essentially all they are doing is packing a spring and damper togther, calling it a different name and charging a premium for it. I would say, and have heard it said many times before but people in the motorsport industry, that a well set up and matched spring and damper combo combined with a good geo setup will be a match for any coilover system. Thats not to say coilovers are bad in anyway, just that everyone thinks they need coilovers when they really don't.

I await a flaming for my views on coilovers... :D
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1 Koni shocks will cost you $140 X 4 = $560, then you have to buy the spring let say maybe $200. That will bring you to $760 total. Just add a little more then you can buy a decent coilover.

With coilovers you can adjust ride height, dampening & spring rate. I've been to many springs & shocks combo before with my 4 door EK4 but i was never satisfied with the ride height. When its time for the suspension upgrade for my EK9, i decided the practical way is tru coilovers.

Spring & Shock = fixed (preset for Konis)
Coilovers = adjustable
Big difference!
 
Well if you guys are so adamant that you need fully adjustable stuff then fair play, I don't see the call for it myself. Maybe on a race car but how many people here actually race their car in a series? Adjustable dampers suffices for me and I don't change them from the settings I set when I bought the car.

In my eyes, you are going to want to spend a lot more on coilovers if you want them to be as good quality as a S/D combo, as you can't expect that more features for the same price with the same build quality. If people are spending upwards of £1k on coilovers then OK, but then it brings me back to the original point of whether they actually NEED that sort of thing...

But each to their own, everyone is free to make their own choices on the matter, and this is only my take on it. You pays your money you takes your choice, but IMO on the OPs budget, I wouldn't bother with coilovers.
 
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Kozy said:
Well if you guys are so adamant that you need fully adjustable stuff then fair play, I don't see the call for it myself. Maybe on a race car but how many people here actually race their car in a series? Adjustable dampers suffices for me and I don't change them from the settings I set when I bought the car.

In my eyes, you are going to want to spend a lot more on coilovers if you want them to be as good quality as a S/D combo, as you can't expect that more features for the same price with the same build quality. If people are spending upwards of £1k on coilovers then OK, but then it brings me back to the original point of whether they actually NEED that sort of thing...

But each to their own, everyone is free to make their own choices on the matter, and this is only my take on it. You pays your money you takes your choice, but IMO on the OPs budget, I wouldn't bother with coilovers.
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Josh...my Teins were from Performance Autoworks, though at a special price IIRC. I believe TDi North may advertise them cheap too though:)

Kozy- Its not being "so adamant" as such to need adjustable stuff- merely that good quality stuff isnt the mega-bucks you might think...& is a ready made setup as opposed to seperately sourcing springs/dampers...Made it a very easy choice for me TBH:nice:

You are quite right that most people dont "need" coilovers....in which case a set of Eibach springs on decent OEM dampers is more than up to the job...but then quite often the type of person who goes for coilovers, just wants their car slammed, with no regard to how major lowering will affect the geometry/handling. The same people wind the dampers to full hard & think they have the best handling car in the nothern hemisphere:shocked:

For me though, with track work highly likely, & having previous experience of adjustable setups, coilovers are the direction I was advised to take. It may not be a mega-bucks setup, but the quality is spot-on & the ride feels OEM with my road settings...
 
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wow, this thread got crazy lol, ok here is my input:

koni yellow shocks with eibach/GC coilover sleeves are just about as good as most full coilovers, reason being at that point they basically have the features of most full coilover's sans the preload. The price is also very similar, consider buddyclub N+ with tophats is $950 and koni yellows + GC coilovers sleeves plus GC tophats is $1200, so as you can see the GC setup is not that cheap, but it does perform well and can be had for much cheaper without the top hats...
 
Kozy said:
Well if you guys are so adamant that you need fully adjustable stuff then fair play, I don't see the call for it myself. Maybe on a race car but how many people here actually race their car in a series? Adjustable dampers suffices for me and I don't change them from the settings I set when I bought the car.

In my eyes, you are going to want to spend a lot more on coilovers if you want them to be as good quality as a S/D combo, as you can't expect that more features for the same price with the same build quality. If people are spending upwards of £1k on coilovers then OK, but then it brings me back to the original point of whether they actually NEED that sort of thing...

But each to their own, everyone is free to make their own choices on the matter, and this is only my take on it. You pays your money you takes your choice, but IMO on the OPs budget, I wouldn't bother with coilovers.
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Everybody has its own opinion. As i said, I been tru a lot of Spring & shocks combo but only the coilover satisfied my need. I am saying it tru experience. Plus coilovers will correct the tilting problem of your EGs & EKs. :secret:
 
blinx9900 said:
wow, this thread got crazy lol, ok here is my input:

koni yellow shocks with eibach/GC coilover sleeves are just about as good as most full coilovers, reason being at that point they basically have the features of most full coilover's sans the preload. The price is also very similar, consider buddyclub N+ with tophats is $950 and koni yellows + GC coilovers sleeves plus GC tophats is $1200, so as you can see the GC setup is not that cheap, but it does perform well and can be had for much cheaper without the top hats...
Click to expand...

With $1200, I'll get a full coilover. :)
 
JDM 101 said:
With $1200, I'll get a full coilover. :)
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Everybody has there opinion :nice: my reason was back when i got mine i was poor lol, i bought the shocks first and had them just with regular drop springs, with my wholesale discount they cost like $430 for the shocks and i got a free set of used drop springs from a friend, later when i had more money i got the skunk2 coilover sleeves, then again later when i had more money i changed the rear springs for eibach ERS 250lb springs, i had a set of cusco top hats laying around so i just used those. So as you can see the koni/gc setup is cool because you can build it slowly opposed to a full coilover you have to spend money all at once, my next setup will probably be fully coilovers though :nice:
 
the oem ek9 suspension is amazing for what it does for all round use, nothing out there apart from couple aftermarket sets can even touch it

koni sport shocks and simple set of aftermarket springs will be a downgrade

as for coilovers, not needed on road unless you are real petrol head who enjoys driving but again with bad choice you can be worse of, good selection and nice improvment seen (some cons will be seen but thats compromise you have to live with)
 
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