wot coilovers are best for ae111 levin?

[Mr Revhead]

have you checked to see whats bottoming? ae1## are pretty low anyway.. as in chassie etc.

[Bazda]

yep we took them out, bump stops have marks on them

me teins wound down as low as his car, no bottoming out, no marks on the bump stops.

[Mr Revhead]

interesting..... that would make then shorter travel than stock ones then...
or are you yumping it?!

[Bazda]

yes thats true, when u put any brand of coil overs on the droop becomes much less.

but anyway, get what you think is right, i just dont like the TRD ones, personal opinion.

[Mr Revhead]

yup, get what fits what you want.....

and remeber what i said above....i think any coilovers will be a bit harsh if you want good ride..

[phatman3801]

not much else part frm coilvers to go low is there? mite not get the trd ones ne mre mite look at blistten ones

[Mr Revhead]

what i meant was to go that low... the ride will be quite hard... probably very harsh

[BZ-G]

Hold on guys…
The BEST coilovers in the market for an AE111 will always be TODA Racing… Trust me… I have it… it’s fantastic… all of my mates who has been in my Trueno for a ride says it’s the best so far… better than olins, teins, TRD, apexi…
But money wise…. Is not cheap… plus you have to service it every 10,000km… ship back to Japan to get it service too…
It’s basically a racing suspension… it’s not really good for the street, because it’s just too damn hard… but for track use… can be a bit hard would be perfect…
My secret to my success at Puke track is because of my suspension… that’s a fact….

[TRDWGN]

But money wise…. Is not cheap… plus you have to service it every 10,000km… ship back to Japan to get it service too…
It’s basically a racing suspension…….

The magic part of the equation that people do not seem to understand, quality coilovers are designed to be serviced regularly and unless you can get it done locally then it becomes a highly expensive exercise...

I had coilovers in my carib and have swapped them out because they are simply too harsh and noisy for a daily driver due to lack of insulation when compared to standard style shocks, I now have bilstein inserts in standard toyota strut housings which have been valved and shortened to suit my requirement and Tein S tech medium springs, the end result is a ride that has 98% of the control and handling of the coilover set-up but with NVH that are similar to standard, this IMHO is a perfect set-up for street/daily driving, if you are going to be racing get coilovers otherwise it is a waste of money for the street

[BZ-G]

The magic part of the equation that people do not seem to understand, quality coilovers are designed to be serviced regularly and unless you can get it done locally then it becomes a highly expensive exercise...

I had coilovers in my carib and have swapped them out because they are simply too harsh and noisy for a daily driver due to lack of insulation when compared to standard style shocks, I now have bilstein inserts in standard toyota strut housings which have been valved and shortened to suit my requirement and Tein S tech medium springs, the end result is a ride that has 98% of the control and handling of the coilover set-up but with NVH that are similar to standard, this IMHO is a perfect set-up for street/daily driving, if you are going to be racing get coilovers otherwise it is a waste of money for the street

Sorry mate… but I am referring to the first quote of enquiry (phatman3801 himself)… so I don’t want to be rude and insult you… but phatman3801 just wants to know what coilovers are the best for AE111 in the market wise…

if price isnt a problem wot would b the best brand of coilovers to get for a ae111 levin non superstrut? is trd the best??

Which also means does phatman3801 want ‘best’ coilovers for street use or ‘best’ coilovers for race use… maybe ‘best’ overall coilovers??

What is your definition of ‘best’ phatman3801?

So TRDWGN… I think you a concerned about price and service… so phatman3801 is not concerned about price… right?? Phatman3801… If I am wrong then I am sorry about misunderstanding you guys… and I will shut up and won’t talk about this ‘wot coilovers are best for AE111 levin’ forum…

[TRDWGN]

BZ-G i think you will find the same guy is asking about some unknown brand of coilovers in an another thread which are around $1300 a set so if he is comtemplating those then money is an object And your comment cannot be taken lightly, buying them is one thing but properly maintaining them is another, i would do 10,000km every quarter so i would not want to be rebuilding my shocks 4 times a year

Your car is a tad different to most AE111's on here, it appears you are building yours as a uncompromised road registered track beast, it is also safe to assume that most on here are trying to personalize a daily driver which is unlikely to ever see a track other than from the carpark... There is a lot of aspects to coilovers that people quite simply do not understand and sometimes education is paramount The single biggest reason i see people want coilovers is simply to have height control, when in reality gets set once and never looked at again, also do you want to tell these guys exactly what 400lb springs do to a factory spec chassis such as a AE111? that race spec set-ups are really fatiguing structural aspects of their car that in a race application would be reinforced plus backed up with a integral cage? Kind of similar scenario to increasing the the boost on a turbo car without building the rest of the motor to withstand the additional forces, yes it will work but for a limited time...This is a support forum and sometimes diverse answers bring up areas of interest others may not have thought about...

Advantages for coilovers

Quick easy adjustment of set-up
interchangibility of spring rates

Disadvantages

Increased maintanence costs
Added noise, vibration, harshness
Added wear and tear/fatiguing of chassis
Accelerated wear of suspension bushes, steering etc
General degradation of car due to everything working loose over time

[BZ-G]

Ok TRDWGN… I bowel to you…you are the guy to talk to regarding coilovers… I just gave an opinion on coilovers… I guess you will be the guy to talk to for street coilovers specialist… you can do all the explainations…

[TRDWGN]

Ok TRDWGN… I bowel to you…you are the guy to talk to regarding coilovers… I just gave an opinion on coilovers… I guess you will be the guy to talk to for street coilovers specialist… you can do all the explainations…

Far from it, however having tried coilovers (against experienced opinion from others ) i learn't the hard way why a race style coilover setup is not suitable for a street driven daily driver and when you combine the costs of coilover setup and certification costs etc it doesn't make financial sense. Another (major) disadvantage I forgot to add to my list above is the effect a stiffly sprung setup has on factory ABS setup, i found my car used to pulse unnecessarily due to (I presume) an unloaded wheel so treated the situation much like it would ice or gravel, quite disconcerting when the pedal goes to the ground!! since putting the progressive Tein's in it seems to have eliminated this aspect... I checked out your site, that is a pretty impressive car you've got! all the right bits in all the right places, jsut out of curiousity have you considered repowering with 2ZZ-GE and TRD hi comp kit? good reliable 200+HP at a cost not too dissimilar to getting similar HP from the mighty blacktop

[BZ-G]

Another (major) disadvantage I forgot to add to my list above is the effect a stiffly sprung setup has on factory ABS setup, i found my car used to pulse unnecessarily due to (I presume) an unloaded wheel so treated the situation much like it would ice or gravel, quite disconcerting when the pedal goes to the ground!! since putting the progressive Tein's in it seems to have eliminated this aspect... I checked out your site, that is a pretty impressive car you've got! all the right bits in all the right places, jsut out of curiousity have you considered repowering with 2ZZ-GE and TRD hi comp kit? good reliable 200+HP at a cost not too dissimilar to getting similar HP from the mighty blacktop

Well... I admit that I really enjoyed driving my car as a daily car, I guess I got used to the stiff set up as I am used to 6 hour+ driving situations on my car a day, sometimes. Like from Auckland to Wellington and to the south Island.

Lucky thing with my car is that I don't have ABS when I got my car, so I don't have that unnecessary pulse that you have and because I don’t have ABS I can put aggressive pads and rotors so I can brake very hard nearing locking up which is sometimes better stopping the conventional ABS brakes in distance wise.

I am proud of my 20v engine, so I intend to leave it 1.6L so that when I pass someone on the track (like a V8 touring car) the other driver will be so embarrassed to be kicked assed by a 1600cc... I hope you will understand how I would feel if I did that…(laughing hahaha…)

And thanks, regarding your comments on my car and homepage…

[bad20v]

Just a note from a former SAS employee:

The adjustable coilovers from SAS are the MS Racing brand. They import them from a manufacturer in Malaysia. They are height and damping adjustable. They also have the interesting ability in that the shock insert itself is independantly adjustable from the hub base on the bottom. This means that even if you wind the height completely down, the shock piston itself will not bottom out and ruin your shocks. They are quite 'rice' too as they are generally painted in a nice blue anodised coating.
Retail price for a set of these is $2321.00 incl GST.
SAS have branches in Manukau, Takapuna, Lower Hutt and Christchurch.

I had a set of these in my AE101 trueno and could lower it 120mm from standard height with a fairly good ride. However, every time I adjusted the height, I would have to get a wheel alignment. So fitting an adjustable camber kit is advisable with these coilovers as well. Either adjustable camber top plates or an acentric bolt on the hubs.

Good luck with your choice. As for me, I have s/strut in my BZR, so I am saving up for a set of TRD coilovers which I will be purchasing from Mr Revhead.

Cheers.