[jimster716]

Pics description:
1. setting spring perch and lock at proper reference setting.
2. installing stock pillowball mount

 

[jimster716]

Pics description:
1. Front coilover in position
2. Rear coilover in position

 

[jimster716]

Pics description:
1. Car parked after install
2. Rear closeup
3. Front closeup

 

[jimster716]

Pics description:
1. Installer Tetsu, who is no stranger to being photographed (Super Street magazine suspension install), and Greg (was working on a Ducati 748 when he decided it was time for a goof-off break) doing their best Options magazine pose at least Greg is.
2. My rear seat bottom cushion being mounted on top of the Feed wing of my friend Tony's chameleon FD RX-7 for added downforce...this particular showoff rx-7 has been featured on many magazine covers although now it only gathers dust.

 

[jimster716]

The shock damping has been set to 8 which is in the middle of 16 adjustments. The ride is compliant though i think maybe a bit too soft for me so I think I'm going to give the dampers a couple of clicks toward stiff.

The rear is lower than before when I had H&R Sports and because of this I will be adding the SPC rear camber control arms on Monday.

The ride quality is much nicer as the stock shocks were too soft I think from 2 years of lowering. No more wallowing at speed for me...don't like feeling sea-sick.

I'd like to give special thanks to Tetsu Fukui for installing the coilovers while i got in his way with the camera and for installing them for free...friends rule!!! All work was done at es technical roadsports in Gardena, CA.

 

[rominl]

oh man that's very nice! what did you get on the front part of your right skirt?

though i would probably raise the rear a bit

 

[fahoumh]

looks great, Jim!

but there was a couple of things that were puzzling me....to adjust the height and damping, do you have to take it in somewhere, or can you do it yourself? And what about the camber, does that have to be adjusted every time you change the ride height?

 

[jimster716]

rominl: thanks. what I got on the front part of my right skirt was paint chipping (a large chip). I mentioned previously that i was getting my bodykit re-painted for free and my car is going in next weekend for this. I will be raising the rear on Monday just a bit because with the camber correction i think i may run into problems with rubbing at that height.

fahoumh: thanks. you can adjust the height and the damping yourself. Once the car is on jacks the wheels will drop enough to give you room to get your hands inside with the 2 spanner wrenches (they come with the coilovers) to unlock and adjust the spring perches to lower or raise the height. Damping is adjusted at the top of the piston rods of the shocks with a provided hex key...the fronts are easy...the rears you'll have to take out your back seat. Depending on the length of the drop you may not have to change your camber though you may want to when you are scheduled for a regular alignment...it's just that rears were already suffering from excessive camber with H&R's and with the coilovers the camber has most likely gotten worse due to a lower drop.

Right now my backseat is off so i can test drive this weekend to adjust the damping setting to the one i prefer the most. Once that's set, the camber arms will go in and then I'll get an alignment and I'm good to go. Another piece of advice, don't get an alignment for a few days...apparently these Tein's need a bit of time to break-in and settle. You also don't want to lay it on hard on the corners for a week or so or you may damage the shocks.

 

[kobe98]

nice. how is the height compared to the h&r's. it looks lower.

 

[jimster716]

nice. how is the height compared to the h&r's. it looks lower.

It's a bit lower in the rear as we set it, as of now, compared with the H&R's. But come monday the rear will go up about 3/8" inch...the front is just about the same as the H&R's.

 

[songoku]

That looks great, Jim. I agree with rominl. I would raise little bit up though.

Looks really nice!!

 

[evolaerok]

damn that's too low for me. Did you check for me how much higher you can go?

 

[jimster716]

damn that's too low for me. Did you check for me how much higher you can go?

What you see in the pics is almost about as low as you can get...there was literally about maybe a .5" to the bottom of the spring perch. From what I could tell measuring the distance of the threaded collar the maximum height would be about where the H&R OE Sport springs range => ~0.5" drop from stock height. Remember the Tein SS was developed for the CG 98+ Accord and the 4 Cyl. at that...the TL being heavier i think prevents the car from going up too high.

I know the rear is lower but I kind of like the euro slammed look. But the front i don't think is that much of a difference. Take a look at a before and after.

Pic description
1. TL Front with H&R Sports (Left)
2. TL Front with Tein SS (Right)

 

[kobe98]

that's the lowest it can go? the cls in the other forum looks like it went way lower w/ the stock rims.

why did you take your front lip off? scraping?

 

[jimster716]

that's the lowest it can go? the cls in the other forum looks like it went way lower w/ the stock rims.

why did you take your front lip off? scraping?

no..i said it could probably go another half an inch lower. i didn't take off the front lip, i had it ripped off by typical california freeway debris...namely a piece of aluminum siding...it snagged my lip and tore is clean off...last i saw it was in my rear view mirror going completely vertical as it slapped into the front of an SUV. I have a replacement which will be painted and installed when my sideskirts are repainted.

 

[kobe98]

Ok. anyways your car looks tite. I kinda like the way the rear drop looks. keep us updated when you put your lip back on. I want to get some teins too and want to know how low I can go w/out worrying too much about the front scraping.

 

[Austin519]

jimster716:
Hatred...nothing but sheer, seething hatred for you my friend I WANT THOSE SO BAD I CAN ALMOST TASTE THE STRUT GREASE! Gotta find someone who wants to give those to me at cost...I just gotta...hmm I feel some Tein corporate blowjobs a'coming (no pun intended).

And I ask this but I really don't want you to tell me You putting on the electronic damper control?

Austin519

 

[jimster716]

jimster716:
Hatred...nothing but sheer, seething hatred for you my friend I WANT THOSE SO BAD I CAN ALMOST TASTE THE STRUT GREASE! Gotta find someone who wants to give those to me at cost...I just gotta...hmm I feel some Tein corporate blowjobs a'coming (no pun intended).

And I ask this but I really don't want you to tell me You putting on the electronic damper control?

Austin519

:bigok:

The Electronic Damping Force Controller or EDFC for short will NOT fit into the TL nor the CG 98+ Accord (which the SS coilovers were designed for). The EDFC works by placing motors above the piston rods of the coilovers. These motors require a minimum 60mm diameter clearance and a 24mm height clearance above the piston rod top. There is not enough height clearance in the front but the rear is worse...to install the EDFC motors in the rear with the minimum clearances would require cutting into the top shelf trim AND into the seat back where the leather is. Tein acknowledges the inability to fit the EDFC on the 98+ accord on their EDFC applications list. What really sucks is that we installed and tested the EDFC unit on a Lexus IS300 with the Tein FLEX coilovers and that shit really worked. :bigcry: Indeed it was a disappointment.

 

[jimster716]

I raised my car to about the height of the H&R Sport Stage 2 springs that I had before. I did this mostly due to the camber correction and the associated rubbing in the SPC thread I wrote.

I did adjust the Teins to a stiffer setting. The Teins are 16 way adjustable for stiffness. When installed they were set at a neutral 8 (0 being softest and 16 being stiffest). I set them to 10 today and the difference was noticeable just from 2 clicks of the piston rods. The car is much stiffer than before...at 8 you really didn't notice the effectiveness until you went over a dip and the compression and rebound told you that the coilovers were doing their job.

Everything about the car now feels much more taut...it's a little disconcerting when you've driven the car for 2 years on stock shocks. Compression length of the Tein shocks is similar to the stock shocks but the rebound is much shorter eliminating that wallowing and floating feeling. They are very much sportier than my previous setup without the bone crushing jar of a short compression race shock.

My car now actually feels like a sports sedan...the difference is incredible...I'm actually for the first time having fun with my car since I wrecked my Supra that had H&R springs with Tanabe Sustec shocks (that was a really stiff setup but that car cornered like a mutha ).

 

[kobe98]

Please post some updated pics! I want to see.

When adjusting the height is the coilovers itself even for each the front and the rear, not just looking at how the gap is?

Thanks