I finally got my Tein SS and EDFC install finished. I figured you guys might appreciate some pics along with the things I found out through the process.

Here are a few key points:

• They aren't nearly as stiff as I was expecting as compared to my stock springs and shocks. I was afraid it would feel like I was riding a skateboard but it isn't like that at all.
• The difference between the softest and hardest settings doesn't seem very significant.
• The softest setting feels more "bouncy" than the stock setup.

EDFC observations:

• If you turn off the EDFC unit it will forget the saved settings. I think this is kind of a bad design personally. If you leave it on and turn off your car it will remember the saved settings though. I thought maybe I had it wired wrong but looking at the manual it confirmed that turning it off will erase your stored presets.
• I wasn't sure exactly how big the controller was until it arrived at my house. It is the same width as the coin holder / "Not an ash tray".

The Install:
I set the height of the coilovers to the "reference value" in the manual. The front height is pretty good (2 finger gap) but the rear is a bit too low (barely over 1 finger gap). By the time my friend and I were done with the install we were so exhausted that messing with the height was the last thing we felt like doing. I'll give it a few days to let it settle and see how bad it rubs then adjust it accordingly.

I installed the EDFC unit on thursday night (sitting in my car with a flashlight until 1:30am). I found all the wires I needed to tap into thanks to the wiring diagram pictures someone posted. The wires weren't the same color on my car (the diagram was for the 03 TL and I have an 02), but they were the correct pins. I ended up mounting the EDFC controller where the "coin tray" used to be. I removed it planning to mount the EDFC inside it but soon realized that it is too deep to fit. It would've been nice to fit it behind that door but it would've required some serious work to make that possible. The only drawback now is that the EDFC isn't hidden and I don't have the door over the outlet next to it. I'm not too upset though since I was used to having my radar detector plugged in there anyway. It is the perfect size to fill the whole where the ash tray was. While I had the interior torn apart and stereo pulled out I hard-wired the radar detector.

On Friday night we ran the wires for the EDFC motors and removed the back seat so we'd be ready to install the coilovers the next day.

The installation of the coilovers was not too difficult with a couple sets of DIY instructions I found here. It was very time consuming however. A friend and I installed them on Saturday and it probably took us 8 hours including a couple trips to the store. I'm sure it would've been a lot faster if either of us had done it before.

Overall it was by far the biggest thing I've done to my car. I'm just glad it is over and I won't have to do it again (at least until my friend gets the coilovers for his car and I have to help him install them). Halfway through the install I decided that these things are never coming out.

Pics:
Anway, enough yapping.. here's some pics. If it ever stops raining I'm going to wash the car and get some better 'after' shots.

You can view all the pics here.

Before:


After:



EDFC Size:


EDFC Install:


EDFC Motor Size:


Front Gap (Before):


Front Gap (After):


Rear Gap (Before):


Rear Gap (After):

 

Nice job. Looks good.

 

Nice..I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, with your sways you should really be enjoying your suspension.

 

I am enjoying it quite a bit so far. Unfortunately it has been raining since I finished installing them (started raining in the middle of the test drive and hasn't stopped since). Since I don't feel like sliding off the road into a guard rail I've been taking it easy.

I still need to install the rear camber kit which the UPS guy should be delivering any minute now. I'll probably raise the rear up so it is at the same height as the front since it was rubbing quite a bit when I was out driving earlier today, not to mention it looks funny when the front is higher.

I'm amazed how much lower it seems even with a difference of only a couple inches.. Not just the wheel well appearance but getting things out of the trunk, getting in/out of the car, etc.

I am also getting new front brake rotors and pads installed sometime later today or tomorrow, so it should be looking pretty good when I wash it and get some new pics.

I'm ready for the "get a body kit" comments now :P

 

Looks good. Glad to see you are enjoying your new suspension.

 

Nice job ... hows the ride?

 

It is great. I'm sure Exelerate appreciates it as much as me since they've been getting all my extra money lately. :P

Got my camber kit too, now I just need it to stop raining so I can install it.

 

I checked yesterday and it seems that I didn't cut enough of my bumper tabs off. It looks like that's where it is rubbing now, so I may not have to raise the rear up much at all as I previously thought.

I'll probably raise the rear a half inch or so and cut the tabs again while I have it jacked up.

 

great post... informative stuff & pics!

 

Thanks!

I wanted to show everyone the location that I mounted the EDFC unit at least.. I didn't find much info here about that when I was looking. My image links won't die 2 months from now either because they're hosted on my server.

 

Enjoy your teins ss, I have the same set up. If I had to do it all over again I wouldnt buy the edfc or the ss for that matter. You really cant tell the difference between the settings. I would purchase the basics and save alot of cha ching! Just my

 

The difference between the settings is pretty slight I agree.. but I'm a gadget geek and just having that controller mounted in my car is worth the price for me :P

I imagine that difference in stiffness, however slight, will improve comfort over long trips too, which gives it bonus points with my wife. "Honey, I had to get the expensive adjustable one so you'd be comfortable" hehehe

 

Hell my wife doesnt even know how much I paid for those things, hahaha. I agree with what you are saying though. I think I am going to go off the deep end on day in the future and just get an air runner suspension.

 

My wife doesn't know either.. and luckily for me she doesn't ask. I'm very lucky.. I married the right person. She hasn't asked how much any of my upgrades cost. "It is your money I don't care".. so as long as I can pay the bills we're good!

 

ok i'm a newbie when it come to lowering our rides. I want to eventually lower mine. Is there such a set-up where you can electricaly lower & raise your suspension. Sorry too lazy to search for this question. If there is such a thing what kind of money are we talking. Is your controller for the ss tein just for stiffeness ect. Sorry i'm a dumb ass in this area. Thx

 

Yeah the EDFC controller just allows you to adjust the stiffness. If you want to adjust the height from the car you need some kind of air bag suspension. With coilovers you can adjust the height but it requires jacking up the car so you can reach the springs with the wrenches that come with the kit.

 

Yes, people tend to overplay the stiffness card. I have REMOVED many softer systems from TLs, CLs, and TSXs in favor of Teins. For some reason Basics/SS get a stiff reputation and it is not as bad as the stuff you might read.

The dampening changes are there for fine tuning mostly. Some people opt for the SS in favor of the ability to make them 'softer' than the Basics. But you really don't see a night and day difference. The springs and valving are the same in both kits.

"Bouncy" "Stiff" "Rough" "Soft"..... all subjective terms. There are many kinds of roads, and there are many different scenarios that occur when driving. How fast were you going? What type of bumper were you going over? Were you turning? Braking? ???? I am not really asking you to answer, jut letting you know that one-word descriptions of your ride is not a good idea. It's the same reason different systems get bad-raps. Because people have a hard time elaborating.


The EDFC will NOT lose the adjustment settings if you hook it up properly. I suspect you have not wired the 12V constant power source correctly. The best place to hook this up is usually at the ignition switch. I am pretty sure anyway. Turning it off should not make any difference.

Yeah, the EDFC unit is really compact! We have pulled off some really sweet installs with these things!

 

I agree I wish i had just gone with the basics, like you said it, really no difference for the settings, oh well



We think alike, i wish i had gotten that in the first place.

 

where would you get an air runner suspension? my TL pretty much stays in the garage 28 of 30 days a month... i guess i can make it into my little project, and air suspension sounds nice...

 

nice install..notice the edfc is black now...i think it will look even sweeter if you keep the not ashtray lid functional. it did it that way about 2 years ago

 

I dunno guy, I can tell a difference in the stiff to soft settings on the SS....I think you have to have a pretty fine feel for it, but there is definately a difference.

I will say this, anyone looking for "one sus that does it all", like, it rides like a caddy, and corners like a ferrari, is going to be disappointed no matter which route they go. There are always compromises.

Also, the different sus settings feel different over different roads and speeds. I test drive every sus install with my customers to get their immediate impressions. At some speeds, Basic/SS feel scarcely different than stock. But at some points in the drive you can really feel the car is stiffer.

Marcus

 

have you ever installed Koni yellow's to compare adjustability with the Tein's ?

i have koni yellow's on my del sol and from soft (softer than stock) to stiff (very stiff), the difference is huge.

so at first i thought about going Koni again for the CL.
but since removing the back seat is a long process to adjust everytime instead of a 2 minutes job on the del sol, i was leaning towards Tein SS-P because of the optionnal EDFC that makes stiffness adjustability so easy by a push of a button.

reading the reviews here makes me wonder how much difference in stiffness there is from stiffest to softest. (Tein vs Koni)...

is it worth it to get Tein SS-P with EDFC vs. Koni yellow's with H&R sport ?

 

Now that I'm used to the new setup there is a bigger difference between the settings than I could tell when first installing it. The softest setting feels really bouncy, and the stiffest is pretty hard. I drive around with the front set to 6 and the back at 9 (scale ranges from 0 (stiffest) to 16(softest)).

I would install these again for sure if I had to do it again. I love it.

 

Some people who are Koni snobs and Tein haters will tell you that the Teins do not have as much adjustment range as the Konis. This may actually be true, but it is necessary because the Konis are made to work with a wide range of springs. Teins come with springs which they are matched to already.

As far as wanting to go from softer than stock to trackworthy stiff, you are not going to find that on any shock. But the Teins do provide adequite adjustment range to get them dialed to a spec that you will like.

Marcus

 

thanks for your inputs guys

being a mechanic at acura, i get to drive a few different suspension setups (never on TL-CL though, about nobody here mods the suspension on TLs, only integra, RSX, EL) and i don't really want that go-cart stiffness anymore as i want a more confortable ride (my del sol is really stiff... very harsh on old broken tarmac and is a pain on long trips, but i only drive 13 minutes to go to work so it's ok and that's why i keep it 1¾ turn on a max of 2 turns, type R sway bars, tie-bars and strut bars + falken azenis rt-615 on light-weight wheels make cornering a blast (hwy exits are amazing!) and hard braking very fun too (almost no front-end dive with 11" brakes with ceramic pads.) i pull away from my brother's s2000 in exits and scare him off while braking)

so i was looking to get close to stock stiffness for long trips and with passengers, but also the possibility of taking a step stiffer for alone-everyday use (also to fight nose-diving as i project to install a BBK).

ok so my choice is back to SS-P EDFC combo

 

Word..

 

Cozmo and other:
Thanks for all that info.
I was looking for a solution to my issue with how my TL-S handles and i think that si may be one option.
Would you please tell me where one would purchase all of that from?
and where the instructions for wiring the EDFC are ?
Thanks
Q

 

If you need any TEIN products you can PM me.

 

where at?

 

Is the part no. DSH94-KUSS2 for our 2gen TL or just for 1998-2002 Accord?

 

The 98-02 Accord and 99-03 TL share the same suspension platform and therefore the same coilover kit. So yes that is the right part # for both. PM me if you need a set. I have them in stock.

 

that is ballin... i wish i could do that...

 

cant wait to do mine

 

how old is this thread :scratchhead:

 

camber kit