Tein S-Techs review

So I've put about 500 miles on my springs and have come away with a few conclusions.

Install - the install on these isn't exactly easy (but that's of a fault of Honda than Tein). You basically completely disassemble the front suspension to get to the springs and then reassemble. That takes about 2 hours. The rears, by contrast, are very easy. You just undo 2 bolts on the shocks and the whole assembly drops down and remove and replace the springs. While I had the rear taken apart, I installed the Progress rear sway bar.

Ride Comfort - here's something that I am still on the fence about. These springs are def stiffer (160 lbs front/ 334 lbs rear compared to 120/160 stock) and you can feel it just about everywhere. They are progressive rate springs and under 20 mph this thing will bounce and shimmy on every little bump. But after you hit 30 mph+, you are golden. Sure, hitting a large bump at speed will make an impression, but its nothing too ridiculous. My wife approves, so that's really all I can ask for

Drop / Looks - 10 out of 10. When I first lowered the jack on the front, it made my mouth drop. Daaaaaaang that's low. The rear is not as dramatic, but if you carry more than 2 passengers, you begin to understand why. I think the stance is really perfect for this car, not too low to where you are dragging on everything, but definitely keeps that fender gap to a minimum.

Performance - The weather hasn't given me too many times to push the envelope, but the few blasts I have had have been rewarding. The car is even more responsive to steering inputs and doesnt feel at all top heavy or wobbly when hustling around the twisties. The car feels planted and agile - these springs do  offer up some sport to go with that crazy drop! One of the turns is a long, fast left to right S-turn. Normally I go 50ish. The other day, I was in a rush and hustled thru at 75! And the amazing thing was the car felt completely composed and could definitely take more. I will have to work up to the limits of this setup!

Overall - very pleased. The springs give the car a much more purposeful presence instead of the tall, goofy look stock. Performance is good and will be even better with a new set of wheels and tires.

Drawing board

Well, time to go back to the drawing board. My original plan was to make this thing handle and I had made it much worse with this combo. I understand now why people seek out lightweight wheels. 

But first this set had to go. So swap on the Play Skool wheels and hit up Craigslist to place an ad. After just a week, I sold them to a guy with a 2001 Miata to replace his 16's. They fit his car much better and felt glad to recoup most of the cash I had blown on this setup. Plus with about 50 miles on the tires, he got a good deal.

I did some more research and needed something that more fit the bill than what I had previously. Forget about anything over 16s and focus on getting something reasonable, good looking, and lightweight. I considered the 6ul's, Buddy Club P1's and a few of the Konig wheels.

What I came up with was the 15x6.5 Konig Feather in a +38 offset. The choices in color were silver, gloss black and gold. I had been looking at gloss/matte black wheels and really fell in love with how they look against the Storm Silver Metallic.

I found a couple pics on FitFreak.net of another member who had the same wheels. I think with the black headlights that I will get up front and the black headlight housing, it will look great. I think the rims look stealthy and purposeful.

Now, we will see if I need to break down and roll the fenders to gain a few mm's to a rub free motoring experience.

18's - dont let their beauty fool you

So a lot has happened since my last post:

I bought tires - 215/35-18 Kumho Ecsta AST tires

I got them mounted at Walmart and there is where the problems began. The technician waved me over and found 2 small bends on the inside barrel of the passenger wheels...crap. I got the tires mounted and loaded up in the truck. I was determined to get these things on and at least see what they looked like. Here's what the final product was:

The look was exactly what I wanted - sporty, classic, low, and clean! So time for a test drive. Then I quickly began to see the error of my ways. Sidewall is impossibly thin and translates to granite-like ride. I was expecting more performance due to the large wheel/short sidewall ratio, but what I got was a mess.  Turns out, the overall diameter is about 1" larger than stock, so a small gap between the top of the tire and fenders becomes even more so. This effectively changes the final drive and makes the car feel sluggish on acceleration. The weight with wheels and tires is a hefty 39.8 lbs and this isn't doing any favors for the underpowered Fitty. On top of all this, the rubbing on the front fenders was unbearable. Over every small bump was the rubber-meets-plastic grind. I thought I could correct some of this, and did, but it still wasnt enough to dial it out completely. Hitting bumps at speed caused both a cringe and a hard hit to the vertebrae. Consider me unimpressed and depressed at the same time.....To add insult to injury, after 2 days I already had a flat tire on the driver front......

Stockpile in the garage

Front and rear lips, side skirts, license plate lights, fog lights, fog light tint, lugs and wheels all waiting to be installed

ACE Alloy A218 wheels 18 x 7.5" +43 offset

Slammed!

Just got the Tein S-Tech springs and Progress rear sway bar installed yesterday. The difference is night and day! I ordered the tires today and hope to get everything installed soon.

Baseline