guys
Last week I insalled koni's and tein H springs (in my driveway without power tools).
I have a little write up about it on another thread here. DPE was of great help with me in getting this package and giving advice. I have the RB swys(big bars by some standards) so that influenced my decision some in getiting the tein H's vs the S's.
Performance wise it has been just as I expected. "The happy tail" rear end is now gone that I used to get with HARD high speed braking. The "floaty" front end that I used to get when exiting a high speed turn under power or hitting a little depression in a turn at high speed is also gone.
Yes the ride is more harsh. But it is not uncomfortable. Nice drop also. I had to be careful about the drop since I am running a 35 offset wheel. To be truthful I dont really see that i am going to have to do much if any adjustment for the track.
Do get a good alignment after the suspension is settled. The drop does visabily change the camber. I was running -1.4 front and -1.9 rear with my stock suspenion. It is more now and I have a appointment soon to get it spec'ed.
I really dont see where the expensive coil over systems can be any better except if you want to play with corner weights or ride height. And the corner weights on a stock rx8 is pretty dang good.
I highly recommend this combo. It is a little harder to install than coilovers.
olddragger

olddragger,

how do you have your shock set. ~% from soft?????

beers

Thanks for the info olddragger.... I was thinking about this combo for a while.

Guys,
Rear is set 1/2 turn up(firmer) from full soft. The front is on full soft for everyday driving then 1 turn firmer for the exciting times. The fronts are very easy to change the settings on. Takes 15 seconds
rotor on guys
olddragger

what's the difference between tein basics and tein h-tech?

from the spring standpoint????? not sure the basics are a whole coilover system. the h-tech are just springs.

beers

ahhh well that's a pretty big difference lol.

and the spring rate on the baics is a LOT higher. But yeah, the Basics are a full height adjustable coil over. Not a bad option on a budget, but they have been reported to be a little firm.

i havent measured but i can tell you this i got more drop than one inch in the fron at .3 in the back with the tein h's and koni's. I will try and talk my teenage son to take a picture so i can post. i am out of town this w/e so i will try next week
olddragger

In the Competition forum Uuulose describes how to take the rear shock/spring apart on the car without a spring compressor to allow making rear Koni adjustments in the field, this was with an OE spring, should be easier still with a lowering spring

starts down at Post #29

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-racing-25/order-do-b-stock-mods-76872/page2/

Quote:
Originally Posted by DPE
All numbers taken either from the manufacturer, or from other posts on this forum. Some we can verify, and a few we can't. Just keep that in mind. . .

Stock 'Sport' Suspension spring rates on the RX-8 are 156/113 (F/R)
Mazdaspeed: 280/190
Tein S-Tech: 207/145
Tein H-Tech: 179/129
Tanabe GF: 179/146
Tanabe NF: 162/112
Racing Beat: 187/136
Eibach: 180/130 (progressive, so this varies a bit)
H&R: 195/141 (progressive, so this varies a bit)


As for the question on coilovers, all aftermarket adjustable 'coilovers' come with a shock and spring. The more expensive ones also come with the upper mount, usually of the 'pillowball' variety (a spherical metal bushing in a metal plate rather than the rubber top mounts that most cars use from the factory). Tein Basics, for example, re-use the OEM top mounts and a few of the small hardware bits. Tein Flex do not re-use any of the OEM coilover assembly. The aftermarket coilovers also come with proprietary springs, so one would never use their OEM springs with their new coilovers. Hopefully that makes sense?


DPE - Thank you sooo much for the continuing information. If I'm interpreting all of this correctly,
- H-Tech's are pretty darn close to the OEM rate and provide just alittle drop (mainly in the front - 1.0 fr & .3 rr).
- S-Tech is more aqgressive but still should work well with the oem dampers.....drop is pretty nice with 1.4 fr & .7 rr)
- Tanabe NF's, again, pretty darn close to OEM but provide a bit more drop than H-Tech's (1.4 fr & 1.2 rr)
- Tanabe GF's, Probably a nice upgrade from OEM while allowing for the retension of the stock dampers? and provide a nice front/rear drop (1.4 fr & 1.2 rr)....right?
- Racing Beat, hmmmm....maybe same as above as far as rate is concerned but with almost no drop (.5)
- Eibach, again.....rate very close to H-Tech and should work OK with OEM dampers, right?. Drop is pretty good at 1.2 fr & .8 rr.

Ok...with all that said, my budget does not allow for the replacement of the OEM dampers with the springs.....but....I was kinda wanting to lower the car a bit. I'm 'leaning' towards the Eibach's or the Tanabe GF's. Any words of wisdom with these? OR......am I making the wrong move and should wait till next spring and replace all?
Reply With Quote

could we make all this info here a sticky????? most everything you need is here.

beers

This info is perfect...it does give most of the important factors in one place. The only missing peice is the suggested retail price. It would be nice to see that side by side as well. It would give a starting point to assist our search. Thanks Swoope, and to DPE.

If you are only looking to lower car and want a good ride for street and maybe a track event or two go with the Eibachs.

I started there and now have the Tein Flex with Electronic Control unit. 8 sees the track at least 8 times a year and in the Florida Region of NASA group 4 (instructors) is combined at times with race practice. Full open passing. I wanted the best handling car around. My mazdaspeed bumper sits less than 4 inchs off of the ground. Use soft settings around town, but go full hard for two or the three tracks that we run. At full soft it is still a rough ride when compared to the eibach setup.

Jay Goldfarb
Instructor with PBOC, BMW CCA & NASA

not seing any info on the SPRINT springs... here is my car with them. :)

thanks, in part, to the information presented by DPE, I've decided on the Mazdaspeed setup. I am waiting for the springs/struts and sway bars to arrive...hopefully to install them this week. Thanks again for the info...I bookmarked this thread awhile back, but have come back several times for reference.

Springs alone will not improve you cars handling :spank:

install of MS components is complete. I still need to get an alignment, but I am definately happy with the final product. I have an autocross event next weekend and I hope to test them fully. :)

bumpety bump!
(can you tell Jedi has a case of the 'mod bug')

any tein s-tech group buys in the future???

I went with MS and Koni shocks and IMO the combo is PERFECT, perfect drop and stiff but bearable rates with good overall balance.

CosmosMpower, I'm thinking about the same setup, probably with sway bars. When you say bearable, since everybody's bearable is different, can you quantify that? Is it wife/girlfriend complaining stiff, or just BMW 3 series stiff?

My last car was very stiff, good for autox and track, but horrible on the road, so I'd like to avoid the same mistake.

My gf doesn't complain but she drives a 00 S2000 :) I would say it's fairly stiff though especially over some hard bumps my ass has left the seat a few times. The caveat is that I turned my shocks up further than I probably should have. Out of 2.75 possible turns I did a 1.5 turns and I think 1-1.25 would be completely street comfortable but still stiff enough for track/autocross.

Even how it is now over good/normal roads it feels very well dampened and is tolerable, small bumps are just fine as well. It's considerably stiffer than a 3 series, I had a 97 M3 sedan before the 8 and it's about equivalent to an M3 on bilsteins and 30-40% stiffer than a M3 on factory shocks.

I drive about 20-30 miles a day and am thinking about an Elise in the near future so I guess my tolerance might be a little higher than some.

Just had my Eibachs installed yesterday. Wow, is all I can say! Car looks great and the ride isn't any different with the exception of abrupt, harsh square edged bumps. Like the ones on a bridge that separate the different sections.

Anyhow, I'll post some pics as soon as I find my camera.

I would hightly recommend Eibachs for those looking for a nice drop without sacrificing hardly anything in ride/comfort.

Pics are posted.

Bump bump.

I am doing research on some springs and thought this thread was super informative and deserved a bump. Newbies: don't start new threads!

I had Eiback sportlines on my celica and loved them. Now eibach pro-kit on the 8 (just springs) and they are also great. They get my vote.

I'm liking the Tein H techs after reading this thread. I like the way most cars look stock and want to stay pretty close with a slight personal touch. I think the 8 has perfect wheel/tire clearance in the rear but the front needs a 1-1.5" drop. I also don't want to compromise the ride quality or replace the shocks. That only leaves me with 2 options- the H techs or the Racing Beat springs. The Racing Beat springs don't seem to drop enough. I might order those H techs any day now. Don't know where to get them installed though? Can a tire place do this or do you need to go to a pro custom shop?

Find a good suspension shop and I personally do not recommend any mazda dealers.

Just wanted to clearify this, replacing the shocks with aftermarket ones will improve handling and WON'T make your daily driving really suffer as you thought.

i am very happy with the eibachs. also if we knew where you are you might get suggestions on where to get them installed, or people to help..

beers :beer:

I decided on the Tein S-techs and will be getting them installed on Tuesday. I'll post lots of before and after pictures to help people decide.

...I'm a work. :lol2:

I'm between DC and Baltimore, I was going to ask about any good shops in the regional section. But if anyone here knows of any, I'm all ears.

Thanks for the feedback about your Eibachs.

This is a good drop thread, lots of useful info. Not wanting to start a new thread I decided to post here and in the process bump this very useful thread…

I too am considering the Eibach springs for the progressive feature, seems pretty cool. The inches dropped are also in the range I am hopeful for. I used a measuring tape earlier today and it looked as if a 1.4” drop in the front is definitely going to rub, even if we shaved the fenders, at least from what it looked like just by looking at it in front of us. The tires seems too damn wide so it looks as if I might have fucked up by not researching enough before choosing the tire sizes :banghead: The setup:

18x8.5 38mm w/ 245/40ZR-18 (front)
18x9.5 38mm w/ 275/35ZR-18 (rear)

The tech dude who assisted me in the measurement said swapping out the tires will help. Specifically moving the 245/40ZR-18s to the front and swapping out the 275/35ZR-18 in the back for 225/30ZR-18 in the front. It really did look like this is the solution according to the tape and what we were looking at in front of us.

I really don’t want to swap out the tires I have had them almost 2 months so it will be a challenge doing this. I would like to avoid this route…if possible. Will someone please kindly share their experience if they are running a similar set up? Someone please chime in something! As you can see from the sig the ride is in need a drop...!

seems most only get a 1.25 in drop with the eibachs.


beers :beer:

Thanks swoope. The tape indicated theres only clearance for about half an inch... so i was hoping once the springs are on and stuff things pan out differently! Hopefully someone with a similar tire/rim set up posts sharing their experience with their drop & how much and if any rubbing issues needed to be dealt with :uhh:

Decided on getting JUST the Eibachs? Still using OEM shocks? How long have you been running this setup?

He has the Tokico D-specs as well.

And 275s in the rear?? those are really wide. Are you running a turbo or something? Otherwise they sound like overkill.

I'm Glad I decided to drop the car before I got my rims. I got the Tanabe GF 210. They dropped me 1.3 in front and 1.2 in the rear. Now I got to find the right rim and tire combo. :fingersx:

Rotor, please give me some pictures. I'm looking at the Tanabe's for my car. I'm still rolling on stock wheels too. It will keep me a better idea of what my car will look like.

Hi guys - first post here... :)

Seeing as how this is a fairly old thread, and new products come along all the time, I thought I'd throw this info out on some Eibach products I've been looking at, and see if anyone has any feedback on using these on their 8...

- Eibach Frt/Rr Anti-roll Bar Kit... part # 5544.320... 27mm front bar - 18mm rear bar... Summit Racing price - $369.95

- Eibach Pro-Street Coilover Kit... part # 5544.712... Single adjustable compression/rebound valving - 1" to 1.8" adjustable drop... Summit Racing price - $1399.95

Other comments in this thread seem to be favorable toward the Eibach springs, so I was wondering if anybody has done the whole Eibach setup (or even part of it... sways and/or coilovers).

I work in the motorcycle aftermarket, and we sell Eibach HD springs and can attest to their quality. Good stuff...

I've only had my 8 for a couple of months, but as I continue to break 'er in I'm slowly pushing it ever harder here in the So Cal canyons and have found the stock suspension in need of help - as others have mentioned. I also plan on the occasional track day too...

Any feedback?

I have Tanabe Sustec Pro 5's and I couldn't be much happier. I chose them over the Teins becuase of the control unit for them. Tanabe's TEAS system actively adjusts the stiffness while you're driving as an extra. Faster you go, the stiffer the coilovers are. Tein's EDFC is just static. That was the deciding factor for me.

Some on here tout the adjustability of coilovers, but personally, some good springs, like Eibachs, and some aftermarket shocks are all those most will ever need.

I have Eibach springs and Bilstein shocks and couldn't be happier!

any pics on how much drop Tein H-Techs provide?

hard to imagine 1" front & 0.3" rear drop from stock =)

Ok my brain in going to explode. This somewhat involves springs...

Ok, I'm looking at wheels for my car. I have no appearance packages, or body kits, and I doubt I will ever get them. I'm looking into 19" wheels, but I'm afraid they might raise the car too much, so I have a huge gap between the body and the ground...

Should I stick with 18" since I won't put any body kits? or will 19" not do that?

19"s will fill the wheel well better, and IMO look better on your car. And if you are worried about the gap between ground and car (which wont be that much different between 18" and 19") Then you should just get some springs.

I'm actually looking at springs right now. I'm looking into 9.5's in the back, and 8.5's in the front. Is there an offset I should stay within to not have to worry about rolling my fenders, or the fender slicing my tires?

Take a look at the thread titled "Thread for importshowoff84". I asked for a sample of springs and ride heights in it.

I also did some research for Louis(import) and discovered the following;

1) Espelir "GT", 1.4" drop
2) Espelir "ESA088", 1.2" drop
3) H+R "51648", I can't recall
4) Swift, .75" drop
5) Tein "S-Tech", 1.5" drop
6) Eibach "Pro-Kit", 1" drop
7) Racing Beat, .75" drop

stick with 18"s then choose springs which offer 1.5" drop.

19"s won't raise your car too much as you would put low profile tires (35 or 30) on them.
the problem is, your ride will most likely be "a little rough." also, since they have a
"bigger look" overall, they will look awkward if you don't have a body kit.

as for 18x9.5 offset for the rear, i suggest getting at least +40, but +45 is best.

Thank you sir

you can go as far as +35 with a 9.5 but make sure you choose your tire wisely because some are thicker or chunkier than others

I am researching on the Eibach Anti-Roll kit with Pro spring too...anyone got it installed and whats the feedback?

I was thinking doing RB springs with the sway but the front sway is way too big?

Thanks!

Anyone???

Eibach Pro Kit WITH Eibach Anti-Roll bar on their rx8...anyone?

Thanks!