Hello all... Maybe you guys can tell me if there's anything I can do here...

I just installed a set of Tein HA using the stock mounts at the top... I adjusted the ride height to 25 1/8 inch at each fender lip.

I've been driving around trying to adjust the damping, and I have them all the way counterclockwise (softest setting) and the car is still too stiff. I'm wondering if there's something wrong with this because my friend has the Tein HA also and he says that the softest setting on his is "like a cadillac". Mine is very very stiff. This is a real problem for me because the car loses traction if I go over relatively minor bumps at high speeds.

If I can't make these work, I'm gonna go back to my stock R1 shocks

Heeeelllpppp!!!

Thanks,
Brian

 

I have a set of Tien HEs on my Nissan 240sx and they are great. Do you drive an FC or an FD? The spring rates for the FC are the same as the rates for my s14. The FD has a higher rate that is pretty stiff for the street.
Either way, its all about damping. When I first put in the suspension I thought it was over the top and would skip across the road when I hit bumps. It was because I had the damper too soft! Is sounds backwards but you need to control that really high spring rate. I run a setting of 7 clicks back from the hardest setting on the street. Some people even say that you can wear out the dampers faster if you run them too soft. I don't know about that but life was much better after I went from the Tein sugested setting of 11 clicks up to 7.

 

I drive a 1993 R1

Thanks for the info.. I will be experimenting for sure in the coming days...

To answer a PM that I received...

Yes, I can tell the shocks are adjusting harder or softer... I did a little test.. don't laugh...

I climbed in the trunk and kinda squatted down, holding onto the strut bar and then hopped up and down over and over to see how much it bounced. On the hardest setting I could barely make it move at all and on the softest setting I could get a nice bounce going.

My neighbors looked at me like I was crazy because it looked like I was trying to hump the car.

keep the ideas coming.. I will experiment with making them more in the middle next time I go out... I think I need to find a bumpy low speed turn to test on

Brian

 

Tein sells replacement springs too. Tein Springs

The damper is only supposed to slow the movement of the wheel, not determine the travel resistance. They are adjustable so you can get them just right for the springs you have on the car.

If you can't get it the way you like you need different springs. They are pretty cheap compared to the whole package.

 

I checked on the springs I have in there now.

T100-CJC on the fronts
J080-CWC on the backs

These are the correct ones right?

Brian

 

I don't know what comes normally with those, but "correct" depends on what you like.

My buddy who autocrosses his Prelude on Teins has 4 pairs of springs he swaps in and out trying for different handling characteristics.

 

I am suprised the men in white suits didn't come!

 

You're not supposed to turn them full counterclockwise, they're only 16 way adjustable. You'll see in the manual a warning.. whether or not it'll actually cause damage is debatable, but I'd rather stick to what they say than risk it.

 

Well I'm 99.99999% sure that they're not damaged in any way... The springs are just too stiff!

I think I'm getting new ones... ugh.

Brian

 

Well I'm 99.99999% sure that they're not damaged in any way... The springs are just too stiff!

I think I'm getting new ones... ugh.

Brian

 

How long have you had them on the car? Try living with them for a while. I wanted to ditch mine at first too, but after about a month on the damper setting I liked I could never go back to a soft stock suspension. Do you attend autox or open track stuff? If your car is just a street car and you enjoy spirited driving then yes, a coilover system is too stiff for you.

 

I do some road race events here and there and I'm sure they'd be GREAT for that.

The problem is that 99% of my driving is on the street at usually at least two times the speed limit so I need something that will stick on real roads around turns.

I think I need to buy some softer Tein springs to go on the dampers and that should fix me up

Brian

 

Hmm..dont know what to tell you,they get downright sloppy all the way soft.
Check your stock mounts?
If the shock still comes "preassembled" so there is nothing to mess up, I would speak directly to Tein,

I have heard of a few horror stories with other brands and cars that are 12 inches too high with the new kit installed.Cue Nocab.
Had mine over a year and very happy.Good luck!
Carl.

 

I have the TEIN HA's and have the same problem. My car is FAR from the ride of a cadillac. I had it all the way soft and it still was really stiff. Maybe softer springs are the answer?

 

How much do you have it dropped? On the HA's, the only way to adjust the height is by "tightening" the spring, which stiffens up the spring rate. So if you have the car dropped quite a bit the spring rate, which is stiff from the start, will be much stiffer. Try raising the car up some and see if that helps.

Thats one advantage of the TEIN Flex's, the ride height is adjustable independent of the spring. Either way they are both performance oriented set ups and they will ride pretty rough.

I am showing the HA's come with 10.0kgf/559lbs in the front, 8.0kgf/448lbs in the rear. Your part numbers are the original springs. Spring rate adjustment range would be Max/Min +4.0 ~ -2.0 Front and +2.0 ~ -2.0 Rear.

 

Wargasm, have you tried Voltron's suggestion? It makes sense to me in a weird way.

 

as far as i know, this is not true. I think what kaotic dan is talking about is preloading the springs by squashing them down thus lowring you car. you cant do that with the tein HA setup.

 

This is not true. A spring supports x amount of weight for every inch it compresses. The only way the spring rate would change is if the shocks are at max droop and you put a hell of a lot of preload on the spring. This would raise the spring rate some and your car would sit in the air like a 4x4 pickup

Lowering or raising the car with the spring perches will absolutely never change the spring rate except in the (stupid) case I mentioned above.

 

Should have went with the FLEX... umm not sure though mine isn't stiff at all and I have the car really low, dont know the mm but it rubs the front a little. Oh yeah 9 clicks in the front and 7 in the rear.

I think the ride height thing on the HA's might make the difference

 

if it's too low, your damper stroke is reduced substantially.

 

Isn't this only true for linear springs, not progressive which are what HA are right? dunno - just a ?

 

Nope. Springs on almost all coilover systems are linear springs.

 

They are going to be stiffer than the stock setup, nothing you can do about that. But they need to be, you've lowered the car. Trust me, a car w/ 25" high fender lips and soft springs wouldn't be enjoyable either... you've gotta have enough rate there to keep it off the bumpstops, and not crashing over bumps.

If yer ever in the neighborhood (reston) lemme know and you can compare to my setup... 25" fender heights (even taking into account my taller 275/17 tires) Koni's and GC's, 500f / 400r. Its stiff, but i don't rub fender lips anymore or bottom out over large dips. But, i can't drink out of open containers anymore... strictly covers and straws!

 

Brentis, even if the springs were progressive the ride height has absolutely nothing to do with the spring rate. The spring rate is an inherent quality designed into the spring. Even if you compress a spring you have not changed it's rate, you have merely preloaded it. It's rate is still the same.

 

No, HA's are linear.