so ive owned my car for about 4 years now and think its time for some coilovers (i think) im currently on the kyb struts with tanabe springs. ride is ok just thinking of upgrading. so ive been looking at fortune auto 500 and the feal 441. i cant figure out what spring rates i should get and what would be the better ride quality for a DD car. i havent tracked the car but i do like driving mountain roads as much as possible. my rims are 18X9 with a 245 tire. if anyone has any opinions please chime in. i have read alot of threads but cant seen to get a concrete answer for what i do with the car.

 

Most of us run the FA's / Ohlins around here. In your situation, I would opt for the FA500's w/Swift springs & the upper bearing option

Springs rates, based on your notes: 8K / 8K or 8K/10K. The 10K rear will assist in some rear rotation

Call Terry @ FA. Make sure you fill out their questionnaire before calling

 

thats where i was leaning i just couldnt figure out what spring rates would be good for what i use the car for. i was also going to do the both of those upgrades since everyone ive seen post about them says they are more than worth it. thank you any other input is welcome as well

 

I run Fa500s on my car 8k/8k. That is what I believe fortune auto recommends for DD and some spirited driving. I heavily recommend the spherical bearing upgrade and the swift springs. I got a good deal on them through MAP, they had a sale going on through this forum. If you PM them on here you might be able to get a deal, I dont know if it will be the same price though.

I actually prefer the 500s over stock because of where I live there are potholes and uneven roads and they really do make a difference over stock (of course the stock bilsteins had over 100k on them before i switched). But they do really make a difference.

The 8k/10k springrate will definitely help with rear rotation but Im planning on going another route to get that rotation with 8k/8k.

If you get the updated 500s they now come with a locking spring perch.

 

^^^Just saw their vid on the Gen 6 c/o's

Really like that locking collar & they also have a floating perch

Here's the Vid:

https://fortune-auto.com/generation-6/

 

Didn't know that our coils get the floating perch too. Thats probably why I got such a good deal on my gen 5s last fall

 

i think in the coming weeks i will for sure being hitting up FA, just waiting for fp to finish up my upgrade and i will make the call any ideas if the height is preset from FA? or am i going to have to mess with the damping and height?

 

I know for sure when i got my coils they were all the way compacted. I.e. they were about as low as you can put them, now on stock wheels and tires that was so low that i didnt even let the car sit on its own weight before I jacked it back up and lengthened them.

I manually set the recommended amount of preload on the coils. I have to dig out my installation manual but I believe they reccomend no more than 1/8th of an inch.

What I did then was measure my stock suspension for length from mounting points on the chassis to the mounting points on the suspension. I settled for a 1" drop all around if I remember correctly. I then learned that the front wheel wells go to a different height on the car compared to the rears, so when I get new wheels im going to drop the front some more because theres some extra gap in the front that I want to get rid of for aesthetic purposes. I still havent rubbed at any time though.

By the way, take off part of your lower control arms in the rear because if you want anywhere near stock height and want to make a small change after mounting, they will get in the way

 

^^^
Yes, You will have to adjust the ride height. Terry at FA will tell you where to start the clickers at

Heres the Vid on the Hyperco perches

 

sorry for going a little off topic but Do you think they would sell the spring perches and the locking collar for sale? or I could send them my coils and they would upgrade them to gen 6?

 

If you're going to spend over $1500 on FA's, move up to Ohlins.


Swift spring upgrade doesn't help much. They just weigh less. You're not going to notice a huge difference for the extra money.

 

Just a quick question, what makes Ohlins better?

 

The DFV (dual flow valve) technology. And having held the oOlins and FA's in my hand, every single parts of the Ohlins is simply higher quality than the FA stuff.

The lower mount for the front struts is a solid piece of billet steel, no welding. And it uses pinch bolts instead of collar to lock it in place, so steering forces will never cause it to loosen up.

Ohlins aren't made in China, or whatever other basically 3rd world Asian country FA sources parts from.

 

but do I really need a $2000+ set of coilover for a DD with occasional spirited drivimg though? Seems like they would go mostly unused for the driving I do.

 

Get a quote on the FA500's w/the added options vs the O's (let us know). The FA's are serviced / re-valved, by them, here in VA USA

The O's dont come springed correctly for the EvO (rates are backwards i.e. 10K/8k Vs 8k/10K. The O's are not custom valved like the FA's & are not serviced by them.

Get them quoted w/the Swifts, upper bearing & their new spring perch & compare. The O's dont come w/any of those options