CSG Spec Tein Flex A Owners Thread

[spitsnaugle]

Originally Posted by CounterSpace Garage

TMP is pretty hard on brakes and having Hoosiers certainly doesn't make that task easier. Let us know if you need something that will actually hold up to that task. With a seasoned veteran driver, the car is going to see some incredible pace. Like we discussed in the past, we got the pads to take on the task and won't cook your caliper. There are certainly pads that are more budget oriented, but you will need to monitor the caliper temperature and fluid.

PM us if you want us to get you setup for next month! We've rushed some parts over to some clients who will be working with Speed Academy soon.

I'll be emailing you guys tonight with my specs for your thoughts.

[spitsnaugle]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

That tells me your shop likely has the bolts in asymmetrically at the bottom.

I installed these but had a shop do the alignment. All lower strut bolts are OEM and facing the same direction-not sure what I could have flipped. I always assumed that difference was because I had the cross member out at several times and might not of had it centered on re-installment.

Do you have any recommendation of 14mm lower camber bolt vs 16mm upper camber bolt?

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by spitsnaugle

I installed these but had a shop do the alignment. All lower strut bolts are OEM and facing the same direction-not sure what I could have flipped. I always assumed that difference was because I had the cross member out at several times and might not of had it centered on re-installment.

Do you have any recommendation of 14mm lower camber bolt vs 16mm upper camber bolt?

Check their direction!

[nkobns]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

That tells me your shop likely has the bolts in asymmetrically at the bottom.

I’m confused too. I have the same thing too and it seems everything is mounted perfectly like stock so can you give us more details Mike ?

Thank you !

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by nkobns

I’m confused too. I have the same thing too and it seems everything is mounted perfectly like stock so can you give us more details Mike ?

Thank you !

Check the factory camber bolt. If theyre both pointed "left" if looking at the car from behind, for example, this would make the camber plates uneven!

Alternatively, most cars do not have perfectly centered subframes, which can result in a slight deviation left/right, but not as much as shown in the previous picture.

[timurrrr]

Just got these babies installed in my BRZ this weekend and like them so far!
Will post a more detailed review when I get alignment and corner balancing.

Does anyone know what's the correct way to set the spring preload on these coilovers? I might have moved the top collars a bit while adjusting the ride height; would like to just re-set the preload on all the four springs.

[CounterSpace Garage]

Originally Posted by timurrrr

Just got these babies installed in my BRZ this weekend and like them so far!
Will post a more detailed review when I get alignment and corner balancing.

Does anyone know what's the correct way to set the spring preload on these coilovers? I might have moved the top collars a bit while adjusting the ride height; would like to just re-set the preload on all the four springs.

Take off and measure preload. You can also measure pre-load with the coilovers on the car as long as system isn't loaded by other components on the car.

[timurrrr]

Originally Posted by CounterSpace Garage

Take off and measure preload.

How to "measure preload" is exactly the part that I don't understand. How should I do that?

Originally Posted by CounterSpace Garage

You can also measure pre-load with the coilovers on the car as long as system isn't loaded by other components on the car.

Not sure by "isn't loaded by other components" mean, can you please elaborate? Would lifting the car on jack stands and taking off the wheels suffice?

[Breadman]

about how much is each tick on the top hat? My tires on the outside 1" were way hotter than the rest of my tire, but i dont want to go past ~3 because i DD. im guessing about .2 degrees?

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by timurrrr

How to "measure preload" is exactly the part that I don't understand. How should I do that?

Not sure by "isn't loaded by other components" mean, can you please elaborate? Would lifting the car on jack stands and taking off the wheels suffice?

They measure the compressed length of the spring and compare it to the free length of the spring to measure pre-load. iirc this car lets the suspension hang to full droop unless there's a bound up swaybar or bushing. Some cars/suspension designs do not allow the damper/spring to travel to full droop when lifted up into the air, some do.

[timurrrr]

What is the desired difference in length between compressed and uncompressed?

[AngelGT86Racer]

Originally Posted by timurrrr

What is the desired difference in length between compressed and uncompressed?

Should be quite minimal. A 6k spring should not be preloaded very much if at all. When I used preload adjustable coilovers, I tried to stick to zero preload(I was running 9k rears), ie only tightening the spring collar until the spring was tight and not allowed to move around side to side when at full extension. The more preload you use the less you will allow the wheel to travel down(droop) which is not preferable. An easy way to measure this is to measure the spring length at zero preload and make sure that length is the same when you tighten the collar up against the spring.



Unless you are running out of compression travel(not enough room before engaging the bump stop), you should set preload to zero to allow maximum droop travel. Use the shock length adjustment for setting your ride height.


If CSG staff or anyone else feels I am incorrect in what I've suggested, please feel free to correct me.

[CounterSpace Garage]

Originally Posted by timurrrr

What is the desired difference in length between compressed and uncompressed?

As Angel mentioned, it's minimal. Look into the manual and measure the distance between collars and top spring perch contacting the top hat. These measurements will provide you a starting point to work with. Generally speaking, minimal preload is what you can start with. Some systems require a lot of preload and others do not.

As you know, these are very adjustable systems and is meant for the end user to dial in to their desired requirements and application. That level of freedom is what makes end users like our product more. Those adjustment knobs help adjust damping characteristics as well. Believe it or not, there are people who complain to us about systems without ever spending the time to make adjustments (ie: not using the knobs to adjust damping characteristics, etc.).

[timurrrr]

Originally Posted by CounterSpace Garage

As Angel mentioned, it's minimal. [...] Generally speaking, minimal preload is what you can start with.

Thanks for the reply! That's what my gut feeling was telling me, I wish I saw this confirmation earlier.
Given that at this point I've dialed in everything else, for now I'll keep the preloads as is, hoping it was haven't altered them too much. Maybe I'll come back to that next time I do corner balancing.

Originally Posted by CounterSpace Garage

Believe it or not, there are people who complain to us about systems without ever spending the time to make adjustments (ie: not using the knobs to adjust damping characteristics, etc.).

Having read the supplied Installation Instructions, I'm not too surprised. For me this was the first time installing coilovers and I have to say that at times those instructions were more misleading than useful. On page 6, for example, the instruction clearly talk about adjusting the ride height with the spring seats like on more basic coilovers, not using the lower bracket.

The installation instructions don't mention anything about preload. They do provide the spec of the length of the unloaded springs on the last two pages, but one needs to be pretty proficient with coilovers to know they should look there. I'm also not sure if measuring spring length is reliable enough, it seems that something like "one more full turn after the spring becomes snug" would be a bit more precise.

For comparison, this video from FactionFab is amazing:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BNt36sNOTU[/ame]

It explains how things work (in a way even dummy can understand), how to dial everything properly, and even provides a table of coilover length vs typical ride height, accounting for the suspension geometry. And it's less than 5 minutes long.

Don't get me wrong, I'm overall really happy with choosing CSG TEIN Coilovers (more detailed review will follow in a few days once I come back from a track day). But the supplied installation instructions have so much boilerplate, and yet insufficient actual instructions (or even misleading!) that when I got help from more experienced car guys we basically ended up installing "how we see fit", only checking the instructions for torque specs. If FactionFab can casually explain so much in under 5 minutes, I'm sure you could explain the installation and basic setup in 5–10 minutes too.