they went from a asian imported private label coilover brand to a made to order, built in the US coil over system with great customer service. they recently broke the Tsukuba FWD record with the Vibrant Civic so that's something lol

This is the end of my review thread. The coilovers are broken. I noticed a clunk in the rear a few months ago and I was due for rotor and pad replacements so I took a closer look at the suspension while I was in there and the rear lower mounts cracked on both sides at the eye as pictured here:


http://www.midnightwanderers.com/broken_coils.jpg


I'm uncertain how this happened but my suspicion is it had to do with one of the collisions the car was in that would have started as a small fracture but got worse as time went on. Either way, the suspension isn't safe like this so it had to come off. I still had the OEM suspension in a box in the shed so I put it back on. Whee monster truck wheel gap again.

I've spoken to HKS and I'm out of luck with these coils. I'm not the original purchaser, they are *way* out of warranty even if I was, and HKS can't service them even if I was willing to pay because they don't use these mounts anymore. Probably because of exactly this problem, if I had to guess... Well, it's not like they owe me much considering what I put them through during my ownership.

Giving my final thoughts on going back to the OEM suspension; there is good and bad. The good is that the car *is* notably more comfortable over really bad road surfaces. Minor imperfections aren't much different though. The bad is that now the car feels lazy in transitions and does not feel nearly as composed over uneven surfaces as it did on the HKS coilovers.

Now I'm debating how to proceed. I'm on a very limited budget these days so I'm debating going with springs this time around but it sounds like OEM top hats won't provide me with sufficient camber and suitable camber plates with lowering springs would put me into lower tier coilover territory anyway. I might also have clearance issues if I wanted to move up to a 245 wide tire for track use in the future because of the large OEM spring perch too. Alternatively, I can look at buying a lightly used coilover from someone else that meets the requirements although I'm hesitant to go down that route again because it may lead to issues getting support later if I need it. Finally, I can suck it up and buy a lower-mid range offering such as the FA500s, BC RM, or MeisterR which are in a similar or slightly lower class than what I had.

Either way, this is the end of my experience with these coilovers.

Why not go with something like RCE SS1 or CSG Flex A?

I am asking myself the same thing? Not sure why the HKS coilovers have gotten so popular for this platform recently.

The HKS coils, for when they were released, punched above their weight for a streetable, track capable coilover designed for the 86 platform, especially at a time when there weren't many options yet. I got mine with 1 year of use and 25000 kms on them for $1000 CAD and got 4 years and 50000 kms out of them myself before I had any serious problems, and the problems followed not 1 but 2 serious accidents. I'm not in any position to blame the coils or HKS for this although I admit I'm disappointed that they are not serviceable when the only thing wrong is the lower mount.

Now that the 86 platform has matured, I believe that there are more compelling offerings in the same range as what HKS is offering.

Regarding the products I listed, they were just the ones I found that ticked the boxes I need and I know people personally who are running them without complaint. My car still needs transmission work so I'm probably not going to be in a position to buy anything until next year either way. I actually think the RCE SS1 are extremely compelling though and will keep them in mind when I am preparing to upgrade again.

Are the RCE SS1 significantly better than HKS Hypermax coils? I recently bought a set of Hypermax IV SP coils for $1477 on ftspeed on their labor day sale and thought that was quite a deal for such good coilovers. I had also looked at the RCEs but the lowering camber plates confused me a bit as I'm not going for a stance build and I was also attracted to the inverted front shocks of the HKSs. What do you guys think?

Without having any personal experience with RCEs offerings, I can't compare directly. What interests me most about them is the lowering top hats allow you to run a lower ride height while increasing suspension travel. There is probably half an inch of additional stroke from the RCE coils over what HKS offers at similar ride heights, if not more.

It should also be noted that the HKS coilovers I had are GT and a previous generation so even they are going to be notably different from your current generation SP. I'd let someone with more experience with RCEs offerings chime in on this point.

I heard HKS HIPERMAX S is more comfortable on the road than stock

wow thank you for threadshitting in 4 different threads with the same recommendation