Double checking on suspension

Ok I just would like to double check what I am searching here and reading to be totally true. I am looking into coilovers... well the ones I want were offered in Japan but didn't come over to the USA. What am I looking at you might wonder? I am looking at the Tanabe Sustec Seven set up... I love their suspensions. Now they make it for the JDM BP5 (wagon if memory serves). So my question is this... from what I read on here in the sticky's the USDM suspension can be matched to the JDM suspension for those who would like to run it. So would it be safe to bet that the JDM coils would bolt to the USDM car???? Also is the wagon the same as the sedan in the same nature? I didn’t know if there was a difference between the JDM ones or not.

 

Thanks a bunch! Seth

 

If this is something I could have found in a search my apologies, but when I was looking I was coming up with a whole lot of hazy answers.

I think it will bolt up no problem. How much are these coilovers BTW. JDM sets are usually pricey.

Not totally sure yet lol! I was reading a magazine a while back... I saw the reviews on the Sustec Sevens and it was first on an rx-8, next thing I saw was a cabin shot of a jdm legacy with the teas set up in the cubby. Next day I emailed Tanabe and they told me it didn’t come to the USA... sooooo I went hunting for it. I am talking with Gruppe-S about it and seeing if I can even get my hands on it.

 

I wanted that little "extra" reassurance it was going to bolt up to the car lol! So that I knew for sure I wasn’t wasting my time and money on this.

 

I am sure shipping will be a little bit of money but we'll see. When I know for sure I can post it up if you'd like? Tanabe didn’t seem to have any interest in bringing it over special order either. So I’ll know probably today. I’ve been dealing with a nice lady at Gruppe-S who I got my Advan's from which should be here next week.

yes, it works just fine. I was one of the first people in august of 2005 to buy JDM (Zeal Endless) coilovers to put on the GT. If anything, the valving maybe a bit more aggressive since roads in Japan are way better in shape than the US roads.

Yea that was one reason they said they didnt bring it to the USA. I was going to try to get an idea on the spring rates and such. We'll see what happens... I haven't got a call back from Gruppe-S yet.

 

How are you liking your set up Xenonk? I have a friend who wants me to go Endless lol.

i've been driving for 2 years on them, race on them, and do a lot of track events on them..

 

You really have to be picky about the setup. In all honesty, if you dont set up the coilovers right, any coilover will feel like crap.

 

Spend your time in looking into their valving.. looking at spring rates is barely any good indication of what the shocks are capable of.

 

I went with Endless since they are inverted and this allows the coilover to do less suspension travel. You may want to do more research. I stuck with Zeal because at that time, Cusco didnt have the Zero2-R application for our cars. I needed a coilover that had camber plates, urethane bushings instead of hard rubber or solid bearings and definitely needed 2-way adjustment (for ride height and spring pre-load).

 

The Zeals I have now are discontinued (Version V6 normals). They replaced it with the X series (XS is for street and X is for track/motorsports use). If i had to get it the new versions, I would get the X with custom springs and valves. I would get 14 kg fronts and 12 kg rears and an aggressive valving for more dedicated track use...

 

If I spend anymore money than that, I would end up calling Moton for their 4-way adjustable shocks with remote resevoirs instead and have them match the design of the Zeals.

I just dont understand all the options and parts and how it effects everything i guess. It definetly makes choosing something extremely difficult. I know inverted makes for a stiffer ride, for exactly what you said about less travel. Other then that i get lost lol!

I just dont understand all the options and parts and how it effects everything i guess. It definetly makes choosing something extremely difficult. I know inverted makes for a stiffer ride, for exactly what you said about less travel. Other then that i get lost lol!

 

inverted doesn't mean it's going to be a stiffer ride in every instance, it means that you have a design that can hold in more fluid and the piston casing is a lot larger that can take on more abuse from having a bent piston shaft if something were to happen.

 

you can still have the same suspension travel on an inverted design, and this allows you to have more room for fluids and gases in the chamber to have the proper valving to the springs you have it matched to.

 

The reason why I wanted a shorter suspension travel is to help get rid of the additional travel of weight transfer when the suspension gets loaded from accelerating, braking and cornering. It's one way to keep the car from rolling, this allows me to run higher spring rates as well and also have the valves tuned aggressively to match the higher spring rates.. I want to keep all 4 tires on the ground as much as possible even if the car does experience a roll or squat. Shocks won't work well if the stroke is out of the designed travel range aka "bottoming out" or "hitting the bump stop". Spring bind is also a big no-no as that can cause some really bad handling traits if you end up loading the suspension too much, which can do kick-backs and upset the car to cause it to literally bounce off the road. But when you compare the designs of an inverted shock to a normal shock, you can easily see that the normal non-inverted will need twice as much travel to perform the same kind of suspension duties as an inverted one.

 

Again, do more research as to what are the benefits to having ride-height adjustment and what the attributes are when changing the ride height alone.

 

Also look into what the definition of spring pre-load and what effects it have when it comes to handling.

 

There's a WHOLE lot of performance potential when you get coilovers, the real question is if the owner is going to make the most out of it to fit their needs.

awesome! thanks for the info its much appreciated. a lot of that makes sense and i am going to go and get some information on everything lol!

 

thanks again for taking the time to write me that post... really explains a lot.

I think it will bolt up no problem. How much are these coilovers BTW. JDM sets are usually pricey.

 

ok well after a long awaited time i finally have information.... the coils i was going after are Tanabe's NNBP5K coilovers. it's a set that isnt offered over here in the states. its a "normal feeling" coilover set so it will have a virtually stock feel to it and ride soft as can be now before you go thinking why the hell does he want that? lol! well thats actually what i am looking for. when i had the gf210s springs on my old rsx combined with some kyb shocks it road softer then stock, yet i was able to handle better then stock still. since it was a progressive style spring that like im sure you know pushes harder the harder itself is pushed. i am actually going to go for these bastards and buy them. price... 1200 shipped to my door. bad side... they have a bit of a wait time of just over a month. i can expect them to get here september 6th. so there is an up and a down side to all this i suppose. i'll have coils no one else really will here in the states lol, but at the same time i have to wait for them. but like i said i want a really smooth ride... hell i dont race my car or anything and i dont plan on it either. sooooooo here is a link to the coils i am going to be ordering.

 

Tanabe Sustec Pro NF Coilovers:

http://www.rd-tanabe.com/lineup/sustec/pro_nf/index.html

 

(site might be slow, runs slow a lot of the time i go there; also if you want to get it translated go to http://babelfish.altavista.com/ and enter the web address and select japanese to english. it wont get every single word on the page but it will do a hell of a good job at getting almost all of it)

ok i have another question... from the looks in the pictures these do not have pillow ball uppers. how important are they? from what i am told it isnt really a needed item but they arent a bad thing to have either. i assume since the pillows have camber plates i will need a camber kit of some kind correct? also does anyone even make these for our car? i havent really seen any, but im off to search.

ok im bumping up my old thread here for another question... i ended up buying KW coilovers and i partly regret them... little too stiff for our roads here so i am rethinking the whole going after the tanabe's again.

 

here is my question... if these do not come with pillow ball uppers any ideas if they will be able to use the USDM top hats or will i need to hunt for some JDM tops?