Just finished installing my Tein RAs today (thanks Trbo Dad!). Bye bye A stock, hello street prepared. Compared to other cars I've worked on, I was in shock at how easy they were to install. I just couldn't believe that it was that easy. The only thing that was a pain was torquing the rear control arm bolts (to the shock and knuckle) with the car on the ground since I don't happen to have a drive-on lift. BTW, this is a detail that is often missed in a lot of write-ups on how to install springs/coilovers. If you torque down those bolts with the suspension at full droop, you may mess up your bushings.

I'm at a loss for what to do on the front alignment. I want to run max camber and either zero toe or a little toe out for autocrossing, but I don't want to completely destroy the inner edge of my tires on the street. If I adjust the camber more positive with the camber plates the car toes out big time, so adjusting those between events seems like something I'd need to be careful about. Anyone here adjusting camber plates between events and not touching toe. Anyone have any idea how much the car toes in for each degree of negative camber added with camber plates?

I don't have much seat time in the car yet, but on a quick 5 mile drive on country roads with the struts set in the middle of the range the car rides about like stock. I was surprised. I was worried about it being harsh, but even with those 12s in the front it is fine. No wallowing or significant body lean either. Even with the shocks set in the middle settings the car feels very composed and responsive to aggressive steering inputs. Can't wait to align the car and see how it feels to autocross an Evo with good negative camber

 

Can't help you with the camber question, just thought id say good work on the install and good job selecting the tein RA's. Have fun at the autox

 

EVO8LTW,

How you like the RA? I'm also considering RA and maybe even HT.
How much did you drop the car? I know that unlike FLEX.. you will not get full
travel if you star lowering your car with RA. So I'm wondering how much drop
do you get at full travel.

Thanks,

 

I had the same issue with toe and camber. I just compromised and went with -2.6 in front and 1/8 toe out. My inner tire wear hasn't been too bad and I've had it this way for about 4000 miles.

 

My car is dropped about an inch in the front and less than 1/4" in the rear. I don't have enough seat time in them yet to make any further comments on their performance.

 

Here are some pictures. Sorry if they are too big.

 

One more

 

what are the spring rates on those RA's? thought the RA's had external reservoirs.

 

The RAs don't have the external reservoir. That comes on one of the more expensive H-something versions. Tein's webpage probably has all that info.

 

External reservoirs come with the RS, HT and HG series suspension, though for the Evo, only the rear shocks come with the reservoirs. I reckon it's due to the tight packaging at the front shocks. Even the Ohlin's Flag-L suspension has the reservoir at the top of the strut.
How do you like the ride of the RA? I was torn between RA, RS and HT, ended up going for the HT. How does 15/12 sound to you? Doesn't make for a supremely comfortable ride but going round tight bends is a totally different experience.

Cheers
Dennis

 

BakZamGai,

Don't think Tein makes RS for EVO... unless it's new and not on their website.
You got HT?? Do you track/autox your EVO? Just wondering how it works
at the track. Also, I was told that HT will only last roughly 20k miles on the street before need to rebuild.

 

So you replaced 9kg with 10kg springs for the rear?

 

RA is totally a kick booty suspension...only downside is lack of dual height adjustment

 

I got these lightly used from another board member who did well with them in this 12/10 configuration. I also have the original 9s.

 

Isn't it bad to induce oversteer with stiffening the rear shocks?