comfortable coilover?

[golfer17]

I have tein s-tech springs and tokico blue shocks on the car right now, and the ride is terrible. It seems like I feel every bump and imperfection in the road. It got a lot better when I put s15 seats in (tremendously actually), but I still make about a two hour trip every other weekend that wears me out with this suspension setup. So, I've been looking at going ahead and upgrading to a coilover so I can have dampening adjustment (and ride height to adjust for the front wheel gap left from the sr swap) and hopefully be able to get a more comfortable ride with a low shock setting.

My question to you all is what suspension setup do you have and how comfortable is it compared to stock (I've already read plenty about coilover performance, but feel free to include that too). I'm particular interested in anyone with 8k/6k springs, as the coilover setup I've been eyeing are the Stance GR+'s with that spring rate, but I want to make sure that I will be able to improve the ride with the correct settings.

[Slidin240Wayz]

Oh please are you serious?

[iHeartTheTouge]

if your looking for comfort, go with stock. coilovers are FAR from comfortable for a daily driver. you'll feel bumps that dont exist.

[240drifter1]

LMFAO, If your complaining about strut/spring setup id love to hear you with coils.

[240drifter1]

you'll feel bumps that dont exist.

haha, so true.

[golfer17]

Oh please are you serious?

yep, I daily drive the car. Is this a dumb question or something? Do all coilovers with the same spring rate have the capability of being exactly as comfortable as each other if they are set on the same dampening setting? I was hoping that with better shocks that were adjustable, the ride would improve even with slightly stiffer springs (that and I've heard that a coilover setup can drastically improve handling compared to a spring/shock combo), am I completely off base here?

(yes, I am a wussy when it comes to ride comfort, I had a 3/S for my first 4 years of driving and if you've never ridden in a 3000gt, well... there is good reason why they weigh so much)

[allntrlundrgrnd]

bahah if you cant deal with shocks+struts coilovers will make you cry/wet pants

[DOOK]

don't know guys... my tein flex on the wagon are very comfortable... think I'm running the dampening on 14ish...

17x8.5 215-45-17 btw

[orion::S14]

None of the off-the-shelf, JDM coilovers are valved decently...and most of them have proven to do close to nothing when you turn the adj. knob.

...and ride comfort comes more from shocks than spring rate. Although, 8/6 and up will be stiff, no matter how good the shocks are.

Tein Flex *might* work for you...but your best bet, is to get some very nice shocks, and stick with the same springs you have.

- Brian

[ILoveMyRHS13]

I've personally never found coilovers comfortable... I know my back hurt after I rode in my friend's coupe with PBM coils.

[4thHorse]

Rim and tire size will also add to your disconfort. 8k spring rate is also something like 7 or 8 times factory spring rates, so if you can't take the s-techs which something around 2 to 3 times the factory spring rate don't go coilovers. Are your shocks blown? Maybe try a koni/GC set up.

Oops number were off, the factory spring rates are 2k
http://www.zilvia.net/f/showthread.php?t=115916

[FRpilot]

yep generally coilover spring rates are stiffer than shocks/springs. so if you get coilovers, don't expect it to get any more comfortable.

people get coilovers for stiffer suspension and less body roll, therefore, everyone usually have reviews for coilovers with stiffer spring rates.

there are plenty of street/track coilovers out there like tein flex, tanabe pro, zeal function Xs, etc., but they will probably still be stiffer than your shock/spring combo.

[Full-Lock]

yea ive got buddy club racing spec damper. they are 8/6. i really like mine..they ride so smooth.

your car wont ride like shit if its on the softest setting. just do that. on softest on my coilovers you hardly feel anything..i mean, its not stock comfort..but its nice. mine are maxed on stiff setting right now

i have had my coilovers for over 4 years no problems at all too

[kevtrinh]

if you buy quality coilovers and not megan or ksport shit...even stance you might like the ride quality but in all honesty...you gotta pay the cost to be the boss

[TheSquidd]

8/6k Silkroad/Section RM-A8's.

17x9, 225/45/17 tires.

Felt smooth as silk to me, but I'm used to cars that ride like an ox-cart.

[theslows13]

I've personally never found coilovers comfortable... I know my back hurt after I rode in my friend's coupe with PBM coils.


im that friend. PBM coils/arms/subframe collars/lotsa susp shit. my coils are on the softest setting and i HATE dailying them. the coils themselves are fucking awesome, its just the combo of all the damned suspension parts, my buddyclub spec seat, and borderline scoliosis that make it near-intolerable.

"comfortable coilovers" is a straight-up oxymoron man. if youre a sissy, they arent for you. and no, not a dumb question, just lack of experience.

[Drifter757]

Tein EDFC maybe?

[rb25crazy]

i got bc racing s14 inverted coilovers.

i have them around on 8 out of 30. they're very comfortable to me, in fact the ride feels better then stock in terms of compliance and comfort to me. the only time the coilovers are somewhat uncomfortable is when you hit a bump or a hole in the ground and the car just goes back n forth. but, with stock it was the same. this is just more noticeable. either then that these are great definetly recommend for a daily driven vehicle i drive around 100miles aday and when i get out of my car my back feels great.

plus the price is right under 1,000. with replacement shocks for under 100 bucks a pop.

even though this is some taiwanese company i highly recommend it. im pretty particular about a harsh ride and these definetly dont fit in that characteristic. i'm not expert either lol i only have stock suspension but they actually worked not blown. and now these. i wouldn't buy anything else i'm quite content with these gonna keep them for the rest of my cars life.

[The ROMAN]

How about some Tein Luxury Master springs (H-Tech)? Honestly though, if you can't deal with driving a track car on the street then your best bet is just to get a daily beater rather than trying to compromise.

[CleanKAKouki]

i actually like this thread. it gives real feedback into the give/take love/hate of coilovers. personally i wish helix made 240 coilovers, they are amazing on subarus, best bang for the buck out there. anyway, stance or tein flex is looking like your best bet for what you want.

[golfer17]

Excellent responses, guys! keep em comin.

None of the off-the-shelf, JDM coilovers are valved decently...and most of them have proven to do close to nothing when you turn the adj. knob.

...and ride comfort comes more from shocks than spring rate. Although, 8/6 and up will be stiff, no matter how good the shocks are.

Tein Flex *might* work for you...but your best bet, is to get some very nice shocks, and stick with the same springs you have.

- Brian

that's kinda along the lines I've been thinking, the problem is, when I did my sr swap the front rose up about an inch, so if I take the time to replace the shocks, I figure I might as well do the springs as well and go with something that is adjustable so i can fix that.

yea ive got buddy club racing spec damper. they are 8/6. i really like mine..they ride so smooth.

your car wont ride like shit if its on the softest setting. just do that. on softest on my coilovers you hardly feel anything..i mean, its not stock comfort..but its nice. mine are maxed on stiff setting right now

i have had my coilovers for over 4 years no problems at all too

awesome, that's what i've been hoping to hear. I've heard this from others as well, so I'm hoping I can get some kind of general consensus on whether this is a rare or common experience with coilovers.

Rim and tire size will also add to your disconfort. 8k spring rate is also something like 7 or 8 times factory spring rates, so if you can't take the s-techs which something around 2 to 3 times the factory spring rate don't go coilovers. Are your shocks blown? Maybe try a koni/GC set up.

Oops number were off, the factory spring rates are 2k
http://www.zilvia.net/f/showthread.php?t=115916

Thanks for the info on spring rates! that's another question I hadn't found the answer to yet. Surprisingly, I didn't notice a difference in ride comfort between my stock rims with potenza all-seasons and my low profile tires with my 17's, so I think it's definitely got to be the shocks. I think they had less than 20k mi. on them when i bought the car (only thing the car came with), but I suppose they could have been defective from the factory or been used before that.

How about some Tein Luxury Master springs (H-Tech)? Honestly though, if you can't deal with driving a track car on the street then your best bet is just to get a daily beater rather than trying to compromise.

do they make those for an s14, it didn't look like it last time i was on their website. I have a friend with some kind of tein luxury sport coilovers on his lexus and he said they ride even better than stock. I've thought long and hard about the beater (probably be an sc300 when i do get one), but I just enjoy driving the car too much (I get on it about 3 times on my way to work), I don't want to pull money out of stocks right now, and I dont want to add another car to my insurance since they still havent found out about that street racing ticket I got over a year ago. Besides, the car is actually pretty comfortable around town, it's just that when I take it back to my parents house two hours away to work on it (don't have a garage or enough tools yet to do it here), it wears me out (my back mainly).

[fliprayzin240sx]

If you think a tokico/tein spring setup is stiff, time for you to back to stock springs and shocks. Anything and everything out there will be too stiff for you.

You want a comfortable ride? Sell your S14 and get a damn GS300/400, done and done...

[spool_sample]

If you think a tokico/tein spring setup is stiff, time for you to back to stock springs and shocks. Anything and everything out there will be too stiff for you.

You want a comfortable ride? Sell your S14 and get a damn GS300/400, done and done...

QFT.

It sounds more like you want airbags, not coilovers...

[vespaman]

i don't think coilover is your best choice.

[RanciD]

None of the off-the-shelf, JDM coilovers are valved decently...and most of them have proven to do close to nothing when you turn the adj. knob.

...and ride comfort comes more from shocks than spring rate. Although, 8/6 and up will be stiff, no matter how good the shocks are.

Tein Flex *might* work for you...but your best bet, is to get some very nice shocks, and stick with the same springs you have.

- Brian

This guy pretty much hit the nail on the head. All of the "JDM" and associated stuff has trash valving (extremely overdamped) so you're probably not going to get what you want from any of them and I wouldn't rely on the adjusters to do anything close to what they're intended to. If you really want ride height adjustability I'd recommend you go with a Ground Control/Koni Yellow setup. It'll take a little more work but run you about the same amount of money as the JDM stuff, be way more comfortable, and perform way better if you want to do an autocross or something for fun. You can even pick whatever spring rates you want so you can go with something mild. The only hitch is you have to modify your front strut housings because the koni fronts are inserts. If you need any more info shoot me a PM.

[vvtisupra]

silkroads rma8

[KwKouki]

stance on the 8/6 with damp set from the factory is REALLY comfortable for street. a bit bouncy and stuff but its not unforgiving

[alkemyst]

The only way someone is thinking coilovers or even sport springs are comfortable is someone without much wheel time driving luxury vehicles.

I don't mind the ride I have with 8/6 KTS (SPL) coilovers, but it's sure as hell not something I could tolerate over 100 miles of crappy road where almost any stock car would be a non-event.

You can have a nice street coilover, but saying it's comfortable is wishful thinking (or you have an exhaust leak :))

[LS240]

What about KW Variant 3s? Anybody have experience with them? Supposedly the Euro brands have a far better balance between ride and handling than the JDM coilovers, and they typically have a larger adjustment range too. And KW is among the best of even the Euro brands from what I've heard.

[rps13sh]

i love the way my coilovers feel. i dont understand whats so uncomfortable with coilovers. they feel so great. especially over stocks or even lowering springs and sport shocks.

[Andrew Bohan]

getting coilovers for comfort

is like

getting a shotgun to feed your baby



:bigok:

[stillen]

I ride in the worst streets of the USA, New York city where the streets are made of potholes. My stock damper broke so I said let me get coilovers. I bought the tein flex and they are 2nd smoothest ride from all coilovers but they were too stiff for me as a daily driver. I sold them and I got BC-racing and they are still stiff but more comfortable than tein flex. Mind you the tein flex has spring rates 6/5 and the BC-racing has 8/6. If you want comfort and TAKE IT FROM ME, do not go with any coilovers no matter what people tell you. If you have friends with coilovers go try them regardless of the car and you will see. Coilovers are probably tolerable for the nice streets of cali. Definitely not NY. I regret switching to coilovers.

[articdragon192]

getting coilovers for comfort

is like

getting a shotgun to feed your baby



:bigok:

No. I got Flexes because I daily drove my S13 and didn't want anything too stiff. They were perfect. No one complained about the ride. I had people sleeping in my car. It rode smooth. People didn't believe I was riding on coilovers. I know Norm will chime in and back my up. What coils for comfort? Pay the price for Flexes.

[stillen]

I had a similar thread for comfortably coilovers and everybody said Tein Flex. Again as I said in my previous post, if your roads are like california then coilovers are going to be fine, if your roads are like NYC forget it. arcticdragon192 lives in cali and so has no problem with coliovers. Drive his car in NYC and his stomach will turn.

[KC20DET]

you have to take consideration of where you live too. In SO.CAL. the roads suck balls... and make ride comfort alot worst...

[93SECoupe]

I do have to agree about the Tein flexes. I rode in a s13 equipped with them and they didn't seem as harsh as other coilovers including my KW V3's which are set around medium damping. Although I don't know what setting the flexes where in.

[CKAMC]

Your only choice is tein flex, they have the softest spring rate

after that just set the dampering to the lowest setting (usually 1)

if you cant handle that, then there really isn't anything else out there in coilovers that can get you that comfort you want.

unless you replace the spring with a air bag and run a air ride kit.

[Silvia_Drift]

I don't know why you guys keep telling him to get Tein Flex's when hes complaining about a shock spring combo. I have them on my vert and they are a pretty smooth ride...for a coilover. The ride is much worse than stock.

To the original poster, I think you should go back to stock suspension and maybe swap coils on for the track or something lol.

[YoungGun]

I have Megan Street. Don't get them.

[ayuaddict]

i have KTS.

shit rides decent for having 215/40/17s and fully gutted, and a chassis that is more rigid than stock.

i recently threw some KTS coilovers on my friends car, full interior and stock wheels/tires 195/65s i think, shit rode smoooottthhhhh as fuck.

but, like everybody else said, tokico blues are basically stock and tein s techs are like cut stock springs, so if those are uncomfortable then shit...

[bo2o]

you learn to live with...

i had tein hr. they were 8k6k i believe...
but i had 15x8 and 205 55 15 tires.
i think the bigger the side way the better for comfort.

once u get into the 17's with 40 pro then get harder bumps.

you just have to live with it...

stock shocks and springs suck ass.

i feel safer wen in a car with coilovers. its more predictable.

[CKAMC]

I don't know why you guys keep telling him to get Tein Flex's when hes complaining about a shock spring combo. I have them on my vert and they are a pretty smooth ride...for a coilover. The ride is much worse than stock.

To the original poster, I think you should go back to stock suspension and maybe swap coils on for the track or something lol.

we are just saying, if he was to we might as well drill in one model into his head

maybe he should switch back to 16's? with a 55 sidewall, shit might be nice with the shocks and struts

[alkemyst]

i love the way my coilovers feel. i dont understand whats so uncomfortable with coilovers. they feel so great. especially over stocks or even lowering springs and sport shocks.

it's not that they are always uncomfortable.

A plastic chair may not be uncomfortable, but no one is going to claim it's anything but a plastic chair.

[Flipzide]

I run Stance GR+ on my s13 I love it, but then agian I think it's too soft for my tastes (8k/6k). I plan on selling them to help pay for MAX coils for my s14.

Go back to stock if you don't plan on doing any "hard" driving. Nothing else is more comfortable if you think a simple spring/shock combo is uncomfortable. The air ride suggestion could work too, but its $$$


</thread>

[Omarius Maximus]

I don't know if they make them for the 240, but I'd look into KW V3s. Those things are more comfortable than stock with the added advantage of better handling. It's not so much the spring rate that makes coilovers uncomfortable, it's the shock's valving.... With the V3s, you can adjust compression and rebound plus the quality of the shock is significantly higher than your average jdm name/built in taiwan coilovers.

[TravisSW]

stance on the 8/6 with damp set from the factory is REALLY comfortable for street. a bit bouncy and stuff but its not unforgiving


Very true, I rocked this setting for a week or two until after a close call in a..umm...special road. Now i'm 8/12. I'm trying to find something that is responsive, but then yet, wont kick out too easily then yet, good for drift, but I can adjust them on the fly anyways.

ANYWAYS
8/6 is great. I got the Stance GL+ Pros..whichever the highest grade ones are.
Bouncy, but smooth and soft.

I wonder what a 4/2 setting is like. lol. :P

But your probably best bet for soft ride is getting a luxury car or stock crap with 15s. lol

[got boost??]

most coils are gonna be bad for you. you may be able to try tein flex, my friend has them on his prelude and loves them

[The ROMAN]

do they make those for an s14, it didn't look like it last time i was on their website. I have a friend with some kind of tein luxury sport coilovers on his lexus and he said they ride even better than stock. I've thought long and hard about the beater (probably be an sc300 when i do get one), but I just enjoy driving the car too much (I get on it about 3 times on my way to work), I don't want to pull money out of stocks right now, and I dont want to add another car to my insurance since they still havent found out about that street racing ticket I got over a year ago. Besides, the car is actually pretty comfortable around town, it's just that when I take it back to my parents house two hours away to work on it (don't have a garage or enough tools yet to do it here), it wears me out (my back mainly).

The luxury coilovers they only make for the Z, the springs they make for the 240. Can't say if they're any good for tracking, though.

http://www.tein.com/tech_info/p06.html

[dogg4217]

Need MOAR RUBBERZZZZ on your tire and less air pressure.

[shadysi]

stance on the 8/6 with damp set from the factory is REALLY comfortable for street. a bit bouncy and stuff but its not unforgiving

I run Stance GR+ on my s13 I love it, but then agian I think it's too soft for my tastes (8k/6k).
</thread>

another stance GR+ here, its alright for daily, a little bouncy but i have the rear on full soft and its not too bad.

[nismo tuned s14]

definately go with the tein flex. i had tokico blues and springs for almost 4 years. the coilovers are a bit stiffer but more comfortable at the same time. i have them on 14/12. dont waste your money on the EDFC.

tein flex = one of the best street coilovers ever. i have nothing but good things to say about them

[eulalia]

i would go with tanabe sevens smootthhhhhhhh ride

the difference between hard and medium is a hugeeeee difference

and smooth almost feels like stock, except when you take corners

seriously the best coilover i have ever rid in, can feel pretty much like stock

then crank it to hard, and it feels like a race car

next car i get will have those hands downnn

im kind of surprised they havent been mentioned

[ByeByeSti]

there made to be stiff not comfy for daily...

from what ive heard. tien is the best for comfort

[Bushido]

"comfortable coilovers" is a straight-up oxymoron man.

This man speaks the truth. Coilovers are for making your car handle better, which comes at a sacrifice of comfort.

If you want comfort, i'd suggest you should look into getting a Lexus.

[DohcKA]

the setup you're running right now should be way more comfortable than coilovers...
getting coilovers for comfort

is like

getting a shotgun to feed your baby



:bigok:

what drew said... if you want comfort... go with STOCK RIDE HEIGHT

[nismo tuned s14]

comfort is such a subjective word. it varies from person to person. it seems like you wouldnt find coilovers to be comfortable, but we can suggest coilovers that are less harsh than others. but as stated earlier, you can fall asleep on tein flex.

[exitspeed]

This topic has been done to death.