What kind of Coilovers?

[KiNgMaRtY]

I currently have Robispec Street KW V3's with 8K Front and 9K rears. I've had a number of suspension setups. I would rate them like this:

Most comfortable spring/strut aftermarket in order:
Koni Yellows with H&R springs
GR2 with OEM springs
Bilstein MR's with Swift R Springs
On even pavement, AGX with H&R's were almost okay but the AGX's could not handle the H&R's

Coilovers:
KW and Ohlins are on par with each other with their own differences. I've had both and both at the same time to do side by side. The KW's absorb the smaller stuff better and are 2 way adjustable. than the Ohlin's. The Ohlins are easier to adjust as they are only one way but you have to adjust them from the bottom for the front because they are an inverted strut. The bodies of the KW's are stainless so they will hold up better to weather.
You can use the OEM tophats on the KW's so it adds the rubber on top and it helps.

Muellerized -JIC-FLT2 - Better than anything today offered under $1,500 new. Now discontinued and not easily rebuildable, Mueller really massaged them to make them that much better. Regular off the shelf might not be as good.

K-Sports: Rode well but had 3 blown shocks within 1000 miles

I may be selling my KW's if you are interested. They have about 5K miles on them and come with 2 7K springs as well.

 

[Sburke]

I wouldn’t run those unless it was the only option. It’s been documented the issue those adapters have anyways.

 

[ApexHunter]

Wanted to chime in, I promoted the Feals here for a while at my last job. Best bolt on option then but i'm not really "in the loop" these days. Any new players bring a gvr4 specific option to market, thats not just another taiwanese manufacturer who can put together a whatever spring and cartridge with e39a mounting parts?

This was my experience:

I started with AGX and some Eibach lowering springs. Mediocre at best. They finally died and I went to the BCs.

BCs on my gvr4- Ride quality was poor. Spring rates are not even really aggressive, just way overdamped and one size fits all valving. Overall build quality is fine for the price, generally their manufacturing is pretty consistent, meaning if you dyno all 4 of em they'll be close, and manufacturing defects are rare. At my last job, sold a shitload of em with next to zero warranty issues. Good stateside support from BC.
Cons would be that their valving is super generic. How that manifests is a damper that doesn't really excel at anything. Too much high speed compression, doesn't absorb big hits great, too much rebound so the car feels like it skips over gaps, jumpy, crashes down over a big bump at speed, feels less stable in high speed bumpy corners. They can "custom build" with whatever spring rates you want, and then will supply a damper cartridge specific to that spring rate, but it's gonna be the same formula whether they are for a galant or a 350z. That's as deep as the custom valving goes (unless something has changed). 8k gets X, 16k gets Y.

Feals are different vs BC, because the valving is actually vehicle specific, netting better performance in any scenario I can think of. An off the shelf spec BC kit rides harsher than a OTS Feal kit all day every day, all other factors being equal. You'll notice Feal has way less applications than BC. They spend a lot of time on R&D with each application. The gvr4 kit was a derivative of the 1g awd kit. Similar suspension kinematics and weight dist albeit different curb weight, so tweaked accordingly. Then a gvr4 was brought in for validation, then the gvr4 part number was born. They couldn't use the 1g front upper mounts so they were having gvr4 specific front camber plates laser cut in low batches. They were steel and super sturdy but I remember one customer had a corrosion concern. It seemed like they never had a consistent rear brake line adapter but i'd like to think they figured that out by now.

Still have my Feals on my evo 8, had em 5 years now. No issues. No it's not a gvr4, but the two cars have similar suspension kinematics and they were born of the same development process.
Compared to the stock evo KYB damper, they were a big step up in stability on track, particularly when hitting curbing and general mid corner stability. Smoother ride on the street- less harsh on the sharper hits. Less travel though so when you hit the bumpstop it's more harsh. US based support including overhaul and custom valving. Custom valving at Feal was/is actual custom valving instead of an approximation like what you get when you "custom order" BC BRs. Higher end BCs I suspect get a more nuanced, user specific valving spec.

Swift spring options are mostly good for a slight (practically imperceptible) weight drop and the springs in your set will be more precisely matched. Not sure how much this matters in a street car, honestly.

The Ohlins cars i've ridden in feel a bit better, but not enough to cover the ridiculous rebuild costs. Seriously, no thanks on that for a street car.

K Sports I haven't experienced on gvr4, heard mixed reviews regarding performance and longevity.

If you are trying to preserve a stock like ride, gr2 and stock springs are probably the best bet. Aftermarket coilovers have what, half the effective stroke?, way more rate and valving to kinda sorta match.

I think i'd like to try some KW V3s or maybe club sports next for the Evo. I was never really a fan of the twin tube stuff for track use but KW seems to have anti-cavitation pretty well figured out. Not sure if the cost justifies the added performance though, i've just been super happy with the Feals for what they cost up front, and economical rebuild cost.

 

[raptorWagon]

Quote:

Any new players bring a gvr4 specific option to market, thats not just another taiwanese manufacturer who can put together a whatever spring and cartridge with e39a mounting parts?


As far as I know, nope. Just FEAL and they now make their own springs, so you need at least the "441+" to have the swift springs.

 

[gvr4ever]

Quoting KiNgMaRtY:
I currently have Robispec Street KW V3's with 8K Front and 9K rears. I've had a number of suspension setups. I would rate them like this:

Most comfortable spring/strut aftermarket in order:
Koni Yellows with H&R springs
GR2 with OEM springs
Bilstein MR's with Swift R Springs
On even pavement, AGX with H&R's were almost okay but the AGX's could not handle the H&R's

Coilovers:
KW and Ohlins are on par with each other with their own differences. I've had both and both at the same time to do side by side. The KW's absorb the smaller stuff better and are 2 way adjustable. than the Ohlin's. The Ohlins are easier to adjust as they are only one way but you have to adjust them from the bottom for the front because they are an inverted strut. The bodies of the KW's are stainless so they will hold up better to weather.
You can use the OEM tophats on the KW's so it adds the rubber on top and it helps.

Muellerized -JIC-FLT2 - Better than anything today offered under $1,500 new. Now discontinued and not easily rebuildable, Mueller really massaged them to make them that much better. Regular off the shelf might not be as good.

K-Sports: Rode well but had 3 blown shocks within 1000 miles

I may be selling my KW's if you are interested. They have about 5K miles on them and come with 2 7K springs as well.



I wasn't able to find the Koni Yellows when I did my setup, so I went with the AGXs.

I know KYB only warranties the AGXs with stock springs. Another option would be AGXs with stock springs. I've had AGXs on my Celica for 3-4 years now and no failure issues with a .08" drop. I haven't driven them long enough for say how long they will or won't last on the Galant, but I know that setting them stiff as they will go will likely cause a early failure. I think both my cars are setup 1 click firmer than the softest setting on all 4 corners.

For those who had failures, just curious as to how stiff you had the AGXs set and what driving style was used. I know they are for street use, not race use.

I was also thinking that H&R had revised the springs over the years. I got mine about 2 years ago, so they are the newest version. That might make a difference if they changed the spring rates.

 

[ApexHunter]

1g and gvr4 shared same p/n's for AGXs. Makes you wonder if they were intended more for the 1g chassis weight and springs, and the beefier galant taxes them a bit more.

My car was just used for street driving. Front struts wore out first. Rears were still kickin.