tein mono sport with edfc active pro or ohlins dfv?
 

thoughts on Tein mono sport with edfc active pro vs ohlins dfv?


I really like the new active pro edfc

"EDFC ACTIVE PRO is a high-spec version of EDFC ACTIVE, which enables automatic adjustment of damping force according to the changes in longitudinal G-force and vehicle speed, and comes with new and upgraded functions.
Newly-added features, such as individual adjustment of 4 shock absorbers, lateral (cornering) G-actuated automatic adjustment, vehicle speed pulse input and 2 additional input ports to communicate with drivers, are sure to bring out the full potential of each shock absorber as well as the vehicle itself. Please enjoy another dimension of shock absorber performance that EDFC ACTIVE PRO brings. "

primary use is canyon roads and street , not a DD.

If Canyons and street get something a bit softer. I have Ohlins DFVs and they are fantastic but still a bit stiffer than what I would prefer on the road. Damping reactions are excellent though and at full stiff on the track they really come alive.

I live in the UK though where the roads are probably equivalent to the roads in Detroit on average.

I am really happy with the Ohlins setup, amazingly compliant over bumps/potholes! The stock 11/11 springs give a decidedly rearward stiffness bias due to motion ratios, though, which for my car (500+ hp) didn't seem like the best idea... Since I track the car, I got 13kg/mm springs for the front and kept 11k springs in back. For a street-only car, I would have kept the 11kg/mm springs up front and gotten 9 or 8kg/mm springs for the back.

When you were running 11kg/11kg Ohlins how many clicks on the front and rear from full soft?

Recommended was 10 clicks front and rear. For me that seemed too soft. I wound up at 4 front, 6 rear. Still smooove at those settings :)

Just to clarify, 10 clicks clockwise from full soft? 4-6 clicks counterclockwise from full stiff?

It's always clicks counted out (CCW) from "full stiff", which is with the needle (gently!) seated.

I used to work at a suspension shop with a shock dyno, and we liked the monotube Tein damping curves. Nice digression action with good rebound to compression bias. Ohlins always had a bit too much rebound bias for us. Can cause jacking down into the bumpstops. Also I believe Tein has a shop in socal where you can get them rebuilt/revalved to the specs of your individual car. Not sure if Ohlins has anything like that but something to consider. I have no experience with driving either of these on an FD though, just my 2 cents.

DFVs are rebuildable in the US.
My impression of the damping is that it seems to be a good balance between compression and rebound. Actually might be a little reboundy if anything. Kinda like my stock S2000 on the rebound side, but with a lot more compliance on the compression side.

Thanks all for your advises!

I am still divided ,

without the "edfc active pro", I will choose the ohlins over the mono tein.
but the automatic damper adjustment seems very promising ...

your thoughts on the new edfc active pro ?


I have the Feed front fender brace , Tanabe/Sustec front sway bar/30.4mm with the Racing Beat's Sway Bar Mount Reinforcement and the stock r1 93' rear sway bar
tires 255/35/18 front 275/35 /18 rear

Interesting...

Im doing some reading on the EDFC ACTIVE PRO shocks right now, never heard of it.

I work on magnetorheological dampers at work so I can really geak out on this....

more details

https://www.tein.co.jp/e/products/edfc_active_pro.html


"integration of all 3 automatic adjustment modes.
You can depend on real-time adjustment as you drive,
for your preferred ride quality whatever the driving conditions."
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...53b617d0df.png

If you have to ask, the answer is Ohlins.

OTOH, HKS Hipermax 4 SPs are cheaper and more suited for the track (16kg front and rear springs).

Hey Dan - which 13kg springs are you running up front?

On a sidenote, have you been out with COM lately? Last I heard you were racing a bike

this is pretty sweet. I wish it was compatible with my control master Flex's.

Swift springs, Z65-203-130, ordered from KamiSpeed.

I've done Mosport (~160mph at end of Andretti straight!) and Watkins Glen (~123 in the slow-ass S2000...) this year, planning on doing Palmer in a couple of weeks :) You going?

I started vintage racing an FZR400 with USCRA last year. Fooking fun! Very different from track driving a car... I won Period IV Formula 2 class this year :D, and got a close 2nd in my "bump" class vs. 600cc fours and 750 twins. I also got to monkey on a side car this year at Canaan:
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0...83&oe=58A68E10
I'm hanging of the one in the middle.

Alright, you must have some smooth as glass roads to be able to run the car so stiff! I run about 10 clicks up from full soft when on my own on the street and about 3 clicks up from full soft when my wife is in the car! Makes it feel a bit floaty but the roads are much more bearable in London and on poorly maintained b-roads (which is like 80% of all UK roads out there). The dampers are great in my opinion and are much better at higher speeds but I kind of wish my spring rates were more of a 10kg/8kg setup than 11kg/11kg, even if that would compromise the on-track performance more.

I installed Ohlins about 2 months ago. I initially liked them a lot, but lately the car has felt a bit strange, which is quite depressing given the cost of these dampers. Given out lousy metro Detroit roads, i thought this would be my best path. Epc fail?

So, upon seeing this thread, I decided to go check my adjustments, since I thought I was at 7 CCW on all four.

umm... I was not.

• Left front = 6 CCW
• Right front = 0 CCW
• Left read = 4 CCW
• Right rear = 6 CCW

I have three theories:

1. I have been sleepwalking and adjusting them in my sleep.
2. I started to adjust them, maybe prior to autocross, and got interrupted, like a text or call, and never finished the job (another ADHD moment).
3. Car is haunted and is self-adjusting at random.

as of last night, they are all at 8 CCW and we are glidin' and profilin' as Ric Flair might say....

Should clarify: those are the settings I have run at the track. On the street I run more like 6-8. In fact just yesterday I changed the fronts from 8 to 6 and that range is probably about the soft/hard extent of what I like on the street. Might go back to 7 or 8...

Count clicks from full stiff, not from "full soft". "Full stiff" is a known reference point: needle fully closing off the orifice.
"Full soft" can be a nebulous position. If production tolerances give differences in total number of clicks (not unheard of), clicks out from full stiff will still give the same needle position relative to the orifice, which is what is important. Clicks from full soft may not be a consistent measurement of needle position relative to orifice from damper to damper.
"10 clicks from full soft" may well be 9 clicks from full stiff on one shock and 11 clicks from full stiff on another. Clicks from full stiff are more reliably comparable.

Roads are pretty bad in "New" England (RI/Mass, USA) too! Fortunately the damping adjustment is more for low-speed damping (braking, cornering, accelerating) than high-speed damping (bumps/potholes).

Springs are (relatively) cheap, get some 8kg/mm rears and see what you think!

Good points. I will go out and readjust from full stiff but I guess I was trying to point out that I nearly run them at full soft to make regular driving a bit more bearable. It is still much better in any case than how the car drove on the POS Blitz ZZ-Rs that were on the car when it was imported from Japan.

On the track I have tried slightly softer than full stiff but find the car or my driving style likes the dampers in full stiff on circuit and the 11/11 setup is great there.

It's just that I can't seem to set them up to be compliant enough on the road where I don't really push the car that much, and to be honest my wife hates riding in it because of how stiff it is compared to the other cars we have had in the past. Unfortunately, it's the only car I own since I live in London and don't have space for more than one car.

I might try softer springs in the rear and see how it goes but at the end of the day my wife just has to deal with it because I'm not selling it!

Ouch!

Ohlins blow away the Teins in terms of performance. There just is no comparison. However if you want the adjustablility on the fly Tein is nice, but most of my customers mess with it a few times then leave it. A lot of it comes down to the spring rates you choose. If it were my car I'd go with Ohlins.

"Full soft" on the street and "full stiff" on the track seems odd... I've always found my ideal track-performance and street-comfort settings to be pretty close. I like ~4-6 clicks out at the track and ~6-8 clicks out on the street. For me, any stiffer than ~4 is too locked up and "skatey" for ultimate performance at the track, and softer than ~10 is too "bouncy" for comfort on the street. I can see that some might prefer going to 2 or 3 at the track, but I can't imagine *0* clicks out (full stiff) could be good for handling performance. On the soft side it's more subjective, but with all the added *moving around* I can't imagine that going *ALL 20* (or however many) clicks out could be comfortable!

Some dampers are not even operational at the extreme ends of "adjustment".

Something to think about...

Damping is a MAJOR part of ride comfort. Poor high-speed damping will be HARSH no matter how soft the springs are.

But there is no getting around the effect of higher natural frequency of a stiffer spring setup on the street. The firmness and "busy"ness of stiff springs can't really be gotten around no matter how soft the damping is.

Ha! Living in London with FD yer only car, kick-ass :D

This will make a significant difference, as you feel inputs from the rear of the car much more than from the front. In any case I think the rear springs should be softer than the fronts for handling balance, equal stiffness springs all around gives significant rear roll stiffness bias.

Do it and see whatcha think!

I'm hearing this a LOT. What makes them so good? Why are they superior?

ItalynStylion
Quote:
Originally Posted by IRPerformance View Post
Ohlins blow away the Teins in terms of performance. There just is no comparison. However if you want the adjustablility on the fly Tein is nice, but most of my customers mess with it a few times then leave it. A lot of it comes down to the spring rates you choose. If it were my car I'd go with Ohlins.

I'm hearing this a LOT. What makes them so good? Why are they superior?

Quite simply it is the Ohlins DFV we love are the lowest end product Ohlins makes and the Tein Mono series are the highest end product Tein makes.

Who do you think makes a better product?

Ohlins who makes coilovers for a very small group of cars for motorsports and OEMs and who saves costs on their low end DFV line by manufacturing them in Japan instead of Sweden.

or

Tein who really brought coilovers to the masses (thank you) by making them for a wide range of chassis and in affordable dual tube format while manufacturing them in Japan instead of China like the newer mass market coilovers.