After spending about 8 hours under the car, my car now runs with new suspension, Tein basic....

However, following the direction on the instruction, the car now sits too low. My measurement indicates the car is about 2" lower. The front plastic air dam thing under the radiator support now scrapes my driveway. It looks kinda ricey with the stock wheels on.

I just took it for a 1-mile test drive to see how it drives now. It's a lot firmer than stock. I guess it's because the shocks hit the bumpstops. But there's no more squats and dives and it feels flat in corners. I installed Injen intake, and I think it's peppier off the line, but I'll know more after a few days.

I'm going to leave it as it is for about 1-2 weeks, raise it another 1/2", get it aligned, and shop for wheels.

Pic will follow if anyone is interested.

 

 

I'll upload the pics when I get home tonight.

 

Pics Pics!!!!!

 

GOOD JOB ,WOW 8 HOURS,IT TOOK ME THREE AND A HALF,
ITS NOT RIDING ON BUMPSTOPS,ITS THE SPRINGS,
I HAVE 20S AND NO SCRAPPING ANYWHERE,YOU WILL NEED BIGGER WHEELS NOW,I NEED TO RASIE MINE UP TOO,ABOUT 1/2 INCH
DID YOU NOTICE ITS HARD TO ADJUST THEM? OR IS IT ME
MIKE

 

It's because I put the boots wrong. The boots actually snap into place and I should've just installed the stock washers on top of them. I didn't realize this until I was almost done with shock #4. So I had to go back and remove the other 3 to fix them.

And yea, it's a b*tch to adjust. The higher you turn, the harder it is. I'll let the springs to "soften" a bit then I'll do some twisty run or something.

I'm going to get some 19's but dunno which ones. Volks are nice, but expensive. I'm thinking to get some cheaper Japanese wheels....

 

congrats

 

Congrats on your new set-up!!!! You will love the ride and handling now. I just got mine installed last weekend!!! I have notice no more body roll and nose diving. The TEIN's Basic works really well with our TL as it performs really well without sacraficing the ride.


Post pics please!!!

CHeck out my pics when you have time!!!

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=115154

 

The end result:





Front gap:



Rear gap:



Front coilover:



Rear coilover:



Tein:







Tein vs stock:

 

ed99, did you go with what Tein wrote in the instruction manual, or did you raise/lower the spring seats?

 

Very Nicely done!!! Funny thing it under the TEIN site, it say we can lower no more than 2.5 inches front and rear but by looks of it I think it can go as 3inches. But that would be way too low. I brought mines to the shop to get it done and I just told them to lower without any finger gap for front and rear. It turned out well. So far no rubbing and no scraping (Knock on Wood). Yours look pretty low too and did you measure how many inches you went?? Mine is about 2 1/4 inch to 2.5 inches. So how do u like the ride now?? Congrats!!!

 

Heheh, thanks. I'm still sore after installing it.

It's about 2" or 2.25" lower. I still have a little gap (less than my index finger) front and back. The ride is stiffer than I thought it would be. I think the lowest you can go is indeed about 2.5". If you lower the spring seats all the way down, the might be running on the bump stops, not the springs anymore... That's the perfect auto show setting though.

I think I might raise it a little bit, but after I get wheels. Are you going to get wheels too?

I just took it for a longer drive and the car felt very damped, and stiff. There are some slight bumps on the freeway and it just didn't bounce at all! I'm hoping it'll be a little softer when everything has broken in. For now, the car is almost perfect for autocross, but is a little to stiff for normal driving.

Does your Tein settle and soften up a little bit after a while?

 

The lowering looks good!! I wouldn't raise the car I would just leave it as is. I don't know but I find our TEIN basic's are a little stiffer than stock without sacrificing the comfort. Maybe it is just me because my previous 2 car's lowering was alot stiffer than our set up. Yeah now both of us just needs some 19 inch shoes to make it look perfect.

 

nicee! looks great man

 

Say do u have anymore pics of different angles you can post up here!! Would like to see more pics of your TL?

 

Thanks for the compliments.

I didn't take more pics because I was so tired....

Last night, though, I raised the car a little. The spring seats went up 1/2" on the rear and 1/4" on the front to have the same wheel gap front and back. The car rides slightly better.

I'll take more pics this weekend, but because the height difference is very subtle, it wouldn't show in the pics.

Regarding ride, it's still better than my 98 Civic with H&R Race and Koni Sport back in the days.

 

So did you have to take all four rims off to adjust the height?? Or you can do it with the car jacked up? Plus how long did it take you to increase the height?? Need to ask you because I have to raise mines during the winter season.

 

nice man..
how much does it cost. (shipping included)...did you put it on by yourself?..or went to auto shop....i am thinking to change my tein spring..to basic....(not low enough)...:P

 

looks good!

 

Thanks, cTLgo.

ed99, yes, I had to take all the rims off to have enough room. It took me about 45 minutes from start to finish, including measuring the changes, removing and putting the wheels back on, etc.

I bought it from a local store here in Socal for $630 OTD. I installed it myself.

 

Can somebody please explain what the major differences betwen the Tein SS and the Tein Basics? Sorry for asking dumb questions..

 

Tein SS has adjustable firmness (damping and rebound), the Basic doesn't. So basically, you can adjust the firmness of the SS shocks and not the Basic ones.

Oh, and SS is about $200 more expensive.

 

Thanks for the info Do you know how soft or how hard the basics are compared to the range of firmness on the "SS"? For instance, if Tein SS can go from 1-10 (10 being the hardest, 1 being the softest), where would the Basics fit in that scale? In the middle?

Thanks!

 

This I don't know. You can call or email Tein USA. I'd like to know too.

 

so those are adjustables right? Nice drop man, I wanted to go with teins adjustables @ first with 1.5 drop all around but now I got comptech 1".

Looks good

 

How do you deal with the camber issue? Without a camber kit your tires will wear away. My oem camber was out-of-whack so I got a Ingalls kit.

 

My car is about 1.75" F and 1.5" R lower. The front camber is only about 0.05 deg off from spec, but the rear is 0.15 deg off.

As of right now, I don't plan to get camber kit. Maybe later if I feel like it. Why? Because the car already has agressive rear camber in stock form. The manufacturer's acceptable camber range is 0.5-1.5 deg. That's a lot!

So the rear tires will have uneven wear anyway even without lowering. My car is just a little off, it's not going to make it much worse. Besides, negative camber will help during cornering.

This is based on my experience with Hondas as of late. My 95 Accord is bone stock and the rear camber is about 0.9 deg since new and well within spec. The rear tires always have uneven wear. And there's not much we can do, because Honda actually designs it this way, to give the car ability to corner better.

It's the same case with a lot of BMWs, especially the ones equipped with Sport Package. Probably some other cars too, especially performance cars.

There's also a lot of misunderstanding that negative camber will kill tires. While it causes uneven wear, but it's over thousands of miles. The real killer here is toe. If you have incorrect toe setting, you're guaranteed to see uneven wear even after a few hundred miles. You can find the article on Tirerack's site, too.