Tein S-Tech springs installed (with pics)

[nramsey]

Hey all. After 1 year + 4 months and 24k miles I FINALLY lowered my car. I went with the Tein S-Tech springs since everyone seemed to like them and folks said they ride near stock. Installed them yesterday with a buddy's help and only ran into a few snags along the way (damn those swaybar bolts).

Anywho, I LOVE the results. The drop is perfect all around...I have about 1/4" between the tire (stock) and the fender. Advertised lowering is about 1.8" front and 1.5" in the rear. Since the spring rates are a conservative (advertised) 179 (f) /145 (r) lbs/in the ride really is much like stock.

I got these from Eddie at www.adrenalineracing.com GREAT guy to deal with and is an authorized Tein vendor. He doesn't list these on this site so give him a call if interested.

Here's some pics Only other visible mod my car has is 35% tinted windows all around. I also have Stongard on the front end but ya can't see it...which is good.

 

[mp3moose]

I love that last shot.
Moose

 

[Snacks McGee]

Nice job....a CF lip would look tight with that drop.

 

[nramsey]

Nice job....a CF lip would look tight with that drop.

Thanks. I agree, a CF lip would be nice. Do you know which ones are available? I've searched a bit, but haven't really found any.

 

[Snacks McGee]

I wanna pick up the DG Motorsports CF lip. Protege5online has them....but kinda pricey at $475 bucks.

 

[nramsey]

I love that last shot.
Moose

Thanks My friend and I went out and took some moving shots of each other's cars. That one turned out really well. I have a high res 1600x1200 version too if anyone is interested:

1600x1200 version

 

[Allen]

I agree, last photo... very nice! (thumb)

 

[R2Di2Dc2Do]

very nice.

 

[Chicken SOup]

179F/145R springs rates sound pretty good...
I am lookign for springs for my P5 right now and ur drop looks amazing..
Do you know how Tein spring compare to eibach, H&R , etc..?
Love the last shot

 

[nramsey]

179F/145R springs rates sound pretty good...
I am lookign for springs for my P5 right now and ur drop looks amazing..
Do you know how Tein spring compare to eibach, H&R , etc..?
Love the last shot

From what I've read on the forums both the Eibachs and H&Rs are stiffer than the Teins...more performance oriented I guess. From what I've seen the Eibachs don't lower the front end quite as much as the Teins, I think they lower like 1.6" front. Don't know if that .2" would even be noticable though. H&Rs I haven't heard too much about in the way of height.

 

[batmang]

whoa, looks awesome

 

[nramsey]

Having driven on these for about 4-5 days now, I just wanted to mention that I haven't heard any of the rear suspension clunk/rattle problem that most with lowering springs have reported. It's as quiet inside as it was with the stock suspension.

 

[Flat Black]

Nice buy. I'm looking for a pretty extreme drop. I need some coilovers.

 

[drumsbeloud]

it's been said before, but that last pic is awesome!

yeah, your car is noticably lower than mine with eibachs. if the tiens are not as stiff, have you noticed if you've hit the bump stops at all? it seems that with that much of a drop on a "soft" spring, your struts are gonna take a beating. yes, no?

 

[Chicken SOup]

so would u say that the ride is similar to stock?
How is ur clearance on roads...cuz i live in NYC and im looking for springs and the roads here are horrible

 

[nramsey]

it's been said before, but that last pic is awesome!

yeah, your car is noticably lower than mine with eibachs. if the tiens are not as stiff, have you noticed if you've hit the bump stops at all? it seems that with that much of a drop on a "soft" spring, your struts are gonna take a beating. yes, no?

Thanks

I haven't noticed hitting the bumpstops during my driving yet. The Tein spring instructions recommended not cutting the stops on the Protege, so I didn't. They seem soft enough so that if you WERE to hit them it wouldn't be jarring...more of a progressively increasing stiffness as you compress the stops. The ride is quite comfortable. It's a little bit stiffer than stock, slightly more "busy" over choppy sections, but that's what I'd expect from lower/stiffer springs.

It does feel like the stock shocks are at about their limit as far as stiffness though. I expect within a year or two they will need replacement with some aftermarket ones probably. For the time being though it's great.

 

[nramsey]

so would u say that the ride is similar to stock?
How is ur clearance on roads...cuz i live in NYC and im looking for springs and the roads here are horrible

Hard to say about clearance. You would definitely need to be cautious about the front bumper when pulling into parking spots so you don't smash it on curbs. As far as pulling into and out of driveways, I haven't had any problem yet...it doesn't seem like the stock bumper lip is low enough to really cause a problem there.

The roads around where I live are pretty good, so hard to tell how the car would do on really rough roads.