ST coilovers installed
 

Before I talk about how great these coilovers are, I want to thank Terry @Maximal performance. Customer service was the best I'd ever gotten in regards to car parts. Shipping was fast and free, packaging was about 8/10 but nothing was damaged or thrown around so it's all good. I have pictures but they are not that great, I also forgot to do a before pic but we own this car so we know how it looks stock. Also going to be my first time uploading pics so i hope it works out okay. This is my first review and I'm going to keep it simple cause i should be studying for my math test right now.

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Attachment 85256
Now to the coilovers: I chose ST because the build is top notch, everyone knows they pretty much are KW V1s. The price for them is awesome especially if you're a college student like me. Bang for the buck is what I was going for and thats what I got. Installation was about 2 hours with me and my buddies help and we are nowhere near experts. The ride is pretty much like stock except a little stiffer, going over bumps you feel it a little more than stock of course but its not going to break your back. Even my parents were both surprised how well it rode. I'm running the stock 17's but soon i will be getting 18's, the front is lowered with 1 thread left and the rears, man do they go low there's about 6or7 threads left. Performance wise I can't speak up about that yet cause i need new tires badly and it was raining yesterday so I didn't get to try them out for that. They are a DD coilover though so it's most likely not going to be anything crazy compared to stock. Any questions or input on improving further reviews are accepted.

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Overall- 10/10
Ride- 10
Price- 10
Service- 10
Install- 10
My ride- 5 (Cause i need wheels and a turbo... but the turbo is wishful thinking)

Throw us a link. I'm very intriqued. Did you chose the spring rates? If so, what are they?

I didn't order off the website, I went directly through Terry @Maximal performance through email and PM's. But I did just go to their website to find a link for you and they don't have the ST's on their website :iono: I didn't choose the spring rates either, they come one way. I wouldn't bother with custom spring rates on this one cause I trust KW's suspension tuning more than mine haha. Here's a link to the store though http://store.maximalperformance.com/

Thanks for the props and the car looks amazing with them, glad you're happy!

Our website is still a bit new and we're working on getting a few brands up there, ST included. If anyone is interested in a set shoot me a PM and I'll get you some pricing. :)

So did u use a impact gun to tighten the top nut or..?

funny you ask, we did not. It would have been a lot easier if we had probably lol. We took a socket and clamped it with vice grips, then we stuck a small socket through the bottom of it to hold the strut from turning.

Yea its a PITA without an impact gun :(

More pics with better lighting prease

Using an impact gun on the top nut can loosen the internals of the shock and ruin it as well... much safer to use a pass through socket.

Everyone says that but fails to mention what tool is used to stop it from turning

You use a pass through (hollow) socket on the nut, and then whatever tool through that to hold the strut shaft. The stock struts are a 6mm (IIRC?) allen key up front.

I haven't seen ST's in person, but I believe they're just a smaller socket needed.

I tried. the rear was a nightmare without using an impact gun.

Are you using the right tools? It was dead easy to do mine.

You want a socket/ratchet set like this for the bigger nut:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Uni...28PC/203541515

If you really want to use an impact gun, you should really use a strap wrench like this to hold the shaft from spinning:

http://www.blackrocktools.com/ridgid...FQOHaQodM10AgQ

I bought a pass through socket and tried using a regular socket to stop it from moving. Worked for the front not the rear. I just let the shop who did my alignment tighten them for me.

Here's my method to torque the rear top nut to OEM spec (18.4 lb-ft). Used a crow's foot socket on my torque wrench (easiest to position at 90 degrees according to http://www.motorcraftservice.com/ren...la_main_en.asp) which torqued the pass-through extension attached to the 14mm pass-through socket which attaches to the top nut (supposed to be where my finger is), and extra long hex bit to hold the rod. All tools were *in stock* at Harbor Freight for reasonably cheap.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/attac...1&d=1387868377

Any clunks? My front and rear are both impacted on but I still occasionally have a clunk...Probably going to raise mine up, I'm sitting about where you are ride height wise. Feels pretty rough to me, idk if I'm too low or something but it feels like I have no absorption lol. https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...63369050_n.jpg

Looks like a perfect amount of drop! Is that straight out of the box?

Also will 17x9 wheels not make the wheels sunk in if the coilovers do make it like so?

That's with a little tweaking, I'm raising the front and rear a little bit (rear more than the front) to make it look more even. With 17x9's you could probably fit a pretty aggressive offset (+25 comes to mind) with the amount of drop I have. I'm on 25mm spacers in the rear and 15mm spacers in the front so it's hard to judge from my car lol. I can't imagine you having any issues with any wheels you run honestly. I would recommend getting shorter sway bar endlinks, I think my sway bar is about maxed out travel wise and it may be causing the ride issues. I bottomed out HARD the other day and it actually fixed my clunk problems lol.

TL;DR: just set the coils out of the box to where you have shock travel left even with the helper spring compressed and work up from there until you're happy. As far as the wheels, depends on offset.

@newports here's a better picture (from last night actually) of how my car sits right now: https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...11406434_o.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...86175673_o.jpg

Edit: camber info: front is -1 both sides rear is -2.3 both sides (stock RLCAs)

Yeah I see. Didn't know you had spacers on but it did look better than what other people had with ST coils and stock wheels.
Most of the wheels I want are either +35 or +38 offset.

+35's should fit pretty well. You won't be hellaflush by any means but it'll look really good. Friend of mine has some 18x8 +35's and they look awesome on his lowered FR-S.

Thanks. Not going for that slammed hella flush swag look. Too manu potholes and all that good stuff round here.

As long as the wheels are not sticking out it's all good. I would rather be it sunken in because you can fix those with spacers at least.