Tein Coilovers The Feedback Thread

[chips229]

Hi,

With just over a week to go before my car has them fitted i welcome any feedback about them good or bad.

Im having the Flex ones fitted with EDFC on my Aristo for your reference.

Any model car IS,GS,LS etc look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Cheers chips..

[maneesh]

Good choice mate. I've been reading about these on clublexus. They seem to be great, especially when linked up with EDFC.

I'm thinking of doing the same. Are you able to tell us how much this kit inc. fitting is costing u?

The only negative is that some folks report clunking suspension noises after fitting.

[ColinBarber]

I'm also thinging the same although I would go for the CS type rather than Flex.

[Ahhhh__Aristo]

Watching this with interest.

Whats the difference bewteen, Flex, CS and Super Street??

And this top mount malarky??

[maneesh]

flex are middle ground between comfort and handling, CS more for luxury sports (i.e. Lexus), and super street is much more handling focussed. some folks believe it's tein's pillow mount that causes the noises.

i think all 3 types above offer the 16 settings..

[lee_iceman]

I've had the EDFC on my car for 2 months now. One of the best mods i've bought.

16 setting on front and rear, and no knocking at all yet, fingers crossed.

A much firmer ride on the road, usually use 8 on front and 10 on rear. On the track they are amazing, you can feel everything, 1 on front and either 2 or 3 on rear.

[Brettster]

Had Flex with EDFC on my IS, had them on for maybe 6 or so months they were fantastic, I was gutted to take them off but the amount of speed bumps round here meant i had to have the car quite high, and i ended up with lowered springs, the handling was so much better with the car lower. wiring them up is easy just make sure to get a good power connection that can handle the load of powering the motors. once set up you can have a ride softer than stock or so much more stiffer for those on rails cornering moments. I did have some pretty bad knocking with them though which was quite concerning and when I first set them up LOW I had massive tyre wear which even a good geo couldnt 100% fix. but they are easy to change the height and I think your gonna love em. :)

[chips229]

Thanks for all the Feedback so far :)

maneesh,

as to the price...I will update you on this when the works done,but ive got £1500 all in as a rough guide in my mind Thats getting the garage to fit them and set it all up.Its slightly cheaper to have the EDFC fitted at the same time as the coilovers fitted,they said that should save about One hour labour if the EDFC was fitted at a later date.

Colin,

I was thinking of the CS type to start with,TBH i hope im making the right choice with going with the Flex type Heres a question for you,what are the standard spring rates front/rear for the mk1 GS/Aristo?

Id like to know how much stiffer the spring rate will be on the Flex type against a standard Lexus spring in terms of the ride quality.

lee_iceman,

What spec coilovers did you go for on your car?

Is there alot of difference then in how the car drives when the EDFC settings are played with.I also thought when the EDFC is fitted there are 32 settings instead of the 16 as it can adjust more finely?

Brettster,

Thats for your helpful comments about having a good power supply.

Theres speed bumps around where i live so im hoping there not going to be much more of a pain than they are now.I think the standard drop in ride height is 40mm but i think it can be lowered more than that.

The garage says that they set all the geometry up after fitting the Teins so im hoping :luck: that there will be no tyre wear problems.

I will ask them for a copy of the geometry report in case i need Dr Bones to cast a eye over it.

I cant wait now to for the work to be done :) All the time ive owned the car ive never really enjoyed driving it,not enough steering feel...very poor feel in wet/slippery conditions and not the most stable of cars ive owned..

I will keep you updated.

Cheers chips..

[BernardTamHK]

I've tried HA/SS/Flex before. Flex is a good choice. It is more stiff with higher spring rates than the other 2. It also doesnt "jump" as much after holes or bumps (the rebound).

The K value for Flex should be around 11 or 12. That compared with the stock of around 7 or 8. Trust me, you will feel the difference, so the spring rate doesnt mean much.

You should think about installing ARBs soon to make the most out of your suspension setup.

Never used the EDFC before, so can't comment.

[robjonk]

Have cs on my aristo and must say they are very nice on the road. not tried them on the track yet but proberly not stiff enough as have mine on hardest setting now and the ride is not to harsh at all.

[Ahhhh__Aristo]

It does't really make any difference wether the EDFC is fitted before, after or during. as they only fit on top of the unit's, plus the running the wiring through the car and fitting the control box, doesn't actually effect the time it takes to fit the coilies

Have you found a strut brace that'll fit over?? as I'm pretty sure the stock one won't.

Think your right on the 32 settings if using EDFC

(i fitted some to a S13 a few years back)

Looking forward to your write up when they're fitted.

[chips229]

BernardTamHK,

Thats good news about the car not jumping over bumps as badly then,at present the rear of the car is poor over them.

The anti roll bars might be the next job after the coilovers,i will see how things go.

Ahhhh__Aristo

I was thinking the same about the Strut brace,will it still fit.The coilover kit is for the Aristo so im hoping im not going to have to get another strut brace

chips..

[lee_iceman]

I have the Flex kit, settings wise there are 16 on front and 16 on rear so in theory you have 256 possiblities.

You can really feel the difference on the track. At bruntinsthorpe first time went out with normal road settings, car seemed to roll in corners. Next time set it to race and the handle increased 10 fold, a lot more feel of what the car was doing.

You can also feel it if you push down on the front wing and then alter the settings.

I have some 18" wheels coming soon so I'll find out how easy they are to adjust then.

[Ahhhh__Aristo]

The EDFC units sit on top of the coilovers, our strut brace, I'm pretty sure won't fit, as there's no hole in it for the EDFC unit to poke through :(

[ColinBarber]

You can set the EDFC to have either 16 or 32 adjustments. The procedure should be in the owners manual. Most people say they cannot tell the difference between one setting and another when in 32 position mode.

Chips, I'll try and find the stock spring rates, not easy information to find though.

I want the CS as I don't really want it much stiffer, just suspension that actually works. I will also go with some stiffer roll-bars to help the cornering. The CS also don't use the noisy pillow mounts.

[chips229]

The EDFC units sit on top of the coilovers, our strut brace, I'm pretty sure won't fit, as there's no hole in it for the EDFC unit to poke through :(

If the Aristo kit is anything like the kit for the 350Z then i could be in luck with the strut brace.

http://liljerk.morpheus.net/350Z/tein/

Colin,if you can find the standard spring rate it would be good for reference :)

Chips..

[chips229]

Hi,

Well the day for the coilover fitting was today and what a long day its been

I had a poor nights sleep last night still awake at 1.30am this morning

We had the day off and had to be up early because the garage which was doing the work is a fair way away from where i live.I used them because they came very recommended by friends.

I was awake at 6am and set off at 6.45am.

We dropped the car off to them at 8 ish and walked into Town for the day.We must have walked best part of 6 to 8 miles today :D

Had a phone call at about 3ish saying they might not have time to finish the car today as some of the parts were seized solid,they normally would have cut the parts off and replaced with new but because i needed to drive the car home and the replacements would take two days to get here they had to stick with getting the parts off.So it took them longer than planned.Ive had to change other suspension parts myself on me car so i know some parts have been on there since new from the look of them ;)

By the time we had walked back from Town the car had its wheels back on and was about to have the geometry setup.

Job done!!

But there was not enough time for them to fit the EDFC loom and Control box.

They could have had the car ready early tomorrow but that would have ment staying overnight at a B+B or the other option was to drive back down tomorrow and have it finished.

I went for drive the car back home and fit the electrics myself at the weekend :winky:

The shock settings were/are at Max hard front/rear but TBH on the motorway it was fine.Over some ruff roads back home it was a little bumpy but not as hard as i thought.

We got back home late this evening.

So what do i think of Teins?

Well its as if im driving a different car now.

More feel with the steering (i now feels as though the steering wheel is connected to the front wheels)

Less body roll.

Better body control over bumps.

Car feels more stable.

Car feels sharper accelerating when first pressing the loud pedal.

I will add more as i drive it.We just had a very steady drive back home so not sampled the best of it yet.

The Garage Guys did a great job Today!!

All the hard works done,just got to plug the rest in the weekend.

This was going to be a quick short update

Off to catch some sleep now i think all that walking done me in today

Cheers Chips..

[Ahhhh__Aristo]

Chips, in your own words when I first posted on here................"Pics please" :D

Nice one mate, looking forward to more feedback over the coming days.

Have a good kip.

[chips229]

Hi,

Ive been busy the last few nights,after work me and a friend fitted the EDFC box of tricks,done that last night.

I well give more feedback on it when ive had more chance to test it out.

Before i forget heres a link to another forum im on with a few pictures of the car with the Teins fitted and the now lower look.

http://club-jap.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1008&highlight=

I will try and get a few more pictures sorted out over the next few days.

Tonight i fitted the 18s on the Aristo,they were the wheels i had on me old LS400.The Gold wheels in the pictures on the link are the 17s.

I also washed and waxed the car this evening so im hoping to have some more up to date pictures with the larger wheels.

Im off to try and catch some more sleep up :D

chips..

[lee_iceman]

Nice job mate, knew you wouldn't be disappointed.

Fitting the EDFC was pretty straight forward. Only little problem was finding a 12V constant in the IS, which we picked up from the passenger footwell.

Good thing is there is now another little gadget to play with and show off.

[Ahhhh__Aristo]

Very nice Sir, how much is that lowered by??

[maneesh]

What an ordeal to get them fitted..now you can surprise all those Beemer drivers!!!

[chips229]

Hi,

The cars been lowered by around 40mm.

Im not so sure about keeping the 18s on the car,i like the look of them but the car drives slightly different.

The front tyres are ever so slightly rubbing on the arch,i think its the plastic wheel arch inserts.

I also think the 18s wheel offset is different to the 17s giving a slightly wider track.

The steering seems more dead when driving in a straight line against the 17s.

The geometry was setup for 17s so maybe when the car goes in for the geometry fine tune next week and it being setup for the 18s it might drive better

Im still waiting for the rear drop links to get to me through the post,then i can fit them and hope it tightens the rear of the car up a little.

Will keep you updated.

Chips..

[chips229]

Update.

Took these pictures on my camera at the weekend.

I managed to fit the new drop links tonight.I had to cut the bolts off on the top ones

Talk about Tight,Toyota/Lexus dont even give you new nuts with the drop links

The car now feels tighter at the rear,more stable and consistent :)

EDFC im still adjusting so will update when ive driven the car more now all the work has been done.

Chips..

[maneesh]

Looks real nice mate...