Akim711

H&R (51858) vs. Comptech (110-135).
Hope this clears up any headaches and debates over which springs to get etc... I remember whenever someone posts a thread on spring preference, everyone just votes for what they have. Well, having been through both, I hope my 2 cents will take care of your headache. (that is, if you're in the market for springs).

The Comptech's upon inspection look more sophisticated... a silver look being fatter around with rubber spacers in the rear incase the coils collide. The H&R's are yellow with no spacers... But whatever, its just a spring.


As for the ride quality: I tried them all. Hard lefts, hard rights, bumpies, smoothies, acceleration... They're exactly the same. The moderate drop for both don't produce any camber issues either. With this, I guess your decision should be based on appearance.

The Comptech front is lower, and in fact gives a 'rake look', whereas the H&R sport doesn't drop as much in the front, but makes the car's weight appear to be distributed more evenly.

Comptech springs (trunk empty)


H&R sports (trunk empty)



To conclude, my opinion would be to go with H&R. And if you can't see a difference in the two above, then you should DEFINITELY go with H&R. The only reason being that it is cheaper, and invest the savings in some shocks or sways. If you're looking for something lower, then you should resort to Eibach pro-kit or coilovers. Those with Accords or TL's need to remember though that the results of the drop won't be the same.

Hope this helps to whoever needs it.

Hobes

I have tried both as well and i would agree...the look is better or further from stock with the H&R than with the Comptechs

SportShiftTypeS

Great post, when u mean h&r do u mean sport? or race? , are boht comptech and the h&r ur talking about the same drop?

Akim711

H&R sport.... (part 51858)

Aegean_Blue6

It's a bit confusing, on the ACP site they have H&R OE Sport and H&R Sport. The 51818 looks like it's the OE sport, supposedly dropping 1.0-1.25 inches.

Looks nice, and very helpful to see the 2 drops right next to each other. I think I"m leaning towards the H&R OE Sports now!

Aegean_Blue6

one more question actually - does anyone know if the stock front shocks last longer with H&R OE Sports than Comptechs, since the front drop isn't as much?

tnymntana

Thanks for the information man. I was looking for this post like 3 weeks ago when I was deciding what to get. I ended up getting the comptech springs, but I wish I hadn't. I hate the raked look. I'm selling my comptechs if anyone wants them. $200 + shipping. Only used for a few weeks.

Thanks Again

mrsteve

iTrader: (1)

My H&R's are black. 51858

RR32CLS

my h&r are black also

AcuraTLSFan

hr sport are dark blue black. I think the one he is reviewing about is OE. The H&R Sport DO HAVE a camber issue, your rear camber will be about -1.7 degrees, that's enough to give you uneven wear.

H&R model number works like this

51858
51858-55
51858-88

danny25

the H&R drop looks great. But how does the ride compare to the comptech drop?

mrsteve

iTrader: (1)

1) OE
2) Sport
3) Race

??

mrsteve

iTrader: (1)

power3dfx

the picture is definately hr sports. i know because i had them before i switched to the oe sport.
the oe sport is nice but i would want just a 1/4 inch more to make it perfect.
imo, the hr sports are low, very low. almost a 2 inch drop. i wouldnt recommend the hr sports to those who dont want to pay attention to bumps to much. i remember i could barely clear the concrete of shopping center parking lots!

Pure Adrenaline

iTrader: (2)

That's half the fun of getting Sports! :o

mrsteve

iTrader: (1)

Originally posted by Akim711


H&R sports (trunk empty)


I haven't put my H&R's on yet... but DAMN that is low. I can't wait! But I gotta wait till after winter... snow and a drop would suck.

spdy0001

are you going to take them back off for next winter? Probably not right . So why not put them on and now, what the diffrence between snow this year and next year

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Great pics and topic... copying to Extremely Useful Topics Forum

bigman

My h&r sports look black but if you look very carefully, they are a very dark blue, with little mettallic sparkles.

Chaptorial

I love my Comptech springs.

hemants

First of all, the 51858 is designed for the Accord and lowers the rear more than the front on the TLS. If I were getting H&R sports, I would go with the 50103 which is designed for the TLS/CLS

Second of all, there is a significant ride quality difference from my experience. But everyone has a different butt dyno :-)

scoobywu

sup guys, what about teins? cuz i j/ ordered so me teins, what do ya'll think that have them or know well of them?

ktgumbo

I have been debating to lowr my car for almost a year now. I have a big ass gap because i have 225/45/17's on my car. I think the gap from my front tire has a 2.5-3"; gap. I hella want to lower this guy, but camber is also an issue. To me it does not make sense to pay $3-400 on camber kits and labor, + the costs of the springs and labor. If i can get by w/o them like most of you have said, then i guess it's worth a shot.

ktgumbo

this place has the H/R's for $125. Is that about what they go for?
ACCORD 6CYL SDN 1998-2003 2.2" Front 1.75" Rear Part # 51858-88 $125

http://www.speedconcepts.net/H&R_ACURA_HONDA.htm

Aegean_Blue6

51858-88 looks like it's the race spring - that's a pretty serious drop.

hemants

Tien SS are better than CT or H&R IMO.

Knowing that I'm probably going to upgrade my shocks anyways (didn't think I would originally but the ride quality is not ideal) I would have rather spent the money on Tiens!

CLSter

Okay so what is the drop on the H&R OE Sports vs an OEM CL type-S? This sounds like what I want. I want a slight, even drop on all four corners.

Teins are a bit more than what I want to spend.

Red-CL

I actually like the rake look of the Comptech Spings. Makes the CLS look more like the concept sketch produced a few years ago.

dgracer

Hard for me to believe there is NO difference in the ride. They really have the same springs rates? Even a 5% difference would be noticeable.

tnymntana

You've got to have a pretty tender ass to feel a 5% difference

J/K

The comptech's are noticably different than stock, but the ride is so much better. Of course you are going to feel the road more. Isn't that the point?

AcuraTLSFan

the 51858 H&R sports are "offical" application for Accord V6 and 99-01 CL/TL, but the TL/CL Type-S is the 50103.

The reason is when the TL/CL came out, they haven't made a kit for our car yet, but we share the same platform as the Accord, so we could use the 51858 kit. The result is that the rear is a bit lower then advertised. So after a couple years, they released the 50103 for the newer TL/CL

The 50103 is essentically H&R Sport Front Springs and H&R OE Rear springs. They are the same springs in the 51858 series. But since they are now using the OE springs, the back will not lower as much.

I had the older 51858 kit on my 02 TL-S when i first got it, and i swapped out to Tiens coilovers, but am planing to swap my tiens out back to my H&R Sports.

AcuraTLSFan

After having H&R Sports and Teins SS coilover. H&R Sports are way better!

The spring rates in the Tein SS coilover kit are too low. They are weaker then the H&R. I have my car lowed with the teins, and i would always bottom out. And after tweaking the aftermarket shocks to be stiffer, they don't handle as well as the H&R. And if you wanted higher spring rate with your Tein SS coilover, they charge you an additional $300 to upgrade.

I'm going to swap back to H&R sometimes this or next week.

Aegean_Blue6

so how big is the drop on the 50103, and is it an even drop or a raked drop? How's the ride?

Akim711

OKAY MAYBE THIS WILL TAKE CARE OF FURTHER CONCERNS:


I always knew that drop results wouldn't be the same, especially with this series of springs starting with the Accord V6 line.

Those with TL's and especially TL Type-S's are concerned that the rear drops more than the front, so H&R made a compensation by supplying you a pair of OE springs for the rear. But then those with the CL as seen in my picture don't have that problem.
Here's why (my guess, but it might make sense).

Check out these weight ratios respect to its curb weight and pay attention to the rear load for the TL:

2001~2003 CL - 3470 lbs @ (63/37) -> 2186lbs front / 1283 lbs rear
2001~2003 CLS-3510 lbs @ (63/37) -> 2211lbs front / 1298 lbs rear
1999~2003 TL - 3493 lbs @ (62/38) -> 2165lbs front / 1327 lbs rear
2002~2003 TLS-3558 lbs @ (62/38) -> 2205 lbs front / 1352 lbs rear

Type-S's are normally heavier by almost 40-50 lbs, but my guess is that most of this weight comes from the heavier wheels and maybe the VSA control units.. which might suggest that the extra weight is evenly distributed...Otherwise the chassis is the same. However, using Acura's specs on weight ratios,
we can see that in any case stress on the rear axle is heavier for the TL.
Those with systems can easily argue that a system in the rear is like dragging dead weight, so a difference of 70 lbs straight on the rear can make a difference I suppose.

So perhaps this could be a good application:


2001-2003 CL / CL Type-S : H&R sport (Front/Rear)
1999-2003 TL : H&R Sport (F/R) or H&R Sport (Front) , H&R OE (Rear)
2002-2003 TL-S: H&R Sport (Front), H&R OE (Rear)


done and done.

Akim711

this would also explain why those with CL's are complaining about the rake look more than TL members.. the CL is lighter in the rear.

all in all, i hope this helps to those who need it.

Chemmech

OK, here's a dumb question; does the car accelerate better with the Comptech or HR springs? What I am getting at is weight transfer involving traction & tire spin. Since the Comptech springs give the car a "raked" stance, does it transfer less weight to the back during acceleration than the HR springs? I know very little about physics so that's why this may be a dumb question.

AcuraTLSFan

Your answer to your question is "spring rate". You may feel that your car accel better is because now, you don't feel the "lag" that the car takes to "transfer" the weight to the back before you feel like you're moving.

Since our cars at Front Wheel Drive and our engines are right over the wheels, traction is not a major issue as is for the rear wheel drive cars.

The higher the spring rate, the more the car will resist...So depending on weather CT or H&R has the higher spring rate, this will determine how much weight is transfered and absorbed or resisted.

I personally like the straight look over the raked looked...and you "may" get better stopping distance/feel (i have no data to support this, but common sense tells you), since the car is straight and not raked, it get less "nose dive"

If the H&R and the CT are the same, I would want to $100 and go with H&R, you can get them for ~160 shipped

Chemmech

Thanks for the informative reply. The HR's drop the car alot,very nice.

rondog

iTrader: (1)

try putting wheels with anything but a 48mm offset on the rear with the h&r's. and even try putting people in the rear seats. the comptechs are good for those who transport others often and occasionally carry stuff from home depot or food shopping. allthough, unloaded, h&r looks better.

hemants

Akim, good answer!

TL/TLS = get CT or 50103
CL/CLS = get any of the three

Acura TLS fan = I guess what you are saying is that the Tiens are too harsh? Is that true even on the highest and softest settings?