Well I finally took out my Koni/Tein S Tech setup and installed the Tein SS. Can't speak much for the Tein Basics, but the SS's - wow! If you've got the extra cash, definitely spring for the SS's. I should have just gotten these in the first place. Taking turns hard with no squealing/chirps from my Nitto's. Current setting at 10 clicks.

The Koni's are good (way better than stock) and I'm sure there are better component springs (Eibach, H&R) to use, but these SS's are worth the extra cash. EDFC will be installed later once I finish the hack job on my front strut bar.

In the meantime, if you're a little low on fundage, I'm letting go of my Koni Neuspeed dampers (more spring perch placement versus standard Koni Sports) and Tein S Tech springs for pretty cheap. Check the black market. I'm dropping the price to sell. First reasonable offer takes all.

Tein S Tech springs are for the 3 gen TL.
Koni Neuspeed dampers are for TSX and TL.

 

Could you elaborate more on what's better w/ Tein SS? Smoother, not the jittery feel you get w/ Koni's if your settings are pretty stiff??? Have you tried putting you're Teins at the stiff level and see if you have that jittery drive??

 

Oh, the Tein SS at a zero setting on any pavement around Detroit will rattle the hell out of you. Ten is how I drive normally here, though fifteen is pretty close to stock when on the freeway.

And definately go with the EDFC when you can, special-ed. I LOVE being able to change things from within the driver's seat while moving!

 

i got rid of the tein ss for the comptech koni setup, and in my opinion, the ride is much better.. just my opinion.

 

Well when just driving straight, ride quality is similar depending on where your settings are at. The major plus is with the SS's, you have more control over the dampening. First you can have changes on the fly with the EDFC or if you don't have the EDFC, you get the "clicks" between each turn when your stiffening or softening the damper. With the Koni's, you have complete control on the dampening as well but your kind of guessing on how many turns you take plus no EDFC.

Out here in norcal, the 101 is brutal compared to the 880 or 680. So now, whenever I have to take the 101 to get somewhere, I'll be pressing a button from now on to soften up the dampers.

Also, when taking the turns hard, my tires don't break at all with the Tein SS. I haven't put back on the front strut bar yet (I will later today) so maybe that's the difference but taking on ramps around 45mph - no squeeks at all.

Also with coilovers, you get complete control on ride height and don't have to take out the strut assembly, then use a p.i.t.a. spring compressor to change your perch level that you would with a non-coilover unit.

There's some manufacturing processes of Koni (their welding) that I question. The Koni's have been good (waaaaay better than stock) but the SS's are the bomb especially since I got em for..........................drum roll please..............$500

Note: and I would have no problem paying $900+ for the SS's if I had to.

 

So it sounds like Tein SS is more convenient then anything else w/ EDFCbut that's pricey w/ the install. It's cool you could adjust the height but I like the height of my springs (h&R sport).

I like the Konis. Haven't had them for a long time yet but so far they're good. I left the back seat loose (w/ out putting bolts on) just so I could play around w/ the dampening. Currently I'm riding a little stiffer then stock. I had it turned close to all the way (toward's firm) and boy the car handles amazingly, but it's gotta a jittery ride which I don't like, so I reverted back to the setting mentioned above.

I'm curious, if you turn your car to the firmer side, do u get that jittery ride?

 

Can the EDFC be something you can install yourself or just by real mechanics?

 

Installed the koni's myself........installed the Tein SS myself. No money lost there. I came from a modded sportbike as my personal vehicle (had a company car at the time) so even at full stiffness with the Koni's or the Tein SS, that's nothing compared to riding a sportbike with a stiff seat and upgraded suspension.

Come to think of it, when I had the koni's set at full firmness, yeah it was jittery going over bumps but it was great on the turns. Haven't tried max firm setting on Tein SS yet, but I'm sure it's the same like (jittery) like it was mentioned earlier.

I'll take pictures of the Koni's and why I am now sold on coilovers. I'll post later.

 

Honestly, I had the entire suspension installed, EDFC and coilovers all together. I wanted everything to have that finished feel to it that I knew I couldn't have done on my own, including the EDFC mounting and wiring. With paying for the install (which was EXPENSIVE, don't get me wrong), I at least have the peace of mind that if someone f@#!ed it up, I can go after them... if I screwed it up, I have only to cry over it. :P

Special-ed, i gotta admit to being jealous in regards to that price!! I paid almost double that, not including the EDFC, and the install about doubled the whole thing! heh

 

Well for me, personally, the comfort level is there for me to do the EDFC install myself since I"m a EE by degree (so wires aren't a big deal), I used to be a Sales Engineer for a step motor company (the Tein motors are just DC step motors with a controller aka EDFC), and I've done all my own bolt-on and electronics installs.

If you have basic wiring knowledge, shouldn't be an issue at all and the directions/manual usually helps! Suspension is a pretty simple bolt on. Not like your changing your motors internals or dealing with fuel management, retard timing, etc.
That stuff is over my head; I'm just grasping those concepts right now.

 

believe me man, I got damn lucky to get those Tein SS's at that price! I actually had called in an order to Josh at Excelerate to order the Tein SS's originally. He was running behind on getting shipments out and wanted me to call back later.

I didn't call back and fell across this deal a couple of days later. Maybe it was my guardian angel's way of telling me to screw the Koni's after changing the front struts out twice (was about to do a 3rd until I started to look at coilover options) and jump on a good deal while it's there for the taking.

 

special-ed, I'm just wondering what happened with your front Konis? Were they leaking, blown, breaking, or something? I'm wondering, because my Konis are still OK, granted I have put just 10k miles on the suspension.

Did you trim the bump stops?

 

hey 260, yeah I trimmed the bumpstops which I think would have kept the issue from happening, but it didn't help. No issues with leaks / blown struts or anything like that.

On the front right strut in particular, there's a little rectangular metal piece that's spot welded in 2 places to the damper body. This metal piece serves 2 purposes.

First, it has another little piece of metal sticking out from it which acts as a mating guide to the damper bracket arm (not sure on the exact name but it's the horseshoe looking piece that mounts to the damper on one end and lower arm on the other).

2nd, it keeps that damper arm (horseshoe piece) in one place and doesn't allow it from riding up and down the outside of the Koni damper body, therefore allowing the damper to compress when going over bumps, etc.

Once this metal piece falls off, that damper bracket is free to ride up and down that damper (for the sexually perverted, yeah that bracket is essentially riding that shaft!) thus no compression on the damper! Or, the bracket arm will get stuck at a higher spot on the strut which will basically lower that side of the car causing your tires to get fender shredded on every bump or turn.

With coilovers, you'll never get this because the whole body of the strut has 2 sections with 2 different outside diameter measurements. So the bottom of the coilover strut with the smaller diameter will fit inside the damper bracket arm. After that, the coilover body diameter above that widens thus the damper bracket arm could never ride up and down the strut.

Pictures will show it much clearer. I'll post them later. Just finished dremeling and painting my strut bar, so gonna go out and put it on now that the paint's dry. Time to hit some on/off ramps!

 

You can kind of see / tell where that rectangular metal piece should be welded in the first 2 pics. Take a look at Trancemission's pics. It shows the metal pieces for the front struts very very clearly.....








In this last pic, the black pen indicates the highest point the damper bracket arm should reach once mated correctly to that welded metal piece. With the metal piece broken off, you can see how far the damper arm rode up the strut as a result of the combined downward force from the weight of the car and the upward force caused by the damper bracket arm since it is connected to the lower arm which is essentially connected to your wheel which raises everytime you go over a bump. I've had this happen once to the driver's side front and twice to the front passenger side. Rears have no issues.




So on that note, who wants to buy my remaining 3 koni dampers and 4 Tein S Tech springs!! Priced to move in the black market haha!

 

Wow. Just wow.

Were you sure you tighten the pinch bolts up to specified torque. Don't remember the exact number though. If you did, it's for sure a manufacturing defect. But how come it happened on 3 of your shocks?

That little metal piece isn't supposed to support the car's weight. It's there only as a marker how far down the shock should sit in the pinch fork.

You shouldn't have problems with the rear shocks because they're not mounted in the same fashion.

Not to knock you, special-ed. I'm sure you have experience installing suspension. If you're happy with Tein SS, good for you.

I have had Koni Sport in the last few years on different Hondas and I haven't had any problems at all... I'm also about to buy another set of Koni and Neuspeed springs for my Accord. Knock on wood.

 

everything torqued down according to the HELMS manual. Somewhere in the 30's .....can't remember off the top of my head. I swear, although I'm sitting on 19's and had the S Tech springs at the time, you run over 1 small pothole - bam, metal piece comes off.

Exactly, that metal piece isn't made to support the weight of the car but after you hit an unlevel highway surface or pothole and keep driving for a few days thinking everything is ok because at that exact moment, maybe the pinch fork hasn't moved but that pinch fork will eventually nudge itself up and down, little by little on the strut body. Then next thing you know, your taking a turn or going over a little speed bump and your front tire starts to get fender shredded.

Then you look under and see that the spot welded metal piece has fallen off.

Shock is fine and I won't be surprised if/when Koni gets a return, they do some testing to see if the valving is ok, then they spot weld a new piece on, then repaint it, make it all nice and shiny looking then ship it out as a new one to the next customer.

Coilovers for me from here on out.

 

For the EDFC, do you tap into a fuse for the power supply

Im deciding whether i should get Tein SS or Basic. If i get SS i will get the EDFC but only if i can install it myself. If not i go with the Basics

 

Haven't installed it yet (still need to buy the EDFC), but I'll probably go directly to the battery on this one and maybe throw in a fused switch just in case there's no power on/off button on the EDFC.

 

Guys with Tein SS:

when you guys got your dampers new from the factory, they're supposed to be at the stiffest setting by default. My question is this stiffest setting basically the furthest you can turn clockwise until it comes to the stop where it can't turn anymore? Logically I would think yes, but just making sure.

 

post some pics of the whip with the teins

 

Yes, and it also said in the manual. All you need to remember is not to turn counter clockwise more than 16 clicks.

 

Thanks LacViet! Suspension is finally dialed in.

 

special-ed, I have a few questions for you. You say that your finally dialed in. I'm wondering what you have your settings at (height and stiffness settings)? Are your front and rear dampers set at the same settings? Also, do you have to switch out the oem top hats to the new suspension? I'm having the tein ss being shipped to me and am debating on doing the install myself, just wondering how hard it is to switch out the top hats. I'll be using the DIY instructions of the
A-SPEC suspension off of this site, which seems to be very detailed. One last thing, we need to see some pics of the new set-up.

 

Special-Ed, have you seen any uneven wear yet? Are you using a camber kit?

 

On top of that Ed, how did you get them for that cheap and can where can we get them for that price? As much as I want to support our vendors, I'd easily be swayed by that price!!

 

Hey guys, sorry for the delay but haven't been on as much as I used too....

Anway to answer your questions.....

Timstld:
I actually have my fronts and rears dialed in at 3 clicks away from the stiffest setting. Since I don't have the EDFC, every now and then I'll pop the hood and set it to the stiffest setting when I'm alone for some spirited driving. Yeah, you just use the factory top hats and washers. It's easy to do and you'll need a spring compressor (some people have used no spring compressor so it all depends on how risky you want to be), but it's just time consuming using the basic spring compressor that can be loaned out from any Autozone or PepBoys store. The only additional tool you'll need is a ratchet, torque wrench, socket set (mm). Also, a decent jack (you'll need it to apply a load to the damper when you're tightening all the nuts up once it's installed), and a couple of jack stands always helps.

Sakuragi:
No uneven wear but it all depends on how low you drop it. I've got about a 1 finger gap all the way around and I also have the Ingalls Camber kit installed to help correct the Toe / Camber. I just got the car aligned last weekend and finally put on my Federal rubber. My tires are a softer compound than my previous set of NIttos, so I'll be able to see any camber / toe wear more quickly if there's any alignment issues.

Ryee:
I got VERY lucky to get the set for 5 bills. Right place at the right time in my case.

 

Same exact thing happened to me on both sides. Did you talk to Koni about it? I did, and they didn't have an answer for me.

 

Hey GoBig, haha the one time in almost 2 months I decide to visit the forum.....

Anyway, funny thing this thread is resurrected. I did get RMA #'s to return both of them but just haven't yet with hopes of them seeing what crappy welds they have and them crediting my credit card. Was actually on my to-do list for tomorrow. Since then, I've put the Tein SS's on and haven't had any issues.

Interested to hear if you were able to get the units replaced under their lifetime warranty.

 

No, I didn't and won't return them. I did talk to them and they said that the piece that's welded on is just there to guide the position of the shock. Anyway, the shocks are performing well, otherwise. I'm going to put on the Eibach Pro Kit w/ them.