Caldina GT-T suspension farked, opinions on new bits?

[1e-pwr]

A mate of mine has a real nice super straight st215 that he bought not so long ago from a dealer, but the suspension in it is ABSOLUTELY shagged. The car has been lowered on kings springs, and they were either too soft or lowered it too much for the (presumably) factory shocks since when the car is loaded these are bottoming out on every decent bump in the road. The rears are especially bad and one person can actually stand on the tail gate and bounce the car enough to bottom out the shocks. Obviously something needs to be done so are weighing up options for replacement shocks. To make things more interesting I found the following quote in another thread re caldina suspension:

kings do not make a specific spring for the caldina , Edgar from george stocks supplied some kings for my mates caldina, which are infact corolla springs . They $&#$% the shocks and completely destroyed the bump stops because the spring rate is calculated on the corollas weight not the 1470 kg the caldina weighs in at. so stocks gave full refund and have not manufactured springs specific for the caldina..

.

SO, now were also wondering if the kings should go as well... I looked up the kings part number from one of the rear springs (86SP) and this is what is listed for the Caldina so would like to hear this theory elaborated on since doesn't seem to match any corollas that I can see. this might be an important point since if the 'wrong' springs were put in it it might give mate some come back on the dealer he bought the car off of 3 months ago...

Anyway, bottom line is mates in market for new suspension and is open to suggestions, wants to keep cost down (especially if he ends up paying) but also wants something that is quality and will serve him well... If anyone has any good second hand stuff might be interested in that as well, all comments appreciated.

[xsspeed]

The general consensus seems to be teins are the best for the gtt's. I will be putting them into our GT when I have some coin to throw at it.

Mr Revhead will probably see this and say the same, but I think TEIN test fit all of their spring packages on the cars and so they don't just end up with a generic spring that fits multiple car models.

[lucasthefallen]

i have a GT ( same suspension etc as the GTT ), im using new genuine toyota shocks, and TEIN springs. all i can say is that they are fricken awesome, i sampled sets of kings, jaymex and dobi, all crap compared.

the wagon feels alot more sure footed on the road, and corners well with minimal body roll compared to factory.

+1 for tiens.


their cheap too, i think i've seen them on trade me for $350 a set.

[GTTpower]

+1 for teins, just recently installed some in the GTT. Higher spring rate helps alot.

[1e-pwr]

Sweet, will message Mr revhead. I think I read somewhere that the teins ride a bit higher than the kings which would actually be a good thing since car will be seeing mountain roads in the winter... Any comments on what kybs go like in these wagons? anybody know what the oem shocks are worth? I see that the fronts run inserts but are the rears single unit struts?...

[snwtoy]

Another vote for the teins.

I had dobi in mine and it was awesomely low, but without getting the shocks modified you're in for a bumpy ride.

Changed to tein and they're not flattering to the height, but it's sooo much better to ride in now. I changed to the teins specifically to be able to take it to the snow.

If you can afford coilovers and cert, that might be the way to go to get the best of both worlds.

[flygt4]

how do the teins ride as far as a daily driver goes?

have been considering a set of of tein springs for ages for our GT wagon, which we use just for carting the dogs around and weekend shopping trips. just to firm it up a little, not fussed at all about height drop as i quite like being able to drive up curbs etc.

[xsspeed]

Snwtoy, which ones did you go for (I understand there are soft and hard spring rate models from tein?)

[lucasthefallen]

teins ride mint for daily use, i think you'll find theres only 1 type available in new zealand, from memory its the soft type

[snwtoy]

I don't know which ones they are :/ The box didn't make any mention of soft or hard, and it's long gone.

They ride brilliant for a daily, and they're probably on par with the trd setup in our runx (maybe ever so slightly softer but without losing the feeling of the road).

[Mr Revhead]

TEIN as mentioned earlier specifically test items in the car they are listed for.
in the main catalouge there is a list of cars the parts are compatible with and its noted if they have been specifically tested or not on certain models.

often TEIN wont lower as much as other brands. and on some (eg forresters) they lower them more.
it all depends what TEIN deem acceptable for STOCK shocks.

all TEIN springs are available in NZ. its just 99.9% of the stock in NZ is the "soft tech" spring. these are still quite a bit harder than stock and in the case of toyotas not too far off the TRD option on the ones iv cross checked.

Also, while I am happy to help with TEIN info etc, check with Al at Driven on pricing. He does TEIN and is a forum sponsor

[Santa'sBoostinSleigh]

i had Kings in my caldina when i got it, and they had corolla codes on them
decided to ditch them and put in new genuine shocks and tein springs

the kings used to make the car bottom out on humps/in carpark buildings etc, and the teins have raised the car up a bit

teins win hand down as the shocks were poked, and it was a crap ride.

new shocks and springs:




Rear


Rear Springs


Front Springs


Buggered Shock



Kings+Fuct Shocks:


Teins + New Shocks:

[lucasthefallen]

[1e-pwr]

OK bit of an update, dealer has admitted that the shocks were almost certainly fukced when he got the car and has agreed to fix it - hooray! Or not... cause now dealer says the shocks that they will replace them with are second hand items from a Caldina G. Although second hand shocks are better than $&#$% shocks obviously mate isnt impressed, since the kings stay and who knows how many more kms the 2nd hand units have left in em... Also, anyone know if the GTTs run different shocks than the other base models of the Caldinas? If so buddy would have grounds to call 'not even' on the poo 2nd hand shocks...

[Mr Revhead]

there are (obviously) differences in 2wd vs 4wd
also in the facelift the spring seat height changes so the wrong year shocks can alter the height of the car.
im fairly sure there would also be a valving difference
i say no to the 2nd hand Gs

[BZG Wagon]

OK bit of an update, dealer has admitted that the shocks were almost certainly fukced when he got the car and has agreed to fix it - hooray! Or not... cause now dealer says the shocks that they will replace them with are second hand items from a Caldina G. Although second hand shocks are better than $&#$% shocks obviously mate isnt impressed, since the kings stay and who knows how many more kms the 2nd hand units have left in em... Also, anyone know if the GTTs run different shocks than the other base models of the Caldinas? If so buddy would have grounds to call 'not even' on the poo 2nd hand shocks...

After being in several sandard GT caldinas, and comparing that to every 'standard hight' GTT I've been in / driven; I would say with near certainty the GT's have very different shocks.

Just watch a GT bounce down the motorway or sag in the rear with passengers next time you're out. GTT's look far more stable.

[cat007]

We've got damper and height adjustable teins in our GT-T - VERY nice ride. Bit bouncy but firm and makes the car feel pretty planted when you're really pushing it....

Only issue we've had is the rear top hats corroded (made from cheap alloy and ended up looking like a sacrificial anode and crumbled between my fingers) and were about $600 (retail) to replace :S

Oh and the little "damper" adjuster screw on the top of the rears, is made from cheap steal (so is fronts but they had a rubber cap on so they were fine) so it rusted and when turned, it broke!!

oh AND - most of our locking rings that the springs sit on, are corroded and cracked and need to be replaced.....

hmmm not looking too reliable these actually.....

[Mr Revhead]

are you sure they are genuine TEIN? and have you used the anti corrosion coating they come with?

havnt had those issues come to me yet, and we often get sets that are rather old for rebuilding

[cat007]

are you sure they are genuine TEIN? and have you used the anti corrosion coating they come with?

havnt had those issues come to me yet, and we often get sets that are rather old for rebuilding

I'm pretty sure they are. They say tein on them lol

The old ones, I'm not sure they had the anticorrosion coating. The new top hats look to be annodised gold.

The locking rings just look like bare alloy....

[soven]

I remember reading about fake Teins floating about a while ago when I bought my set.