Tein Flex Z opinion

[BRZ_son!]

Anyone have the pre load specs on these? Got mine yesterday and the pre load was fairly loose

[bfrank1972]

Originally Posted by BRZ_son!

Anyone have the pre load specs on these? Got mine yesterday and the pre load was fairly loose

I'm curious as well - I just procured a lightly used set of Street Flex's and there was no preload at all on the fronts.

Caveat, I'm a novice to coilover setup, but from what I've been *reading*, you don't want to have a lot of pre-load unless you have a particular reason (corner balancing)... spin the nuts until they're snug and then a couple more turns... you want just enough to hold the spring snugly up/down but still allow it to turn.

Experts?

[frosty288]

I guess I fubard my install. Everything is on there, but it's bouncy as hell, and the front is too high even though I don't think I can go any lower. On the front, I have both rings pretty much all the way to the bottom. The spring was loose when the car was in the air. Same for the rear, but the rear is a lot lower. I have pretty much no room left to go down on the front any further.

Please school me! I'd like to get it fixed tomorrow. I spent all damn day on it today.

[zc06_kisstherain]

Originally Posted by frosty288

I guess I fubard my install. Everything is on there, but it's bouncy as hell, and the front is too high even though I don't think I can go any lower. On the front, I have both rings pretty much all the way to the bottom. The spring was loose when the car was in the air. Same for the rear, but the rear is a lot lower. I have pretty much no room left to go down on the front any further.

Please school me! I'd like to get it fixed tomorrow. I spent all damn day on it today.

did you lose ring at bottom or top? i believe you need to lose bottom ring to adjust height. top 2 rings are for preload spring

[93Targa]

Originally Posted by bfrank1972

I'm curious as well - I just procured a lightly used set of Street Flex's and there was no preload at all on the fronts.

Caveat, I'm a novice to coilover setup, but from what I've been *reading*, you don't want to have a lot of pre-load unless you have a particular reason (corner balancing)... spin the nuts until they're snug and then a couple more turns... you want just enough to hold the spring snugly up/down but still allow it to turn.

Experts?

I had originally set the preload the way you described it. This was while the whole setup was off the car.

I researched a bit and also Mike from CSG chimed in regarding how to set preload. You want to move the top collar up until it meets the spring. You can tighten the top collar a bit more but make sure that the spring rotates freely. Lock it at that setting.

[93Targa]

Originally Posted by frosty288

I guess I fubard my install. Everything is on there, but it's bouncy as hell, and the front is too high even though I don't think I can go any lower. On the front, I have both rings pretty much all the way to the bottom. The spring was loose when the car was in the air. Same for the rear, but the rear is a lot lower. I have pretty much no room left to go down on the front any further.

Please school me! I'd like to get it fixed tomorrow. I spent all damn day on it today.

A good video on how to adjust ride height. The guy performs the procedure on a set of Tein coilovers too.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4GI2QbZ8fI"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4GI2QbZ8fI[/ame]

[frosty288]

Originally Posted by 93Targa

A good video on how to adjust ride height. The guy performs the procedure on a set of Tein coilovers too.

Perfect, this is exactly what I didn't do.

For other users reference, I let the spring go as low as possible. While this did affect ride height it is not the correct way. I realized this after watching a few other videos as well but this one pretty much says it straight up. Spring tension and ride height are independent of eachother.

Will lift her up tomorrow and take care of this!

Full disclosure this is my first set of coilovers. The more you know

[frosty288]

Well, I am still unsuccessful. I got hang of turning the strut/shock body to raise or lower the car, but it's not going low enough. I have totally bottomed out the rear, and the front. The front has no space between any of the three collars and the spring is heavily preloaded I guess I would say. It is very firm, but somehow this doesn't seem correct. The rear is a total boat, bounces around when you push down on the trunk and flys around. I have no more space to turn the shock body. The spring is not preloaded too much, 1.25" from the bottom collar. However if I try to pre load it more to get rid of the boatness, the car gets raised up way too high. There was a picture earlier of the measurements drawn on paper. Of my front end was set up like, it would have 2.5inches or so of wheel gap.

From floor to fender, I am at 25.25" all the way around. From the bottom of the center cap to fender, I am about 14.25". These are 17" wheels

What is wrong?

[Bramick]

Photo?

[frosty288]

Front and rear, passenger side

[93Targa]

Originally Posted by frosty288

Front and rear, passenger side

The fronts in the picture look pretty maxed out. Maybe you're just looking to drop lower than what these coilovers are capable of?

[racecarshots]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

I wouldn't recommend the Flex Z if you're doing anything more than super casual spirited driving.

Curious what you mean by this? 98% of my driving is freeways and boring stuff, but when I do hit the mountain roads I want something to work really well. If these aren't good for uneven mountain roads I'll stay stock haha.

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by racecarshots

Curious what you mean by this? 98% of my driving is freeways and boring stuff, but when I do hit the mountain roads I want something to work really well. If these aren't good for uneven mountain roads I'll stay stock haha.

If you're not trying to set records in the canyons (which I would never recommend), you'll be fine. Anyone going at that type of pace would be pretty serious at the track anyways

[Bramick]

Full stiff is clockwise till it won't turn anymore?