Coilover identification! Long post, but please help!

[grip_racer]

So here's the story, a few months back i bought some used JIC coilovers (for an S13) from some guy in thailand on ebay. He's a pretty reputable seller, i think his ebay rating is still 100% (ksocute).

The only problem was that when they arrived in the mail, there was a HOLE in the shock body of one of the rear coilovers. Thanks UPS. So fast forward to now, after a few months of getting things straight, he sends me a new rear pair of coilovers to match my front ones. YAY!

They came today in a busted up UPS box with "fragile" stickers all over it. It makes me think UPS was playing a little game where one guy throws my box against a wall while all his other UPS butt buddies laugh and say "quit it man! LOLOL!!!" and then slap another fragile sticker on it. but thats not the point.

The point is, the new rear coils are a good bit different from the ones that came with the original set i bought. i'm going to post some pictures for comparison.

My Questions are:1. Do you think they are the same spring rate? i think these new ones have helper springs which leads me to believe that theyre around 7k (the old ones were 5k, i think)

2. My fronts are 7k, if the rears are the same rate, wont this cause a good bit of oversteer? gross. Do you think i could swap out the springs from the old ones and put them on the new ones?

3. Look at the mounts. the new ones do not have pillow balls. and they dont move at all! is this a problem? can i use my old pillow ball mounts on these new ones?

4. PLEASE DONT FLAME ME FOR BUYING USED COILOVERS ON EBAY.

PICTURES:

This is the old (first) coilover:

This is a closeup of the old coil and mount:

Old pillow ball mount:

Still old:

NEW REAR COILS:

Closeup:

New mount:

Thanks for reading all of this. please answer to the best of your ability!

[InsanityInc]

well, if you still have the old ones with the busted shock, why not just replace the springs on the new ones with the ones from the old ones? I'd imagine they should fit since they're both JIC.

[chmercer]

couldnt you theoretically put like a box of dumb bells or somthing on top of each spring, and measure the compression to see if the springrates are different?

[whiterps13]

couldnt you theoretically put like a box of dumb bells or somthing on top of each spring, and measure the compression to see if the springrates are different?

yeah, who doesnt have a box of dumb bells laying around?

[240DRFT]

2. My fronts are 7k, if the rears are the same rate, wont this cause a good bit of oversteer? gross.

lol

i think u might be able to switch over the pillow ball mounts too