Hey everyone. I have a couple questions that I am either finding nothing about or there's soooooo much information that its hard for a NOOB to the lowering game like myself to make a good informed decision. There seems to be a lot of "It's personal preference" answers that can get a little annoying when looking for a straight forward answer. I am looking at upgrading the suspension on my 05 base model 5 AT TL, from stock height riding on 20's with OEM suspension setup, to TEIN FLEX Z Coilovers. I have been doing my due diligence and reading and researching every possible part and component that deals with ride height, camber, and adjustability. I am fairly confident in the parts that I want to get as far as them being the correct parts for my car, EXCEPT for these damn coilovers..... TEIN has 2 part numbers for FLEX Z coilovers for gen 3 Acura, and I cant tell why they have them.... I even looked it up on Tein's website, and they have them listed one above the other, and every single characteristic field is identical... The part numbers that I have found that I am questioning are as follows:

TEIN: VSA80-CUSS3

and

TEIN: VSA80-CUAS3

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN THESE 2 PARTS????? AM I OVERLOOKING SOMETHING?????

HEEELLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPP I WANNA LOWER MY CAR ASAP AND FLEX Z IS WHAT I WANT TO USE!!!!


This is the first car that I have owned that I have wanted to lower, so this is quite the learning experience for me and this forum and youtube are pretty great resources for Q&A. I am really trying to stay away from creating one of these "does this fit" or "do I need this and that" posts, but sometimes that is IMPOSSIBLE to avoid LOL, so here goes...
I am very curious as to what else might be needed to achieve the look I am shooting for. I want to get a look like another member here @nomediocre3gtl has for their TL, or maybe even a little lower than that. I will be changing out the wheel setup that is on my car currently, because I don't think I can get to where I want with the 20" wheels that are on it now. I do not have a problem having some negative camber to tuck the wheels into the wheel wells, but definitely DO NOT want to be riding on the edge of the wheels like some of the lowered cars that I see around where I live. Some people like that look, it's just not for me. I REALLY LOVE MY TL!!! Quite honestly this is one of my more favorite cars I have owned, due to the fact that these cars look slick right out the gate, there is massive amounts of customizing options (almost like a chevy 350 lol) and the fact that it is a HONDA so parts are abundant and not ridiculously overpriced....
But I guess the 2nd question would be, what other components would be recommended or necessary to do around a 2" - 2 1/2" and possibly more of a drop and not be riding on the wheel edges? Are adjustable control arms/camber kits necessary at this point? Because I was also looking at some of those parts, but I'm not going to buy them if they aren't really needed yet... Like I said, I can deal with a little bit of negative camber just not too crazy. I do welcome any "natural" handling/performance gains with the geometry changes from lowering!!! If there are some parts that are recommended after the coilovers are installed, I do have to eventually do more work to my steering system (possibly replacing the steering rack), so I will have it up on my buddies lift to do that work soon enough, and I can assess / address any issues that have arisen after the coilover installation. If any of you can give me any good info on any of these questions I have, it would be Greatly Appreciated!! Have a great day y'all!!!

 

I have the TEIN-VSA80-CUSS3 and https://rcagarage.com/shop/suspensio...l-joint-67095/ and I am sitting like this...




I dunno though, a 2 or 2 1/2 drop? That's a lot. And I'm not bashing anyone's build, but 20's on this car....


By the way the 2 Tein part number you listed seem to have the exact specs, so that makes me think it's just a part number change done by Tein.

TL
2004-2008USA 3200

FF UA6
VSA80-CUSA3
$1160.00 Out of Stock F
R/U -1.8 -3.1 to -0.1 672 / 12.0 -1.8 to -1.0 200 / Φ70 R
R/U -1.8 -6.2 to -0.6 336 / 6.0 -1.2 to -0.4 250 / Φ70 NOTE:4DR/6CYL
ACURA

TL
2004-2008USA 3200

FF UA6
VSA80-CUSS3
$1160.00 Out of Stock F
R/U -1.8 -3.1 to -0.1 672 / 12.0 -1.8 to -1.0 200 / Φ70 R
R/U -1.8 -6.2 to -0.6 336 / 6.0 -1.2 to -0.4 250 / Φ70 NOTE:4DR/6CYL


Copyright TEIN U.S.A. All rights reserved.

 

First of all, your car looks GREAT!!! And if I can get mine to look like that right from the start I would be pretty happy for a while and would be able to get used to the handling differences with a lower car. And Yeah I agree, 20's just don't look too great on these cars, but they were on the car when I bought it and I wasn't making him take them off!! HAHAHA But I WAS lucky enough to get the stock wheels with all season tires on them as well and those are 17". But I am thinking that I want to get maybe 18 or 19 inch wheels and see how low I can go with it and still keep it a decent feeling/handling ride. This was actually bought as a "winter beater" because I smashed my truck up pretty good during the fall season when the deer were moving around like crazy and wound up hitting one at highway speed and that sent me into a road sign. So the front end of that is pretty smashed up for now. But still fixable/upgradable. But in the meantime I have this baby and I have always wanted one for some reason and now that I do have one, I am gonna make it one of a kind in my area for sure!!! Like I said in the previous post, I am gonna have to put it back on the lift sooner than later and possibly change the steering rack, and while I am doing that I plan on upgrading a bunch of the other steering/suspension components. LOL I bet probably by next winter I'm gonna have to get a different "winter beater" to drive because I'm not gonna want to drive my TL in the snow lololol!!! I guess I just need to keep doing my reading and watching videos to see what components will help me achieve my vision... I guess actually contrary to what I said in the original post, the more i look at pics of people rides, the end vision will have a moderate amount of camber because I want to basically have the lip of my rim to be about the same height as the fender. I will be rolling my fenders soon to help eliminate any kind tire/body rub. I kind of have a vision in my head of what I want, and I know it will happen in phases, having kids and responsibilities and ANOTHER VEHICLE NEEDING MAJOR REPAIRS will cause that and I am ok with that lol. And so is the wife, if she only sees receipts for hundreds, instead of thousands HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! I LOVE ALL THE MEMBER GALLERIES!!! I am getting a lot of ideas and inspiration from this group and from YouTube and its very helpful.

 

Call TEIN USA they'll let you know the differences in part numbers.