Tein Flex A

[DeaconRoc]

Originally Posted by Trettiosjuan

Cross posting a bit http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...&postcount=301 even though I'm most interested in the A's, discussion is in the Z.

TL; DR: Would love to see factory recommendations from the installation manual for preload. Thanks.

I don't think there is any information on preload given.

[Shady195]

Originally Posted by Trettiosjuan

Cross posting a bit http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...&postcount=301 even though I'm most interested in the A's, discussion is in the Z.

TL; DR: Would love to see factory recommendations from the installation manual for preload. Thanks.

The Flex Z manual does have recommendations for preload however I would not use them. My coilovers seemed to bottom out quite easy with tein's specs. I took everyone elses recomendation and just got the spring snug in the perch with 0 preload and locked them in their place. Car doesn't feel any different handling wise but it no longer bottoms out.

[Trettiosjuan]

Originally Posted by Shady195

The Flex Z manual does have recommendations for preload however I would not use them. My coilovers seemed to bottom out quite easy with tein's specs. I took everyone elses recomendation and just got the spring snug in the perch with 0 preload and locked them in their place. Car doesn't feel any different handling wise but it no longer bottoms out.

Bottom out as in the tires hitting the arches? How much is your car lowered? That would make sense as more preload gives more bump travel, and is actually good news for me. Please share the preload specs, thanks

[bfrank1972]

Originally Posted by Shady195

The Flex Z manual does have recommendations for preload however I would not use them. My coilovers seemed to bottom out quite easy with tein's specs. I took everyone elses recomendation and just got the spring snug in the perch with 0 preload and locked them in their place. Car doesn't feel any different handling wise but it no longer bottoms out.

That's weird, I would think you'd have less bottoming out with more preload (it raises the car and also increases bump travel).

[Trettiosjuan]

Originally Posted by bfrank1972

That's weird, I would think you'd have less bottoming out with more preload (it raises the car and also increases bump travel).

But it would make sense if he lowered the car again by reducing the length of the shock body, and the added bump travel caused interference of the tyres with the liners....

[bfrank1972]

Originally Posted by Trettiosjuan

But it would make sense if he lowered the car again by reducing the length of the shock body, and the added bump travel caused interference of the tyres with the liners....

Well maybe the tires are hitting the fenders/liners, but lowering on these coilovers doesn't otherwise change the shock body length.

[DeaconRoc]

Even when mine was lowered 60mm and I was driving a very bumpy B road I never had the wheels hitting the arches

[Trettiosjuan]

Originally Posted by bfrank1972

Well maybe the tires are hitting the fenders/liners, but lowering on these coilovers doesn't otherwise change the shock body length.

Perhaps we're talking about different things, I mean "Case length" as described here: http://www.tein.com/products/flex_z.html#p03

[Trettiosjuan]

Originally Posted by DeaconRoc

Even when mine was lowered 60mm and I was driving a very bumpy B road I never had the wheels hitting the arches

Which means that at stock height, I could have had 60mm more suspension travel? Perhaps not, because on my bumpy roads, with a 60mm lower car you would be craping the bottom of you car everywhere instead... Love your input DeaconRoc, just a bit apprehensive on how applicable your experiences are to mine as you are the only reference right now...

[Shady195]

Originally Posted by bfrank1972

That's weird, I would think you'd have less bottoming out with more preload (it raises the car and also increases bump travel).

Adding preload will "shorten" the amount of travel in the shock body. When I had teins recommended pre-load I was hitting the bump stops regularly over larger bumps.

[bfrank1972]

Originally Posted by Shady195

Adding preload will "shorten" the amount of travel in the shock body. When I had teins recommended pre-load I was hitting the bump stops regularly over larger bumps.

Hmm that's now how I understand it, looking at the coilover assembly itself, nothing changes when adding preload except you're winding up the preload collar and compressing the spring above.

It *does* shorten the spring, so in theory if you add a lot of preload you could run into coil bind - but the basic recipe if you're hitting your bump stops is to add pre-load, not take it away. Doing so will increase your bump travel (wheel moving upward toward your fender) and decrease your droop travel (wheel extending downward away from your fender).

That's why I was confused - buy maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're experiencing.

[Shady195]

its very plausible i am explaining myself wrong or totally have it wrong all together. Carry on without me.

[bfrank1972]

Originally Posted by Shady195

its very plausible i am explaining myself wrong or totally have it wrong all together. Carry on without me.

Hah, no sweat - I'm not a suspension expert by any means, just trying to help if I can - I'm planning to install a set of Street Flex's in a couple weekends, so I did do some study to understand how preload works though, made a post not long ago about how it works if you're interested in reading it:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...&postcount=254

[Trettiosjuan]

Originally Posted by Shady195

When I had teins recommended pre-load...

... Which is?? Please tell me, it's like a public secret with only me not knowing :/