Tein flex on FC

• Tein flex on FC by atli126 on 25 Aug, 2015 17:12
• Hi guys I recently got a good used tein flex with edfc and like it most of the time. It still seems very stiff. But im interested in what the FD guys do and swap to the 8/10 instead of 10/12 setup.
  
  My setup came with a 6/5k setup. Anyone know if people are doing this on the fc also? like a 5k/3k setup?
  
  its mainly a street car but i do autox sometimes too 
• #1 by atli126 on 25 Aug, 2015 17:23
• http://www.tein.com/tech_info/m62.html i have the type flex
• #2 by MPbdy on 25 Aug, 2015 20:00
• Harshness comes mostly from the dampers.  You set them to full soft?
• #3 by atli126 on 25 Aug, 2015 20:30
• Quarter turn front so 4 front and 0 rear. I also have all poly progress bushings, re11a 255/40/17 and Ronin  rear camber pieces and mazdaspeed rear diff bushings, rear steer eliminators...  But my roads are shit around me in downtown louisville  KY and my buddy crash has the 8/10 flex on his fd and it's amazing!
• #4 by largeorangefont on 25 Aug, 2015 23:43
• Most of us go stiffer not softer. I believe Joel had the 6/5 setup and went to 8/6. I would not go to a 5/3 setup. When does the suspension feel stiff? Over washboard sections of road? High speed bumps, low speed bumps? Dropouts or uneven pavement?
  
  I would wager that what you are feeling is not stiffness in the suspension, it is lack of droop travel. When you jack a wheel up, how far does it droop? You probably had 3-4 inches of droop with your old AGX setup. You probably have an inch or less now. Are your Flex dampers adjustable for both height and preload independently? - I believe those are. If yes you may want to raise the ride height (unscrew the damper from the lower mount) and then lower the preload to lower the car back down to get more droop travel.
  
  It is critical to have these types of coilovers set correctly for best performance because the dampers do not have the travel of an OE style strut. If you don't have enough droop travel the entire car falls into ruts and dips in the road instead of an individual wheel. This causes a really rough ride over washboard sections and larger dips or drop offs on rough roads. On smoother roads, you don't notice it at all.
  
  
• #5 by atli126 on 25 Aug, 2015 23:47
• Thanks for the info. I had the car corner balanced and aligned at a good shop here. But you are correct It's in the rough sections and the big drops. I know my old eibach Springs were stiffer but I believe you are correct that I need to raise the car up some and get them adjusted right. Over decent roads it's nice. But over some it's like wtf is going on. The edfc is cool to be able to adjust in car ☺
• #6 by largeorangefont on 25 Aug, 2015 23:54
• You are going to kill your corner balance to get more droop travel, but give it a try. If that is the problem, softer springs won't even help anyway.
  
  This is one of the side effects of going with coilovers on an FC. You won't be able to completely fix it, but you can probably make it significantly better by by better balancing your compression and droop travel.
• #7 by atli126 on 26 Aug, 2015 00:13
• yea ill probably deal with it for the rest of this season, we have lsfest coming up that ill be racing autox, trackx and 3s challenges. But thanks for the info. I was really hoping this would be a great street setup like my buddies flex fd setup he has. But maybe not...
• #8 by largeorangefont on 26 Aug, 2015 00:55
• Jack it up and see how much droop travel you have. Then you can try messing with the setup.
• #9 by atli126 on 26 Aug, 2015 08:13
• Will do thanks. I'll make sure to come back here and post what's up
• #10 by atli126 on 26 Aug, 2015 23:40
• So after messing with my edfc box  0 is full stiff and 16 is soft... Wtf. So I did a lot of driving all over tonight and I've been riding 3/4 and 1/2 stiff mist of the time and sometimes full stiff. Wow what a difference it is all over the highways and side streets etc etc. I'm finally feeling good about these new coilovers! I'll still check for droop but hopefully when the corner balanced the car they set it up correct. It's around 3k and has a 51 front and 49 rear balance with the iron block up front and the battery behind the passenger and that was with 100 lbs in the drivers seat
  
• #11 by largeorangefont on 26 Aug, 2015 23:53
• Well driving around with it full or close to full stiff will do the same thing as not enough droop.. The suspension won't drop into ruts quick enough. I'll bet you are probably ok after all. I always start full soft and stiffen as needed.
• #12 by atli126 on 26 Aug, 2015 23:56
• Yea I guess higher numbers threw me off who would have thought 16 would be soft. It's so much better now since the mazdaspeed bushings, new tein flex w edfc and now my sunroof and interior lights working! What a difference the small things make!
• #13 by atli126 on 26 Aug, 2015 23:56
• Thanks again for the help