Okay, here goes.........

For those who don't know, I have been a long time advocate of the factory A-Spec suspension, and I still am. It solves a lot of the problems of the factory suspension without introducing any problems (except a little more negative rear camber-but even stock people have this issue). I feel that the car should come this way, maybe even just the 6MT, kinda like the TL 6MT has the Brembo's and summer rubber....
Last year, when I was using my car for work related duties and planning on using the car with our new baby daughter, the A-Spec was the perfect solution for me.

But this year, things have changed. My baby girl is practically never in the TSX; instead, my wife's Ody is used anytime we're going out. And I've managed to change my responsibilities at work, leaving me free to work on the car and turn it up a notch or two.

To that end, I ordered a set of Tein Flex coilovers. These are the new CL9/TSX application, with 14KF / 8KR spring rates. This sounds like quite a lot over the CL7 Flexes that have been for sale for the last year or so, which carried a rate of 10KF / 6KR. To put these numbers in perspective, they are close to triple the factory rates.

I started having second doubts about these spring rates; after all, Flexes promise ride comfort to go along with the improved handling, and I was having a hard time fathoming that there would be any comfort whatsoever. But, I stuck them in last Sunday, and have spent a couple of days tuning them.

At this point, I must say that I am flabbergasted that springs this stiff can have any type of compliance, but they do! Damping is adjustable, and I started in the firmest position. It's like driving a race car on the street, way too stiff for my taste. Next I went to full soft, but this didn't work either. The ride was quite soft, but the car felt underdamped at this point, and somewhat bouncy as well. Today I spent some time increasing both the front and the rear damping; I'm now at 4 clicks from soft rear and 5 front.

With this setting, the car rides a little stiffer than A-Spec, firm but still pretty comfortable. The damping is perfect, and there's no bounce. The one things that's different from stock is how fast the car drops on large dips, but it remains completely settled, and there is no impact harshness at all.

At first, I though I must be dreaming this, but to make sure, I took my wife for a ride tonight under the guise of getting ice cream. Our neighbor sat with Maddie, and I took her out for a "date". She has no idea that I put the suspension in on Sunday, and even after riding in the car over some fairly bad roads, she didn't notice any difference. Now, I know when you see the pics of the car that you're going to wonder how see can't see a difference, but she's just not into cars. I wouldn't notice if she got a new Longaberger basket ........

On the handling side, the car remains very flat, and can be pushed a lot harder into turns. It's also much more tossable, and is far less prone to understeer, partially due to the Comptech rear sway. I can't believe the combination of ride and handling that these provide.

The install was very straightforward, as these are complete units. And amazingly, I don't have any noise at all. I can hear the struts compressing when going over a large bump slowly with the window open and the radio off, but I think I could hear the A-Spec do that too. I got nervous this afternoon when I heard a clanking sound from the rear, but it was just the spanner wrenches from the kit banging together in the trunk .

As far as the drop goes, the kit says that it's pre-set for a 2" drop in the front and a 1.6 drop in the rear. Uh, no. I double checked the measurements and put them in, and I'm sure that it's dropped more than that. However, I haven't scraped, rubbed or bottomed yet, so I probably won't raise it unless I do. The strut has an amazing range of adjustment; like 4" in the front. One thing I did not expect that the if you grab the car and give it a push, it moves. I don't know if it would have if I set the damping to full hard. My S2K really didn't move at all......

Here's a couple of pics; once I get my new rims and tires on I'll post some more. Don't expect anything radical; the budget is shot for this year, especially now that Hondata is out. Next year I can look at Advans .........

 

wow, great pics, so fresh and so clean, ssm tsx that is a beaut!!!

nice write-up, seems like we're getting positive feedback on the Tein's.

 

Thanks, one of the great things about SSM is that it hides dirt so well. The roads are a mess up here, and I just gave it a real quick wash and some tire shine for the pics. The car is in desperate need of a wax.....

 

damn you put on the body kit already? i don't even have time

it looks like a bmw drop - i love the wheel clearance!! after the hondata, and possibly new SSR's and tires this spring, my budget is gonna be so shot, lol.

ps, you need fog lamps :P

 

Nice write-up! Good to hear no noise problem.

 

Good stuff Lanny.

 

I had time to put it on AND get my first chip in the front lip, what with it dragging on the ground and all ........

 

^^ Lol!

 

The ride height is just about perfect! Did you get a chance to play with the height adjustments? Do I see an EDFC in the future?

 

Great writeup Lanny! This helps me out a lot in terms of getting info, but now it seems to make my lowering decision even tougher now! lol...

So in comparision to the aspec, how much more harsh is the ride, and how much lower is your car now?

I'll probably get Hondata first, but after that I'll be looking at aspec drop, Comptech + Koni, or Tein Flex. If you don't mind me asking how much was the Tein Flex?

Thanks again for the great writeup

 

how much did you spend????

 

Having screwed around with the settings for the past two days, it sure would've come in handy . I really like the setting it is on right now, and I could also see cranking it up for when the mood strikes, but I could probably do it manually in about 5 minutes......plus I need the $$ for Hondata.....

It's a little higher in the back, maybe a 1/4", but when the Ingalls kit goes in, I think it's going to pull the top of the tire out and make it even. If not, I'll adjust the height at that point. Also, the 225/45/17's are a little smaller, which will put me even closer to the ground, and I don't know how close to scraping I am right now. It's nice to have the options though.

 

It is firmer, but no bottoming out, and no real harshness on bump impact. The car is much lower; before I had a tight 3 finger front, two rear, now it's less than one. I had actually guessed that it would be a hair under two fingers, but I guessed wrong.

The Neuspeed/Koni /Comptech 155 looks very nice, and I'm sure would be softer than this setup and give more drop than A-Spec.

I paid $1287 shipped for the set; I don't know if I can say where I got it, or for that matter if that price is still good, but PM me if you're looking for a set and I'll be glad to give you the vendor's name.

 

Lanny -

Tein Flexes AND an OEM bodykit! Cool. As always, both your car and house look great. Now, you have me wondering if I should've gone the Tein route too as I think my Koni/Comptech combo is a bit soft. I was hoping for the road hugging feeling you described about how the car drops when you go down a large dip. I guess I have some addt'l tuning to do.

Where did you buy your Ingalls camber kit from? Do you know if they're back in stock now?

Also, were you running the Comptech anti-sway bar before the Teins? I'm wondering how much of the handling improvement can be attributed to the Teins vs. the sway bar.

 

sweet! don't forget to post your picture in the SSM Unite section too

 

looks great!

you can look at cmf's advans. last time i checked - he was scoping out some new wheels.

 

Does this mean you're thinking of selling your current setup?

 

Why yes. You can have them for ONE MEEEELION DOLLARS!

 

^^ I'll take that as a NO.

 

Nice write up and pics Lanny!

 

I took a spin a couple of months ago in a TSX that had just the Comptech rear sway, and I was very impressed with the results. I would higly recommend trying that before you do anything else. I did mine at the same time as the Flexes.

I am overall very satisfied with the results. I am surprised at how much ride quality has been maintained. I was expecting it to be firmer. But on the plus side, firmer is just clicks away. I do think it's a little low right now for normal driving.

 

Wow, thanks for the writeup Lanny.

I'm glad this setup isn't unbearably stiff at all settings. I once thought that it was.

I still think it's a bit of overkill for me, but not so much as I once did.

 

Nice writeup LannyM! The drops looks very nice! Love the no wheel gap look. I actually just picked up the Neuspeed Koni Yellows today at UPS, so I'm closing in on lowering my car as well. Next week will hopefully be the Neuspeed sports.