tein springs/shocks question

[josh1095]

ok, i know very little about this but the project car i bought is finally running!!!
it has Tein(sp?) shocks and springs all around. looks a bit lowered. there are no compression/damping adjustments. this thing rides like a ###ing log wagon and its unbearable. i did notice the springs were preloaded all the way up. wtf?
that means the springs are essentially not "springing" at all. can i lower the preload and get a little better street drive out of this car?
it also came with very low profile tires on 18s. look great, ride like dogshit.
im used to motorcyle suspension setup but w/out comp/damp adjustments i figured the only option left is decrease preload and let the springs take the bumps instead of these insanely stiff shocks.

 

[romeen]

Are the bump stops trimmed down? You might be bouncing off of them (=harsh ride). Tein should be able to tell you if and how much they should be trimmed for that setup.

 

[98awdturbo]

Are they fully adjusted coilovers?

 

[josh1095]

i kno so damn little about suspension i had to google bump stops. ill take a look under there today.
it looks like a gas strut that says tein on it, with a color matching spring around it. also the spring load can be adjusted using these 2 giant spanner nuts on the strut. see, the strut is threaded and the coilover can be adjusted to be longer or shorter (more or less compressed). does that help?
ill take a pic later too

 

[954TalonTsi]

You have fully adjustable tein coilovers from your description. Search tein coilovers in forums and im sure youll find a reviewn/writeup

 

[PieEyedPiper]

You have fully adjustable tein coilovers from your description. Search tein coilovers in forums and im sure youll find a reviewn/writeup

Height adjustment only, by the sounds of it.
Probably TEIN Basics. MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE

 

[josh1095]

they are tein basics, confirmed it today. by the look, not that old either. i ordered a spanner wrench today. from looking at it, the nuts are up as high as possible meaning its dropped as far as possible. im going to raise it up as much as i can and let the springs take the bumps too. right now they are essentialy a block of wood jammed in there. they are so compressed the cant function right. i know this is inherent in "dropping" a car, but ill take the smoother ride over the dropped look anyday. car is beautiful as it sits completely stock in my eyes.
im sure this will fix the ride issues. i dont think any of the struts are damaged, theyre too new and dont feel "broke".

 

[delta448]

I think you've either got something backwards in how you're thinking about it or how you're describing it, because that doesn't make sense to me. If you raise the adjustable spring collar upwards on the shock body you'll increase ride height and to a small extent, spring preload. If you run it further towards the ground, you'd lower the car's ride height and possibly decrease preload. So if you wanted a softer ride on these you'd try to lower the car a little more. It's a balance thing really, you can't have everything you want on those non-adjustable dampers.

I had Tein Basics on my old 97 AWD, they were a decent improvement over stock IMO, but I can understand them being slightly stiff on really rough roads. After playing with them a bit I ended up running the fronts right in the middle of the height adjustment and the rears 2/3-3/4 to the top of the adjustment threads, but part of that was to add some compression tire clearance in the rear since I rubbed the fender lip slightly with 235s at +35 wheel offset.

 

[josh1095]

that does actually make more sense. maybe i will be dropping it half inch or so, but i know that decreasing spring preload does make for a softer ride. i will eventually get some dif shocks and springs but theres so much to do first on this car. in fact, after rotating the tires and driving another 20 miles today, the ride wasnt too bad. its bearable, put it that way. i sold my eclipse n/t back in october and may have forgotten how these things ride . ive been driving an eddie bauer expedition. car does ride on rails around the corners though. very nice tight handling. ill update when i do the spring adjustments in a week or 2.
thanks

 

[jtmcinder]

If these are Basics, then you should probably stop talking about pre-load. All you have is ride height. Yes, I suppose it's not technically wrong to say pre-load because any time the spring is even slightly compressed at full droop there's a pre-load, but you should really save that concept for set-ups that have two adjusters: one for ride height (i.e., how far down into the bracket the shock body is) and one for pre-load (i.e., how far up the body the lower perch is).

 

[delta448]

If these are Basics, then you should probably stop talking about pre-load.

I agree, the adjustable lower spring perch on those is not really meant for dialing in any preload adjustments, but as you said it does affect it to some degree. That's why I worded my first response so carefully around that idea of preload.

I've never used any other OTS coilovers other than those Teins, and never even been a passenger in a 2G with a "proper" coilover setup, so my opinion shouldn't count for too much, but I will say that I was very happy with the performance of the Basics. Much better than stock.

 

[josh1095]

one more question while i wait for the spanner wrench: can i couple a stock ride height spring with these shocks? im running 18s 235/40. that was how the car came and i like the wheels just a bit on the larger side for me, i would have chosen 17s.
also, when i lower the spanner nuts, lowering ride height, will i get excessive negative camber? its barely showing in the rear and no camber at all in the front right now but that will probably change. i wish i just had stock ride height on this thing...

 

[romeen]

one more question while i wait for the spanner wrench: can i couple a stock ride height spring with these shocks? im running 18s 235/40. that was how the car came and i like the wheels just a bit on the larger side for me, i would have chosen 17s.
also, when i lower the spanner nuts, lowering ride height, will i get excessive negative camber? its barely showing in the rear and no camber at all in the front right now but that will probably change. i wish i just had stock ride height on this thing...

If you mean using a slightly longer coilover type spring then as long as the internal diameter of the spring is the same it should work.

If you mean using a non-coilover type spring (like our stock springs) then no it won't work. They are shaped differently from coilover springs. The spring on the left is a stock type of spring that sits on a fixed perch. The one on the right is a coilover spring. Notice how the full length of the spring has a constant diameter.

The more you lower the car the more negative camber you will get. As to what's considered "excessive" it depends on what your wanting to get out of the car.

 

[jtmcinder]

Given that it is so easy to delete camber in the rear of a 2G and given that these cars need a ton of front camber to turn, I, personally, would never talk about "excessive camber" due to lowering a 2G.

It always a question of wanting more camber ... more than you can ever get from lowering alone.

Does that make sense?