Coilover comparison?

[mray]

not to be a smart ass but its a pss kit/b14 not a pss10. pss is only height adjustable which you adjust by the coupler thing. pss10/9 has a knob to adjust dampening. if you go on the bilstein website it actually states it is a PSS kit while as if you go to the corksport website it says its a pss10. so who do you think is correct? the manufacture or the guys selling the product.

 

[concealer404]

The adjuster should be at the bottom of the damper on the PSS10, not the top. Don't mean to suggest the obvious, but the PSS10 is different than most arrangements.

RE: Custom springs-

Hyperco, Swift, Carrera, Eibach, Tein and more offer springs in various free lengths and rates. If they don't offer something close to what you're looking for, I'll eat my hat and order exactly what I need from someplace like THIS.

+1 for Hyperco. Great springs made to much more precise tolerances than what i've seen out of Eibach.

 

[Slow Paul]

This intrigues me as I kinda had my heart set on this kit. I thought for $970.00, for adjustable BILSTEINS, no way. I will await the final verdict on these. As reference, I had a set of Bilstein Sports on my previous car and I must say, they were pretty damn stiff. Living in SoCal doesn't help either as the roads here are somewhat crappy.

 

[zps2004]

Well it looks like I am going to have to wait for something unless koni starts making yellows soon.

 

[mray]

so far im getting use to it. however people that ive had in the car that have not sat in any coilover set ups or lowered cars commented that it was too harsh for them.

the only ones that ive seen claim that it has 36 dampening adjustments were the D2 coilovers and ksports, but the pictures they displayed for the rear looks to be a regular set not like a torsion beam setup. im also not a big fan of those brands. oh yeah one more thing i believe HKS makes a kit too for about 400 more. ...not sure if those have dampening adjustments.

 

[concealer404]

so far im getting use to it. however people that ive had in the car that have not sat in any coilover set ups or lowered cars commented that it was too harsh for them.

the only ones that ive seen claim that it has 36 dampening adjustments were the D2 coilovers and ksports, but the pictures they displayed for the rear looks to be a regular set not like a torsion beam setup. im also not a big fan of those brands. oh yeah one more thing i believe HKS makes a kit too for about 400 more. ...not sure if those have dampening adjustments.

The "36" is laughable at best on those coilovers. You will not be able to tell a difference in anything less than... adjustments of 6-8 increments. If you're lucky.

KSport is WAY better than they used to be, and for the money, you can't go wrong. But that adjustment range is HILARIOUS.

 

[mray]

The "36" is laughable at best on those coilovers. You will not be able to tell a difference in anything less than... adjustments of 6-8 increments. If you're lucky.

KSport is WAY better than they used to be, and for the money, you can't go wrong. But that adjustment range is HILARIOUS.

yeah i agree lol. i thought d2 and ksport was basically the same company but different labels. could be wrong though

 

[Greensleeper]

yeah i agree lol. i thought d2 and ksport was basically the same company but different labels. could be wrong though

KSport an D2 are the same. Exactcly the same construction, same spring rates, blablabla.

Bilstein or H&R are the way to go! I would mind trying the Yellow Speed, them seem ok from what I heard... But i'm 100% positive that the Bilstein / H&R are far superior.

 

[M2Tim]

K-Sport and D2-Racing produce the coilovers and brakes in the same taiwanese factory ^^. I think that these two are the best coilovers. But thats just my opinion. In germany are stringend relutations for driving in normal traffic, so the choice for good coilovers is not very big.

Bilstein is good but just a lowering of 30-50mm ... thats not much . H&R the same problem. KW is also a good geman producer. But they all have no dampening adjustment.

There are much more coilover-producer. KIDO-Racing, BC-Racing, Yellow Speed, XYZ-Performance, Spax RSX, AutoExe and Cusco for example. But i doesnt have much informations about the producers or rather the coilovers ...

 

[zps2004]

I got spoiled early because of my friends. I basically live by this train of thought. I am quoting far north racing.

"Remember this list:

Bilstein
Penske
Koni
Ohlins
Sachs
Dynamic Suspension
Not on this list? Almost certainly crap.

(The reason why JRZ and Moton aren't on the "good" list is simple - I never dynoed any. In the absence of any dyno information one way or the other, I choose to remain silent.)"

I would personally add AST's to this list as well. AST didn't exist when the article was written. I hate to wait for coilovers, but I am not going to buy something I know I son't like so I will wait.

Here is the link to the full article.
http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets18.html

 

[Racebrewer]

Thanks ZPS2004,

Great link and it reinforces what I believe to be true about various brands of shocks.

Here is a link to Bilstein technical data on the coilover TUV approval. There is a lot of specs on the spring dimensions that will be of interest to those who want to adapt linear racing springs to get the rates they want.

http://www.dvsegmbh.info/PDF/einbau/22011/171/E4-WM4-Y630A00.PDF

As I read this (please take with a grain of salt as I am going by the diagram and not with a set in front of me), I see the following:

Both front and rear springs have three different diameters. I subtracted the wire diameters and converted to US sizes.

Front springs are 8.58" in free length. The kit uses the OEM top mounts and the springs are 3.25" ID at that point. The central ID of the spring is 3.7" and at the bottom where they contact the Bilstein shock the springs have a 2.36" ID.

It looks like some head scratching will be required to get any aftermarket racing springs to work with the top OEM mount. Where they sit on the shock body shouldn't be a big deal.

In the rear the springs have a 8.46" free length. The Bilstein height adjuster appears to go at the top of the spring and fit over the stock spring mounting point. Where the springs mount on the adjuster they have a 2.4" ID. The bottom of the Bilstein springs go on the stock mounting spots and have a 2.24" ID at that point. I am GUESSING but I'd think that aftermarket 2.5" ID racing springs could be made to work with little effort.

MRAY, does that sound about right? How do the OEM coils you liberated compare?

Thanks,
John

 

[zps2004]

I haven't taken them apart yet, but it shouldn't be that hard to make an adapt the smaller spring.

 

[mray]

yeah if you can make it mount the spring correctly on where the adjusters are then you are fine. it was surprising to see how much shorter the bilstein rear shock was to the stock since it was almost half the length

 

[Slow Paul]

Other than the Bilsteins being stiff over bumps, do you feel that they have taken that "soft shock" feeling out of the car while cornering? Even though they aren't a true PSS10 kit as advertised, I am still considering them as I feel the soft stock suspension is hampering my cornering-fun.

 

[mray]

what do you mean by soft shock feeling? like the feedback is a tad laggy?

 

[Slow Paul]

Yeah that's what I'm talking about.

 

[mray]

yeah the feedback is really responsive. i think a sway or a torsion bar in the rear would complete it. im not too big of a believer in tower strut bars.

 

[Slow Paul]

Sweet! So it's safe to say that wallow in the stock suspension is gone, now time to start saving.