Last year, almost to the week, I installed Tein S-Tech's. I guess I'm going to do an annual suspension install. Haha.

Last night some friends and I installed my new Tein SS-P's at my friends garage (has a 2 post lift!). I love reading threads on here with lots of pictures specifically so I can see what I might run into when I do an install myself. So here's a picture story! (And some thoughts at the end.)

Ordered 10:30am Friday, Jan 4th. On my door step 1:30pm Tuesday, Jan 8th. Not too bad!

I left work early paranoid that I had a pretty expensive box clearly labeled on my front porch!



They are pretty looking.


At home I prepped the car by getting the little things taken care of...

Removed the rear seat


I taped the fenders to protect them from the struts as we maneuvered them out of the wheel well.


Jacked up, wheels off, ready to go


Comparison shot
Bottom = OEM shocks w/ Tein S-Techs
Top = Tein SS-P's
A tad shorter w/ smaller springs (width wise)


Workin on the 2nd coilover




Front coilover installed


Another shot after height adjustment


Front tops


Fronts were a piece of cake. Took about an hour.
We took a break and went out to eat.

Came back and got crackin on the rears




Only problem w/ the rears was maneuvering the old shock assembly through all the control arms. We used a piece of wood + a floor jack to push the bottom of the strut UP. And eventually, the shock fell right out.

Pretty top mounts!
(Note: That is NOT blood, haha.)


I haven't taken any proper pictures. I mean, we know what a drop looks like. Plus, I cared more about the handling gains than the drop. And boy, does it handle. But anway, the front is 1/2 finger gap (sitting on 1 thread from the bottom). Rear is about 3/4 finger gap (2 threads from bottom).




I REALLY want to put my CL-S wheels back on. But they are for sale...

Thoughts/Impressions...
The dampening is set to full. The ride IS much stiffer than stock, but so far it is bearable. (Although, I've only driven in the car for about an hour) The rebound is leaps and bounds (no pun intended, ha) better than my S-techs on OEM shocks. I no longer bottom out and bounce everytime I hit a dip in the road. The SS' come right back up. Lateral handling is extremely improved. It is so solid going over different road surfaces on the highway. Roll has been reduced leaps and bounds. The car stays level through turns that had caused car to tilt w/ the S-techs. Later on, I may change the dampening around to see how different setups feel/handle. I have NOT driven hard yet to really test the handling. That will all come in time and moderation.

The ride height is 1" lower to the ground than w/ the S-Techs. My Cusco lower strut bar is about 4in off the ground. The perfect height for your average speed bump. Uh ohs!

The metal topmounts do not seem to be making an noise. Through research, I had read where some people complain about clanks/clunks and an increase in suspension noise.. but so far I have not experienced any of that. In fact, so far, these coilovers seem to be quieter than the S-Techs on OEM shocks. (knock on wood).

I am extremely happy. I've been wanting these since I first started following the TL (before I had one). The whole experience has been great... from ordering, to shipment, to installation.

Thanks to Excelerate for great service and a great price. I've bought springs, Comptech exhaust, AEM V2 intake, and now coilovers from him. Great guy to do business with.

Happy driving everyone!

 

Also, on Monday I installed OE Spacers (Throttlebody and intake manifold)
You can see more about that at THIS LINK.

Here are a few pics from that
Before










Cleaned out the intake manifold w/ Carb cleaner. Wow, it was dirty.


TB spacer installed


IM spacer in place


Put back together


Finished


I still have some kinks to work out. But I do see that the temp guage needle is one tick lower than it was prior to the spacer install. I do indeed feel increased low end power. Acceleration from 20-60 is very strong!

Also, lol, I replaced all my interior lights, trunk light, and license plate w/ white LED's. (Purchased from http://www.ledautomotive.com) They are awesome! Very bright! I love being able to see inside now.


The camera was picking up the intense white light as blue light. However, top the human eye, they are PURE WHITE.


I played w/ the ISO settings on my camera to get rid of the blue. This is w/ no flash! It's purely the LED interior lights lighting up all that you see.


That is all.... For this week.

 

good job!
Others may try loosening -removing the sway bar end links and then the rear drops right out
The tricky part of the job is finding the bolts for the rear seat

Try a mid setting in the rear to reduce understeer and set the fronts to whatever is confortable. For me thats 8 for the wife 4.
16 is max stiff dampening/rebound and may not yield the best handling.
Let the suspension move a little and you feel things as a thudthud instead of leaps and bounds over bumps~ and you allow the suspension to do its job keeping the tires contact patch on the road
The pillowtops should give plenty of feedback already

 

Very useful write-up. Great job. Time for an alignment?

 

Do you have pics of your license plate and trunk with the LEDs?

 

Awesome job! I love your car, way to rep the NGM color so few on here seem to have. That drop looks sick. I like the hyper white leds too. This spring my car will see a drop and an intake possibly some headers.

 

Thank you very much. It is a rare color on here and out on the road. I actually like it.
I will take some pictures and post them up tomorrow evening.
Probably on Monday. Technically, I have 1 year of free alignments from when I got my car aligned last January after installing springs. So hopefully they hold true to their word.
You could do that. You run the small risk of damaging the endlink. I wanted to only touch bolts directly attacked to the shock/coilover. And I accomplished that.
Thats sort of true. I've taken my seat out a few times before so no biggie.
Thanks for the advice. I will defientely try that and see what I find to be the best for my driving.

I'll do a proper photoshoot in a bit... with different wheels....

 

Do the top mounts you have replace the OEM tap hats that we should replace during a new suspension install? I have coilovers waiting, but don't have the money for OEM top hats right now.

How important is it to replace those at this point?

 

The Pillowtop tophats are optional trick units
You can use the hats off your stock assemblies and transfer them over, or buy a set of OE hats for about 120$ to use on the new coilovers and keep your stock ones for later---
like if you plan to eventually put the car back stock to sell - or you are leasing,
There is a market for assembled used stock units too here on azine

The tool to compress the OE springs so you can disassemble, can be borrowed at parts stores
If your coilovers are like most- they wont require a spring compressor to put them together

 

I wish I would have gotten my tein's brand new like you.

 

sickk! Your NGM TL is lower than mine now, I have a 1-1.5 finger gap. I have just the Basics tho.

 

Hey, awesome NGM. If I could buy another TL to go with my Taffeta, it'd be NGM. I would love to completely mod it, Type-S engine, 6-speed, supercharger. It'd be a great sleeper.

 

Car looks clean and that's a great combo of parts.

As Tom said you find things becoming too firm, try adjusting the settings to midway, around 8, and to 4 if you want closer to the OE ride. However, with pillowball upper mounts the road and its imperfections will be more apparent so OE comfort won't be able to be had but at least the damping can be softer.

Glad to see you're happy again with everyone. Enjoy your new suspension and thanks again.

As

 

Tein SS and an intake spacer- the rocknroll setup for TLs everywhere!
Now all you need is the ability to stop it~

Josh has awesome Kaixen low beam bulbs that give you a real edge at night and in bad weather. Being able to stop within the headlight distance is good, being able to pick out road markings and semi trucks in the fog-rain-snow is priceless

 

"with pillowball upper mounts the road and its imperfections will be more apparent"

I thought that was considered desireable road feedback??

For the perfectionist driver wants response to input and ~road feel~
its great for autocross racers-track day people and those who just enjoy more than an OE ride.

Drive a vette or viper and see what kind of feedback you get!!

 

Great write up / photo story. I ordered the Tein SS' (no pillowtops though) today and expect to have them installed by mid-February. What was the most difficult part for you - removing the old rears it sounded like?

 

If you are careful enough to work on the car anyway- you can remove the rear sway bar end links and put them back unbroken without issue
Then the rear shocks drop out with ease

 

So you have finally done it! Congrats man, I woulda came down to Phil's for moral support if I knew you were doin this. You gotta give me a ride with the new suspension, I been thinking of swapping to these coilovers.

 

It depends on the driver and their goals. I have the FLEX on my 07 Civic Si and I have the TEIN SS on my 99 Accord turbo. The difference is significant but the Si handles a lot better than the Accord; of course they are different vehicles too.

 

How much did the whole kit run you cause i think this is exactly what i need to make my drop/ride complete.

 

PM Excelerate. (The post above you) He'll let you know.