Hi guys I've been trying to decide on what to get for a while now and I just can't make up my mind, so I'm asking for help. My finances allow me to buy one of two things at the moment, enkei RPF1s 17x9 +45 all around with some rubber, not sure which yet, OR tein mono flex coilovers. My question to you guys is, which would help out handling and more bang for the buck?

 

Coilovers for sure.

 

The single biggest bang for the buck mod you can do to any car is put a set of sticky tires on it.

I have a friend selling the exact wheels you mentioned. I can PM him if you want...

 

Sent ya a pm.

 

Btw... I absolutely don't like my wheels! I have some AP ITALIAs and they are 18x8.5 I think with 235s all the way around. I would even do a straight up trade for some stock wheels. But thank you guys for proving my point! Everyone says something different. I'm torn between the two.

 

In stock form, the FD is one of the best-handling street cars ever made. I don't understand why you would want to bother with coilovers. If you think your car does not handle well then I would recommend spending your money either on driving school or replacing whatever components are broken/worn and causing the car to handle poorly.

 

Well 18 year old suspension components aren't gonna work the same as when they were new. I bought the rx7 after owning an s2000 and i can tell you right now my s2000 could out handle this rx7 any day. I'm not sure if it's the old suspension or these big 18's but I can promise you it's not my driving.

 

I'm going to tell you what to do and the other long time owners who aren't 20yr old kids with no clue will tell you the same thing:

1) Read the FAQ's and do the reliability mods first.
2) Once that is done before you get tires and before you get coilovers spend $1000 and get all new bushings from Powerflex or someone else.

If your chassis has more than 50k miles on it and the bushings have never been replaced you and your car will thank me. As someone who just pulled all their bushings and 1/2 of them could easily be moved with my hand (not supposed to happen) this will make your car much better.

Once this is done, then think about rims/tires/coilovers and other suspension items.

RELIABILITY MODS FIRST!

 

So you are asking a bunch of unknown bozos on an internet forum how to spend thousands of dollars and you haven't even looked under the car to check the condition of the suspension? Seriously? So what if you replace the wheels and tires and the handling is still bad, then you spend more money on coilovers and the handling is still bad because the real problem was worn mounts and bushings and/or bent suspension parts? Or maybe the frame is bent?

It's OK if you don't know much about mechanics because you can take your car to a professional to make up for that. I don't believe for one second that you are a good driver, but that is OK too because you don't need to be good in order to have fun. However, it's not at all a good thing to just randomly throw your money around hoping that it will make things better. If you don't have a good performance shop near your location, then I recommend a 2-day round trip to ISC Racing in Winter Haven or Pettit Racing in West Palm Beach. Both of those shops will be able to give you excellent performance recommendations after checking out your car.

 

Ding ding ding!

My old man always taught me that tires were the most important investment you make.

You can put all the power you want in it, but if you have shitty tires, all you'll do is spin them.

You can put massive brakes on your car, but if you have shitty tires, you're just going to lock up all the time.

You can put suspension so stiff you'll chip your teeth every time you touch a crack in the road, but with shitty tires, you'll just understeer and slide around.


That, and what the above poster mentioned with the bushings. If you get a poly kit from Energy Suspension or someone else, it will be a night and day difference between how your car handles and responds.

Good luck with your decision!

P

 

Well so much for the new members section of this forum being a bashing free environment, what a load *of crap! Thanks for all the helpful info evil flyboy, NOT! Btw pecan I guess I should have posted what I've already done, I'm still pretty new to the forum, I've done some reliability mods already. I've replaced all the vacuum hoses, got a koyo radiator, took out the pre cat, replaced the main cat with a hfc n a 3 inch exhaust, took out secondary throttle, and air pump, placed all the banzai racing BOPs, replaced the stock motor mounts with poly ones as well as replaced the diff bushings with Mazda speed comp bushings, oh and I also have the efini turbos and y pipe, a apexi power fc and controller ... And a few other small things like that, I've done all this myself and I'm not gonna say I'm a real good mechanic or anything but I'm learning, and no, none of my suspension arms or anything look bent warped.

 

Thank you pecan n gringo grande.

 

If you are in FWB you are kinda close to Pensacola, correct? If so, get in touch with Dale Clark on the forum. He is a VERY knowledgeable RX7 guy in Pensacola and one of the absolute nicest people you could meet.

Sounds like you did a great job of getting the realiability mods done. Awesome!. The rear diff bushings and motor mounts are 2 of the big ones to replace. The most IMPORTANT bushing...in terms of wear and the dreaded "clunk" are the pillow ball bushings on the rear lower control arm. You can buy OEM or aftermarket from Atomic Rex.

My personal suggestion is to replace everyone bushing but Pillow Ball + Rear Diff + motor mounts are definitely the ones you want to hit!

 

Yep Gringo Grande is rigth go for the bushings first you go to see the difference I have a 1990 TurboII and that what I did and replace the springs for RB that it and handle like a champ

 

Hey thanks gringo grande, I have been getting a bit of a small clunk from the back ill go ahead and order some of the pillow ball bushings u were talking about.

And yea, I'm really close to Pcola, I'm up there every weekend for a local car meet.

 

Check with Atomic Rex first. They make aftermarket pillow ***** that are cheaper than OEM and super nice. They only push out in one direction so make sure you press them out the correct direction and don't mess up the arms!

 

i havent read to much on bushings being a must to replace

i feel like there should be a site or thread on things to replace that are just old and worn out

i see from time to time posts where ppl suggest replacing certain items cause of aging

but itd be nice if there was a huge list of everything that is imperative to replace to improve reliability!

so far i have diff bushings, motor mounts, and vacuum hoses off the top of my head

 

The following is if you are talking about FD's:

There is a site. It's called Rx7club.com
There is a thread(s). Go into the appropriate generation for you car
There is a list. It's called read the FAQs and/or search for reliability mods.

Once you make it through reliability mods then start worrying about your bushings/suspension. Noted suspension guru Howard Coleman suggests the 2 most important bushings to replace are:
1) Rear Pillowballs
2) Diff Bushings.

I'd throw in Motor Mounts as well.

I'm in the middle of the following for suspension alone:
Aftermarket Trailing Arm, Toelinks, and front/rear Swaybar links: $650
Aftermarket Powerflex Bushings for everything else + Atomic Rex Pillow Ball Bushings: $850
Tein Superstreet Coilovers (used): $800
Motor Mounts: $250

Out of all of those, all that is really necessary are the bushings. Personally if I'm replacing bushings I'm doing them all but I suppose you could go the cheap route and only do pillowballs and rear diff.

 

If all those suspension bushings have turned to concrete, imagine what the OEM tires are like.

 

Your money is best spent on the stock suspension....replacing anything that is loose and worn. Spending $1000 + on coilovers or new wheels and tires before doing that is just damn silly. Rear pillow-ball bushings; inner and outer toe-link bushings, front lower control-arm bushings and front upper-controll arm bushings, inner and outer tie-rod ends, trailing arm bushings, differential bushings, motor mounts (if OEM). Unless your stock shocks are spitting oil, look at these things first before coilovers or wheels. Replace with OEM (except trailing arm) or aftermarket alternatives.
FWIW, FD brakes and suspension was/is world-class. These cars owned SCCA Solo ASP in the day. Wasn't until the Z06 came along in 01 that they saw competition. And that was from a car nearly a decade newer and costing twice as much. Almost 20 years later they're still VERY competitive.

To the OP, as a long time FD owner I think Evil Aviator was spot-on. Taking his advice might save you ALOT of money. But just because it wasn't what you wanted to hear, doesn't make it less accurate...or bashing.

 

I have done quite a few things replacing this and that in the engine bay and coilovers but I have never tried replacing bushing. is it hard to replace them??

 

https://www.rx7club.com/suspension-wheels-tires-brakes-20/how-remove-replace-suspension-bushings-211372/
https://www.rx7club.com/suspension-wheels-tires-brakes-20/rear-control-arm-bushing-replacement-instructional-video-905032/

^From the 3rd Gen. stickys.
I'm not a professional and replaced them myself with OEM bushings. If you don't have a press or access to one, check with a trusted shop.
IMO the trickiest one was (IIRC) the inner toe-link bushing. All the other bushings had steel sleeves. For some reason the sleeve on the OEM inner toe-link was aluminum. You have to be alittle careful to start ALL them evenly and go slow. With the aluminum sleeve you REALLY have to be careful.

 

Really? what's with the smart assery

this is a new member thread, treat it as such

 

If you think that is being a smart *** then you need to take off your panties and stop being so emo. Every item you inquired about is covered MULTIPLE times in the forums. If you can't be bothered to search and read, not many people are going to be willing to help you.

If you are not able to search, read and comprehend then you will need EXTRA cash to afford a mechanic and machine shop that can handle all the work for you and I'd suggest that these cars may be too much for you if this is the case.

The OP didn't have a hard time understanding the content in this thread and appreciated the information that was given. How are you not able to? Rethink YOUR attitude and YOUR sensitivity or you may find yourself receiving less help than you could.

 

New people from the Honda forums tend to not be able to tell the difference between help and bashing because they are not accustomed to anything but encouragement from well-meaining yet ignorant teenagers. After a while he will figure out how this forum works, and that sometimes the best advice is when somebody tells you that you are making a mistake or in over your head.

I don't see anything wrong with that post. If you complain when somebody takes time to give you useful information, then they will tend to not help you in the future. The majority of the moderators on this site work as volunteers, the forum members do not receive any compensation for helping noobs, there is no charge for this forum, and there is no requirement for anybody to help you or treat you as if you are Jesus Christ. If you are that hypersensitive then maybe internet forums are not the best place for you.