Tanabe Seven Coilovers(s14)- Review

[azndummie]

In the recent 2 months i had to buy new coilovers. My s14 was sitting on jack stands after i sold my megans and i came across these from logan at aspec. I was researching coilovers for a while before i made the decision to buy these. The reason that i sold my set of megan coilovers was because i did not like the dampening on them and i was looking for a stiffer set of coilovers now that my car was not my daily.

The seven's that i got were the DD version II with the 10/8 spring rate and 12 way dampening adjustment. I picked this spring rate because i still wanted this to be a street able car, but to also perform well during hard driving. The new seven's use a twin tube design and a new slide valve unit which is the new development from tanabe unlike other coilovers that use needle type or rotary type valves. The shocks of tanabe coilovers are also made by KYB so i knew they were going to be good. When i took these out of the box they were way heavier than my megans and everything looked to be constructed extremely well with a stamped bracket in the front struts and it was also way beefier compared to the megans. The tanabe's also had pillowball top mounts all the way around instead of just pillowball fronts and rigid rears like the megans.

The install took about 2 hours with the adjusting of the ride height included and the preload. I left the coilovers at 0 preload all around. These coilovers get pretty low as you can slam the car if you really wanted to. The fitment of all the parts were perfect and i didn't have a problem with fitting anything to my car. The spring lock and height adjuster also locked themselves in preventing anything like preload adjustments and height adjustments to be tweaked while driving. I would remember that my megan coilovers would always raise up in the front because the height adjuster would get loose so the bracket would move down while my car was making turns. This didn't happen for me yet, if ever.

After i installed it i went out for a test drive and that said everything for itself. The ride was SO smooth for the street on full soft and i could tell the difference between each click of dampening adjustment, unlike the megans which were underdampened like crazy. I did not get a chance to test drive it on the track or do any type of competition, but i did go on a few spirited drives and these coilovers could perform. On the touge these coilovers are very stable when you adjust them to the proper settings. I need to take it to some track events to see how they perform on the track, but i know they will perform pretty well.

The only things that i would suggest to tanabe to change would probably to make the coilovers an inverted monotube structure, and to change the dampener adjusters to be a little more accurate and smaller in size. I didn't need an inverted monotube structure, because this was more of a street car, but that would have been nice for street and track. Overall these coilovers are amazing and i would highly recommend them to anyone who wants a company that makes high quality.

[ALTRNTV]

Nice review.

[eastcoastS14]

^^ this makes me want to install my sevens so bad...i bought them last summer and was going to install em but sold my car cause it was a POS...just bought another one so cant wait to get them in i live in MA with the worst roads in the US so im lookin forward to that smooth ride

[TurDz]

Thanks for the review.

Lately I've been questioning the quality of Tanabe. They are definately a higher end manufacturer, but from stories I've heard, and parts that I've owned myself, things weren't so good in terms of durability and customer support.

Examples:

1) Dousan's blown DDs and Tanabe's claim that they've never had any of their coilovers need a rebuild or overhaul.

2) A few people with their exhaust hangers breaking a bit early compared to other brands.

3) My own stabilizer bars. Apparently they improved their powdercoating process but during my install, even if I slightly rubbed the bar against another surface on the suspension/chassis, the paint just chipped/scratched off like nothing.

With the price of the coilovers being much higher than an average set, I hope that they treat you well. Keep us updated over the next few months/years.

[azndummie]

As the same goes with tein with their parts in the past, when they were not considered a "high end manufacturer", they also made parts that needed to be redesigned. I think that tanabe has upped their quality since and service since then, but i cannot be certain until i test this for a wider time span.

The Blown dd's iirc reading that they were from droooping the rear spring to get the car lower, but im not sure it was dousan's. They now have a replacement parts program instead of sending the stuff back to kyb to be rebuilt.

i will probably keep this suspension so ill keep updates on stuff.

[sideview_180sx]

you also realize that dousan ran his car lower and went to many more events then almost everyone. that is 1 person who beat his car how it needed to be, dirt drops, rolling on the street. yada yada. tanabe makes aweseom quality suspension. also whining about paint chipping off on suspension pieces is stupid. who is going to see your swaybars anyways. BTW most companies have exhaust hangers that break, people with N1s N1-duals, tanabe, hks, blitz. its a fact of life. deal with it.

[A Spec Products]

Thanks for posting the review.

I've seen first hand many of the companies sideview_180sx listed have premature "breaking" of hangers.

However, this is to be expected, since welds can become brittle do to certain environmental elements and force. Especially for lowered cars, when you scrape etc, then hangers can be subjected to stress, etc.

As far as what you posted TurDz, let's not get into a bash Tanabe thread. In the grand scheme of things, you are basing your opinion off of a few incidences, which as we know isn't a "fair" judgement.

And yes, I sell Tanabe (and the set to azndummie), but I am trying to be as impartial as possible.

Let's keep this is as a review thread rather than something else.

[Dousan_PG]

Tanabe DDs wre the greatest coilovers ever
i loved those things
just the support was shitty
but the product was amazing.
i wish i could have Tanabe DDs again :(

[ronmcdon]

I just got my set tanabe 7's (w/10f/8r rates) thrown on with the teas controller, and would like to share my impression of the unit. since there's already a thread on this, i hope the OP doesn't mind if i include my review here. For the most part, I share almost exactly the same impression of the OP. I'm very pleased with them. What was perhaps most suprising was how comfy they were, when adjusted to softer dampening levels. It felt like an oem sporty suspension. Its definitely an easy setup to live with for a daily driver. body-roll was barely noticeable, but then again I also have tanable swaybars, so it prob isnt entirely fair for me to say how well the 7's ride by itself.

Note that I've never used the 7's without the teas, and my review will place more emphasis with the teas in conjunction with the 7's. I'm still reading the manual, playing with the settings and programming features). There are 16 lvls of dampening with the teas.

The teas has two different dampening mode adjustment settings. The first is manual, which allows you to choose whichever dampening lvls you desire, and the suspension will stick to those settings, unless you change it to something else. On the street and highway, I like to stick to either full-soft, or close to full soft. On windy roads (I drove around Mulholland Dr and Sunset Blvd in socal), so far I like to set the dampening half-way, or use the 'auto' mode. you can change these settings whenever you'd like on the fly before or during driving. The dampening lvls for the front and rear shocks can be set at different rates.

The second mode, is the 'auto' mode. Here, the teas adjusts the dampening rates automatically according to changes speed and maybe some other factors (i'm guessing forces in rebound and compression, maybe also road surface irregularities). The front and rear rates are always different, with the front dampening rates interestingly being softer all the time.

On the street, the teas automatically adjusts to a lower rate. When cornering harder on the curves and on the highway, it adjusts itself to higher rates. My only complaint is that the auto adjust mode of the teas chooses very high dampening rates for highway driving, and makes it a lot more uncomfortable than needed be. I just cruise at 75, and I don't drive too aggressively there. I prefer setting the teas to it's manual mode, and adjusting the dampening to the sissy-like full soft lvl. I change the dampening settings again when I'm off the freeway.

Overall I really enjoyed the 7's, along with the added convenience and flexibility of the teas. I can't wait to test it out properly on 'the streets of willow' track. to some, it would probably come across as being gimmicky, but i think its a fun toy thats well worth the $500 or so that I spent.

[wonkuuzenki]

Great review. Props.

[GSXRJJordan]

I just got my set tanabe 7's (w/10f/8r rates) thrown on with the teas controller, and would like to share my impression of the unit. since there's already a thread on this, i hope the OP doesn't mind if i include my review here. For the most part, I share almost exactly the same impression of the OP. I'm very pleased with them. What was perhaps most suprising was how comfy they were, when adjusted to softer dampening levels. It felt like an oem sporty suspension. Its definitely an easy setup to live with for a daily driver. body-roll was barely noticeable, but then again I also have tanable swaybars, so it prob isnt entirely fair for me to say how well the 7's ride by itself.

Note that I've never used the 7's without the teas, and my review will place more emphasis with the teas in conjunction with the 7's. I'm still reading the manual, playing with the settings and programming features). There are 16 lvls of dampening with the teas.

The teas has two different dampening mode adjustment settings. The first is manual, which allows you to choose whichever dampening lvls you desire, and the suspension will stick to those settings, unless you change it to something else. On the street and highway, I like to stick to either full-soft, or close to full soft. On windy roads (I drove around Mulholland Dr and Sunset Blvd in socal), so far I like to set the dampening half-way, or use the 'auto' mode. you can change these settings whenever you'd like on the fly before or during driving. The dampening lvls for the front and rear shocks can be set at different rates.

The second mode, is the 'auto' mode. Here, the teas adjusts the dampening rates automatically according to changes speed and maybe some other factors (i'm guessing forces in rebound and compression, maybe also road surface irregularities). The front and rear rates are always different, with the front dampening rates interestingly being softer all the time.

On the street, the teas automatically adjusts to a lower rate. When cornering harder on the curves and on the highway, it adjusts itself to higher rates. My only complaint is that the auto adjust mode of the teas chooses very high dampening rates for highway driving, and makes it a lot more uncomfortable than needed be. I just cruise at 75, and I don't drive too aggressively there. I prefer setting the teas to it's manual mode, and adjusting the dampening to the sissy-like full soft lvl. I change the dampening settings again when I'm off the freeway.

Overall I really enjoyed the 7's, along with the added convenience and flexibility of the teas. I can't wait to test it out properly on 'the streets of willow' track. to some, it would probably come across as being gimmicky, but i think its a fun toy thats well worth the $500 or so that I spent.


Awesome review, I've been searching around for a review on the TEAS. I never bought it, but I agree with everything you said about the coilovers themselves - I was also very surprised how comfortable they were on two clicks softer than medium. Good stuff :)

[ronmcdon]

Hey thanks! :)

[azndummie]

i have finally come around to testing these coilovers on buttonwillow last december. They allow a huge range of adjustability, which i what i like the most on them. I ended up running 5mm preload on the front springs and the same dampening around all four corners. For grip settings i was running soft settings all around, but if you were to go to a drift setting the dampening is extremely sensative, which is a good thing, it would just be in the higher dampening settings. Every single click is noticeable on the track and on the street as well. If you want something that is street able and also performs on the track, this is the coilover of choice.

[RaVeNouS14]

I recently got my car back with the tanabe 7s w/teas installed on my s14. Everything these guys are saying is true. BEST coils EVER. I put 1100 miles on the car in 5 days. if your on the fence with goin with this setup JUST DO IT...

[eulalia]

i think the perfect story to show how great these coilovers felt was with my girlfriend.

When i first met her i didnt have coilovers yet just tien springs, she used to complain how rough the ride was and how her back would hurt (blah blah blah)

I eventually got the money for tanabe sevens thanks to jeff (gsxrjjordan) told me best place to ride them is on medium so i did

next thing i know my girlfriend isnt complaining about the ride, she actually started enjoying the car and so on

well one day she pissed me off and we were going from santa monica to irvine, so i put them on as stiff... lol

lets just say she noticed right away, she didnt know i changed it. I just remember her saying whats wrong with your car.. lol

thats when i knew i had badd ass coilovers when a girl that knows nothing about cars felt a huge difference between medium and stiff

[GSXRJJordan]

...thats when i knew i had badd ass coilovers when a girl that knows nothing about cars felt a huge difference between medium and stiff

Lol, then you went and sold the car :duh:

Yeah they were bomb. Damping definitely tracks with adjustment, and with a good coilover, riding them on soft is fine... doesn't hurt anything, you're just oversprung and get some oscillation after dips. Compared to my current Stance GR+ Pros in the S14, the Tanabes were more comfortable and more predictable.

[eulalia]

Lol, then you went and sold the car :duh:

Yeah they were bomb. Damping definitely tracks with adjustment, and with a good coilover, riding them on soft is fine... doesn't hurt anything, you're just oversprung and get some oscillation after dips. Compared to my current Stance GR+ Pros in the S14, the Tanabes were more comfortable and more predictable.

dont worry s13 and s14 in the works.. and the s14 will for sure have tanabe sevens; happen to have any for sale? lol jk:ddog:

[shmiddy]

i own some tanabe jdm suspec pro's and i love em

nice review!

[Slidin240Wayz]

when a girl that knows nothing about cars felt a huge difference between medium and stiff

yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[rb25_s13*CHUKI]

Boom mufasa shaka doo doo pop