REAmemiya_fan

Seeing as the AAS was hardly a real performer to begin with, is it possible to swap out the 'sport tuned suspension' from the '87 sport into an '88 GXL, or is it essentially the same minus the AAS?

RXSpeed16

iTrader: (41)

The parts swap in, but there isn't much to gain by doing it unless your AAS shocks are stuck on soft mode. Even then, a 25 year old 'hard suspension' shock is going to be in pretty bad shape. You'll need newer stock replacements or aftermarket shocks to get any significant change.

REAmemiya_fan

So does the AAS work simply by changing the shock stiffness by the push of a button? Because if that is the case couldn't you simply put any adjustable shock in and it would work? Or does the system work in a completely different manner?

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

the AAS basically works like that, however its more in depth than that. there are the 2 modes, normal and sport, but there are 3 shock positions. there is soft, hard and very hard.

so the S4 system can look at speed, accelerator position, brake pressure, and steering wheel angle and speed. if you brake hard, or accelerate hard, or move the steering wheel quickly, the shocks will stiffen up.

the yamaguchi FC book has a chart of the shock modes, and actually the shock dyno's as well.

the hardware is really similar to teins EDFC, its a shock with a stepper motor on top of it, and a controller

REAmemiya_fan

Oh okay. So is there any good aftermarket support for it to make it worth keeping? I think its really cool to say ypu have, even if there isnt much that actually happens with it haha.

RXSpeed16

iTrader: (41)

The problem comes down to the primitive motor used to control the adjustment. Basically, the motor has 3 preset positions that are mirriored 180 degrees apart. Put another way, the shock has 6 sections per every rotation and as you go around in 1 revolution, the settings go:
Soft->Hard->Very Hard->Soft->Hard->Very Hard.

The system is made for that shock. Problem is nobody makes that kind of shock. If you did swap in another adjustable type, the system will not know where your shock is and may be way off. possibly switching to soft during braking, etc... I think the only way to keep it is to buy new AAS shocks. $$$

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

+1, the mazda hardware isn't really compatible with anything else. however you COULD buy one of those programmable microcontroller things, and you could actually DIY it, stepper motor controllers aren't exotic anymore

REAmemiya_fan

Okay... Well assuming the shocks are garbage, should i just swap my sport struts/springs/shocks in until i weiher get a new set of oem AAS? Sorry for so many questions, id rather be 100% sure about what i do than wing it and see what happens. I learned that lesson from my sport the hard way...

HAILERS2

How 'bout just chunking the AAS shocks and installing regular ole shocks.

REAmemiya_fan

^That's why I am considering swapping in the Sport suspension.

RXSpeed16

iTrader: (41)

Not much to gain unless the sport suspension is relatively new. I would much prefer the novelty of running old and busted adjustable shocks versus old and busted regular shocks. A set of non-adjustable tokico blues is about $400 and will out-perform the 100k stockers by a mile. OEM AAS parts will be close to $900 shipped. Ditch the stock shocks and keep the button.

REAmemiya_fan

I think I'm going to do something along the lines of what j9fd3s said and make a different version of the system. If i can find a motor that can turn at custom set settings with the turn of a dial, then ill get some koni adjustable shocks and measure out the degrees between each setting, then have the motor turn that amount of degrees with each turn of the dial. Idk how many settings the shocks have but if i could some how get a dial that has x amount of settings in relation to x amount of stiffness settings, then in theory, I could wire everything to have it all work. And if the funds allow me to, I could probably have seperate dials for f/r.

Sounds like a nice DIY to me

RXSpeed16

iTrader: (41)

I was looking into this before as a DIY project so I'll share what I found and hopefully save some legwork. Basically, you'll be copying the TEIN EDFC system. Some shocks adjusters cycle the settings as you spin the adjuster (soft>med>hard>soft...) and some are just clockwise=harder, counter cw=softer (Tein style). Stepper motors are pretty cheap and can be wired up to make a pulse to rotate the motor "X" amount one way or the other. With a little trial and error, you can get it dialed in. But, you'll have to remember the setting you had it on last, then figure out how many clicks it is cw or ccw until the desired setting, press the button that may times. Not very dynamic or accurate and you will forget at some point.
The solution is integrating the controller so it can actually tell you where you are in the rotation. That way you can press the 'soft' button and it goes straight to soft. This is where it gets a bit more pricey and complicated. That's about where I gave up on building one myself.

REAmemiya_fan

Okay so this is what I came up with to illustrate what is in my head as far as the switch/adjustment panel will work out. This assortment would take the place of the stock radio position (I realize that the scale is off, but you get the point. I will obviously make a better and more accurate sketch on paper and scan it onto the computer). Simply two *****/dials with four pre-set positions (well depending on the amount of adjustment on the shock) and each position of the dial determines the stiffness of the shock.

In a simplified version, the amount of degrees between each setting will be a pre-set "code" between each different position on the dial itself. So for instance, lets pretend that we have an 8-way adjustable shock, and every 45 degrees of rotation on the actual shock is different stiffness setting. Now, we have to calibrate the dials to have 8 different settings. So if every 22.5 degrees of rotation on the dial turns the actual shock 45 degrees higher/lower, then we now have a system that will adjust the shock in direct relation to the position of the dial.

All of this will have to be done electronically so the ECU of the system will need to be programed to account for all of this. After all the programming is done, then the rest is pretty simple. Just put everything together the right way, wire it all, and check for any bugs/faults within the system.

It will take a lot of detailed planning and probably money, but in the end, I will have a system that will be excellent for what I plan to do with the car, which is a DD that will be used for AutoX. So settings being able to be easily adjusted will have it's obvious benefit.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

i'm not a real expert on this, although i have played a pilot before....

i'm under the impression that a stepper motor is a stepper motor, so i think you could just use the mazda motors, but the controller needs to be custom.

my friend has a programmable controller thing, so you could actually program it to change the shocks based on whatever input you like. i should have a link to check out later.

the shocks you choose really matter, the AGX and tokico's can spin all the way around, but off the top the koni's only do like 2 1/2 turns between full soft and full stiff.

RXSpeed16

iTrader: (41)

The controllers for stepper motors function by pulsing the motor. The industry standard is 200 pulses per revolution, so you'd have to hit a button 40 times in order to spin a 5-position adjustable shock to a new setting. I'd guess the EDFC just converts 1 button press to 40 pulses and has a counter that goes up and down when you press a button. That is why Tein EDFC uses buttons and not a ****.http://www.tein.com/products/edfc.html
If you really want to use a ****, you need a controller that can store programs. At that point, it's hard to beat the EDFC price-wise.
I only see this working with Koni yellows or coilover shocks because KYB and Tokico's use an stupid tiny flathead screwdriver adjuster. It'd be difficult to keep the adjuster and motor coupled.

REAmemiya_fan

Ah, just took a look at the EDFC, and thats pretty much exactly what I want. That just solved all my problems lol.

RXSpeed16

iTrader: (41)

What happened to DIY!!!??!? Glad you found something that'll work for you. I may continue the DIY project so let me know when you decide to throw away the AAS motors.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

actually if you're interested in doing that, we might have a set hanging around. write it up, and we'll submit it, and maybe paul will come up with some help, he looked into this before i think.

Tofuball

When I replaced the AAS shocks on my GXL with brand new ones from Mazda, it was rather pricy but I like the system.

Just my opinion though.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

a friend of mine has one of these boxes, http://xioio.com/ turns out he actually WORKS for them too.... so i've been emailing him and he says the controller should be able to do it. so someone now needs to step up!