Tein Street Advance Install
 

So I will getting a set of Tein Street Advance coilovers for Christmas and I will be installing them a couple days after Christmas. So the question is how difficult will this install be? It will be my cousin and I who a pretty good amount of experience with working on cars. I've never done any suspension mods but he has down springs and coilovers on his vechicles. Will we need any special tools besides all the nessecary sockets and all of that stuff? Any other special advice for installing these? Or any other help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!

Ive done this on a couple of cars, and it's just basic bolt turning. You'll probably need a deep or hollow thru socket for the top hat bolts, and a breaker/pb blaster for the bottom bolts. The hardest part will be lining them up as they go in but you can probably find an alignment/taper pin tool thingy to help. Be careful you don't hit any sensors around the hub/brake and follow the torque guidelines in the service manual and you'll be fine.

I've read that removing the rear seats are a pain, so yeah... Do that the night before so you don't start off frustrated.

whatsup dude.

***measure your distance with wheels on the ground before lifting***

i just installed mine yesterday with the help of my cousin who is a mechanic. He brought that electric gun like they use at nascar lol, it made everything A LOT easier. neither of us had any idea exactly what we were doing other than doing our homework online. it took us about 5 hours and that does not include removal of seats that i did the night prior. the fronts were redonkulous easy. the rears - due to having to line everything back up - was a serious pain in the glutes. that took the longest. the fronts took maybe an hour and 20. thats with us reading guides and really just taking our time to put anti seize and removing top hats with spring compressor, learning to use spring compressor cuz it can be difficult etc.

my biggest piece of advice would be that for the rears, once the tein is correctly in its place to install, only hand tighten a few threads and then put the jack under the knuckle area to lift u up and help you align your long bolt, cuz u dont want to cross thread anything. theres a smaller bolt next to that long bolt (this is if you take that small bolt off cuz theres a few different guides on here you can use - for example i used the guide where u dont take off the end link), i would put that small bolt in fairly snug before the big screw so the unit moves as one and ur not going to have to fight to align two bolts. (so put small bolt on first so unit moves as one, then long bolt) you might find putting the small bolt in easy even without the jack, but i used the jack to help with the long bolt. then tighten your bolts on top of the tophat that you hand tightened.

there are two bolts on top of the rear original tophats, make sure you undo both so the whole assembly comes out. who will want to do this so you can see how the tophat is assembled and it will go in as one unit with the tein. otherwise the tophat may sit on top and the original assembly will come out and ur gonna be like wtf, omg becky why does this look like somethings missing according to the tein diagram.

i followed tein's 1" to the bottom of threads in the booklet and that resulted in a 1" drop in front and a little higher than 1" in the rear. i do not have a kit on. i have stock wheels. I drove out of my place and scraped lol. i purposely drove around and on bumps as i normally do to see how low i was and bottomed out on a bump and another driveway, this was also going at angles after the first scrape and bump hit. you may want to go 1.5" from bottom of thread if you dont want to scrape or have a kit. keep in mind i have stock rims though as i mentioned. ill probably go to 18 but my spider senses and womans intuition tell me i should raise mine another .5 if possible, but ill wait for the springs to settle first so i dont have to do that sheeyit again.

my current wife did NOT want me to do this and this first, current wife isnt a worry wart. im pretty handy as well, i removed my headlights, painted, sealed, baked and reinstalled. swapped out rear taillights and smoke side indicators etc, but i will be honest and pull my bitch card and say i would NEVER try this on my own after having done it. FU#K THAT. but to each their own, andi give mad props to those more skilled than i who can do this with no sweat.

the handling is incredible, ur gonna love it :)

LOL at the wording on this!

I love the way you say "current" wife...got something planned? haha!

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OP, make sure you preload the suspension before tightening the bolts or you will get uneven heights. Click here for details.

Also, keep in mind that with these coils there is no separate spring preload adjustment...it's changed when you change the height. So what you'll notice is that if you raise or lower a corner and measure the amount of change on the threading...it won't be equal to the actual change in height. This was killing me as I was trying to get everything to sit at equal height. It's especially noticeable the more you raise or lower a corner.

When measuring heights, don't go from the fender to the ground because differences in tire pressure can alter your results. Instead either go from the fender to the middle of the wheel or from the fender to the top lip of your wheel. I did it using the latter and bought a $10 digital caliper from Harbor Freight to make it a little easier. If you go that route put some electrical tape over the part of the caliper that touches your fender so you don't scratch the clear coat.

As mentioned above you'll need a spring compressor but other than that it's pretty much your standard tools.

I recommend you keep your back seat out for a few days until you get the damper settings to your liking.

One more note, make sure when you are trying to determine your ride height that you turn the front wheels all the way to one side and make sure you have enough clearance. Not only enough so that your wheel will turn but a little bit more so when you turn and there's a change in elevation you don't rub too much.

A lot of this is probably common sense but it was my first time installing coils and also my first time being lowered so I figured I'd share it all.

Good luck!

Bahahah @ "current wife"

You shouldn't need any special tools for the installation. My only recommendation is that you grease and/or use anti-sieze on the locking collars and threads.

^^^ and at Wreak: whoops. Heh, heh..I was thinking out loud. MYYYYYYY BAAAAAAAAAD.

(Read between the lines here gentlemen.. Never get married and ALWAYS remember; emergency first aid and CPR does NOT work on in laws. It's a scientific fact)

:gavel:

I'm on stiffest setting I should note and after driving to work today on 280, there was great handling although with some noticeable bumps that were not a big deal before we're notably felt today. No hard jolts by any means, but definitely felt my man boobs and gut pack jiggle a little.

Don't make fun.. -__-

Here are the best tips I have for doing coilover installs:

1) Do both fronts and both rears at the same time. If you start at the front, pull out both stock assemblies first, then install the Tein assemblies. The Teins are shorter than stock dampers and if you don't do this you will be fighting against the sway bar.

2) To get the front dampers out, turn the wheel to the direction of the side you are working on. This will make the assemblies a lot easier to take out and put in because it moves the tie-rods closer to the damper, giving you more room to get the shock out.

3) To get the sides even, adjust the coilover collars even. If you have an inch of threads on the right and left and you still are not level, you may have a bushing preload issue. But if you install using my #1 tip this should never be a concern.

4) Allow about 1/16" to 1/8" variance in the height. It is really hard to get it P-E-R-F-E-C-T. And actually, as soon as you sit in the car it will be off anyway. Just get it pretty much where you want it and pretty much level and you will be fine.

5) Don't forget that Heeltoe provides FREE consultation on all matters of Acura issues. That means helping determine what parts to buy as well as tech help while you are under the car. No purchase necessary! Real, Experienced, Honest Advice...for Free

Wow thank you very much!! Great advice and thank you for the help! I will be installing them next week and this definitely helped a lot. I'll make sure to give a call if I need some help when installing!

Awesome, thank you! And if you need any other parts let us know :)

Marcus

Someone told me I would possibly need extended end links with these coilovers? Do I need to buy these? And is there anything else I need to buy for these before I install them on Monday??

Hi there, I got your call just now. Your friend with the genesis might have needed them but it is not necessary on the Acuras.

Is there a DIY instructions link on the forums here for installing these?

Great post. Glad to hear it worked out. I thought I would raise a related question here.

Question on Tein SA for AWD:

What is the best damper setting overall for a neutral balance? I plan on installing very soon and was hoping there is a bit of consensus on what the best setting is. I've heard go soft in the rear and firm up front.

You can tune your suspension yourself for your own needs very easily:

https://www.heeltoeauto.com/tech-articles/how-to-tune-your-adjustable-coilover-damper-kit-for-the-street..html

my buddy and i took this one on yesterday.

it took us about 5 hours, and we installed the SPC camber kit (3 arms) in the rear also. FWIW, he's a mechanic and I agree with the above, that an impact driver does help immensely. Having it to utilize the spring compressor alone made it worth its weight.

The fronts were pretty simple, the rears took a lot more time. In both cases we had to disconnect the sway bar to get the assembly in/out. Whether you install rear camber adjustment or not, you're probably going to have to tear out all of the control arms. The rear seat is a major PITA, also.

What made you get the SPC Kit? Was it pre cautionary reason? I just bought the Coil Overs also and don't plan to go HELLA FLUSH. But wondering about if the kit is a must.

yes, precautionary...mostly.

it seems most people here don't mind that the car's camber or toe isn't dialed perfect...as long as it's *within spec* and doesn't cause crazy tire wear.

i'm more neurotic that if my car's toe isn't zeroes all around i'll constantly worry about it.

Your right and Tires ain't cheap lol. I had my GS-R Slammed at one point and use to eat those tires alive until I got a all around kits put on it and raise it a half in.

A couple of things.

1: these coilovers are awesome! I set the damping at 4 clicks from fully stiff at the front and back and the ride is great and the front end feels communicative.

2: if you install them yourself, you'll likely have to tighten everything with the wheels off of the ground. This is fine, you won't die or anything, but when you go to get it aligned, tell the alignment shop what you did and have them remove the preload on the suspension. the car felt pretty good driving to the alignment shop, but feels amazing afterwards with everything working together at it should.