ppl WITH coilovers i need help!

[teruya01]

1st of all Im going to install the Tanabe Sustec Pro S-OC Type II tommorow. However i need advice whent hey ask me how low do i want to go. My car is a kouki with the USA front lip Spoiler. With that said let it be known that i pretty much scrap in certain places with the stock height because the lip is low. this car is my daily driver and i plan not to race, drift, or mess with it. i just want a nice drop. however im pretty dam worried about the tires. i talked with some people already regardign the camber (thanks for the advice) but PDM-racing site told me that if i drop my car more than 1.75 in the rear i would have to get a RUCA ($210 a pair) rather than spending $100 for pdm's "Rear Camber Correction Bushings". therefore i plan to drop my car only 1.5 in the rear just to be safe and save some $. now i need to know what is a good drop for the front. all the stats for the spring is a bit lower than the front. im aware of this and therefore i am asking two things.
1) how much shoudl i drop my car in the front if i plan to ONLY drop the rear 1.5
2) anyone hear reading this, has a kouki and can back up what other ppl say about, if you have a USA lip for a kouki..you cant really go anywhere...

thanks for your time and reading this. -J

o heres a picture of my car without the coilovers...

http://teruya01.mypicgallery.com/240sx/showletter_large.jpg
http://teruya01.mypicgallery.com/240sx/showletter2_large.jpg

[S14DB]

1.5" rear 1.2" front should make it level.

[S14DriftR]

I say slam it, and scrape the lip everywhere, thats what I do. Of course my lip is only $50, but im just not about doing things half way.

[teruya01]

1.5" rear 1.2" front should make it level.\

wait shouldnt the front be a bit lower? for an example tien stech SPRING range from 1.2 front and 0.9 rear...if so why would the idea of the rear be lower? idk..im just asking because im a noob =P

[teruya01]

I say slam it, and scrape the lip everywhere, thats what I do. Of course my lip is only $50, but im just not about doing things half way.

the reason why i am not goign to slam it all the way is becuase i dont have enough cash flow to change tires every 6-8months =( call me a pussy and what not but i got no $...i dont want to fail another semester of college becuase i spent my book $ on car parts =P

[S14DB]

No, the rear is jacked up on the S14. 1.5R/1.2F will give you 3" of ground clearance all around and level the car.

You'll also note that Tein coilovers drop the rear more than the front.

[brainfood]

I have a set of kei office xr's and I have the car lowered to where there is no gap on my 16's 205/50/16 and 225/45/16 so it is pretty low. I dont scrape the lip very much but I am careful. the car is just high enough to clear speed bumps and any insane big ones I avoid. Though there is a hump comming through the gate at my apt. and I scrape the exhaust on it everytime I come home. It is very close and just barely hits. the stock lip is very flexible and you shouldnt worry about it, only the paint on it :) my friend took his off after it got scraped up and sanded it down and just painted it black. it looks nice that way, but his and mine are both zenki's I would go lower in the front than the back the car sits low in the back stock. at least mine did with the 200k mile saging springs. I have rear upper control arms so I cant comment on rear camber but I am low enough I have almost maxed out my front camber adjustment. Lower it till you think it looks good. Mine is only so low because of the 16's if I decide to move up to 17's I will put skirts on it and lift it back up a bit. but I love my bbs mesh's and dont want to go to a larger diameter heavier 17 till I have more power. Just some thoughts, but put it where you think it will look good.

[teruya01]

I have a set of kei office xr's and I have the car lowered to where there is no gap on my 16's 205/50/16 and 225/45/16 so it is pretty low. I dont scrape the lip very much but I am careful. the car is just high enough to clear speed bumps and any insane big ones I avoid. Though there is a hump comming through the gate at my apt. and I scrape the exhaust on it everytime I come home. It is very close and just barely hits. the stock lip is very flexible and you shouldnt worry about it, only the paint on it :) my friend took his off after it got scraped up and sanded it down and just painted it black. it looks nice that way, but his and mine are both zenki's I would go lower in the front than the back the car sits low in the back stock. at least mine did with the 200k mile saging springs. I have rear upper control arms so I cant comment on rear camber but I am low enough I have almost maxed out my front camber adjustment. Lower it till you think it looks good. Mine is only so low because of the 16's if I decide to move up to 17's I will put skirts on it and lift it back up a bit. but I love my bbs mesh's and dont want to go to a larger diameter heavier 17 till I have more power. Just some thoughts, but put it where you think it will look good.

if there no gap....just woundering how offten are you forced to change tires becuase of the uneven tire wear? HONESLTY i would slam it but the thing is i dont have a good job at the moment that pays enough... what is the lowest i can go? I just measured my car and im thinking of 1.5front and 1.2 rear... can anyone tell me if this is a bad idea? im need to know by tommorow morning =P

[S14DB]

No 1.2" Front and 1.5" Rear.

[brainfood]

I can take pics of the car tommorow and post them I dont have any of it with the coilovers. I have gone through 2 sets of rears and worn out the outside edges on 1 set of fronts from drift days but I get very even tire wear on the street but my alignment is set pretty much to stock settings. the fronts are no prob. with coilovers that have camber plates and the rears just put them on and save up the extra $80 for the rear camber arms they are well worth it. I have rear camber arms so I cant comment on stock adj. but I imagine it is not good. my friends car is about 1" higher than mine and his rear camber was crazy when he first lowered the car. He drove it that way for about 2 mo. while he saved up money and then bought the camber arms. and all is good :) he didnt get an alignment though till after the camber arms went in so I dont know what they could have done with stock ecentric bolts

[Ian]

ugh...why waste your money on coilovers if you're not gonna drift it or race it or anything? why dont you just go for some eibach springs and some KYB GR2s or something...

throwing your money away man...

[SimpleS14]

ugh...why waste your money on coilovers if you're not gonna drift it or race it or anything? why dont you just go for some eibach springs and some KYB GR2s or something...

throwing your money away man...



Maybe he wanted a stiffer spring rate and adjustable height? :mepoke:


Lets not forget that its his car and his money so he can do whatever he likes....don't get me started on you. :D (j/p)

[Var]

Maybe he wanted a stiffer spring rate and adjustable height? :mepoke:





I doubt it.

Anyways...since you dished out the money for coils, at least drop your car to eliminate wheel gap. a one inch drop is really not that noticable. Just go all out and dont worry about thie consequences until you need to. By then you'll have enough for tires. BTW unless you have super stickies, the camber wear wont be that bad. Just get an alignment on your toe angles and you'll be fine.

[Ian]

lol shaddap george...my car was built as i grew up...i've got parts from when i was 15 years old!

grr...i really wanna do it all over again to be honest

[teruya01]

let me start this with there was a mis-communication in my part. i didnt explain well. i am not "slamming" my car right away because 1. I want to get used to the "feeling"...there alot of potholes down here where I live since it dosent snow, but rains hard. (hawaiis winter season) 2. im trying to get all the information needed to buy the camber plate or kit whatever before i make a decision. however regardless of all of this, i decide that im going to just slam it and think about it later. perhaps cheaper tires would be more affordable than the esta supra 712 that i wanted... anyways thanks for all your help and i will be putting up pictures some time later today =D Thanks for the help and advice ppl!

-J

p.s. just in case i have to raise it =P what is the maxium height that i can lower it withour messing with the camber too much. Im thinking 2.2 in the front and 2.5 inches in the rear is pushing it? Im aware that it depends on the driver as well but yea....

[Ian]

ok, most coilovers will come with camber plates...you'll need RUCA's to fix the rear camber if you dont wanna be JDM tyte w/ 5 degrees of negative camber out back.

2.2 front 2.5 rear is gonna be fairly low and will FUCK your camber up


the biggest problem is with TOE though, that's where your tires get roughed up


i suggest like 1.2f 1 rear if you wanna be mild about it...i only have tein stechs and i already have tire wear issues

[Var]

if you dont wanna be JDM tyte w/ 5 degrees of negative camber out back.


He's exaggerating... but you will prolly have -2º or -2.5º. If your toe is within factory spec it will minimize camber wear by A LOT. Toe tears up tires way worse than camber.

The ecsta 712 are not very expensive. Although the sidewalls are made soft, the compound isnt terrible and they last long so i think it's a good tire choice for you.


i suggest like 1.2f 1 rear if you wanna be mild about it...i only have tein stechs and i already have tire wear issues

I noticed your sig says "got boost?"

Well if you have negative camber in the rear and your tires spin a lot, you are wearing the insides even more than normal. Do you drift and/or do burnouts or drag race? If so then your example doesnt count here. If you went out to do some spirited canyon driving once a week the camber wear problem would go away

[Ian]

no, i actually do lots of spirited driving (we dont really have many canyons in the DC area though lol)

but yeah, i have pretty bad problems w/ camber wear, probably more of toe...it's not as bad once i got my car aligned


and for reference i'm talknig about front tires

[S14DB]

no, i actually do lots of spirited driving (we dont really have many canyons in the DC area though lol)
You don't go Touge racing on GW parkway?

[SimpleS14]

You don't go Touge racing on GW parkway?


Are you serious?

[Ian]

LMAO! i drive GW parkway every day...but i hardly consider that "touge"...haha


i've hit upwards of 100 mph there...


my definition of touge is under 50 mph...usually 10mph speed limit turns

[S14DB]

Seems like they are always pulling cars out of the woods on monday mornings on GW.