ST Coilover Suspension Installation, Review, and Pictures

[dkx64]

Hey guys, I'm about 2-3 weeks away from installing my ST coilovers on my whiteout FRS. If anyone has any tips/tricks of a seamless install I'd love to hear about them. I feel pretty comfortable after reading a bunch of coilover install threads, but any additional info would be great!

During install I hope to take a bunch of pictures and create a DIY writeup to help anyone else with their coilover installation. I unfortunately havent found install DIYs from that many other users here on the forum so I'll be attempting mine based on a culmination of many other threads. Hope I'm not missing anything

Anyways, once I finish the install I'll be getting it aligned and hopefully I can take some pictures of that and help answer any alignment questions.

WRITEUP with pictures COMING SOON!

Most of the pictures, if not all of them, will be on my build thread first, so in the meantime go ahead and check that out HEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[merino_frs]

Everything you might need will be right here. You just gotta read

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53192

[dkx64]

Originally Posted by merino_frs

Everything you might need will be right here. You just gotta read

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53192

Thank you. I have read that one already, but I'll take another look. =]

[dkx64]

Finally got them installed. Ask any questions you guys may have about the install or performance. I absolutely love them.

This will have to do until I can take some proper shots of the car I'll probably write up a review about everything later on.

[dkx64]

I'm really hoping the front camber they adjusted to will be ok. I've never heard of positive camber being used ever! Hope that left front is what it needs to be. Also, after driving it a few times, The steering wheel is definitely not straight anymore. I'm taking it back to have them redo the alignment. I cant live with the steering wheel not being straight. Unacceptable. Other than that, it seems to ride and handle like a dream

[Zero90]

How are the Cusco controls arms? I'm debating on getting a pair but unsure if it's worth the money. I already have the ST Coilovers and love them.

[continuecrushing]

@dkx64, those alignment numbers you posted are horrible if you want decent performance in the twisties

Couple questions, do you have camber bolts on the front(also called crash bolts)?

You have adjustable rear arms, and they didnt even adjust the rear camber!

What are you looking to do with the car? Track, autox, canyon, drag etc

I can go more in depth, but tell us what you want first so we can give helpful info.

[Fizz]

Did they only charge you for toe alignment? Some places may charge extra to adjust camber....which could explain why your camber was not adjusted. If they don't know how to adjust camber then you should be taking your car elsewhere.

[dkx64]

Originally Posted by Shutter

@dkx64, those alignment numbers you posted are horrible if you want decent performance in the twisties

Couple questions, do you have camber bolts on the front(also called crash bolts)?

You have adjustable rear arms, and they didnt even adjust the rear camber!

What are you looking to do with the car? Track, autox, canyon, drag etc

I can go more in depth, but tell us what you want first so we can give helpful info.

@Shutter I rarely drive in the mountains. I mainly only commute to work and back, and to the beach on the weekends and roadtrip from socal to fresno once or twice a month. So performance wise I dont need anything too spectacular. I want the tires to last as long as possible and not be dangerous. One thing i DONT want is something thats less performance oriented camber/toe wise than it was stock. i have no idea if its worse than stock now, but i honestly cant feel any difference driving to work. Any suggestions you may have woudl be great. The car will never see a track, autox, drag or anything race related. Its only been on a mountain pass twice since I've owned her and it was on stock suspension. I dont need it to be any better than stock, although I wouldn't mind if the tires will still last a long time. I cant afford to buy tires every 25000 miles. ALSO. I the front ST coils are slotted. No camber bolts required.

Originally Posted by Fizz

Did they only charge you for toe alignment? Some places may charge extra to adjust camber....which could explain why your camber was not adjusted. If they don't know how to adjust camber then you should be taking your car elsewhere.

@Fizzr To be honest. Even I know how to adjust the camber. I had to adjust it enough to drive home after installing the coilovers without destroying my tires. But yea they were supposed to adjust everything. They said the rears were within spec. Although "spec" is an insanely large range. I dont really know what it all means though to be honest. All i know is the car tracks straight, however my steering wheel isnt straight. Which I can't believe they thought they could get away with.

Im taking it back there tomorrow to get it sorted out. quick responses on what i should actually do about alignment and final specs would be greatly appreciated so I can actually tell them what i want.

[dkx64]

Originally Posted by Zero90

How are the Cusco controls arms? I'm debating on getting a pair but unsure if it's worth the money. I already have the ST Coilovers and love them.

Cusco arms are great. Cant even tell they are there to be honest. Everyone says they have clunking sounds, I cant feel anything wrong with mine. The only reason I know they are there is because I put them on myself and had to adjust the camber and toe and things myself.

[jprice130]

@dkx64, let us know how your 2nd alignment goes. Your toe settings are great, but as others have said, the camber measurements are not good.

The left rear camber of -1.48 is great, so if you can get them to adjust the right rear to be near that, you'll be good. For the front, the positive camber may be "within spec", but that's just terrible. The "before" measurement on the left front of -1.58 was pretty good, so I'd ask them to return the camber in the front back to something close to that on both sides. -1 to -2 degrees of camber will perform great and will not cause advanced wear to your tires. Plus it will handle great on those twisty roads!

As for your steering wheel, they should definitely straighten that out. That's just craziness. Good luck!

[connorlug]

you got hit with a 'toe n go' alignment. you probably had some lube tech doing your alignment lol. he didn't touch camber at all

just because it's 'in spec' doesn't mean its good, i could get your toe to -.15 l/f and +.15 r/f and it'll still be in spec but the car will handle like dog shit. that's just not the right thing to do when performing an alignment. whoever did this alignment was lazy.

on another note, my ST coils should be here this week. super excited!!

[dkx64]

They were gawking at the car more than actually doing anything. They had 2 people working on the fronts so I figured they were doing something haha


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