Has anyone lowered their MP3?
- Thread starter suki
- Start date
I am planning on getting the JIC's pretty soon. But I dont autocross or anything like that. I have the Ground Control coilovers right now but I hate the ride. With the JIC's I have the comfort of a better than stock ride with the choice of height adjustibility that is the only reason I want to get them. How low can you go with the JIC's?
importMP3 said:
best bet is to get it aligned. how low did you drop it? if it's cambering more then -1.5 degrees then it's a possibility but more then likely it's your toe settings that may be off.
importMP3, no I haven't had any issues. I get mine aligned about every 6 months or so and rotate and check pressue in the tires very often. My last set of tires were more bald on the inside, but I was spinning them a lot towards the end to hurry up the wear so I could get new tires. I'll keep an eye on these to see if they start to wear on the inside. The camber plates wouldn't hurt, they would probably make it be able to get a more acurate alignment. I have a friend do it and he takes his time and put's it right in the middle of the ranges. Most other shops won't do this.
Ground Control offers one for $299, here's the link http://www.ground-control.com/index.html I assume it means for all protege's from 1990 up. Give em a call and ask.
Tein S. Tech springs are WORTH the purchase for an upgrade to ANY Protege.....
Tein S. Tech springs not suitable for autocrossing? Why would you say that? It is no less than the MP3 OEM springs. I autocross and I can tell these S. Tech springs make an improvement over the OEM springs.
Tein S. Tech springs may be softer than the OEM springs, but they give you less body roll when you stop, turn and launch. All three combine to be important factors for autocross.
Granted, the S. Tech's do not feel outrageously stiffer on the turns compared to the OEM springs, but none the less it DOES have LESS body roll than the OEM springs.
You take that spring which cost around $200 or so, give or take. Compare it to the JIC coilover price ... what, $1200 - $1800 easily??
Come on now, be real.... that's like comparing a Civic Si against a NSX. You just can't compare the two.
For the cost, the Tein S. Tech is WORTH the purchase....if you want lower, go with Spools Springs... I don't know the spring rate, but Spools Springs are lower than Tein S. Tech....
If you have the cash and want the BEST, then of course go for the JIC by all means.... but I have to stress that the S. Tech springs are definitely worth the upgrade to your Protege for the price.
Tein S. Tech springs not suitable for autocrossing? Why would you say that? It is no less than the MP3 OEM springs. I autocross and I can tell these S. Tech springs make an improvement over the OEM springs.
Tein S. Tech springs may be softer than the OEM springs, but they give you less body roll when you stop, turn and launch. All three combine to be important factors for autocross.
Granted, the S. Tech's do not feel outrageously stiffer on the turns compared to the OEM springs, but none the less it DOES have LESS body roll than the OEM springs.
You take that spring which cost around $200 or so, give or take. Compare it to the JIC coilover price ... what, $1200 - $1800 easily??
Come on now, be real.... that's like comparing a Civic Si against a NSX. You just can't compare the two.
For the cost, the Tein S. Tech is WORTH the purchase....if you want lower, go with Spools Springs... I don't know the spring rate, but Spools Springs are lower than Tein S. Tech....
If you have the cash and want the BEST, then of course go for the JIC by all means.... but I have to stress that the S. Tech springs are definitely worth the upgrade to your Protege for the price.
Tanginamo425
AAAAHHHH!!!!!
- :
- Mazda MP3, Laser Blue Mica
I did a little more research and well i came to this conclusion.... I'm planning to get the S-Tech springs for now. After I get the rest of the parts i'm saving up for, I'll switch them to some TEIN coilovers. I won't get them till maybe a long time from now... Either way, after looking at the drop from the S-Tech springs, I started to like it...
starflare21 said:
well, what i can tell you so far from several cases is that
1. their struts were notorious to blow out fairly easily.
2. customer service sucks when needing to replace or rebuild parts. are the JIC's even rebuildable and/or revalveable like several other suspension manufacturers?
3. the overall coilover looks great but there are certain flaws that get overlooked at first glance just because it looks good right out of the box. you don't realize these things until they actually happen. take for instance the camber plate. the center bolt is pressed in on the Tein and Cusco brands where as the JIC's are threaded screw type. this screw type method leads to the possiblity of either breaking or stripping a bolt/thread and leads to movement, possibly even untwisting of the bolt as it moves around. a perfect example is if you ever needed to install/remove the suspension or say a strut bar. frequent on and off will eventually take toll on it if not careful. the pressed in method is easier to replace if it ever breaks and just makes more sense if you're paying top dollar. compare a cusco/tein brand camber plate to the JIC and there shouldn't be any doubt which one is crafted better. true, Tein doesn't make camber plates for the protege but i'm currently researching several things that i'm hoping may broaden the selection of camber plates for the protege on the market.
4. the adjustment of the strut dampening on the JIC unit vs. the Tein unit would be significant. the Tein unit you could set at the lowest setting and work your way steadily till you dial in the suspension with each one click, to fine tune it down to a good small increment. each one click wasn't too drastic of hardness/softness thus the ability to fine tune easier. the JIC's for each one click increment made too much of a drastic change in hardness/softness from one setting to the next click and is a little bit more challenging to fine tune.
I guess if you didn't intend to use any of these full coilover setups for racing and just for show it might be fine but if so then what's the point???
don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to flame JIC to hell on their products i would merely just say do the homework on these kinda things to make people's purchases of these expensive pieces worthwhile. it's too bad Cusco didn't make a lot of products for the protege. Cusco pieces are made to fit like a glove.
I'll definately forward these issues to Rishie and give a couple of other vendors who sell JIC a call and see if those example you gave are an isolated case or wide spread. Thank you for clearing up the speculation for me. I was getting tired of hearing a few member talk about the problem, but never actually saying what they ran into.
JIC Magic
Sometimes this does happen when japan makes 500 sets for the BJFP coilovers there will be a few of those 500 that will be bad or defective, it's just human error. All 500 can not always be perfect. All companies have this same problem, I don't care who they are!
You must all let me know if something happens to your parts. If you don't, how will we know when something like in this post happens. Please tell us, don't just say JIC sucks because something happens. Don't keep quiet and stay mad at us let us know.
I am sorry you got bad customer service and I don't know who you talked too, but I am the new sales guy here and I'll be taking over from now on.
Our coilovers are all rebuildable and or you can just buy some new dampers.
Not only do our suspension, exhaust, and chassis parts look good, but they are one of the best out on the market.
Let me know if somethink is wrong.
I will always try to take care of our customers.
Kris
JIC
Sometimes this does happen when japan makes 500 sets for the BJFP coilovers there will be a few of those 500 that will be bad or defective, it's just human error. All 500 can not always be perfect. All companies have this same problem, I don't care who they are!
You must all let me know if something happens to your parts. If you don't, how will we know when something like in this post happens. Please tell us, don't just say JIC sucks because something happens. Don't keep quiet and stay mad at us let us know.
I am sorry you got bad customer service and I don't know who you talked too, but I am the new sales guy here and I'll be taking over from now on.
Our coilovers are all rebuildable and or you can just buy some new dampers.
Not only do our suspension, exhaust, and chassis parts look good, but they are one of the best out on the market.
Let me know if somethink is wrong.
I will always try to take care of our customers.
Kris
JIC
starflare21 said:
well, what i can tell you so far from several cases is that
1. their struts were notorious to blow out fairly easily.
2. customer service sucks when needing to replace or rebuild parts. are the JIC's even rebuildable and/or revalveable like several other suspension manufacturers?
3. the overall coilover looks great but there are certain flaws that get overlooked at first glance just because it looks good right out of the box. you don't realize these things until they actually happen. take for instance the camber plate. the center bolt is pressed in on the Tein and Cusco brands where as the JIC's are threaded screw type. this screw type method leads to the possiblity of either breaking or stripping a bolt/thread and leads to movement, possibly even untwisting of the bolt as it moves around. a perfect example is if you ever needed to install/remove the suspension or say a strut bar. frequent on and off will eventually take toll on it if not careful. the pressed in method is easier to replace if it ever breaks and just makes more sense if you're paying top dollar. compare a cusco/tein brand camber plate to the JIC and there shouldn't be any doubt which one is crafted better. true, Tein doesn't make camber plates for the protege but i'm currently researching several things that i'm hoping may broaden the selection of camber plates for the protege on the market.
4. the adjustment of the strut dampening on the JIC unit vs. the Tein unit would be significant. the Tein unit you could set at the lowest setting and work your way steadily till you dial in the suspension with each one click, to fine tune it down to a good small increment. each one click wasn't too drastic of hardness/softness thus the ability to fine tune easier. the JIC's for each one click increment made too much of a drastic change in hardness/softness from one setting to the next click and is a little bit more challenging to fine tune.
I guess if you didn't intend to use any of these full coilover setups for racing and just for show it might be fine but if so then what's the point???
don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to flame JIC to hell on their products i would merely just say do the homework on these kinda things to make people's purchases of these expensive pieces worthwhile. it's too bad Cusco didn't make a lot of products for the protege. Cusco pieces are made to fit like a glove.
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Re: JIC Magic
I didn't just say JIC sucks, otherwise it would've been a "one-liner" post not several paragraphs. I totally understand about mass production and several bad apples every now and then but this isn't just a BJFP related incident it's in other models as well and it's not just what mechanical flaws caused by the production machine, it's simply the design isn't as good as I would expect it to be for that amount of money as I have mentioned some in my previous post. this isn't something that you can blame on the machine.
Like i said, i'm not flaming on JIC i'm merely stating my own opinion that with a little research you can find something better for an equal or even lesser price. companies that have also proved themselves in the field with both racing championships and street drivers alike. as for best in the suspension market i'd still give the nod that Tein is king of the hill at the moment and what seems like no sign of giving it up soon. you can't beat the full assault they've done in the recent past in the states as well as japan to take the title away from GAB as being the most widely used suspension for japanese vehicles.
I didn't just say JIC sucks, otherwise it would've been a "one-liner" post not several paragraphs. I totally understand about mass production and several bad apples every now and then but this isn't just a BJFP related incident it's in other models as well and it's not just what mechanical flaws caused by the production machine, it's simply the design isn't as good as I would expect it to be for that amount of money as I have mentioned some in my previous post. this isn't something that you can blame on the machine.
Like i said, i'm not flaming on JIC i'm merely stating my own opinion that with a little research you can find something better for an equal or even lesser price. companies that have also proved themselves in the field with both racing championships and street drivers alike. as for best in the suspension market i'd still give the nod that Tein is king of the hill at the moment and what seems like no sign of giving it up soon. you can't beat the full assault they've done in the recent past in the states as well as japan to take the title away from GAB as being the most widely used suspension for japanese vehicles.
goku said:
mp3boy1984
low rid'n member
mp3boy1984 said:
now that's a real nice lowered stance. i was planning to lower it around that height. can't really stand when the tire is tucked TOO much under the fender (no offense to the guys that like to slam em hard).
