my first experience with nameless coilovers

[alms24sebring]

Krash and Razi, I like your honest inputs as always.

Pretty much, I wouldn't buy a set of coils for that cheap. I just don't trust them. I know what quality and trustworthy parts are and I am willing to spend the money. The point is that cheap parts are not the same, they are just not. And would people quit talking about a bad ride quality. They are meant to be stiff, they are not airbags. I also agree that more expensive coils and well known name brands have been scientifically researched and tested for best quality for the customer.

[Gabes13]

Razi lingers around forums where innovative racers are members, so yeah, he knows some stuff haha. As far as Megans, their "quality" control may be better than others, but they still lack substantial performance to keep up with reputable companies.

[Hoffman5982]

But what do we know? Apparently the OP knows everything and refuses to listen to anybody that doesn't believe the same thing he does

[pella]

Im really enjoying this thread, have been for a few days. Not so much for the review( I do appreciatte it though) but I love to hear people hate on someone else for what they think or do. Hey superjim, i reccomend getting a "I love haters" T shirt and roll with the punches homey. To Razi and others Who had viable input, thanks. You have given useful information for when i decide to get some coils.

[pella]

superjim,
I just read in another topic about cheap coilovers and in it you that you said :
"Go cheap???
Go Megan!!!"
I do appreciate your review and how you a take this chance to let us know how your experience with these goes, so please dont take offense, im not trying to flame on you.
I to am looking for that cheap/perfomance/reliability ratio but how do you tell someone to do something and then do something different? If you dont have personal experience (megans) with these please do not reccomend them, and then contridict your reccomendation. Theres plenty of people on here giving third count experience of something as it is, we dont need more. This just causes confussion.

[JKL1031]

Hey back off ksports, especially them being worse than Megan. ive had them on a car for 2.5 years. Ive seen their shock dyno, but Ive also heard that their new coilovers have improved. Now some of you are judging by ride quality, and other by how long the shock last. If you are Daily driving, you probly will not notice how different the shocks are if they are different, and you will only care about how long your dampers last, at least I would. If you cant take a bumpy ride, don tbuy coilovers. Ksports are what I would buy just because I know how they ride. i have an eye on some at $877.

[alms24sebring]

Dude, Ive had Ksports for probly the same amount of time, the ride sucks! I hate it. I hear better things from any other named company; Megan, Stance, etc. Save an extra $200 and get something better, youll thank yourself later.

[JDM240SXcoupe]

Probably with less than 1k ppl can get konis with ground control. 3 of the coilovers i would get r Kw, konis or pbm. i got konis with ground control on my Crx and love em. Love to see people stay behind on corners with their cheap coilovers. I learned my lesson with cheap stuff...doesnt last like quality brand name parts. What i love is some brand name parts have lifetime warranty, cant beat that.

[supersayianjim]

^^ i stil love this sig...

[supersayianjim]

superjim,
I just read in another topic about cheap coilovers and in it you that you said :
"Go cheap???
Go Megan!!!"
I do appreciate your review and how you a take this chance to let us know how your experience with these goes, so please dont take offense, im not trying to flame on you.
I to am looking for that cheap/perfomance/reliability ratio but how do you tell someone to do something and then do something different? If you dont have personal experience (megans) with these please do not reccomend them, and then contridict your reccomendation. Theres plenty of people on here giving third count experience of something as it is, we dont need more. This just causes confussion.

OH NOES!!

Well actually not. iF you notice the dates, this was before these coils i have now were made aval. I said megans because i want adjustable camber plates up front. and most sub grand coul over kits don't do that(ex tein ss streets). and prior to hearing how pbm's were the s***. all i HEARD was how megans were so great. My friend had them on a 240 and some teins(he) on another and couldn't tell a difference.

So en routh to buy megans i seen these for the price they were with adj cam and said"why not". SO i gave them a shot and here we are today.

[benz88]

Dude, Ive had Ksports for probly the same amount of time, the ride sucks! I hate it. I hear better things from any other named company; Megan, Stance, etc. Save an extra $200 and get something better, youll thank yourself later.

megans suck. nothing worse then having your car bounce over bumps when slammed and make it look like a boat going over a wave.

[Hoffman5982]

I love ya'lls use of "couldn't tell a difference". Shows how naive you really are

[h2v7]

ok i got about $800 ish to spend

is going with those 900$ megans a good idea?

[JKL1031]

alms you are juding a coilover by saying its bouncy, or the ride sucks. of course it does, their coilovers. All coilovers are made differently in dimension and internal wise. also some of you like to slam the car on the ground and pre-loading the springs, which can also give u a shotty ride as well as blowing your shocks out early.

like i said. id go ksports over megan. they seem to be a better established company, have drivers, and more R&D. plus their a pretty orange color.

[alms24sebring]

^ Both. I mean I know its ganna be a hard ride but itll bounce running over a penny. I havent liked my experience with them, but, they are still alive.

[Mercury_Hg]

Ummm...What? Nowhere in the paragraph you quoted from me, or any paragraph of mine in this thread, did I mention buying used coilovers. Try actually reading it.

I have a better idea. How about you read what I said, comprehend it, and then actually respond to it in an intelligent manner. I never claimed you said anything of the sort, and if you feel you can prove me wrong, feel free to quote me.

I asked why you thought most people condone buying used coilovers. It was not aimed at you for any particular reason; it was an arbitrary approach.

You are right, there IS a middle ground, which is what we are advising you buy. The OP didn't choose a middle ground. He bought a $300 set of coilovers. He dove straight down to the bottom, which backs up a statement that YOU made: "pay too little and end up regretting it."

$520.00 shipped +$70.00 alignment.

$520.00 shipped != $300

Your reading comprehension is abysmal, if not entirely absent. Did you even read the thread?

I honestly don't know if you can be taken even the least bit seriously after multiple fu** ups in one post

The irony. It makes me laugh heartily.

You and Mercury must have done poorly in Reading class. How is my Engrish bad? The only gramatical mistake I see is I forgot a period at the end. And I didn't say anything about not understanding you. I said your logic kills me, meaning I understand your mindset, but it's so naive and stupid that it's hilarious. You don't have enough first hand experience. 5k miles. Big deal. Basically you've had them on for 1 oil change(using higher quality oil, which after seeing this I doubt you use).

By the time you read this far in my post, assuming you ever do, your face should be red with embarrassment. You should be ashamed!

Of course MDUs will be much worse.
The majority of $1k coilovers are not that great, and the best you can ever get with 1k coilovers are "decent".
With MDUs, you'll get ones a level of quality where the shocks can blow in a year.
That quality might be on par with riding on cut springs and stock shocks.

I don't need to eat glass myself to know that it won't be pleasant.
What we're looking for in car parts are not advertisement catchphrases about how many adjustments it has.

That didn't address my point at all, and that's a rather poor metaphor given the context.

$500 eBay suspension is not a middle ground.
KYB shocks and lowering springs is a middle ground.
The other folk regurgitate the same opinions as well. "If it holds up, it's good enough."

I disagree. $500, to me, is not inexpensive. Performance car parts are a niche market; the markup is incredible and profit margins high. You can cut costs yet, have a solid product, and still be profitable. This is a market where people spend hundreds of dollars on metal tubing, or cheap motherboards in pretty cases. It's ridiculous. I'm telling you, as an unbiased consumer who hasn't been desensitized to part prices yet, they're much too high.

Perhaps we both want different things out of our suspension.
What you seem to want is something that hopefully won't break.

I would hope you'd at least want the same.

Here are some sheets of crappy shocks. (In this case, Ksport.)

Note how the same settings are have different rebound rates.
The minimum setting of one shock is almost as stiff as full stiff on the other.
Same with the rear.

Now, these are coilover that are priced at a ridiculous $1k.
Even in the $1k range there are bad options like these Ksports.
But in the instance of Fortune Auto coilovers, they have their shocks valved for the specified spring rate in their shop, and are dyno'd to make sure they all perform the way they should.
What does MDU do?
Even with what Fortune Auto does, their shocks will not be up to par as shocks from companies like Koni or Bilstein.
That's why, one day I'll try to gut my current coilover tube out and fit Koni or Bilstein shocks inside the coilover body.

This is good stuff here. Do you have similar charts of what you would consider better and the best coilovers? I need a reference, without any sort of relevance I can't draw any solid conclusions, which is the point of my interest in this thread.

I'm not against trying to find the cheapest option.
What I am against are low quality products.
I don't blame you for considering a cheap set of coilovers, and whether or not they blow in 6 months does not affect me.
Meanwhile my coilovers are slightly over a year old and have not leaked out all it's vital fluids and has a ride that even my mother doesn't complain about.

I can understand your perspective, however I'm remaining open until I see more evidence before I fall either way.

Here's a post from one of our own moderators with some "first-hand experience" that Mercury_hg doesn't think exists:

Where in this thread did I tell you that I thought the evidence didn't exist?

I asked insistently for evidence, even if only negative. Don't put words in my mouth .

[krash]

Where in this thread did I tell you that I thought the evidence didn't exist?

I asked insistently for evidence, even if only negative. Don't put words in my mouth .

You ever notice that there's no firsthand accounts of cheaper parts being junk? It's always "my friends cousins brother in law had some of those and they blew in two weeks".

$520.00 shipped != $300

so after bargan shopping on egay. i ran across and recently purchased these bad boys..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... K:MEWNX:IT

Your reading comprehension is abysmal, if not entirely absent. Did you even read the thread?

The irony. It makes me laugh heartily.

You're right.

Please read the thread again and actually absorb what you're reading. And try to give people some credit for what they know. We're trying to help here. Not all of us "hate" on eachother for no reason.

[Hoffman5982]

Merc, here you go. It's a link to the actual product:http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... K:MEWNX:IT. You will notice that the Buy It Now price is $300. The SHIPPING is $220, meaning the actual product only costs $300, as I said.

Would you care to explain why most people here condone buying used higher quality coils? There's nothing safe about that either. You don't know how long they've been used, how hard they've been beat on. Yet it's thrown around consistently with "safe a few hundred more and get brand_x or brand_y."

You asked for a quote so I am providing one. The very first sentence is aimed directly to me, which creates the notion that I condone buying used coilovers. If I have not said anything about buying used coilovers, why would you ask me to explain people advising others to do so? The answer is, I haven't, and I never have, and therefor asking me why someone else would do it is a dumb fu**ing question.

[Gabes13]

alms you are juding a coilover by saying its bouncy, or the ride sucks. of course it does, their coilovers. All coilovers are made differently in dimension and internal wise. also some of you like to slam the car on the ground and pre-loading the springs, which can also give u a shotty ride as well as blowing your shocks out early.

like i said. id go ksports over megan. they seem to be a better established company, have drivers, and more R&D. plus their a pretty orange color.

Your comment that coilovers have to be bouncy is a little spurious. Coilovers are "bouncy" and "harsh" because of their obsessive linear rebound curve. From a performance perspective, a linear rebound curve should not be a desirable aspect of a damper. Unfortunately, this characteristic is common in many low (and high) budget coilovers. If you get a chance to see dyno plots between reputable companies and "entrepreneurs", you can tell which are most likely to perform better. Will they ride like a brand new cadilac, hell no, but they will ride smoother than many generic dampers.

[alms24sebring]

Merc, your trippin. You can respect a persons opinion without e-fighting, much more the truth about a product. Fell free to buy some cheap a$$ sh** and have it be unreliable. Ain't my car, so I can care less.

[krash]

Merc, your trippin. You can respect a persons opinion without e-fighting, much more the truth about a product. Fell free to buy some cheap a$$ sh** and have it be unreliable. Ain't my car, so I can care less.

Yea I think I'm done trying to convince him to treat his car well

[mixeds14]

damn, someone needs to close these tread, to much bi%$hing goin on..

cant we all just get alone....

[h2v7]

ok so is the $1000 fortune 500 coils

or the $1200 power by max???

[JDM240SXcoupe]

ok so is the $1000 fortune 500 coils

or the $1200 power by max???

Powered by Max for the win. and they r 1000 n shipping is around 70 dollars for the competition.

[Mercury_Hg]

Merc, here you go. It's a link to the actual product:http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... K:MEWNX:IT. You will notice that the Buy It Now price is $300. The SHIPPING is $220, meaning the actual product only costs $300, as I said.

Some sellers sell products with shipping included in the BIN price, in addition to selling the same products with shipping not included in the BIN price. I assumed this seller did too; they don't.

You asked for a quote so I am providing one. The very first sentence is aimed directly to me, which creates the notion that I condone buying used coilovers. If I have not said anything about buying used coilovers, why would you ask me to explain people advising others to do so? The answer is, I haven't, and I never have, and therefor asking me why someone else would do it is a dumb fu**ing question.

Check it again. It says "most everyone", not "you". I worded it that way specifically.

damn, someone needs to close these tread, to much bi%$hing goin on..

cant we all just get alone....

No, this is good. All these threads end up getting closed and it helps no one.

Merc, your trippin. You can respect a persons opinion without e-fighting, much more the truth about a product. Fell free to buy some cheap a$$ sh** and have it be unreliable. Ain't my car, so I can care less.

Not right now I'm not.

I'm not e-fighting anyone, this is a proper discussion. And since when do 240's have a reputation for being anything but cheap and unreliable? Not saying it can't be compounded by adding s*** parts, but no one here was looking for reliability when they bought a 240.

I may buy cheap a** s*** or I may not. It depends on the evidence I receive. So far there's been very little, considering the number of posts here.

You're right.

Please read the thread again and actually absorb what you're reading. And try to give people some credit for what they know. We're trying to help here. Not all of us "hate" on eachother for no reason.

>implying it wasn't my intention to incite the posting of firsthand accounts, likely negative
>implying I need to absorb what could be potentially baseless opinions without hard evidence

I demand to be fed graphs, testimonials and technical data.

[Hoffman5982]

Some sellers sell products with shipping included in the BIN price, in addition to selling the same products with shipping not included in the BIN price. I assumed this seller did too; they don't.

Well, what I see is a product that costs $300 and to have it shipped costs $220. If the product was $520 the BIN price would have been $520.

Check it again. It says "most everyone", not "you". I worded it that way specifically.

Holy christ, you really have to be spoon fed don't you. Check my sentence again. I said the fact that you asked me the question instead of someone who actually advised people to buy used coilovers creates the notion that I was one of the ones telling people to do so. Since I have never told someone to buy used coilovers, why would you ask me that question? I thought that question was pretty clear the first time around. My 5 year old nephew understood it without any issues.

Not right now I'm not.

I'm not e-fighting anyone, this is a proper discussion. And since when do 240's have a reputation for being anything but cheap and unreliable? Not saying it can't be compounded by adding s*** parts, but no one here was looking for reliability when they bought a 240.

I may buy cheap a** s*** or I may not. It depends on the evidence I receive. So far there's been very little, considering the number of posts here.

>assuming you know exactly why everyone here chose to buy a 240sx

Actually I bought my second s14 because my first one was reliable, and fun. When I bought the car I didn't plan on doing much to it, but up until this engine swap, it has been nothing but reliable. The engine swap wasn't the cars fault, so you can blame the problems I've had with it on the car.

>implying it wasn't my intention to incite the posting of firsthand accounts, likely negative
>implying I need to absorb what could be potentially baseless opinions without hard evidence

I demand to be fed graphs, testimonials and technical data.

You obviously know everything, so why do we have to provide you with anything? We're obviously the bad guys because we are smart enough to buy reputable parts for our cars so that we have a piece of mind while we are driving our 2800lb machines around corners at 40+ mph. Please forgive us for valuing our lives and doing the best we can to prevent parts from breaking during these situations

[OM3GA]

PBM all the way and further

[pella]

I cant believe this thread is still alive!