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

tein flex are great coils. Have them on my nsx

what are the spring rate of the apexi ones and the flex again?

Ive Tein Flex, but running 8k/6k along with tanabe front/rear sway bars. Its a much more compliant dual purpose setup, especially for those who drive on the street. I autox relatively regularly, and road course the car a couple of times a year. The setup probably isnt 100% optimal for 275 wide race rubber at autox like I run, but its certainly competent enough to handle it. Howard Coleman also seems to agree from reading his opinions on the spring rate and teins from a track perspective.

Running 12k/12k or 14k/14k is really only useful on a perfectly smooth race track AND running a big rear wing. (note the high rear rate is to counter the downforce from the rear wing so the car doesnt end up raked backwards at high speed like a truck hauling too much stuff in the bed)

With those super high rates on the road the handling will likely be reduced as your tires and car "bounce" over bumps instead of the suspension keeping the tire contact patch actually on the road. At such spring rates you are essentially running NO suspension. As a side note, you'll also notice after 10-20,000 miles of suspension like that on your car that the interior rattles like an old POS car. BTDT in my younger days. Cars interior sounded so bad I eventually sold the car even though there was nothing else wrong with it.

What happened to running realistic spring rates, realistic drop, and correct fitting wheels / tires? Is "aggressive fitment" code word for "incorrect fitment" ;) (Yes I understand its the new trendy thing to do....I also understand low offsets gets your deeper lips on the wheels. I just cant get over how goofy the tire stretch looks thats required to pull off too low of offset wheels)

Pictures really dont tell you anything... but here is my car with Flex on it. Obviously, the ride height is adjustable. Its also likely higher than you are interested in going, though if you care the lower control arms are pretty much at 90* flat, which is really where the suspension is designed to work best on most double wishbone suspension designs. (allows correct camber gain. If you slam it and have to run crazy stiff spring rates to stay off the bump stops you also remove suspension travel meaning the camber gain doesnt exist. To compensate you can run high amounts of static camber and eat the insides of your tire... completely defeating the purpose of the beautifully designed FD suspension ;) )

Its been a couple years since I messed with the height, but if I remember right the front is as high as it will go and the rear about midway. Car rides good enough to where me and my wife took it on vacation for a 11hr drive there and 11hr drive back.

Good luck in your choice.

The Re-Amemiya spec DG-5 coilovers are actually 16k front and 18k rear. I know because I have them and love them. Honestly, isn't that harsh and is livable with. They work damn amazing on high speed tracks, I absolutely love the setup. However, on much lower speed corner tracks, sometimes it would be nice to have the rear a little more planted but you get used to driving the car with the characteristics the coilovers give the car. At the limit the FD should have a slight slide coming out of corners anyway.

edit: also, I DO drive my car A LOT on the street. To give you an idea, I put 30,000 km on the car in 2009. This included a trip to the DGRR --> Florida --> and back home though as well.

I've considered lowering the rear spring rate to 16k get more bite in the slower tracks but I'm worried the car won't be able to dive the high speed corners and power through the whole corner as well as it does now. I catch up to fully stripped and caged race cars and even Formula Spec racers (not sure if thats the right term but I found it funny being able to corner faster then them) in the corners the way it is now.

You can see the 16k and 18k on the springs...

http://thewirdsdomain.com/rx7/parts/...Suspension.jpg

thewird

BryanDowns...well said. You're FD looks nice. Would you mind sharing the wheel/tire sizes..? Are your fenders rolled?

Lots of bad information in this thread. I bought my FD with the Tein's and was planning to ditch them since I've had less than stellar performance from them in other applications, but have decided to keep them.

First off - just because the spring rate is higher does not make the car undrivable on the street, or mean that it's going to handle like crap with street tires. Lots of racers here are using spring rates from the Tein's stock 10/8 to 14k/14k or even 20k/20k for autocross with slicks.

The Tein's are a very compliant setup that goes pretty damn low (I haven't had mine down to the collars yet) and I see why a lot of road coarser's enjoy them (Howard Coleman being the largest advocate I think) - they responsive, have a great stroke (almost 4" usable) and the valving adjustment is great. Compared to the Stances I've run in a couple other apps, there's a larger range of adjustment and a more progressive feel, although I've never run Stances on my FD.

In my opinion, the spring rate is too soft though. Even though I have almost no bump steer, the car gets very unsettled with bumps, and I've gotten down to the bump stops a couple times on stock 16x8 wheels with 225-series rubber - damping adjustment set one click softer than middle in the front and one stiffer than mid in rear.

My new super special setup I've decided to try is 12k/12k Swift springs and 4k assist springs in the back. I'll report back with my impressions, as I believe the valving in the Teins will work very well with the 12k Swifts (I'll stiffen it up to match the stiffer springs) ~ I'd love to do a back/back comparison with Stance's and/or a Koni or Zeal setup sometime!

I agree, stiff springs don't make the car horrible to drive at all having run them. The only mod that made me somewhat dislike the street driving was the Banzai diff brace. I'm gonna try solid mounts this year and remove the diff brace to see if its better.

thewird

Front: 18x8 - Azenis 615 235/40/18 I think? (definitely 235 wide anyway)
Rear: 18x9 - Azenis 615 275/35/18 I think? (definitely 275 wide anyway)

It actually understeers a good bit on the street tires. (based on the tire differences... duh huh? )

I run 275 wide v710's at autox on all 4 corners on 17x9 wheels (forget the offset at the moment) on stock fenders.(no roll) Only place it rubs is near full lock, and even then thats only rubbing on the front part of the fender liner. (ie: the part that is at the bottom of the wheel well blocking access to reach behind the front bumper)

Thanks for the compliments :)

Bryan
I know this is a ten-year-old thread, but if you're still out there, what wheels are these?