JIC suspension opinions and bushing install

[sil80drifter]

Teins corrode. All of them. Even the "aluminum" bodied ones. I am witness to this on my friends HAs, and another friends RAs, and another friends REs. They corrode. After about one year (not all the time driving either, all three are mostly summer drivers) the shock bodies and other aluminum parts (let alone steel ones) have visible corrosion. It doesn't have to be iron to rust. It seems that Tein (a great company I have lots of faith in, and would buy their product even if it corroded the next day) has not put much effort into the metal makeup of their suspension. The reasoning behind this maybe that Japan's climate is different and they did not expect such a difference in the US, or that our salty roads are REALLY bad. In any case, if you take care of them, and maybe coat them with some kind of anti-corrosion substance, they will last enough, probably around 5 or so years before needing an overhaul. I've looked at similarly used Zeal coilovers, and surprisingly they were not only lighter than Teins (by 2 pounds per spring/shock combo), but also showed much less wear, corrosion wise. Something about the way Tein forms the aluminum shock bodies/parts of suspension and stuff, which makes them prone to such odd rust.Supposedly Tein is trying to remedy this problem, and their future suspension components will be much more weather resistant.

sil80

[sr20power]

well i just bought tein HE's.... but before i was installed them, i wrote to the us sales department....last thursday and didn't get a response until today by e-mail...

my tein's look awesome....i haven't done any spirited driving yet, need to get an alignment first....i love the ride, it is alittle harsh with 8 up front and 6 in the rear. the body roll is significantly gone, but then again i haven't really drove her yet.

i'll let you gauys know......

[AJ-SPEC]

So...have you made your decision?

If it's at all helpful, Tein USA's customer service is very good. I've spoken to them once or twice, and they've always answered questions promptly and professionally.

People don't seem to like the JIC America folks...don't know why. Maybe they're rude...don't really know.

You might also want to check if JIC can rebuild their product here in the States. I know Tein has rebuild facilities, but last I heard JIC was still working on that.

Also, Tein is far more established in the market than JIC is. I'm not saying that JIC is going anywhere, and they actually seem to be really popular (if the Internet is a good way to judge...which it isn't) but Tein is definitely here to stay.

still debating, tein does have a large marketing presence, but I don't care that much about how they advertise. I need their crap to work, and not to break, and if it does, they need to hook me up. this creates a little confusion, because on another thread, someone posted a report from japan that gave JIC the nod longevity/quality wise, with Zeal comming in 2nd I think, and Tein 3rd. I have also been in contact with JIC, and they emailed me back in a couple of days. But people complain of their customer service, and Tein's rep. in that area is good, and they can rebuild their parts here in the US. to bad their are like 3 other 240's in the DFW area, I'd like to see how they fared.

[Dori Dori]

I bought the H&R 4" fronts from some dirt track place in Texas. If you call H&R they will tell you who their closest dealer is to you.

As for GC, the info you get from them seems to depend on who answers the phone and how lazy they are feeling that day. I don't know why they would tell you that 450 was as high as they could go at a given spring length. Eibach makes 2 1/2" i.d. springs in rates over 1000 lbs in many lengths. I have a pair of 500 lb Eibachs that are 5" long sitting on a shelf at my shop that I got from GC. I couldn't get the car as low as I wanted with it so I got H&R 4" springs because GC said that Eibach didn't make a 4" spring. Not true, GC just doesn't stock them.

I am considering lowering my spring rates. The car feels a little skatey at my local events and I am at the limit of what a koni SA is capable of handling in its off the shelf form. I may go down 25lbs in the front and 25-50 lbs in the rear to try to get more traction at corner exit. I should be able to adjust the balance enough with the sway bars and shock settings to get a little less tail happy and let the konis control the fronts a little better.

Thanks a lot. I guess I just talked to a lazy guy at GC then!:(

I wanted to get two sets of springs, one for everyday (the 450/350 is good for that) and one for track events (when those days come for this car that is...soon I hope)...not sure on the spring rates I'll be running though. I'll probably have to try out a couple different setups and see how high these struts can go...since nobody else has them and info is very limited, I don't have much of a choice.