what exactly do coilovers do?

 

They're shock+spring combination, they lower the car, stiffen the ride and make it handle better.

 

The million dollar question of suspension!

I've struggled with this question over the past year when I purchased a set of ksport coilovers. Since then it's been a huge learning curve.

Coilovers, in most cases, allow you to have fine control over your suspension where as other suspension parts don't.

There's three basic levels of suspension upgrades...basic, semi-race and race.

Basic would be OEM suspension with lowering springs, semi-race would be a spring and strut combo and race would be coilovers.

Coilovers allow you to control valve dampening, spring pre-load, ride height, and spring rate. They are rather complex but allow a driver to fine tune the suspension so the car handles the way they want.

Coilovers also allow you to lower the car and function with minimal suspension travel. Most of the slammed show cars you see have coilovers.

If you're looking to upgrade your suspension I would suggest a strut combined with your favorite lowering springs. This takes 90% of the guess work out of the suspension with you being able to control the stiffness/softness of the struts.

Coilovers, uses incorrectly, can make your handling worse than stock as well as costing a lot of money. However, if you get serious into racing you'll need them to stay competitive.

 

Additionally:

Coilovers indicate a matched set of springs and shocks sold together where the springs are mounted directly on the shocks. Many cars don't have this suspension configuration normally. Our 8 just happens to be set up in this configuration from the factory. Because Mazda is awesome.

There are varying levels of sophistication and cost with coilovers.

Basic sets like the aptly named, Tein Basics, have height adjustment so you can corner balance the car and adjust ride height. But they cannot adjust the shock dampening.

More advanced sets have jounce and rebound adjustments either together or separately. This allows you to customize the ride settings depending on whether you are going on a weekend drive with your significant other or a track day.

Even more advanced systems have electronic adjustment where you can adjust the shock valving by pushing a button inside the car or based on speed.

Of course the fancier and the more adjustment the higher the cost.

Then there is the variation in quality, warranty, and how they function that affect cost and performance.

Check out:

KW Variant-3
Tanabe Sustec Pro-5 or 7
Stance
Buddy Club
Tein Flex

for some coilover comparisions

 

Are there aftermarket coilovers with stock ride height? Thanks in advance!

 

That's the point. You can set to stock ride height. Or you can lower it little by little until you get the ride height you want.

 

sorry, that’s not necessarily true

it would be best to ask the manufacturer or supplier you’re considering

because it will likely vary