Coilovers Bouncy/Bumpy/Harsh Ride Quality
 

Hello,

I've tried two different suspension setups and have the same result.

I bought $1000 BC Racing BR Coilovers, and they were bouncy. Then I bought $1800 RS*R Sports-i Coilovers, and its the same problem.

My car vibrates and bounces harshly at the nose. Every slightest of imperfection in the road is felt in the cabin. Run over slightest bumps in the road and it is not quickly absorbed and gently dismissed like one would normally expect. In my car, you continue to feel the impacts of a bump multiple times per second, even while driving even slow, and even on some smoother newer streets. It causes me a headache and takes the fun out of driving my car. It gets worse with a passenger.

I've tried so many different settings at the knobs for hardness/softness, and nothing has worked. I've been driving like this for the past 2 years and I'm just about fed up with it and might just go back to struts for a smoother ride if I can't keep the lowered stance without introducing so much ride discomfort. My car is not slammed, there is still a gap that 2 fingers can fit into above the tire. A friend has recommended stiffer springs or to go back to struts with lowering springs because they said that coilovers are not for daily driving on streets, they are strictly for performance/tracking/racing.

I would have agreed to that except that there are Camrys and such that I see each day that are more lowered than my car and they ride as smooth as butter. I have to be missing something. I'm so nauseated by the nose of my car bouncing up and down like its on hydraulics. This is not an exaggeration either. The amount of bounce is very noticeable at night as my headlights constantly flicker at street signs, and passerby cars think that I am flashing my high beams at them and start flashing me back. This cannot be normal.

I am so frustrated with this. Any suspension suggestions that allow lowering but are still smooth for daily commutes? Or am I going to need to go back to struts and drop the lowered look completely? At this point, I don't mind going back to struts where I didn't have this issue. I miss the comfort and stability it used to have.

Go lowering springs and Bilstein shocks. Or spend the extra money and get Ohlins, RCE SS1 or KW V3's. With these cars any of the generic coil overs are junk or going to ride too stiff. Damper quality pays off in spades especially with such a stiff chassis.

BIG THANKS, buddy!!

In which order would you rank all four of those options in terms of best ride quality for the price paid?

My coilovers had this problem until I made the settings for front and rear the same. I.e if the coilovers have 32 clicks of adjustment, make front and rear 16 each. Also the ones you bought are 6K at the front and 7K rear. Not sure why they went with that, I would go for 6K front and rear (mine are 5K all around). In my experience tire pressures are huge as well, even 1 psi can make a noticeable difference in comfort. Especially since here in Toronto weather varies a lot, I keep a close eye on tire pressures and adjust as needed

Or look into Tein Flex A since they have hydraulic bump-stop it might give you the comfort you're looking for.

IMO if comfort is a bigger priority than performance (but you still want to go low) I would check out ST coilovers.
Looks like Rallysport has them on sale $300 off msrp.

https://www.rallysportdirect.com/par...RoCCdEQAvD_BwE

The old adage "You get what you pay for" is more true for suspension than almost anything else. There's no freebies in the suspension world. Cheap two piece coilovers (like the two you've tried) have some inherent flaws that usually lead to poor performance and ride quality. The main factor is that these companies are using the same shock cartridge for almost all their applications. This is the cheap and easy way to do it, but this almost always leads to a very poor amount of shock travel compared to legitimate one piece coilovers like MCS, Ohlins, 949 Xidas, JRZ, KW/ST, and even Bilsteins.

Do you track your car? If not, I'd recommend some of the quality one piece options that have a road centered spring rate. The two best (for price) in this category are the Ohlins R&T and the Bilstein B16 coilovers. If it is a roadcar, I'd recommend keeping the OE rubber top mounts as they have much better NVH characteristics than aftermarket top hats/camber plates.

Thank you so much for your insights. I do not track the car currently. I will look into these options.

These look interesting from a price perspective, but the price is also what concerns me - it seems too low. If what I've spent thus far was more expensive and yet what I have is pretty bad, how can these compare? Is it the KW technology they are using that will allow these ST coilovers to provide better street driving comfort?

Thanks!

Hard to say as each of them are slightly different with varying price points but all are worth considering for a less busy ride. They are all known to be superior dampers to any of the BC/Fortune Auto type coilover systems.

The Ohlins and KW's will ride very well for daily drivers from other peoples opinions. I will be installing my Ohlins soon can give you my own feed back in terms of comfort, but there are a ton of threads that exist that offer peoples reviews.

Settings I've found to help ride quality

-Zero to a few turns of pre-load on the springs, they should be captured at droop maximizing bump travel
-Reasonable bump stops, OEM bump stops are nice and progressive, aftermarket provided might be a little harsh.
-Damper settings from 0 (full soft) to 16, this will depend on specific damper settings and spring rates, I can't feel 1 click, but like going to the eye doctor try 0 then 16, which is better, which is worse, then try the better one vs 8 clicks then cut it in half again between the better two to 4 or 12. I'd try a setting and drive to work, get to work, change it, drive home, repeat until I was happy. Right now I drive around full soft on my Megans

What are your spring rates? Sounds like you'd be happier with a setup with <6k springs that's more road oriented, KW, ST, Bilstein B14/16, maybe the newer Ohlins kit (although the old 6k Ohlins setup I rode in wasn't comfortable at all, but owner may not have been on comfort damping). Putting on softer springs may work out ok but it's a lot of man hours for what will likely be a minor improvement if you've already fiddled with the above and can't find something reasonable.

The price completely threw me off too. It's just a not a super popular coilover as it's never really advertised which must be the reason they are discounted so deeply. If you look for these coilovers on different sites, they are still showing the MSRP of roughly $900.

These will feel night and day more comfortable than the other 2 options you've already tried. These have KW twin tube technology which means they will be comfortable but responsive. The progressive spring means that if you hit big bump you won't feel them nearly as much as the 2 coils you've had. These coils also require you to reuse your OEM top hats which do add comfort over the metal camber plates I'm sure you're previous coils came with.

Companies like BC, Stance, RSR, Feal, Fortune Auto etc. all use the Bor Chun coilover bodies as described by the other user above. BC coils you buy for a WRX most likely have the same damping as they do for the BRZ/FRS. A lot of companies buy the Bor Chun "shells", give them a pretty color scheme, slap their logo on it and sell it for $700 more than BC to support their company. HOWEVER, some of these companies do quality test all the Bor Chun shells they receive so that you don't get any defective units.

The link I listed are the base ST coilovers (X model). They have an XT model (X with top hats) and the XTA model (x with top hats and adjustable shock).

The main difference between KW and ST is that KW bodies are made with Stainless steel, whereas ST have zinc plated steel bodies.

AFAIK Ohlins only make a two-piece shock design for this platform - at least that's all I've been able to find from the shops that sell customized versions of them.

The SUS MP21S1 is a one piece front design. The older Ohlins for this platform used to be both 2 piece.

Pics:

https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-3in6...437462.jpg?c=2

My MCS 2-Way with 9k(F) 11k(R) ride miles better than my Tein Street Flex I replaced.

Only one pic showing the two piece design. :iono:

Xida/949 is two piece as well, even on the Miatas the lower mount is threaded. It's not the devil and everything has some form of compromise, even $10k Penske's aren't magic.

This is a good thing to point out too. Motorsport grade coilovers tend to actually ride very well. Another anecdotal data point, my 800 lbs/in spring Xidas rode miles better than my 400 lbs/in Bilsteins in my Miata.

The difference of 1 vs 2 piece is that in a one 1 piece design the length of the shock is the entire body, where as on a 2 piece design the shock body does not extend the full length. In that example on the right you can see the Ohlins front shock is the entire length, where as on the left it is not. That's 1 piece vs. 2 piece. To your point though, exactly right. Everything is a compromise and you don't always benefit from increased shock travel at a certain point.

The suspension mounting point is threaded and adjustable on both dampers pictured, no different from a BC Megan or Tein which also have the damper body go past the strut mount, they just don't waste money cnc machining a strut mount and instead weld steel together for the necessary features. The picture you show is no different from the 'old' design either.

By your definition Tein, BC, Megan, etc. are all '1-piece' fronts.

https://frsport.com/images/detailed_...d36a94c14b.jpg

Edit: adding tein;

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/00...g?v=1608045906

That's fair. The difference is that those brands you mentioned use a china shock cartridge that wasn't designed for the application and is likely way shorter (therefore having decreased travel). For some more anecdotal data, there was nearly 15% more total shock travel on my RCE T2's than my FEAL 441's for the reason stated when I tested them side by side.

I have been on my RCE SS-1s for about 3 months and they are great. The ride is similar to OEM but the handling is spot on; zero body roll. I’m in the middle with dampening and haven’t even thought about changing it.

For $1,500, they’re tough to beat, IMO.

The silver ones are Megan track coilovers. I had those at one point and I think they had the shortest front shaft I've ever seen on any car suspension - so that "one-piece" design intended on preserving usable length and travel was pretty much wasted on those coilovers.

Yeah, looks like the ST are back from $527.40 to $879.00. Whatever that was, it ended today it seems.

Damn it. I sold those. I'll take a look at the XT and XTA models and weight those versus shelling out the extra $1000 for KW or Ohlins. I mean, at this point, if an extra $1000 is the price for peace of mind and my car becoming less sketchy and less annoying to drive, then it's what I'll gonna have to do to do it right and never have to worry about it again.


Son of a beach... What a bunch of crooks. I wish I would have known this invaluable information beforehand. Wish I would've went the extra $400 and went with the KW or Ohlins instead of RS*R. I am very angry. But I have no one to blame but myself for not doing enough research. :mad0259:


Thanks for this comparison. Honestly, I might just go for the KW V3 or Ohlins. Really hard to beat the "you get what you pay for" statement when you've already failed twice due to going cheap. Now its a matter of deciding which one of those two, I guess. Part of me is just dreading getting the XT or XTA and it not working out. Third time's usually the charm, though, but I might have to go all out to make it happen.

Hmmm, this one is appealing too. I'm seeing KW pop up once more, along with "affordable", both of which appeal to me as it seems like I'd be getting quality for a good deal, but then that begs the question of what is the compromise that RCE SS-1 has that the KW V3 doesn't suffer from?

I think this thread has completely derailed itself with this pedantic 1piece vs 2piece conversation. The type of coilover means less than the quality and internal damping characteristics. With Ohlins/KW/Xidas etc you're paying for what's inside (as well as the build quality) over any of the BC based systems.

Also keen to know the coilovers that provide the best comfort / performance / price. Won’t be tracking the car so was thinking of giving the Bilstein B14s a go.

KW V3 has stainless bodies while RCE SS-1 has Zinc bodies like the STs. But considering the engineers over at RCE are experts with our car's suspensions, and the SS-1 is like $600 cheaper, I'd opt for the ss-1.

Only major difference would be a possibly higher spring rate on the SS-1, meaning they could possibly be more track oriented than the KW V3.

Ss1 is single adjustable and v3 is double adjustable.

If it's not seeing track/autox then the softer spring rates and oe top hats are a better fit.

Check this out.

https://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126107

Really enjoy my ss1's. If you need camber it's great setup. Tien flex As are good as well

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I'm surprised nobody has asked this, but what are the exact clicks you have your coilovers set at front & rear? And what tires pressures? From other reviews I've read about the RS-R's, they can be set to ride similar to stock comfort.

If you're on a budget, I'd recommend the 17+ struts with RCE Yellow lowering springs. If you you're willing to spend a bit more, the Bilstein B6's with RCE Yellows is a popular pairing as well.

I have the 17+ struts and the Yellows on my 2013 and the the ride quality has definitely improved from stock while dropping it a little bit and giving it a nice look and better turn in.

You do lose the adjustability from a coilover but for the money, I think it's a perfect street setup.

This is an excellent setup. Ran this before I got my RCE SS1. If you need or want camber get some peddler top hats and crash bolts

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That is incorrect. All Xidas are one piece.
Our lower mount is simply built into the cap and has a lockring so it looks similar to the Asian shocks that use an adjustable threaded adapter on a sealed cylinder. The Asian shocks are complete and sealed then they thread a separate mount adapter on the bottom. In their marketing that is a "feature".

The Xida cap is not removeable or adjustable. All one piece aluminum race shocks have a cap on the otherwise open cylinder.

If the lower cap can actually be removed without opening the shock, it's a two piece shock.
If the lower cap seals the cylinder, keeps the oil in and is not adjustable, its a one piece shock.

I prefer to call the two piece shocks "length adjustable" and one piece "non-length adjustable". If both types have threaded bodies, they have adjustable preload of course.

This is the first I've seen RSR spoken of as low end and uncomfortable...I was actually under the impression they had the reputation of having one of the softer rides due to their rubber inserts? Been trying to decide between Sport-I and the rce ss1...

RCE SS1 all the way. More travel than RSR, specialized valving and quiet camber plates.

Right on, ordered a set of ss1s earlier.