Stagea Suspension

[Mr_RS4]

Couldn't give you any opinion on the coilovers as I have only ever had one set of Tein's in my old S13 and have never had anything to compare them with. You'll still be able to use the whiteline sway bars and as for the wheels as long as the rolling diameter is the same you shouldn't have any problems. Staggered width wheels should be fine just not staggered diameter.

And like nick said if you do have the R33GTR sub frame you can use 260RS suspension kits as the normal stagea specific kits won't fit in the rear.

[CL11QE]

Hmmmmmm interesting....mine is the Series 2 99 RS Four S....so i should get kits suited for the

260RS? Or can my setup be varied? Will i have to wait till the car gets here to check all that out?

[Mr_RS4]

Honestly I've never looked under a factory manual RS Four S to see if they have the usual GTST or 260RS style GTR subframe. I'm sure there has got to be someone on here that has. The difference is with the R33GTST subframe they use the eyehole bush type but the GTR subframe / hubs use a fork style setup for the rear shocks to mount. So yeah if you have the latter then you will need to get kits suited to the 260RS or if you have the usual GTST subframe then just the normal stagea kits.

When the car gets here you'll know for sure. Just look at the rear shocks and see if they use a bush or a for type mounting at the bottom.

[wolverine]

the rear is fork type on RS4S.

just order the sydneykid group buy gear. problem solved. once you set the height you will almost certainly never touch it again.

if you intend going much lower than standard you are going to need more than the whiteline eccentric bushes for adjusting static camber (if you want to get reasonable tyre wear). despite sydneykid's dislike of adjustable camber arms you will probably need them.

Edited June 3, 2008 by wolverine

[Mr_RS4]

There you go knew someone on here would know

[CL11QE]

Thanks guys,

I think ill just be waiting till she gets here n sus everything out first n go from there...

[StageaTypeS]

I myself have a 99 RS4 Type S and I also had trouble on deciding on what to do suspension wise. In the end I have come up with the following solution for my car which I have been very impressed with and also the suspension shop that did my work also commented that it appeared to be a very well sorted ride.

R33 Greddy Type S Coilovers. these are 48mm diameter monotube shocks with 36 way adjustable damping. (Had to have the Rear Billet Strut top machined to fit the standard stagea mounting as this is slightly smaller in a Stagea than in a GTR, any good workshop can do this no problem)

Front Greddy springs are 8kg and the rears are 6kg.

The rear springs are a little too soft and they are progressive which is no good for a wagon. (i swapped them for a set of off the shelf 8kg Eibach springs which is an easy swap)

Overall the ride is really nice and I find it very comfortable, I didn't notice a huge change in comfort either when going from the standard setup to this. I am not sure what the standard settings are for a Type S but the standard suspension is pretty firm in my opinion. Also you will be glad to know the Type S comes with larger Swaybars than normal Stageas although these are hollow same as on a GTR and not solid like the Whiteline ones.

All up my solution cost me about $2500, and this included paying for workshop labour. If you were doing it yourself I reckon you could do something similar for $2000. I really wanted coilovers so that is whay I went down this path but from everything I have read on the forum Sydneykids kit is very well recommended.

At the end of the day if you want a safe option then get his kit, else if you want to try something different then make sure you speak to someone who knows about suspension before you hand over any money.

[wolverine]

further to the above, the RS4S rear swaybar is a 24mm hollow vs 24mm solid from whiteline in the sydneykid GB.

[chook]

Just a pic of my new 'ikeya formula' Tension rods (castor rods) installed yesterday, uses factory style bushes instead of usual pillowballs.

[Duncan]

they look like a good option. what is an indication on price?

[chook]

http://www.nengun.com/ikeya-formula/tension-rod

got it for around $450, but I checked again and nengun seem to have doubled their delivery charges from $57 to $108 for this, perhaps better to look elsewhere, slide etc., but make sure its the 4wd bush type for RSfours, same part as GTRs.

[wolverine]

they look like a good option. what is an indication on price?

duncan i think we fitted the noltec(i think?) ones on our car ages ago. UAS supplied and fitted. the price was pretty comparable to the whiteline caster bushes (again from memory).

call JP he should be able to clarify.

[chook]

Big thanks to Matt for the Greddy rear tower strut bar, photos for those interested in how they fit.

[ssshonky]

that rear strut brace looks very very tidy! but at close to $400- ouch !

why so expensive I wonder?

[GreenGhost]

i paid 220 from jin man for my rear stut bar

[JiN_MaN]

Big thanks to Matt for the Greddy rear tower strut bar, photos for those interested in how they fit.

Thats is by far the neatest install I have ever seen.

[pintaline]

spring question - i have red nismo springs part number 54010-RSC45 front and 55020-RSC46 rear

anyone know what these are?

D.

[Sydneykid]

A repost for those that may not have read it;

The Group Buy Bilsteins have additional circlip grooves added so you can set the height you want before you fit them. For the Stagea kit there are 10 grooves 8 mm apart and I can tell you the height that you will get from each groove. Keep in mind that Stagea handle and ride best around 360 mm front and 350 mm rear (centre of wheel to guard).

Adjustable shocks are only worthwhile if you know what you are doing with the adjustments. Most of the time shocks have adjustment to cover up for their unsophisticated valving. This means they only work in a small range of conditions and so they have to have the adjustment. Bilsteins have very sophisticated valving and consequently have a large window that they operate well in. Simply put, they don't need adjusting. Plus I have selected the valving to suite the Group Buy kit.

For the guys who want/need to change the height of their Stagea regularly then there is an option using the Group Buy kit plus a Bilstien coil over conversion kit (threaded sleave + top and bottom spring seats) with Eibach springs. It simply slides over the shock and retains over the circlip groove. Looks like this;

Rears

Front

Obviously with the Eibach springs and the wide window that the Bilstein valving allows, there is a choice of spring rates. Currently I am running 275 lbs/inch (5 kg/mm) front and 225 lbs/inch (4 kg/mm) rear, which are only slightly higher than the Whiteline rates at the front and the same at the rear. I will try 250's in the rear for towing when the R32GTST is finished its refurbish.

The coil over conversion costs around $900 and includes 4 main Eibach springs, 2 Eibach tender/helper springs, 4 threaded sleaves, 4 top spring seats, 2 intermediate spring seats, 4 bottom spring seats and 4 lock rings. C spanners for adjusting the height can be purchased from any CBC or NBC bearing shop.

Cheers

Gary

[Mr_RS4]

Hey,

Does anyone have any pics of SK's Suspension before you put it in the car. The ones in the group buy thread that SK posted up ages ago no longer work. Am trying to install my kit this weekend but I think the rear spring seats (bilstein ones) are wrong as the rear spring doesn't fit over them. I have them the right way up and have double checked the part numbers for the springs to make sure they are the right ones. The spring seat looks like its too big, the fronts are fine (haven't fitted yet but they sit on the spring seat fine). But if I flip the rear sping over so the flat shaved down side sits on the spring seat it fits fine but I'm guessing this isn't right?

[yokotas13]

what a coincidence

my springrates are right around there, and it handles fantasticccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc