wutsup. i am considering buying the TEIN HE coilovers for my turboII. has anybody owned them or does anybody own them? are they long lasting? thanks

 

No insight on an FC application but my brother has a set on his 240sx. They are very streetable(you do want to avoid certain roads though) and are of midrange quality. They are a good bang for the buck coilover that offers an adjustable lower perch and a decent range of damping adjustment. They have held up well for a year and half of street and track punishment.

 

Are they good for regular hard driving or are they just for drift

 

Don't believe the hype...
There is really no such thing as a damper system designed for drift.
Tein HE's are on the stiffer side in terms of spring rates.
8kg-mm, front
6kg-mm, rear

I think the HE's have no adjustable front camber.


-Ted

 

The HEs come with pillowball camber plates, so the front camber is adjustable. And like mentioned above, nothing really makes a coilover specifically a "drift" coilover, even though they are marketed as such. They are great on the street for agressive driving, do great at drift days, and also work well at autox. Since they are fairly stiff, some bumps can seem a bit severe, especially with lots of heim jointed suspension parts. But overall they do double duty very well and are a good coilover with lots of features.

 

they are set up for drifting, they have stiffer shock valving so you dont get body roll, matched to the stiffer springs. If your road racing you dont want the HE's , the valving is wrong. Ither go with the flex if most of the driving you do is on the street, or the RA's if you want shocks for road racing. But if you want to drift, then go with the HE's (thats what i have in my 91 TII drift car)

Michael

 

my biggest concern on the coilover is their life-span. I dont want to buy a set of coilovers for more than 1,000$ that wont last me a year. . . I will be using them mainly on the street.

 

if you treat them right (no huge pot holes bottoming out the shocks) they should last as long as pretty much any other performance shock. Ive put them on a few cars (240 sx, lexus sc400, 2nd gen 7, 3rd gen 7) and they have been on there for a while and havent had any problems with them.

Michael

 

these coil overs are for racing purposes you would be a fool if you never put those shocks to use on a track. if your onl driving on the street buy something else.

 

Like TechTrix said, with no unnecessary abuse, they should have a nice long service life. Another good thing about going with Teins is that they can be serviced(rebuilt, revalved, etc) in the US if you do have any issues.

 

mainly on the street? get something else.

on the various 240sx forums we've seen tein HEs blow in under a year. we've also seen them last for 2 years + without a rebuild. its a combination of luck, habit, abuse and road conditions. if ur local roads aren't so great and you're doing alot of daily driving get something else.

i think it goes without saying that drifting / hard driving on bumpy streets will blow up your expensive coilovers pretty quickly. they're made for track use.

 

Tein HE
8 kg-mm, front
6 kg-mm, rear

Tein RA
10 kg-mm, front
8 kg-mm, rear

Yes, the RA's are stiffer, but there is no such thing as the dampers are set-up for drifting or road racing.
The dampers are valved for the spring rates, and the dampers and springs have no idea what they are being used for.
Now, it could be that certain spring rates are recommended for drifting or road racing, but that's subjective to the driver.
We are using 10F / 8R (Koni yellows) on our 20B FC drift car, and they are working to our liking.
Personally, I would go with the RA's if you're serious about drifting, but be careful about using them on the street.

You sound like a vendor or shop...


-Ted

 

Im still going to try and get them. I will be drifting at the track hopefully soon. I am juss going to be really easy on them on the street and only drive hard on smoothe road surfaces. I think that they will last a while as long as i take care of them and be easy on rough roads and avoid them as much as possible. I expect to get them rebuilt sometimes in the future. thanks for all of your guys imput.

 

I've had the HE for over a year now no problems.. roads are "ok" around here, but not smooth really.

 

i wont suggest coilovers for daily drivers
if its a weekend car go for it