Suspension Upgrade Questions

[OutToWinPAHC]

No I dont know much about those plates, I never used them.

[Raz007]

Ah well it was worth a shot. I'm thinking that this plate is designed for a coilover setup, not a spring/strut setup. Crossing my fingers that the seller will send me the right ones.

[Raz007]

Well camber plates are on their way back to seller. Now looking for some Tein plates, they seem to be the only ones that work with a spring strut combo. OP, have you started your install yet?? I'm starting the rears tomorrow, hopefully they won't present many problems.

[SilviablhS14]

Nope not yet unfortunately. I hope to on Sunday maybe Monday.

[RustspecS13]

Just chiming in with more godspeed experience. My friend bought them off ebay for $460. Drove on them for 60 miles, then sold the car.

I bought them for $100 and my old blown cusco coils, and drove on them for about 10 months, and about 16K miles.

They were ok, soft springs, OK dampening. Except they are completely dangerous to drive on, the front coils have lots of play in them and shift under cornering and braking.

IMO they are a great short term solution, for the price I paid for them. For $500, I'd rather buy used JDM coils again.

And if you sum up all the experience, its all a crap shoot. The quality control is terrible, so those strange tolerances in the hiem joint will let it wear out real quick.

Best part is when you buy them for the adjustment, and align it, and it wears out, it will eat up your tires. Cause dangerous handling issues. Personally I hate driving my car around with loose parts. I don't enjoy my car and thats exactly why I have it.

~Alex

[DanThaMan]

Specialty products sells camber plates that will work with strut/spring setups I believe

[RustspecS13]

Yeah, they are just super expensive last time I checked their price it was $250 or $300ish per plate. I seriously wouldn't bother for a strut/spring combo. I would just get used nice coilovers instead of spending that much for strut camber plates. Its a world of difference, because the coilover is made for the springs that come with it, a strut/spring combo is always engineered separately.

Besides, a lot of struts have slotted holes, and if they don't you can slot them or use camber bolts. A FAR cheaper option and I never had a problem with my old setup slipping.

~Alex

[Raz007]

^^ Well that's cool and all, but not what I am doing. I am doing a spring/ strut combo, and I am looking for a set of Tein plates. And I am looking for input on where these can be obtained rather quickly. I've checked their website, and I can't order direct from there, and all 5 of their listed dealers in my area no longer exist. So to all out there who DO have Tein plates for strut/spring combos, where did you get them? Thanks.

[SilviablhS14]

Just an update but I started on my build today and its going a little rough. There is a decent amount of rust up front but it is manly on the parts I'm swapping out. The one thing that I have run in to that has been a pain is trying to get the brake calipers off the front. I got one off and one bolt off or the other one but one bolt is stuck. I broke one of my ratchets trying to get it off even with PB Blaster on it.

Does any one have any tips to help me out. Also I'm having trouble trying to get the axle nut off so I will be able to upgrade the rear brakes.

[OutToWinPAHC]

Impact gun?

[Raz007]

First time I changed my front brake pads one of the bolts was torqued on there. Resorted to spraying it with PB, and then using a hammer on the ratchet to break it loose. Thank god for Craftsman tools, I didn't care if it broke.........

[SilviablhS14]

I have one but I think my air compressor isn't powerful enough so I'm boring one tomorrow hoping it works.

Yeah thats one thing I like about Craftsman. I broke one and they gave me a new one that was an upgrade to my previous one which is one that i broke today.

[Raz007]

haha I take tools back to sears all the time. Recently replaced all my screwdrivers with new shiny ones just for the hell of it. Changed out all the arms, as well as the shocks and springs, on the rear of the car today. Wasn't too bad, and didn't break anything. Now just waiting on the correct camber plates, and a much needed alignment. I tried to make all the adjustable arms match the OEM ones I took off, and it's still outta wack like a redheaded stepchild.

[SilviablhS14]

So just another update from today and man has it been a long one. I turns out that the impact wrench I had was causing me to work harder when trying to take the bolts off. So I got another one and it works like a charm now.

I got all but the LCA off of the front and the brake calipers ready to be put back together and painted. Hopefully I will be able to tomorrow to get the rear subframe off and get everything off of that and cleaned up and the front put back together.

Another snag that I have run into is that the conversion lines for the rear brake calipers that I bought from a guy (off of here) that are the wrong lines. He said they were the right ones and they are not. The rotors I got from him are right but not the right lines.

Also does anyone have any tips on where to get new suspension and subframe bolts that might be a local store.

[OutToWinPAHC]

Its all M8 M10 or M12 at 1.25. Grade 8 minimum, 10+ if avail. You can try nut and bolt depots online store. Lowes has a lot of 1.25 metric too.

[SilviablhS14]

I've ran into another snag today. Turns out the bushings that were sent to me were ones for an s13 instead of a s14. So my car will be down for about another week while I wait on those. I did get the old bushings out and the solid rear subframe bushings in but do I need to remove the metal sleeves in the rear knuckle so the bushings will fit or do those stay in?

[SiDwAyZ240]

OP & RAZ, how much of the master bushing kit are you using with the aftermarket (adjustable) suspension arms? I was thinking of doing a master kit, but then I started thinking if I swaped adj. arms that they would do away with rubber bushings all together. Might just save and put the money towards arms.

[SilviablhS14]

I would say that you use most of it. If you think about it if you replace all the arms then up front that only gets rid of the tension arm bushings and then in the rear there are only bushings in one side of those arms. There are still bushings with the sway bars, lower control arms, and the rear knuckle.

[Raz007]

The arms that I swapped in don't use bushings like the stock ones had. They use bearings instead, pillowball bearings are what they are called I think. The front sway bar came with new bushings, so I did put those on. I'm just waiting on my camber plates to get here so I can finish up and get the car aligned. Then I'll let you guys know how it is.

[Raz007]

Got my Tein camber plates yesterday. Ordered from FRSport.com. Would highly recommend them based on my experience. The guy on the phone was very helpful, and I had my parts in two days, even from CA. (I'm in NC.) Got my strut/springs down at the shop getting the springs compressed to get these bad boys installed, and then hopefully an alignment Monday. Should be sittin' pretty and rolling straight by Tuesday. When it's all done, aligned, and cleaned I'll be taking photos of everything so you guys can see how it all fits on. So far though, I'm very hopeful!!

[OutToWinPAHC]

FRsport is awesome, my favorite parts shop online for sure.

[Raz007]

I can see why. Even Tein USA couldn't get me the parts. Checked out FRSport, BAM! 2 days later I have what I need.

[SilviablhS14]

So it turns out I had to order my bushings from another place to be able to have it done by this weekend. They should be here today and I hope to start on the rest of the build tomorrow. Luckily there is going to be some nice weather this weekend unlike the last time.