Indyjenks

Being an engineer, with an engineers mentality, I generally dont enter into large purchases without a good deal of research. Righ now, Im researching coilovers. Thought you guys might all be interested in this little tidbit I found. I thought it interesting enough to share with the forum. Lots of guys put coilovers on their cars and think they handle so much better. If you really dont take the time to "set them" properly, you can indeed make your car not only handle worse, but be dangerous!

Drivers Beware
The proper way to adjust a threaded coil-over suspension involves using a set of scales. The whole idea of this type of suspension adjustability is to equal out the loads on tires (or bias them for circle track) for cornering ability. The fact that you can lower the car with them is just an added benefit but it is NOT their primary function. You should be aware that you can hurt the performance of your car if you don't adjust them at least reasonably close. At best, the car may not corner as well as it used to. At worst, you may change the handling to the point of being dangerous. This sounds like an exageration but with a threaded setup you could load the front right and the left rear tires and create a car that turns left really well, but won't turn right worth a damn. Even, possibly, spinning out. All this with the car sitting perfectly level. You have the suspension, now take the time to set it up right. Find a tyre shop with some corner scales and work with them to adjust tire loading and ride height. The object is to get the cross weights (diagonal weights) even. It's not as important to get the other weights even. It's the cross weights that will sneak up on you.

asiankidd

i talked to the tein guy...and there is no such product at this time that is made specifically for the tl but the 98 accord and up is a possible match...have you verified the fitment?

valuetl

Must be a Nuke?

asiankidd

nuke whats that?

SimTypeS

Are you ex-Navy?

mantis23

Unless you're stuck on getting Tien, you could always try the Zeal coilovers.

They'll fit the TL-S

Indyjenks

Tim has them on this site for the TL. Supposedly, the Accord version fits the TL also. I checked out the Zeals....is bit more $$ and according to some of the reviews, they ride harder than the Teins. Im not looking for a harder ride, just looking for tunable suspension that can be raised and lowered for summer/winter. The Teins look like a good bet......but, if they were designed around the Accord, I dont know what the added weight of the TL might mean to the damping. But....since its 16 way adjustable, there should be a setting that would work ok....

Austin519

Indyjenks:
I specifically heard from everyone that the Teins are supposedly TOO soft...a lot more than the Zeals. Oh, try H&R coilovers...that's what I will get when I have the cash. Jens has them on his TL...if that tells you anything

Austin519

valuetl

Teins to soft what model are we talking about????

Indyjenks

DSH94-KUSS2 The ones Tim has on this site.

Aman13AK

I was about to order the GC coilovers and don't have much experience using coilovers. I was assuming that there are notches or some type of numbering system where you can adjust all four sping to sit at the same ride height. T or F.

If that is true why would you need to mount on a machine to adjust the hieght of the car.

I know that there is an Anthracite TL with the GC coilovers in the Forum.

Some insite please?!?!

Indyjenks

There are 2 adjustments on coilovers. First is spring preload (what adjusts your ride height). That is a threaded collar on the outside of the shock body itself. There is a bottom plate that the spring bottome rests on and is turned up or down on the threaded body using a spanner wrench (specially designed wrench to turn the collar). The issue that can mess up the handling is setting ride height and not understanding setting the damping correctly. Each shock has 16 damping settings and that, coupled with your ride height, is where the scales come in. Just think of a table with 1 leg just a bit shorter than another. If you dont set your suspension correctly, you may have 30-35% of your cars weight being "suspended" from one corner.

The ideal way to set the weight, with the scales, is with the person who will be doing the driving sitting in the drivers seat. That sets your car up the way it will be driven.... Hope this makes it a bit clearer....... :smokin:

Aman13AK

Thanks Austin, however the coilovers I was looking a mount on the stock shocks.

It that situation there would only be control over the hieght of the spring? correct?

What does the entail a far as adjusting the height. Jack up the car? Set to a specific setting? If you set all four of the spring to the same height that should be it as far increasing o deceasing the height of you car.

Thanks again for the help!

ayu

As I understand, there are no true coil over for TL/CL. They all are for US spec Accord, J-spec Accord, J-spec Accord wagon or J-spec Accord SiR. They all fit but it does not mean they are right for our
car...and let's see each of these setup.

Apexi (USA/Japan): spring length 300mm, spring weight 10 kg front and 4 kg rear. (Wagon spec coil over, For J-spec Wagon)

Tein (Japan): spring length 300mm, spring weight 6 kg front and 4 kg rear. (Wagon spec coil over, for J-spec Wagon)
spring length 180mm front and 200mm rear, spring weight 10 kg front and 7 kg rear. (Type HR (none Wagon spec), for J-spec Wagon)
Type HA, same as above but with damping level adjustments 16 level.

Tein (USA): spring length 250mm, spring weight 7 kg front and 4 kg rear. (For US spec Accord)

As we can see from above, the wagon type of coil over offer with longer spring and longer shock. (I believe it is for better ride comfort) The type HR/HA by Tein offer higher spring weight and shorter
spring and shock for better driver controller and feel. The combo of longer spring and higher spring weight with Apexi offer I believe 50/50 of both comfort and control. But please remember, the TL/CL
weights 500 lbs more than the (J-spec Wagon, J-spec Accord, US spec Accord 4 cyls) and about 300 more than the US Accord V6.
One thing I do not understand is that whey Tein USA use 7 kg in the front and 4 kg in the rear?? Maybe they tested this with a Accord with 5 speed tran and 4 cyls engine?? If I were plan to use the Tein US
coil over setup, I will change the spring to 10 kg in the front and 7 kg in the rear for my TL. If you prefer to have maximum control of your car then I believe a Tein's Japan HR or HA with change of spring to
12 kg front and 9 kg in the rear would be a good setup.

Caddyİ

Yep, that's what they told me as well !