Hey guys, I've tried the search function but i swear it is not working right now. No matter what topic i punch in for search i get results that have nothing to do with the key words.

any way, I just installed the SS coilovers from Tein on my maxima. I'm not sure i did everything right. The instruction manual which was obviously written in Japanese then poorly translated to English is just not very clear on how to change the ride height.

I was under the impression that a coilover with only 2 rings uses the spring length to adjust the ride height. but for ****s and giggles i tried to adjust the ride height using this method on the Maxima and the spring had zero tension on it. In fact there was probably a 1 inch gap between the upper spring and the top hat.

I could be blind, but i didn't see any other way to adjust the ride height. Right now i have the front and rear springs compressed about 3/8". I don't want to compress the spring any more, i do like some travel.

I know some coilover setups allow you to manually turn the bottom half of the coilover to reduce the height. But i didn't notice if this could be done with the teins. I know you can drop the front end 3. something inches but I honestly don't see any way of doing this. And I have seen one local maxima almost at the minimum adjustment, so it can be done. i just don't see how...

 

You can't loosen the lower collar, spin it up, and spin the lower mount up the strut threading?

I'm pretty sure that's how most coilovers work. I might be wrong about the Teins, though.

 

The teins have 2 lower collars. If i loosen the 2lower collars to the very bottom of the thread there is no tension on the spring. In fact there is about a 1" gap. You can't drive the car like that. There has to be tension on the coil spring. So I can't figure out how to lower the car. The only way I can see is to compress the spring too much which to me is not the right way. this is not an adjustable coilover if that is the correct method

 

Right, but can you not spin the lower strut mount up and down the length of the shock tubing...?

 

Thats a good question. There is no mention of this in the instructions, so i am hoping that someone with Teins can answer that for me.

 

no you can't. all other coilovers have 3 or 4 rings. the teins are different

http://www.tein.com/tech_info/inst/kp20u.pdf

On those it looks like the thread is solidly connected to the lower mount. My BCR and all other coilovers i've seen have the thread sit inside a housing that is the mount so you adjust the height by changing threads position inside the housing.

It looks like you have to compress the spring, if it is a linear spring design it shouldn't really matter tho?

 

These are the only coilovers that you can't do that with. They are more of a static coilover when it comes to height adjustment.

As far as I know, the only way to lower it enough to make a noticeable difference is to do what it seems you already did. That's dropping the lower collar down so that the spring is loose. This will effectively decrease the amount of suspension travel you have to work with. But the teins have so much travel to begin with that you probably won't notice the difference.

And leaving the spring loose is not as bad as this forum makes it out to be. When the car goes back on the ground, the spring compresses and seats itself again. And I've seen track cars set the coils up like this to prevent the inside wheel from lifting in corners.

EDIT: My explanation is based on experience with tein SS on my friend's acura TL type s.

 

Edit:

Nevermind. ^ Shane's got it covered.

 

http://cl.acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=440369

that's why it looks like the TEINs are not really preload adjustable either.

 

Ok, that doesn't make sense... If you leave the spring loose as hell and hit a big bump, where is the guarantee that it will re-seat itself. And the fact that it's a metal spring on a metal top hat, that has to get pretty noisy. I actually made a UHMW washer to go between the upper spring and the top hat to prevent metal on metal.
Damn i wish I knew this when i bought them. They are marketed as height adjustable, but I don't consider this height adjustable.

I put the spring as low as I possible could and still be able to get the floor jack from under the car. the front end is still higher than the eibach illumina setup I had. something still doesn't seem right.

 

He's been driving like that for over 2 years now and his car is just fine. And for the spring to un seat itself, while driving, you would have to hit an enormous bump, enough so that the car gets pretty high. With any coilover or any type of lowered suspension setup on any car, its common practice to dodge obstacles though. At least down here it is. This is mainly to prevent the shocks/struts from failing prematurely.

 

This. Stiff suspension + huge bumps = shattered kidneys.

 

And a side note, when I had D2s in the rear of my car, I rode with the spring like this also to limit suspension travel when I had 245/35 tires because they rubbed when the suspension dipped down.

 

And for the noise? Heater hose and zip ties...































Seriously...

 

As i said, I have a washer that i custom made to prevent metal on metal. But i have never heard of running a spring that is not at least partially preloaded. I'll loosen mine a bit next weekend. I have no intention of running the car at the lowest possible adjustment, i was just confused as to how to do that and keep the spring tight. I'm happy with the height of the rear end, just not happy with the front. But i preloaded the front to about 3/8 maybe 1/2" so i will unload them to maybe at least one turn so the spring is snug.


these are .050 thick UHMW plastic. i can't believe that tein does not supply anything to act as an isolator between the top of the spring and the tophat

but i guess if the spring is meant to be loose as hell that an isolator has no chance in hell of staying put.

zip ties.. seriously? i mean... seriously?

 

I don't think this setup is any more stiff than the eibach/illumina setup i was using previously. I'd say it is about the same. I have the front dampers at -5 clicks and the rears at -7 clicks. But the ride quality is much improved, cornering is improved, and going over the bumps feels much better than before. And i know it sounds weird but the car feels faster for some reason. Maybe the power is putting to the ground better than it was?
The big test will be when I go to work and have to go over some nasty train tracks on the way.

 

Yeah I can't believe they didn't supply something either, but that said, I've never heard of anyone really complain about noise from the Tein SS....

Personally I wasn't about to let it be steel on steel (actually the top hat isn't standard steel I don't think, not sure what it is exactly.) so as I said in PM I cut a Chevy Silverado Isolator to size, used Synthetic waterproof Chassis/Bearing lube and assembled it all:






These things will blow you away man, it's just stupid how incredible they work. Feeling faster, yup, less rebound while torquing up, less body movement, etc, equals quicker response. The same goes for braking, you will have vastly improved braking with them.

 

To the height adjustment, it's so damn easy, you're just overcomplicating/overthinking it. It's a really great setup actually, SO easy to adjust, I've adjusted mine without even pulling the wheels before, although I wouldn't advise this because you can't get very good torque on the collar nuts. I needed to do it for camber adjustment.

This is one great characteristic of the Tein SS, the preload on the spring doesn't get larger as you go lower, which usually causes a rougher ride. This doesn't happen with the Teins, the ride quality stays pretty much the same regardless of height, the only factor that changes is the remaining stock suspension travel (CA, Sway bar, axel, ball joint).

Teins do not have preload unless you're riding high, pretty much anything from -2" to stock height and you start applying preload to the spring.

Essentially, just think of it like this, the collars are your bottom "perch", all you're doing is moving the bottom perch. It really is that simple.

The confusing part is, you've got the car jacked up when you do this, and the control arm is dangling. This is a situation that will simply never happen during normal driving. You're not doing a baja rally with the car.

Currently I'm set around here:



When the car's jacked up I can move the spring up and down and spin it, I've had the collars to the lowest adjustment, and wouldn't say there's an inch there, possible you're exaggerating slightly? I would say 1/2'' at least though don't get me wrong, that spring is clearly loose when jacked up with this setup. Just keep in mind, if by some odd chance you get enough of a bump, or get air off something, it would only be for fractions of a second, not enough to actually allow the spring to dangle around and get mis-alligned.

I can only speak from experience Ray, but those Chevy isolators I put in would spring out if my hand wasn't on them in this pic:



I've never had an issue.....

 

I knew Tuner would charge in with the answers.

And who knew he would use axle grease that was color matched to his Teins? Now that's some attention to detail.

 

I was thinking about picking up the tein ss coilover. SO would you guys say that they are the best we can get for the maxima.

 

TEIN are great, but definitely not the best...

 

So what would you say are the BEST coilovers to go with then. every body around were i live roll on tein coilovers and they seam to ride pretty good

 

JICs?

Any coilover that runs between 1-1.2k is just fine. They're all pretty much produced by the same company, and painted different colors based on which company is going to sell them.

 

Yup seriously. And I never had a problem. When you don't have the resources to make custom parts, you improvise. A piece of heater hose zip tied around a coil is not dangerous. The worst that can happen is the zip ties break, hose falls off, and you hear noise again. (which never happened)

Ghetto? Damn right.
Cheap? You betcha.
Does it work? Hell yea. And that's all that matters.

 

Tein is the last option you should consider if you want to slam the car. But on the other end of the spectrum, it should be near the top of the list if your lookin for comfort and quality.

 

LMAO, I'd love to say it was, but obviously it wasn't intentional.

JIC FLT A-2 is arguably the 'best'. I say arguably because I would never buy them, they're over $1600, and they need to be rebuilt regularly. They are the smoothest you can get and still corner like you're on rails, they are the best of both worlds, but you sacrifice reliability and a lot of cash for them. So IMO, they're far from the best on that basis.

On the whole, I would consider BC's and Tein SS to be at the top of the list for quality, reliability, comfort, and handling. They round out the best for 90% of our usage on the .ORG, and are in a very reasonable price range.

I'm with you 100% here. There is of course better materials, etc, etc, but basically anything that is rubber or rubber composite that is still somewhat flexible will fit the bill. As far as how you choose to secure it, or if you choose not to (my case), who cares? It's on the top, no one will ever really see it. As long as it works give her he11.

Why? I have mine pretty low and I have nothing but good things to say about the Teins performance and ride in this area....

 

intrested in anwer for last response......

 

Just comparing the range of height adjustments compared to the other brands of coilovers. You can't get the 4"+ drop with the teins.

 

Hell, if i dropped my car to the lowest position my cattman skid plate would wear out in a few days. And I'm sure you could get a 4" drop if you changed the stock spring

BTY, a little late but the top hat is anodized aluminum. A proper anodizing will produce a surface stronger than steel, but the aluminum underneath is soft so it will dent. But the thin coating is much stronger than steel

 

Good to know thanks Ray.

Just my $.02, but how many guys are actually dropping more than 3"!?!?!?! that's just ridiculous, our suspensions have crap travel at a 2" drop, any more than that and you're stressing the crap out of everything and affecting ride quality and handling. Any more than 3" and you're bending axels and control arms. Our cars just aren't able to handle those types of drops without killing the driveability, my car, and most of our cars, are not show cars.

Some people perhaps like changing components every couple months? I dunno but that's just silly to me.

no offense, I know you're slammed, and your axels probably sit almost bent static. Done diff bearings yet? How many?

 

Consider the audience, Tuner.

 

LMAO

 

LOL

 

Fortune Auto coilovers is where it is at.

 

Hey but can't the teins settings be adjusted from the inside.....

 

Yes. I think that's a $300 kit... give or take.

 

The hardness/softness of the dampers can be controlled with an extra unit. But the height must be adjusted manually.

 

yea thats what i ment.... my brother inlaws car has that unit and seams to be real helpful if you carrying weight in your trunk or big people in the back. he's always changing the setting. nice not to have to open the hodd and trunk all the time

 

what a waste of money. adjusting the dampening on any coilover / tokico illuminas takes seriously 10 seconds. I thought the EDFC would somehow adjust ride-height and camper lol. What, is it only for like (big) people that are unable to reach the rear shocks or that like to have random cable boxes that look like guitar pedals hanging around your cabin?

 

It's more of a cool factor, or for those who actually track their cars.
If I wasn't so damn expensive I'd have it.

I get not wanting to do the rear Damper adjustment though, the carpet covers them, not only that, but they're not super simple to get at, certainly not as easy as just popping the hood and adjusting the front ones.

I will actually be making velcro'd carpet covers for my rear coil adjusters, so everything is still nice and clean, and I can just lift the flap to adjust. I just grabbed stock carpet out of another junked maxima so it matches