Need a guru; can you tell which springs are from 86 or brz by colored dots?
 

Hi,

I noticed it seems that the 86 springs have different colored dots on them vs brz.

I recently got some oem complete w tophats and shocks so I would like to just bolt them on but do not want to change spring rates.


Thank you!

I'd suggest you call up a dealers parts department and ask them to run back and look at the dot color on their springs ...... :thumbsup:

What does it say on the box?
Ask who you got them from?
What colored dot is on your old ones?

Big help, aren't I .....?? :bonk:


humfrz

It never gets old.

I got them used. I noticed a pattern but looking at photos online so not super reliable. I hoped someone would know this who has swapped springs on both but somehow thats not the case.

The dots are used in the automated assembly line to make sure that the right parts are on the vehicle in proper position. Cameras check them at several points along the line. They have different colour dots since they are different spring rates. The difference is not huge but you can't mix and match them.

Thanks tcoat. I was basically trying to make sure what I purchased were from a brz and not an frs. Since they are complete with tophats and springs I was hoping to just do a full swap. My worry is i'll end up with frs springs where I prefer to keep brz rates. I was hoping it might be documented somewhere which color dots on on which springs just so I'd be sure.

Hopefully its all good!

I can go look at mine when i get home since they are sitting in my garage. There is just a dot on one of the coils?

FYI, you can mix and match springs. But you need to know what you are getting at the end.

Here is a spring rate table.

2013 brz F2.7k R3.5k
2013 FRs F2.3k R 3.8k
Both have 18mm front sway and 14mm rear

The 2017 model have unpublished OE spring rates. But based on the comparison we can estimate the ball park range.

TRD F3.5k R 5.8K 15mm drop
STI F ~2.9K R ~3.7k 15mm drop progresssive springs
RCE Y F 4.5k R4.5K .8” drop
RS-R soft F2.8K R 4.5K .5” drop

2017 also had a swaybar change to 18mm front and 15mm rear.

One thing you may notice is that STI spring rate is very close to the 10-15% spring rate reduction as observed from most published article. I.e FRS rear is 3.8k, take 10% is around 3.4~3.5k, very similar to initial BRZ rate.

With this being said,

If you switch from pre 2016 BRZ suspension springs to 2017 suspension springs only, the handeling would change by being slightly more oversteer when throttling out of a corner. However the rear will feel more sloppy compared to current 2017 due to smaller rear swaybar. Once you increase the rear swaybar from 14mm solid to 15mm solid, the rear end of car should feel a bit tighter/stiffer and more compliant.

PS for a better analysis of front and rear spring balance. We have to account for motion ratio.

I.e front is 1:1, rear is 1:0.5625

Thus if you are looking at total spring rate

0mm drop Stock height
13 BRZ 9.34k
13 FRS 8.88K
17 ~. 9.3~10k

10mm + drop
STI. 9.96k
TRD. 13.52k
RCE Y. 14.06K
RS-R d. 10.66k

What I meant was that you can't randomly mix and match. A FRS on the rear right and a BRZ on the rear left would make for a pretty wonky drive.

Zenki BRZ

Front - red
Rear - light purple/orange (both on each spring)

These arent mine but got it from a FS add in a local group that had the dots visible in the pics haha.

Will get MY13-14 FRS colors tonight still

I'll have to check my 2015 FRS springs this weekend and get back to you but off the top of my head I think they were pink dots.

So my front have no paint left on them for whatever reason so cant see any dots

Zenki FRS

Front- Pink
Rear - Orange/ Red (again both dots on each spring)

edit: updated with info from @FirstWinter

Ok so on my 2015 FRS the fronts had pink dots and rears had red & orange.
https://i.imgur.com/qjS5Icf.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/sipln8c.jpg

So spring rates stayed the same after the shock update. Kouki might be different though