Tein Flex FD3S
 

Im picking up some Tein Flex for my FD, in a bout a week...


was curious as to who runs them.

Street, drifting, and road racing..

and how do you like them..



and if you have any pics of your fd as well...

thanks in advance.

Many people used to get them before coilovers like Stance and Apexi were widely (inexpensively) available. Given the cost of some of the newer coilovers, the Tein Flex isn't getting used as much so I doubt you'll find too many people on here now with them. Most of the guys used the Flex with the EDFC for a street/road race car.

As for car pictures, they are coilovers. A car with Tein Flex is going to look like any other FD with coilovers... i.e. where ever the owner set the his/her height to....

hey starscream, i have tien flex on my rex. i have only used it on the street though and i like them. i will eventually try them out on the track but i can't give you any info on that yet.

the ride is smooth, a lil stiff like i like it, and it handles very well. like mahjik stated above the pics might not help you much due to the settings being adjustable on most coilover systems.

but here are a couple of mine.

Attachment 711110
Attachment 711111

For aggressive wheel fitment, it's too soft.

Mahjik-ohhh okay... i was planning on getting stance but im getting a real great deal on the flex :)

thanks for the heads up though




93vrfd_houston- sweet thanks really appreciate it :icon_tup:



why do you say that??? cuz of the spring rates to soft?

Stance offers 12K/12K while Tein Flex (by default) is 10/8. I don't do the whole aggressive offset thing so I'm not sure if 10/8 would be too soft or not. It's served well for a lot of the road racers in the past, however, it still apples and oranges.

Yes, you are better off with stance for aggressive fitment since that is what Stance is about. Stiff and ability to go low. For the style you are going for you need a stiff springs for street driving, otherwise you are going to have massive rubbing issues.

Unless you have the $$$ for ENDLESS Zeals and pretty much anything can be made.

what kind of stance coilovers do you recommend?

12/12 is really stiff for the track unless running huge slicks from what I understand. 10/8 is a perfect combination for street/track setup. Just get some actual rims and tires that fit and you won't have a problem with rubbing. This way you will actually be able to use suspension travel instead of riding on a solid suspension.

I have flex's and they seem fine on the street, haven't done a track day with them yet.

^ That's the problem. This is more for aesthetics than just cut and dry performance. If he was doing something normal like that the flex is fine.

He is going for aggressive offsets, modified OEM fenders and stretched tires for the street. So from that standpoint it won't work. I would go with something much stiffer than that for this application.

However even with the stance, he can change the spring rates and get them revalved if needed or run pure track rubber for track days. I.E: Toyo RA-1 or something like that.

Oh, I didn't read anywhere that he was going for an aggressive setup?

Miata mx5 is right


i am going for a aggressive street set up( more aesthetics than performance)/drift..

i do plan on getting another set of wheels for track





so i guess ima have to pass on this deal... and go with stance

Rishie can get you a great deal on some stance coils

TEIN Flexs are too soft? I've had them on both my FDs and one was 3" off the ground at its lowest point. They are *coilovers* which means you can turn the perch to compress the spring if you really want to punish the chassis and your ass and spine. See if you can find someone who drives an FD on 12/12 springs and ask how's the ride. For "aggressive fitment" you need to modify the fenders and trim the inside of the fenders so the tires don't scrape the insides of the wheel wells. TEINs too soft?? Its amazing the things people post on this forum. I actually drive on Flexes. For the guys that posted ^above^ what's your experience on 12/12s, since you're recommending them?

From all the mods I did to my last FD (all bolt ones, single turbo, etc.) The combination of the Tein Flex and rims and tires was the best mod.

+1

Teins too iirc

tein flex's are pretty *meh*

if you want to just lower your car, improve the handling slightly, then yea go for it. they're almost like buying a shock/spring combo from them- not very stiff.

if you plan on tracking the car at all i'd suggest a better, less expensive, coilover such as stance, apexi, buddy club, or tanabe.

I run 12/12, but only drive on the street. No track experience. My current setup is the A'PEX-i S1 Dampers. The FD I've had before had KONI yellows with H&R springs and racing beat front and rear swaybars. I feel like that setup was more harsh overall than my current setup. When I put the dampening up on my coils, my car feels pretty stock except less bodyroll. Since you're in the bay, why don't we drive each others cars. It really is not bad. My buddy Eric (Farkel) has FLEXs and was very impressed with my cars ride. He thought they weren't harsh at all. My other buddy James had Aragostas with 12/10 and Delrin bushings. His ride was a lot more comfortable and steering was a lot more sharp than my old Koni H&R setup also. I drove it, and it really was not punishable. Remember I'm talking street driving here. I don't know about the track, YET!

Jeff

Stance Coilovers it is...


i dnt mind a stiff ride ;) my fcs were always dumped and maxed on stiffness on Jic's and Tein coilovers.



Is there a specific Stance coilover model i should get??

i also plan on replacing all my bushings as well.. :)

time to get broke again.


thanks for all the input everybody.. really appreciate it..

-jaime

I've ran multiple sets of Tein HA's/Flex's on the street and the track.... alot. They work very well as a dual purpose set up. I'm not a drifter, nor do I decrease the performance function of my car for form... but I do run 18x10's all around with 285's and have 0 rubbing issues.

I run stance gr+ with the default 12k/12k and love them. They can go pretty low without pre loading the spring or removing any of the perches. The ride height in this picture still has about 1/4" of "normal" adjustment left in it:
Attachment 711118

I guess it depends on the roads where you live but over all the usdm spec suspensions are always way softer than what they use over seas anyway. re-a, dg-5 and kei office for example all offer fd setups in the 14-18k range.

not bad... this leads me to think twice.. thanks for sharing :icon_tup:





Awesome.. soo ill look into getting the Gr's. your FD is one of the few that inspired me..

yea, i dnt want to pre load the spring by lowering it to much and such.


Yea. Japan has it real good.. we get stuck with the shitty end of the stick...


DG-5's and RE-A coilovers are my dream coilovers... and 14-18k spring rate is just awesome.. do want :)

RE-A uses Quantum coilovers. Any quality shock with their springrates and valveing would run like their coilovers.

DG-5s have shown little to no interest here in the states, expensive, and can't really compete with Stance or even Tein.

Stance = Amazing Value

Zeals FTW!!!!!!!! I don't think you really make any comprises with Zeals, whereas other coilovers you get the drop but it's stiff, etc...

But honestly the MSRP for the FD coils isn't that bad. They did go up though since the USD sucks. From around $1900 to $22xx.xx. If you had a RX8 or 350Z I'd say forget about it. Mid 3K range, way way too expensive. Same with subaru apps.

But most double wish apps from Zeal are quite well priced for what you're getting. When i was in my early 20's I didn't mind stiff coilovers like JIC's or Stance, but now hitting mid 30's I don't think I can run anything but Zeals or Air Suspension. lolz..... My taste and body has changed a lot in the past 10+ years.

But still that's not bad for what you can get in terms of their "modular-ness". So much of them are interchangable, custom valving, and so forth.

We used to do a lot of Zeals for the FD's back in the day. Just do a search, I really loved them. I've probably installed Zeals on about 25 different vehicles from RSX, S2K, NSX, RX7's, Miatas, Lexus, Silvias, Z's, Supras, man a shitload of cars. It was my goal to get a set of Zeals on every popular vehicle when we we had exclusive distribution.

So whenever people ask me i pretty much only have 2 options I find value for the FD:

1. Stance, lower end
2. Zeals, higher end

Rishie

if you get the flex please let me know how you like them, im undecided between the flex and the apexi ones