Hi all

My Legend (I'm in Korea) arrived a couple of weeks ago, and despite what I promised to my wife, I will put a few nice parts on the car to make the most of its strengths (or "completely ruin it", as my dear wife would say).

I am contemplating buying two Amuse parts: Coilovers + Wheels. I've done searches on this forum, google and all the usual Japanese sites, but my limited Japanese means I can't really get answers to my questions. Which are:

1) The spring rates on the coilovers - 8kg/mm front and 9kg/mm rear. Is this just way too hard for an 1800kg family sedan? I have run 12kg/mm on a 1350kg evo 5 and while that was fine 7 years ago, I'm sure I won't be able to put up with a similar ride now - especially with the baby now riding with us. I am hoping extra weight means deterioration in the ride quality won't be as highlighted.

Also does anyone know what the stock rates are?

2) Wheels are 19" as some of you may know, and they have a pretty funny sizing.

Front: 19x8.5 + 41
Rear: 19 x 9.5 + 27

Given the tire size is the same at 245/40/19, and with the above spring rates, I am guessing Amuse wants the back end to feel a bit livelier and even induce some oversteer? Any experts here who could explain what stretched tires would do?

Any comments/hypotheses on cornering behavior and ride would be appreciated.

Cheers
SL

 

Welcome to Acurazine! I will put Touge, our resident JDM aftermarket parts expert, on the job. I would suggest PM'ing him, but new members can't use PM until they've got a certain number of posts.

A couple of helpful threads with the wheels themselves, that suggest that they'll stick out with that size:

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=680 (unfortunately, the scanned article is no longer available but the discussion is still pertinent)
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=906

I am not sure what the stock spring rate is, but I'll look around for you. What I can tell you is that with lower spring rate such as in the Honda-made A-Spec that I run, in combination with the SH-AWD and good tires, I get a car that handles very neutrally in the turns and is well-planted. My wife and 13-month-old, and mother-in-law have no complaints about ride harshness.

You may be more interested in the Tein coilovers as you can adjust the ride height to suit your taste and get the best compromise between good handling and comfortable ride.

And never, ever, promise to your wife that you won't mod your car, once you start modding cars, you can't stop.

 

Thank you neuronbob.

I am aware of the A-Specs but I'm worried that they're a little too soft, and that they will be too similar to the stock set up. I have the same reservations about Mugen (but I think they will be good compromise).

Back to research I guess!!

 

realthing, welcome to AZ. Even though amuse used a staggered wheel setup on the RL I personally wouldn't as you have to fold in the rear fender lips with a wheel that wide it said in the article. Also with awd there is no benefit to a wider rear track, if anything on a awd you would like to run a wider rim up front then the rear to dial away understeer.

Also on the coilovers they offered I don't see them on amuse's site anymore, so they might have discontinued them.

However the spring rate of 8k and 9kg is perfectly fine for the RL. Most of the aftermarket springs available for this car also use similar rates. I have the tein coilovers on the car myself and am very happy with them. They allow dampening adjustment and if you get the edfc you can hit a button to set them to soft for when the wifey is in the car and then go back to a stiffer setting for your favorite twisty road. To change settings it only takes 2-3 seconds.