I bought my 2004 VIII with a set of Tein S-tech springs already installed. I'm thinking my struts have had enough... here's why (if anyone has any other opinions I'm open): The ride has gotten worse as the miles go on and is very bouncey. Also, I'm hearing a thumping noise when I go over bumps on the right side now.

So now I'm looking into a set of coilovers to take car of the horrible ride and hopefully the noise over the bumps and I was hoping to have some help deciding on which ones to get. I'm not going to be seeing much track time as the evo is my daily driver, so I need it to be able to handle some rough roads. Also, I can't afford to drop a ton of money on them, like no Ohlins or anything.

Right now I'm between the Apexi N1 Damper EXVs and the Endura-Techs. I haven't really been able to find decent reviews of either so any insight would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

 

the endura-techs are nice. call eric gaudi at ams. he ran them on his evo before he got his sti. he might even have them on his sti. actually just email him he is a busy man. eric@amsperformance.com

 

Megan racing street coilovers are around 800. I got the track series for 900 shipped. Get the street version, the track are really stiff.

 

If you haven't found any decent reviews, then how did they even get on your list? Better yet, how in the world did they become your final two? I would recommend reading in this forum and the motorsports forum to see the coilovers that work well on the Evo at low cost.

 

If it's your DD, just go back to the stock springs and shock setup. I'm sure you could find some used ones for cheap from anyone wanting to track their car and get better performance. The stock springs are no slouch, and very comfortable. Why would you need anything better than that for a street car.

 

Plus I think you could go really wrong with a cheap set of coilovers.

 

Wicked White, you have it all backwards. The stock springs are NOT comfortable and are definitely slouches. The stock ride height, body roll, and tendency to understeer are stark characteristics of the Evo, especially the one he has (GSR).

Also, it's been proven and is well-known that some cheap coilovers can do very well on the Evo when setup properly. The Megan Street and Megan Tracks are ~$800 and are a great choice on a budget that will be way better than stock and also way better than those POS Tein springs he used that were worse than stock and blew his shocks.

 

Another inexpensive, yet high quality, set of coilovers are the BC Racing Type BR. You can get them around $900 shipped. I have them on my car (had them corner balanced) and the difference between stock is night and day. Keep them close to the full "soft" setting and they are perfect for a daily driver. Put them closer to the full "hard" setting and they are great for a day of spirited driving or a track day. They do perform as well as some coilovers costing twice as much. The biggest thing with any coilover is getting them properly set up and corner balanced. If you don't do that, they'll like ride worse than stock.

 

I respectfully disagree. First, comfort is subjective, I find the stock suspension to be firm and acceptably comfortable. Second, understeer can easily be solved with an $80 alignment, something that people overlook and jump straight into a $1000 coilover purchase. Some negative camber front and rear, along with a twinge of toe out in front and toe in for the rear results in a very balanced setup. If body roll is an issue, a set of good front/rear sway bars are also good solutions.

 

You are way off, sleeper. You can't magically remove the Evo's understeer with an alignment - not even close. It takes big changes to spring rates to remedy the understeer properly, or some people bandaid it with a stiff rear sway bar that induces oversteer. By no means does any $80 alignment make the stock suspension lack understeer. No one overlooks this, because it simply is not true - it's terribly far from true. You don't remove understeer for the hell of it - you do it while setting up the suspension to make the car faster. Your stock suspension re-alignment would do no such thing.

No, sway bars are not the solution for body roll - they are a bandaid as I mentioned above.

Yes, comfort is subjective, but when the VAST majority of people agree that the stock Evo setup is pretty rough, then it is not really a subjective opinion. There is a noticeable difference in the ride comfort between a GSR and MR due to the Bilsteins that are much nicer.

 

We'll have to agree to disagree. I can only speak from direct experience autocrossing my Evo, before and after an alignment. There was definitely some understeer with the factory setup, then after dialing in the above specs, I was able to get a neutral handling setup with slight oversteer upon corner exit. This was all done on a closed autox course, which I feel is really one of the best ways to gauge something like this. This was all done on Bridgestone RE-01R tires.

Ask any veteran autox'er the importance of an alignment. After tires it's the most critical handling mod. As you well know, understeer is defined as the front tires having less grip than the rear. By dialing in at least 2 degrees of negative camber in the front, you allow the front tires to grip better in corners, resulting in less understeer.

I wish you could take my car on a test run on an autox course here in Charlotte next season, I can type until my fingers bleed, but it would take an actual autox run to convince you.

 

You wouldn't convince me, because there's no way you can fix understeer on the Evo with a simple alignment. I've already raced an entire season (both autox and circuit) on the stock MR suspension with -2.0 up front and both -0.5 and -1.0 rear camber. Doing funky things with the toe just to reduce the understeer does not mean it's the proper thing to do. Even with my full race setup using extreme rate springs and custom valved Ohlins, there is understeer if I come in too hot. It's simply the nature of the car, and a _simple_ alignment doesn't magically remove it.

No, the alignment is not the 2nd most important thing behind tires - it's the suspension. Yes, an expensive suspension without corner balancing and proper alignment will be of little use, but there is nothing you can do with an alignment to increase handling more than upgrading the suspension...that's a fact.

 

ya ya ya get some tanbae sustec pro 2 and call it a day....perfect for a everyday driver

 

Sleeper, best thing to do is let Warrtalon rant and think he's right about everything. I could come back with a bunch of technical reasons why the stock setup is fine also, but I knew at that point it was useless. Look at the number of posts he has, he obviously likes to argue.

 

Nah it's all good, I enjoy discussing things like this and it's inevitable that people are going to disagree. Forums like this would be boring if we all thought the same thing.