Coilovers?

[Widar]

I'm on the lookout for coilovers, and i have absolutely no idea of what to get and don't know much about the whole coilover bussiness eather. I want coilovers all around, front and rear.

Been thinking of the ones that Paradise Racing sell, they're cheap, but what shocks should i need? Do they have rear kits as well? Do they only have coilover springs?

Then there's the full coversion kit from T3, front & rear coilovers. It's quite expencive, but then i don't need anything else, right?

Please clear up this for me so that i get a nice AE86 for the best price!
If anyof you know any other places to buy, just tell me!

Best Regards,

[Mux213]

Hey Widar,

The front coilovers from paradise racing I think are good value for money especially if you already have upgraded shocks. If you also have to buy new shocks the extra money for a T3 set would be worth it because it saves you loads of extra work, especially if you want to go shortstroke so you can really lower your car.

On the rears paradise racing does have a full coil over replacement but it requires some banging on your body to make room for them. He doesn't have them posted on his website but there is a thread on club4ag about the install when one of the guys got one of the first they made. You may want to email luis about it.

Zax had a good point that he told me though, coilovers are nice but it is probably cheaper to get some different rear springs made and just swap them when you want to change your settings. The coilovers only allow you to change ride height and you dont really change that much. Although personally I like the abillity to fine tune the ride height with coilovers so I may go for coilovers in the rear some day.

Anyways, if you want to go for coilovers all round, and right now all you have are standard shocks and standard springs, I would say, just buy the T3 kit. Saves you alot of work, they look smashing, and they are great value for money.

*edit*, I got the paradise racing front coilovers as you know, reason for me was very simple, I like it better then to buy just a spring and it isn't really that much more then buying just the springs and since I already have konis all round I save me the money of buying other shocks.

[Fii]

mux,

What else ir required to install the Paradise Racing front coilover kit? Is it enough with the kit and short stroke KONIs? Or do you need to weld something or shorten the strut casing? Do you need RCAs with this kit to do it the right way?

[Mux213]

Hey Fii,

With koni 'long stroke', so the AE86 konis you simply remove your old spring and put the coil overs on. I'll get some pictures of this tomorow if all goes well, I'll be installing them on my car then.

For using the short stoke (AE92 I konis I think) you need to cut off the plate on which the springs rest, cut part out of the strut case to shorten it, weld it back together, weld the coil over sleeve in place and put it all back together. There is a good thread about it on club4ag I think, need to find the link, there are some other issues involved. Simply put, its a lot of work but good end result

[jamiemirror]

About mux's posting and AE92 front shocks using: AE92 front shocks are 40mm shorter than AE86 ones - the strut case shortening must be 40 mm (if less - you must use spacers under AE92 shock cartridges).

[Mux213]

Jamie, very true, I just gave a brief description, there is much more involved, need to find that writeup on club4ag, it is really good.

[Fii]

Is there any benefit of using the short-stroke struts with coilovers?

[jamiemirror]

2 Fii:
lowering of the car.

[Mux213]

This is the page about the rear coilovers:

http://forums.club4ag.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=76358

Also note that there are some concerns with using rear coilovers, stock mounting points on your hachi weren't ment to take all the load. They should be reinforced.

Still looking for writeup of the front.

[Fii]

jamiemirror Wrote:2 Fii:
lowering of the car.

This means that if I use coilovers to lower my car, the stock sized struts will most likely bottom out, right? And that is why I need the short stroke ones?
What will happen if I would like to set my car back to stock height with the short stroke struts still in the car? Would not this cause struts to top out?