Hey guys... im kinda in a jam here... Im wanting to get coilovers for my car, but dont know if it is worth the money. I can either get coilovers now, or I can get some KYB AGXs. I already have Eibach springs, but with stock struts and shocks right now. Can someone who has had experience with both chime in a tell me what the differences are in ride quality,handling, appearance, anything? THe best thing i like about coilovers, like everyone else is the fact you can adjust the ride height anytime you wish without screwing with the camber. But is the handling that much more than the eibach/agx combo? but you can get agx's for like 350? and the coilovers I can get for around 2.5 times more than that... What do you guys think I should do? Any comments would be appreciated =]

 

trade cars with me

 

hahah... yours is nice too! Fully loaded 5-Speed.. you dont see those too often.. now you have that thing modded up too =]

Back to the topic.. anyone else have comments?

 

I was in the same position as you. I value handling over ride comfort and looks, so I was looking for the all out best performing suspension. For the longest time I was debating swapping out my Eibach/Koni for JICs.

I'm actually extremely happy with the handling of my current setup, but was wondering if there was something better out there.

I got a ride in Mingo's car equipped with JICs, and ridden in and driven my brother's eclipse also with JICs (with higher rate springs).

In Mingo's car I was mostly comparing the spring rate. The spring rate didn't feel very different from what I currently have with my Eibach/Koni which pretty much convinced me that I could get probably get near the same performance out of mine as he does.

My brother's car is an all out track stiff setup, tuned and setup by Road Race Engineering of Santa Fe Springs, CA. It is barely streetable in terms of comfort on rough roads, but is just fine on smooth roads. When I mean barely streetable, I mean you will hit your head on the ceiling over bumps and drops while wearing a seatbelt. I have a large tolerance for rough suspensions. But it handles like no end. At Willow Springs with the Road Race Engineering tuner behind the wheel, it passed up everyone including a 750hp full suspension modified 911 turbo.

It all depends on what you want to do with your car. With coilovers, you can go the soft route which would be very similar to Eibachs already, or go upgraded springs, but pay for it with reduced ride comfort. It depends what you want to tolerate on a daily basis.

Also, if you are performance minded, I wouldn't even consider AGX at all. Look into Konis or Illuminas, they are much much much better shocks.

But the only way you're going to be able to drop your car a lot and maintain great handling is with JICs or Progress, due to the shock height adjustment. Which is something you cannot do on a seperate shock/spring system.

After it all, I'm currently happy enough not to bother swapping it out for coilovers, but if I had to do it again from the start, I would have started out with JICs.

 

The reason I dont like Eibach/AGX is that the front of the car is alittle higher compaired to the back (5spd)..I like the sprints cause they were even, but not adjustable...Now my hold up is going for GC/Koni($600 from a .org and selling my current setup), or just taking my rim money and going for JIC's($1700 and selling my current setup)...I dont care about a bad ride, I love handleing, and I want the best handleing car in town

-matt

 

Thanks drew and matty for the responses...
WOw.... JIC's are 1700... thats crazy. Yea, I've heard that the koni yellows are better than the AGX's. I think that if im going to stick with my Eibachs, I will just go with the konis. I too, care about handling more than comfort, but theres always a limit. I heard that the GC coilovers have some nasty shaking and rattling noise... THat I do not want. The progress coilovers on the other hand are supposed to be more civil, but handle very good as well.

Another thing... If i just get new shocks and struts, will it be a noticeable difference vs my old stock ones since I alread have springs? Thanks again

 

yea...Eibach recommend AGX and AGX recommmends Eibach

-matt

 

If I were Eibach, I'd recommend Koni.

ilumo: Progress are great too, just not as adjustable. But if you're the kind of person who just "wants it to work great" when you put it on, progress would definately be better for you. But if you're the all out suspension tuner/adjustment tester, the JICs might do you better. Also keep in mind it's possible to adjust the JICs badly, so for those who aren't masters of suspension adjustment, Progress might be a better choice.

The Progress settings are perfect for 90% of the people out there. The other 10% of people are just crazy suspension tuners like the rest of us.

 

Where are Progress Coilovers, how much do they run ??

How do they ride ?

-matt

 

ahh, JICs can be had for much less then that including shipping. Shop around... and dont always go by a website's listed price. Shoot them an email askin for their best price

I agree..... Although I dont think you need to be a 'master of suspension adjustment' to adjust JICs for street use...