Coilovers or Wheels first
 

Just bought a brand new 86. Wondering how 18s would look on stock suspension? The stock suspension isn't bad but I'm wondering about fitment. I only have money for one or the other.

im on 18's stock susp, and i have no intention on lowering. theyre already lower than 90 percent of cars on the road

How will you afford tires of you can only afford wheels?

The tS comes with 18's. It'll look perfectly fine IMO, unless you go with a crazy aggressive fitment.....then it might look weird.

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Save up till you have both wheels and tires.
Or put them on a credit card.

The tS is lowered. It is on STI Pinks I believe.

Are yo looking to improve handling, or just change the looks?


18's would look the same, wheel gap. generally you keep the same diameter tire with the larger wheel. Unless you own an Impala or Chrysler 300.


If you want to improve the car, wait till you can afford good coilovers.



If you just want it to look different ignore any advice I give.

Wheels as in tires and rims

Thats what I'm saying. Where I live the roads are pretty shitty so I'm fine with the ride height. Do you have any photos?

Imo, cars always look better lowered, even on stock wheels. Cars always look odd to me when not lowered, especially on bigger aftermarket wheels.

If i were to do both eventually, but had to pick one first. I'd lower the car. I'm basing my opinion on looks, nothing to do with performance.

On the other hand, I got my car about 6 months ago. Was going to lower it, and get bigger wheels, like my previous cars. However, i decided that i don't want to mess with any physical aspects of the car that affect how the car handles. I may get better tires eventually, but I'm sticking with the stock 17's at stock height. I really like how this cars handles stock. I also don't miss the occasional grinding sounds from being low. Yes i think lowered cars look nicer, but from a functional aspect of ground clearance, these cars are pretty low.

With that said, it really comes down to what you think looks better. I would assume you're lowering and getting bigger wheels mainly for looks. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

fyi, congrats on the car, enjoy it.

Oh, my answer would be coilovers first, even though I'm not doing either mod to my car.

The car does handle great with everything being stock. And I'm probably going to just end up getting wheels and keeping the stock suspension for a while. Thanks for your reply.

Neither

If handling takes priority over shiny things

Keep the stock wheels, keep the stock suspension, get some camber bolts for the front and adjustable rear LCA.

Then get a good alignment for the win.

If you think the handles good now, you will be amazed how better it handles with a dialed in alignment.

Good tyres are a given.

Don't buy springs alone for your struts.

Don't buy cheap coilovers.

Research alot, and I mean ALOT, prior to spending 1 cent.

Everyone is an expert, even when they're not.

Everyone has an opinion, well, I am extremely opinionated anyway, and old, and grumpy, and opinionated.

Look at the price difference in your current tyres size, and then in the 18.

18" will give a slightly harsher ride due to less sidewall.

Always buy the best tyres you can get for your conditions.

Did I say I was opinionated

Have fun :cheers:

Edit: later on if you decide to get coilovers, good ones of course, you haven't really wasted much cash, really, it's only the front camber bolts.

Good coilovers cost, it's all about valving and spring rates, 90% of coilovers in the market are garbage and will give a poor ride for street duties.

A 20mm drop front and rear is about as far as the cars geometry really likes, plus any lower and you tend to scrape, alot.

The best rims are 17" Enkei RPF-1

The best coilover manufacturer is MCA suspension

The best tyres are Hankook RS4

The best twin is mine

Did I say I was opinionated

Here you go, 18" before and after lowering.

https://i.postimg.cc/7LtLTrzD/image.jpg

I couldn't wait to get it lowered. It looked awkward as hell on stock suspension

https://i.postimg.cc/cJDZJw5M/image.jpg

Suspension then wheels and tires.

I ran 18s on stock suspension for quite some time, and tracked it that way. From an appearance perspective it looked good and I got a lot of compliments on it. 18s actually raised my effective ride height slightly due to running 225/40s instead of 235/35s.

Only reason I ditched stock suspension is that it had significant body roll and wasn't really stiff enough for me on track. Switching out my suspension stuff gained me 3.5 seconds a lap on 200tw tires. When I was on 18s w/ Michelin PS4S, the stock suspension was fine. Getting on stickier tires really reveals the limitations of the stock suspension.

If this is primarily a street car, I'd get some really good tires on good quality wheels, and just leave the suspension stock. If you want something that rides better than stock you're going to need to spend some money, none of the "budget" coilover options are any good. It all comes down to damper quality, and pretty much everything on the market under $1500 is garbage. When you go to lower, you're better off with lowering springs on good dampers if you're not going to be tracking heavily. I'd say get some Bilstein B8s (Bilstein B12 Pro-Kit comes with B8s + Eibach springs) or find someone who is selling their PP Sachs dampers and buy the RCE Yellows, and then do a rear LCA and front camber bolts to let you get a good performance alignment for the street.



Don't spend your money on crappy coilovers and ruin your car. Best thing you can do to start is get really good tires and if you can afford it, good quality lightweight wheels. I'd heavily recommend RPF1s or TC105Xs right now for the money.

Throwing in my 2c as someone who got wheels first--

Just save to be able to do both at once or just get lowering springs with stock everything else as an inexpensive stopgap, my car looked super funny on stock height with my 18x9.5 Rays. It looked so laughable that I immediately ordered coilovers the day I got my wheels put on.

Pic of how it sits now: https://ibb.co/BN21mz8
Stock height with wheels :thumbdown: https://ibb.co/pZmFmdg

How much are you budgeting for wheels and tires?

How much would you consider spending on the suspension?

Depending on your answers, I would suggest one or the other first.

I lowered my car on eibach pro kit springs in the first few days of owning my car. Then bought wheels.

Now, If I had things to do over...

I would get first:
1" drop springs
SPC LCA
Whiteline bumpsteer kit
camber bolts
spacers for stock wheels.

Later I would upgrade the shocks to koni or bilsteins. Then buy a set of wheels. 18x9 +30 to +45 is a good size IMO.

:cheers:

Neither. Wait a year. Then do whatever you want.

i somehow never figured out how to upload pics, can someone refer me to a how to or give me the quick rundown?

yeah im in NE, i def dont want a rougher ride characteristic as i only do track days occationally
or dm me your cell# and ill send you a million pics tm, theyre 18x8's stock susp, like i said
enkei's

If you DD it, then wheels and tires. Tires are the only thing keeping the car sticking to the ground. The stock suspension itself is good enough to start with. You can even learn to find the limits of stock suspension and then upgrade it.


If you track it or already have track experience, then go for coilovers. However, even then atleast the tires need to be changed for tracking.


Find below 18" TRD SF rims on Pilot Super Sport 225/40/18 on stock suspension. Changing to MPSS has totally changed the way the car grips now!

I normally click on Go Advanced and then hit Manage Attachment.

use a pic hosting website like postimg.cc or photobucket, take the direct link and embed it between [ I M G ] and [ / I M G ]. Obviously remove spaces between the characters. Had to do that or the window will think I'm trying to upload a pic

imo you get coilovers only if you track this car. like someone had mentioned, this car is already pretty low right out of factory. for someone who never track their cars and would like to sit a bit lower than stock suspension, get a set of lowering springs, i'm perfectly satisfying with my RCE Yellow springs with stock shocks.

but how hard is it installing lowering springs? do you need any special equipment? i heard its easier to put coilover in bc all you need to do is take the old ones out and put the new ones in.

It's not that hard. You will need a pass-through type socket set though. People say you need spring compressors, but I didn't for eibach pro kit springs.

In many cases OEM springs are dangerous to remove without a spring compressor, but the springs on our cars really are not. ... Still, don't have he tophat pointing towards your face...

The DIY guide really helped me.

Yeah don't do any tracking, Just commuting and daily driving haha. I'm positive getting a bigger wheel will make my ride more harsh "less sidewall". Oh well.

I'm thinking of getting a staggered setup. Thoughts on this spec?
Wondering if fitment would be flush. I'm aware of the wheelitfit website but I'm a bit confused looking at it. Some people say there is rubbing running 9.5" then others say they have no issues.

Front: 18x8.5 +45 Tire: 235
Rear: 18x9.5 +45 Tire: 245

As mentioned before I'm on stock suspension. Stock brake kit, maybe upgrading.

Stick with a square set up 18x8.5 +45 all around. I doubt the 18x9.5 +45 would even fit up front with stock suspension. There is no benefit with a staggered set up unless you're doing it for looks and if you are well then go ahead. Also, if you're gonna stay on stock suspension its probably not a good idea to go too wide because its gonna end up looking like a 4x4...

If it's a daily driver just get better tires.

Don't run staggered setups on this platform. It's doable, but require significant adjustment to compensate. The platform is not designed for staggered and it negatively affects driving dynamics without compensating in geometry.

Also, for stock suspension I'd recommend 9" wide or narrower wheels, going wider than 9" will be problematic. To run wider than 9" you need to run aftermarket suspension arms to adjust camber to prevent rubbing and usually aftermarket endlinks as well.

17x9 +41 or +42 is about perfect on stock suspension to get a flush look and meat. 18x8.5 +44 is also about perfect on stock suspension.


The rear technically needs a little more offset which can be corrected with slip-on spacers, but it's not necessary.

I'll probably get 18x8.5 front and back. However About spacers, Is it safe to run them? Whats the torque required? Lmao I'm just scared to be cruising on the highway then look in my rear view mirror and see my wheel flying off.

Just buy some extended studs to be safe.

For ride quality stick with 17" wheels. Good tires of whatever width you like and some good lowering springs and the car will look great handle well and you aren't spending a bunch of money on coilovers that you don't need for the street anyway. 18's look a bit better but then you have the form and function thing going on, a bit harsher ride for a slight improvement in looks

You don't have to have spacers, they're just for flushing the wheels out in the rear for looks. As long as you have good thread engagement it's the same torque as normal... 89 lb/ft. I've been running billet spacers on track and on the street the whole time I've owned my car. If you buy quality spacers and torque your wheels properly you've got nothing to worry about.

If you want more than a 3mm slip on spacer though, you need to get extended studs and open-ended lug nuts. ARP extended studs and CSG Spec lugs are where it's at.

Now that you’re on coilovers, you wouldn’t have gone for coils right away along with the LCA and all that?

Not sure if every wheel has the same thickness at the lug holes. But i got 8 1/4 turns on my lugs with a 4mm spacer.

225/40/18 is perfect on stock suspension. Fills up the wheel well nicely and isn’t that far off of stock diameter. I’d probably just get spacers in the rear and a lip kit or something. Though there’s something about a meaty tire on a 17 with a one finger gap between the tire and fender that I love :iono:

No way. I would not get coils again. I would upgrade to koni or bilsteins. I would also keep my rubber bushings and not go pillow-ball everywhere.

245's fit on a 9" wide wheels.

9" wide wheels fit without coils.

Anyway... It's all just a learning experience for me... :cheers:

Love this Idea, Any recommendations for lowering springs?

it depends on how low you want. 3/4 is good and 1” seems a bit much. I’ve had good luck with H&R however there is RCE, Hotchkiss, etc.