Silvia Club of NSW

Okay, this sounds quite interesting. what i want to know is how well is this and how well does it improve handling and how badly it affects ride quality.
for roughly under $600 for 4. sounds pretty reasonable and a good substitute to coilovers( or are they just worthless?). how well would my standard shocks hold up to this? would i have to upgrade to a more sportier shock such as GAB or KYB etc.

my personal opinion is that they are a waste of money on a stock shock/coil combo. they are setup like that for a reason.

these might be ok on aftermarket suspension items tho. but seems kinda dangerous to me

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M35 Stagea.info @ http://www.m35stagea.info/

They are really one useful for cars that don't have aftermarket height adjustable suspension available.

By the time you buy the collars, shocks and springs, get the collars welded to the struts, and then installed you will probably save a couple of hundred bucks maybe over a set of the local tein superstreets. You only have a limited amount of thread too so you have to get it right which means reasearch.

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meh

They are commonly used on cars you can't buy coilovers for or where coilvoers cost to much (japanese coilovers are cheap by the way...try getting smoe for your euro or other car....).
Obviously you don't leave you stock shocks in your struts when you put these on haha.
They aren't dangerous, they have been around forever to.
On an AE86 for example they cut the OEM spring land off, cut a small area out of hte middle of hte strut and use TRD blue shocks for a AE92. Then weld on the thread (tack in small sections so as not to warp it). Then drop on spring, camber top and off you go.

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1996 180sx
1990 Silvia

I had a friend get Coil-overs for his Mazda 6 for $900 fitted.

For the extra $300, it's worth just putting some pennies away and getting the real deal, besides, after modifications, adjustments and all the other crap your going to need to do, it's about the same price for an inferior product.

B.

ahha okay, i guess this will go into the dump and just might as well save up for a jap brand coilover.

don't forget you can just get new springs for the standard style struts, and either new shock inserts or replacement struts from Koni, Bilstein, etc.
If you get the right springs to begin with you won't need adjustable height. Remember that when you change the height you change the wheel alignment a bit too, so you're better off leaving it alone.

I had to modify the struts in the Zed using basically the same adjustable platforms as these, but they certainly didn't cost $600!

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The Engine Whisperer - fixer of things

IMHO height adjsutment by adjusthing the spring seat is a misnomer, sure it changes the hieght (and i've used them for this as well) but it's really preload adjustment. So you are really adjusting spring rate with the side effect being some ride height changes.
Height adjustment should be on the coilover body.
Also you wouldn't bother on an S series but hands up anyone who's seen coilovers for a AE86 or Mark II Escort recently .

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1996 180sx
1990 Silvia

yeah. ive only seen ae86 TRD shocks etc. haha
thanks for all the input guys!

whether you alter the preload or not depends on how your setup has been done. not ALL coilovers are only adjustable at the spring seat. some have adjustable bases which give height adjustment without changing spring preload as they alter the length of the strut.
just welding collars onto std struts won't give you that though,I agree with you there.

as for getting AE86 coilovers,how many sets would you like? pretty much all the big name japanese brands make a bolt in coilover setup for them,as well as a heap of smaller workshops that make their own for them;and some even have a conversion for the rear to give you adjustment at all four corners. look around a bit,you'll be surprised what's out there for them. it's just that most of the local hachi owners are a bit ignorant of the car's parent market,and just how huge it is.
you can get as much gear for the 86 as you can for a silvia,if not more in some areas. all you need to do is order out of japan for them,or get a local shop to import them for you.
want tein Ha's? or kei office erfolgkei's? or JIC? or cusco comp2's? all available for the AE86,to name a few.



Justin...

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STI - Made in Texas,not Japan.

I have! I made a set of Escort coilovers today and did a set of AE86 ones a month or so back.

Of course this is true, but 99% of everyone sees preload adjustment and calls it height adjustment. Adjusting where the coilover body moutns in relation to the car is obviously hte better way.
And yes welding on the collars won't do that for you.
Just thought it might add it though.

Yay, the MKII escort isn't entirely forgotten
I've always wanted to build a X type MK2 RS2000 as a drift car, unfortunetly i'm not that rich....

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1996 180sx
1990 Silvia

it all depends on how high the spring is to begin with.

Most of the time the spring isn't under compression when the car's lifted up, so the platform is adjusting height and not preload.
On most coilovers by the time you're effecting preload the car's way too high.

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The Engine Whisperer - fixer of things