steelcomp

Nothing you posted above except for the electronic control makes them stand out above any others. Why specifically are they so much better? Aren't these single adjustable (rebound and compression) or are they adjustable separately?
Thanks.
Oh, and your link doesn't work.

F1Fan

Well yeah but he sells them! The Flex uses a single adjuster that alters both bump and rebound damping which is not terrible in and of itself. But it really depends on how much time whoever sets the damping curves up takes for the chassis in question. The Flex also has the ability to alter the damper's overall length with out changing the spring seats which changes preload. The TEIN's are just like many of the other Japanese products, lots of features and weak internals. The Japanese springs I've tested were terrible and did not match their ratings and even the springs that were supposed to be the same were not even close.

HTH!

peetiewonder

KW V3s are supposed to be the biz when it comes to coilovers. I have BC Racings on my car and they are good for what they are but by no means the best option for what you want, but on my car I dig them. They handle really well and ride okay. My number one goal was to slam the car though.

F1Fan

For the money that V3's cost you could buy a coilover setup that works much better from GC.

You got what you paid for, low budget lowering and nothing else. If you think the BC's handle well you don't need anything better because you don't drive fast enough for it to matter.

Like I said above, you don't drive fast enough to know the difference or need a decent damper.

colin06

F1fan, have you had any experience with AST coilovers or the Griggs racing GS40SS entry level suspension system?

Team STILLEN

STILLEN sells KW, Pfadt Racing, PENSKE, Griggs, TEIN, Bilstein, Eibach, H&R, and Moton. So it's NOT just because I sell them. I have raced on these systems on the S197 chassis with incredible results and have them on my own street car as well as my race car.

Griggs Koni front coil over system is also great and their rear Watts system is literally the best money can buy. That being said, this wasn't about re-engineering a customers car. This was about simple bolt on coil overs. And just because its Japanese doesn't mean its junk. Where did that infomration come from??? There are plenty of Japanese companies that make amazing parts for domestic performance vehicles and to base its performance on its country of origin is simple bigotry.

The advice I gave here is no different from the advice I would give at the track. For a coil over system, both TEIN and KW make great products. In a perfect world where money was no option, I would mahcine a strut body and run the PENSKE triple adjustables with specific spring rates for each street I drive on. But $2000 per corner doesn't make much sense does it.

Team STILLEN

The weight is another advantage of the Flex system using aluminum body construction. The total travel length can be measured from the system itself and they have a lifetime warranty. As for re-valving, that is done right here in southern California in Downey. The average turn around time is less than 1 week and I have had them do it in 1 day so we could make an event. You can also ask for custom valving for specific racing applications and they can graph the shock to your specs and test it on their shock dyno on site.

If you wanted to upgrade, they also have mono-tube dampers that can also be switched out and in custom applications, you can have independant adjustment of compression and rebound for the true suspension tuner. For most street cars, a single adjustment is enough to get the ride you're looking for and we haven't had a complaint yet.

Just my 2 cents.....

F1Fan

The weight savings of the alloy body is minimal and relatively minor importance compared with strut body durability for street cars. But thanks for posting the rebuild info.

Does the lifetime warranty include rebuilds forever? Can you answer the other questions I asked?

What it the total stroke length for S197 Flex coilovers. This is important for street cars so we can see if they are actually practical for use on real world street cars or just profilers and show cars. There are some so called performance struts and coilovers that lower ride height at the expense of droop and minmizing suspension stroke and suspension travel and hence ride and grip. Stroke length at the right height is the key to a good ride and bumpy surface traction.

What does a rebuild cost per damper what is the cost to revalve and what is included in a rebuild and or a revalve? These prices are all posted by Koni and the Koni authorized rebuild centers.

It has been my experience that Konis are very reasonable to rebuild, repair and customize even for the double adjustable Koni race dampers I have on my M3. It only cost me $500 to completely rebuild a pair of TC Kline/Koni double adjustable race coilovers. This work included custom machined strut rods (so I could get the right droop on a shortened coilover body)complete rebuild and replacement of all seals and valves and all internal hardware, calibration on the shock dyno (so the valving on both dampers can be adjusted evenly side to side) refinishing and painting of both strut bodies. If not for the custom machine work It would have cost me less than $300 out the door.

Actually a good double adjustable damper can more easily be setup to ride better than a single adjustable damper. The reason a good double adjustable damper can ride better than a single adjustable damper is that a rebound only adjustable damper cannot adjust the compression part of the stroke which most influences comfort. Sure you can set the fixed compression valving of a single adjustable damper to be comfortable in compression but then you have the problem of not being able to use enough rebound damping without the dampers packing down. You also cannot use higher rate springs for better response and handling AND you cannot have a significantly lower ride height without bottoming out all of the time. You can't have it all and you cannot have adjustable length coilovers with out a very short damper stroke which limits droop which limits travel and ride and bumpy road grip. But if you want to slam your car and accept the huge compromises necesary the TEIN Flex coilovers might look pretty good.

F1Fan

Only driving and tweaking (AST's) them on other people's cars, they are too rich for my blood and not durable enough for my use as daily driver car. I'm on Steeda coilovers which are custom D-Spec based carts. with a custom c/o strut body. I can see the attraction of the adjustable full length bodies but I'd rather have more suspension travel for DD use. My M3 is pretty low on TC Kline Racing D/A coilovers but it's not a DD car.

HTH!

Import_Slaya

F1Fan, do you know the spring rate ranges the Steeda coilovers will damp? I've heard that the stock D-specs will handle up to the 400 lb-ish range and I'm wondering if the Steeda spec'd valving pushes a good bit higher.