OOOOKay. So i was looking into some suspension setups for my FC and have seriously mixed feelings. I want the slammed look of a lot of the 7's around here, but dont have anywhere near the money. (high school student working 30 hrs/week plus soccer) Ive looked at intrax and ground control, as well as eibach and they are all good setups but only drop the car around an inch, and that doesnt quite give the look im going for. Remember this isnt really a track only car, its my DD that sees a few autox's a year any "cheaper" spring/strut combos that'll meet those requirements? Btw: ive searched all the threads and all i can find are coilover setups which i cant afford.

 

sorry homie, suspension is expensive out the *** no matter the set up

and are you going more for looks, or performance? Ive heard of people cutting springs but not sure as to how to approach that

and yeah being in high school and being an FC owner is rough on the wallet

 

haha tell me about it i had a 300zx before this. What im looking at going with i guess is the tanabe max agility springs and tokico's. It's only a 1.5 drop but i guess if i cut maybe a quarter to a half inch it would be a lil more slammed. And honestly more for looks right now, the performance will come as soon as i have the money, since reliabilty is key and you cant cheap out on performance products.

 

I did my springs and struts all brand new for $100/corner with tokico blues and tanabe gf210 springs off ebay.

Suspension mods are addictive. Once you improve one thing, you immediately notice how crappy everthing else is

 

do you have any pics of that setup? thats exactly what im going with. ive already got the tokico blues for the rear. would it matter if i mix and match the struts?

 

Please go find another car to own...seriously.

The FC doesn't like to be SLAMMED.
You already mentioned you're broke.
Fixing the fucked up negative camber in the rear when you drop the suspension excessively gets costly...which you can't afford.
Which means you going to have to deal with uneven tire wear in the rear...which you can't afford.


-Ted

 

jeez you must be the nicest guy ive met. as i mentioned had you read correctly not slammed as in that one red car in the wheel fitment thread, but more of a lowered stance with less fender gap. The negative camber can be fixed with camber plates. man that got pricey there for a minute. why are you a douche bag to everyone that comes on this site with a simple "noobish" question.

 

Hey, you're the one that used the word "slammed"?
"Slammed" usually means not being able to drive over a soda can ride height around here...

What's up with all the newbs with the thin skin?
If I flamed you, you would KNOW it.
You guys get everything spoon fed to you?
Can't handle (contructive) criticism?
Never had someone disagree with you?

Sheez, grow some skin...


-Ted

 

save up for some entry-level coilovers, Megans are pretty cheap and are legit

 

Wow, you must never have even looked at the rear suspension, it's not struts so camber plates don't work. The front doesn't gain much camber at all so you don't need to worry about it so much. The rear gains a lot of camber when lowered and requires an adjustable subframe link (~$100) or individual adjusters (~$200), but don't use those individual adjusters alone unless you get spherical bearings for the rear control arms, otherwise it'll cause binding (bad). Using them with the subframe link to even out the camber is ok, but keep the adjustments to a minimum.

Tanabe and Tein lowering springs have less wheel and tire clearance than stock up front, limiting the already cramped space in the fenders preventing wide tires from being used.

It doesn't take that much lowering to give the car a nice stance that's still very usable on the street with only a minimal fender to tire gap. If you want tucked tires then you'll have problems.

Don't waste money on cheap coilovers if you're considering it, save up a little more and get something good. Coilovers are overkill for street driving though, and really only should be considered if track driving or a lot of autocross is part of the equation, but still aren't needed for that.

 

+1 assuming you actually want the setup to be functional. **** adds up, rolled fenders, alignment, you'll probably want better tires with a nice suspension setup. I dunno, thats how it was for me its addicting. I guess if you just want a "slammed" look though you could probably halfass it and cut the springs or some ****.

 

simple -

KYB AGX for adjustability and stiffness
Ground Control coilover sleeves, pick a spring rate like 350 front and 250 rear, or higher if you want super stiff

this allows you to keep it on the cheap but also have a great suspension and adjust it to your liking. no need to get camber plates and all of that other fancy jazz.

 

I've been meaning to take pics since I finished my $30 paint job. I'll try to do it today after I put the leading coil in my FD. It's a nice day too at about 70 deg in VA.

I can attest to the tanabes being larger and limiting clearance. I get a little rubbing every once in a while and am working on a better wheel/tire combo that's cheap.

It's really my own fault for putting 225's in the front, which also ruined my handling since they're too big for the wheels...

 

You'll probably run out of good damping @ 400 lbs on the KYB, 500 lbs on the Koni's.......

There are no cheap coilover setups worth getting for a car that handles well. If you're broke, best setup I can recommend is Bilstein/TII springs. I run competitively in my autox and time trial class with that setup. Plus I can drive through the pothole filled roads of the East coast without having a sore *** and lower back afterwards.

I swear the stock 6's and 7's are smaller than aftermarket 6's and 7's. Even with the stock 7's, I'd run a 205/55/16 on those. You can get tire clearance and have good transitional grip with a good tire.

 

I think im gonna go with a simpler combo, the tokico blues i have now for the rear, illuminas up front and tanabe agilities for the springs. Hopefully this will be a big update from stock, but not break the bank. In a year or so when i get my degree hopefully ill be tossing on a set of cusco coilovers. thanks guys.

 

agilities? never seen those...

BTW, my camera's battery was dead, so no pics today.

 

It's funny, when I put my tanabes on my koni's, I had more body roll than before.

 

As you lower the car the roll center (immaginary point about which the car rolls in a turn) is lowered more than the center of mass (point about which the car's mass acts), so you have in effect a larger moment arm, or roll couple, meaning the car's mass has a longer lever to push against making it more effective at causing body roll. If the springs and sways aren't enough stiffer than before this can lead to more body roll, despite the higher spring rates.

 

exactly

 

well theyre not really call agilities, its on the website for tanabe. they have three types, max lowering, max agilities, and max comfort

 

just call them GF210 and be done with it.

Actually, when we lower our cars, our front suspensions likes to change the orietntation of the control arms, which then puts our roll center underneath the ground, based on calculations from the instant center. If our roll centers were to remain the same, then lowering the car = good, since our static roll couple would be reduced. However, since our roll center becomes lowered more than our center of gravity, our roll couple increases and we start body rolling like there's no tomorrow.

This is why we need roll center blocks/adapters/adjusters.

 

Food for thought, with purpose built race cars (tube frame or formula car stuff), they'll often run roll centers that are about at ground level. So a small roll couple from a high roll center isn't the only thing to be concerned about.

 

A couple questions:

How can I find the roll center of my car? Where can we get these roll center blocks/adapters/adjusters?

 

No one really makes roll center blocks for the S5, AWR has some for the S4, but Black91n/a doesn't seem to like them.

Roll Center must be calculated via some godforsaken complicated formula.

Nah, just kidding, google "roll instant center"

 

Thanks Roen.