Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

hey,

After taking my car to get the springs change 2day, it looks like it is time to replace my shocks (my right shock is pretty fu cked). So i am in the market to buy some coilover/shocks does anyone requiment a brand, which are the best ect? Im looking to pay $1500 around the max (as my oldman is helping me pay for them).

I was told that the Australian made coilover kits (height adj.) are just as good as the jap spec brands, and it is really just a name (i cant remember the name it started with W)

also is it worth buying second hand or should i just get brand new? also was told that j-spec brands r hard ?

i was looking at greenline motorsports;

HKS Hipermax II ¥137,745

Full Set. Includes pillow ball upper mounts.

r they high adj? are they any good?

thanks mike :D

p.s sorry about all the noob question

;)

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/31626-what-coilovershocks-2-get/
Share on other sites

General opinion seems to be that Jap coilovers are too hard for Aus roads.

My opinion ...any coilover setup is too hard for Aus roads.

I have Aus built DMS full adjust. with Whiteline springs....but only for track... and you'd need a lot more than $1500

You can get lower spec Whiteline combinations though, and I can reccomend Whiteline products.

http://www.whiteline.com.au

My opinion ...any coilover setup is too hard for Aus roads.

My Zeal's are good, and fine on aussie roads, but they seems to be the exception. And they're worth about $4k new or something :-s

For cheaper, some whiteline springs and Koni shocks are a common recommendation. Might get a set for $1500 fitted.

Otherwise speak to somebody who buys from japan, and you may be able to get something for $1-$2k which would cost you about $5k new.. brands like HKS, Cusco, Tein, zeal, etc.

i dont wanna buy just shock then get some springs, i want coilover (springs built into the shocks kind of if you know wat i mean)

drifta; told me to go to wilkinson suspension and get some aus built coil-over siad they would be cheaper than j-spec and just as good, so im tring to see wat is my best opinion

i dont wanna buy just shock then get some springs, i want  coilover (springs built into the shocks kind of if you know wat i mean)

drifta; told me to go to wilkinson suspension and get some aus built coil-over siad they would be cheaper than j-spec and just as good, so im tring to see wat is my best opinion

Heh! wakeup! we ARE talking about Coilovers

depending on who you speak to, a separate spring and shock setup will be equally as good as a "coilover". Don't just buy coilovers, because everybody has them and they'll sound cool to your mates. I know plenty of skyline drivers going around with non-coilover setups and they're handling equally as good as the coilover people (if not better in some situations).

* sigh*

Mike , what I said was that all R33 Skyline shocks are coilovers, ie. the coil goes over the shock.

What you want is a height adjustable one which is done by winding the springs up and down using a c spanner.

A lot of the cheaper new Koni's and Bilsteins use a circlip type adjustment which requires the disassembly of the spring/shock to achieve a height change.

Wilkinsons do a Aussie brand style adjustable platform coilover which may be in your price range but will check Monday.

Fialing that will check to see what Whiteline sells ( as we are an agent)

And as I said a quickish height change is good for show/go/sticker removal ;)

Cheers

Ken

i guess its horses for courses. if u want real low and stiff go coilovers, if u just want stiff u could do it without the coilovers (but then if u get low springs that are illegal its hassles)

however now even if the coilovers are wound up, some pits seem not to pass them coz theyre just too hard they say. ;)

my DR30 has KYB insert front shocks (top adjustable) with some jap lowered (not slammed haha) progressive rate springs.

rear has some lowered (sortof :D) springs, and i just bought some new Koni's and firmed them up a bit out of the box.

overall, this as it is is quite high, (say 2 finger gap tyre to wheelarch front and back) but still okay, and it is stiff and bumpy like coilovers i had in my S13, but probably does handle a bit better around bends as it doesnt push understeer coz its too stiff, it still lets the car lean and transfer weight a bit.

so as it is now (tho the Konis might wear softer over time :)) it handles as good if not better than my S13 which had Cusco and JIC coilovers at one time for a few weeks each.

i had the HotBits coilovers that Wilkinsons sell, i bought them brand new, not the normal ones i got the 'harder' street/race with helper springs, and fully adjustable camber tops, and they cost me around $3000 bought and installed. and in my opinion they werent worth it. they were too bouncey and soft feeling, and still caused understeer. i prefered the bumpy JIC coz they felt more sure footed and handled as good if not beter even on poor tyres.

however, as the DR is now, it probably outhandles both of these cars, with 205/60/15 tyres, and misalinged front wheels (need that alignment haha)

so yeh u can get a nice firm feeling car that handles well, but it doesnt look mean and low. then u can get Jap coiloivers, which will be probably slightly harder again, allow u to realy dump ur car, but my actualy handle a bit worse coz it will cause understeer if theyre too low, and may skip or feel uncertain if the road is inevenly surfaced or rippled on high speed turning.

try and go for a spin in some peoples R33's with coilovers and with normal shock absorber combos. i reckon this would be the best way to go and see if the ride/handling tradeoff with the height/adjustment is wat u want!

sorry for long post ;) but suspension seems to have accidentaly become a forte of mine, ive spent probably 5000 or more on different stuff for different cars, still havent realy liked ne of it hugely :cheers: meh haha

most types of jap coilovers are rock hard

drift spec coilovers

but i 'ms ure the main companies do make softer track style ones

which woudl be more aimed for track use or street than for drifting

just gotta shop around i spose

when I was buying my car, I saw it had coilovers and I was delighted cos they're cool etc but when i started driving it, I changed my mind pretty *****ing quickly :freak:, they're fine on the new motorways and all but over here the rest of the roads are junk and i have an average of 2.74 tyres on the road at any given time... rock solid.

Given the choice now, I'd go for standard set up, good shocks and springs....

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • The average previous owner for these cars were basically S-chassis owners in the US. Teenagers or teenager-adjacent. I often tell people that neglect is easier to fix than something that was actively "repaired" by previous owners.
    • Update 3: Hi all It's been a while. Quite a lot of things happened in the meantime, among other things the car is (almost) back together and ready to be started again. Things that I fixed or changed: Full turbo removal, fitting back the OEM turbo oil hardlines. Had to do quite a bit of research and parts shopping to get every last piece that I need and make it work with the GT2860 turbos, but it does work and is not hard to do. Proves that the previous owner(s) just did not want to. While I was there I set the preload for the wastegates to 0,9bar to hopefully make it easier for the tuner to hit the 370hp I need for the legal inspections that will follow later on. Boost can always go up if necessary. Fitted a AN10 line from the catch can to the intake hose to make the catchcan and hopefully the cam covers a slight vacuum to have less restrictive oil returns from the head and not have mud build up as harshly in the lines and catch can. Removed the entire front interior just shy of the dashboard itself to clean up some of the absolutely horrendous wiring, (hopefully) fix the bumpy tacho and put in LED bulbs while I was there. Also put in bulbs where there was none before, like the airbag one. I also used that chance to remove the LED rpm gauge on the steering column, which was also wired in absolute horror show fashion. Moved the 4in1 Prosport gauge from sitting in front of the OEM oil pressure gauge to the center console vents, I used a 3D printed vent piece to hold that gauge there. The HKB steering wheel boss was likely on incorrectly as I sometimes noticed the indicator reset being uneven for left vs. right. In the meantime also installed an airbag delete resistor, as one should. Installed Cube Speed premium short shifter. Feels pretty nice, hope it'll work great too when I actually get to drive. Also put on a fancy Dragon Ball shift knob, cause why not. My buddy was kind enough to weld the rust hole in the back, it was basically rusted through in the lowermost corner of the passenger side trunk area where the wheel arch, trunk panel and rear quarter all meet. Obviously there is still a lot of crustiness in various areas but as long as it's not rusted out I'll just treat and isolate the corrosion and pretend it's not there. Also had to put down a new ground wire for the rear subframe as the original one was BARELY there. Probably a bit controversial depending on who you ask about this... but I ended up just covering the crack in the side of the engine block, the one above the oil feed, with JB Weld. I used a generous amount and roughed up the whole area with a Dremel before, so I hope this will hold the coolant where it should be for the foreseeable future. Did a cam cover gasket job as the half moons were a bit leaky, and there too one could see the people who worked on this car before me were absolute tools. The same half moons were probably used like 3 times without even cleaning the old RTV off. Dremeled out the inside of the flange where the turbine housing mates onto the exhaust manifolds so the diameter matches, as the OEM exhaust manifolds are even narrower than the turbine housings as we all know. Even if this doesn't do much, I had them out anyways, so can't harm. Ideally one would port-match both the turbo and the manifold to the gasket size but I really didn't feel up to disassembling the turbine housings. Wrapped turbo outlet dumps in heat wrap band. Will do the frontpipe again as well as now the oil leak which promted me to tear apart half the engine in the first place is hopefully fixed. Fitted an ATI super damper to get rid of the worn old harmonic balancer. Surely one of the easiest and most worth to do mods. But torquing that ARP bolt to spec was a bitch without being able to lock the flywheel. Did some minor adjustments in the ECU tables to change some things I didn't like, like the launch control that was ALWAYS active. Treated rusty spots and surface corrosion on places I could get to and on many spots under the car, not pretty or ideal but good enough for now. Removed the N1 rear spats and the carbon surrounding for the tailpipe to put them back on with new adhesive as the old one was lifting in many spots, not pretty. Took out the passenger rear lamp housing... what do you know. Amateur work screwed me again here as they were glued in hard and removing it took a lot of force, so I broke one of the housing bolts off. And when removing the adhesive from the chassis the paint came right off too. Thankfully all the damaged area won't be visible later, but whoever did the very limited bodywork on this car needs to have their limbs chopped off piece by piece.   Quite a list if I do say so myself, but a lot of time was spent just discovering new shit that is wrong with the car and finding a solution or parts to fix it. My last problem that I now have the headache of dealing with is that the exhaust studs on the turbo outlets are M10x1.25 threaded, but the previous owner already put on regular M10 nuts so the threads are... weird. I only found this out the hard way. So now I will just try if I can in any way fit the front pipe regardless, if not I'll have to redo the studs with the turbos installed. Lesson learned for the future: Redo ALL studs you put your hands on, especially if they are old and the previous owners were inept maniacs. Thanks for reading if you did, will update when the engine runs again. Hope nothing breaks or leaks and I can do a test drive.
    • No those pads are DBA too  but they have colors too. I look at the and imo the green "street" are the best.
    • I’m not sure what happened I told them about sonic tunes free OTS tune and the next the I know .. I was booted..   To funny 
×
×
  • Create New...