Dropped 3rd Gen TL, Tein, Skunk2, SPC
 

Good Morning all, or afternoon

I completed my suspension setup this past weekend and wanted to know your thoughts. This is my first time posting pictures and they are huge.... so sorry in advance. I also needed to get your insight on one concern of mine. It would seem that the front passenger side wheel is a half inch back, by back I mean towards the chassis or further away from the front bumper. The Driver side is dead center, but the passenger is a half inch back. Why is that? Is it too low, do you think something is broken? and what? I checked everything and it is fine all tighten down, so no idea what it could be other than it may be too low. I like it for street riding but plan to raise it for some SCCA Track racing and time trials. Not the best platform to use on the track, but for only $3000 it was a good deal to grab this TL sport 6 speed with only 88k miles on it. Anyway, let me know, what you think. I will work on the slave cylinder this weekend, as the clutch is slipping but only when doing a hard, quick shift from 2nd to 3rd, or 3rd to 4th. So I bought a new LUK slave cylinder which was recommended and doing the delete of check valve, to see if that helps with slipping.

Thank you for your time,

Vega
SerpentX

p.s. yes I know it has some cosmetic damage, that is another project for another day.... Damn Farmers yard and my car had a fight. Farmer one, it had a barbed wire fence... Wife wasn't happy:tomato:


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazi...c623478016.jpg

2005 Acura TL Sport 6 Speed
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazi...acc3de88c8.jpg

2005 Acura TL Sport 6 Speed
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazi...3608e42acc.jpg

Tein Flex Z with Skunk2 Adjustable front Camber kit
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazi...fb12adc8b0.jpg

Tein Flex Z with Skunk2 Adjustable front Camber kit
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazi...b5a5f25836.jpg

Tein Flex Z with SPC Adjustable Rear Camber kit
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazi...e874de0988.jpg

Tein Flex Z with SPC Adjustable Rear Camber kit

Looks good. I have the Flex Z as well. Got the EDFC waiting to be installed with it. Gotta get the front strut bar from RV6 first tho.

Take a pic of the front wheels. Make sure the steering wheel it straight. Both from the pics currently look....off.

To answer your question...your front right wheel is pushed in likely because your front control arm or spindle or subframe may be damaged. Check for bent parts on that corner.

Its hefty...but its got a good enough chassis to make for good lap times. It has a LSD, which is the magic wand for a fast/satisfying FWD chassis.

Plus, with the front camber kit, you can dial in a ton of grip.

None of it is really difficult...but requires some driving time to get it right.

For the sake of interesting discussion...my assumptions are:

-It will love using front camber. Like -3 or more will give you better tyre life and grip.

-Use bigass front tyres. *At least* 265mm's up front, on 10" wide wheels. 235's or 245's on 8.5 or 9" wheels in the back should be fine.

-Brakes will probably be an issue. You can definitely find a fantastic track pad because those Brembo calipers house the same pads as EVO's/STi's. But I'm gonna bet that track time will crack the super thin rotors pretty often.

If you find the need to tune the spring rates, you can buy a 65mm converter from Tein for the rear (70mm) springs. Then tune away. You can always toss on different springs for different tracks or for street use. 65mm springs are available in inch and LB measurements, which obviously has way more resolution than metric kg and mm measurements. The convertors are only like $25 from options auto.

Hey Sockr1

Forgive me but when you say spring preload, that's not the knob at top of suspension right? that is where I need to grab the Tein keys and adjust the two retention brackets holding the spring correct?

Yes. That's using the coil adjusters that Tein sent with the coilover set up. It'll only work with the Flex Zs and above. Not the Street Advance or Basics.

correct, it would be changing the length of the spring without "any" loading from the car weight. they should be compressed from the original lengths by that much using the spanner wrenches to compress/decompress the spring as needed. i think the original spring lengths are 250mm rear and 200mm front

Any help on setting preload settings to mentioned above.
- how to measure 15mm and 8mm preload?
- where to measure...?
- should the preload be change if the car height is lowered/raised?

Thanks in advance

you measure the length of the spring while the car is in the air (or at least that tire is). i believe the front spring is originally 200mm (so preload of 15mm means spring is 185mm) and rear is 250mm (so preload of 8mm means 242mm).
the great thing about tein flex is that the preload does not change as you lower and raise the car like some coilover systems (such as tein street advance). but looking the other way, changing preload does change the height of your car.

set preload. set height. lots of youtube videos on preload and coilovers, check those out for more details.

Posts #14 and 17 explain a bit about preload and its pros/cons.

FWIW, I did make mine ride nicely! But...I have been busy with 10000 other projects. So I haven't been able to share my method. I'll work on it at the same pace as a full speed glacier.

https://acurazine.com/forums/1g-tsx-tires-wheels-suspension-130/my-tein-flex-z-experience-can-i-make-them-ride-nice-966137/

^^ this guy is the true expert. listen to him before me haha.

^nahh, you and I are in agreement about this setup.

respekt tho.