my TL has 60K miles on it now…
i would love to drop it like, an inch to 1.5 inches… somewhat mild
im asking on TL forums as well but seeing if the shock life will drop dramatically if i am riding a little bit lower…
are aftermarket shocks actually better though, then OEM acura shocks?
do u think my OEM shocks will handle it fine?
or am i better off getting the Tein coilover system for a grand or so… even coilovers, do they lower the life of any other parts when those are in place of OEM springs and shocks?
Lowering your car on stock struts will most likely blow them out after a while, and the ride quality might suck. If you’re not super worried about tracking the piss out of the car and you just want a nice smooth ride, grab some kyb adjustable struts.
the big issue is that even if the stock struts don’t blow with springs, they are valved completely wrong.
if you can get tein basics, or KW v1, or some other package for about $1000, then do it… you just don’t get all kinds of adjustability, but you do get a properly matched setup that should last a long time and ride better.
besides, 60k it 2/3rds through the life of your stock struts on WNY roads as is.
does koni make a yellow? shock for your car, if so they can be matched up with your stock springs and you will get the look you want and have a great “comfy” ride
both are quality parts, if you wanted to you could talk to the people at koni and ask them what they recommend for spring rates to try and match them up with ground controls or something (made by eibach)
The stock struts may work just fine for a while but if they don’t your going to have to pay to do the install twice if you’re not doing it yourself. If you are doing it yourself it’s just going to be that much more of a PITA plus extra alignments. Do it right the first time.
I guess I just cant see the logic of matching something like koni yellows with various springs at a cost of like $800 when for just a little bit more you can have a true coilover that has be matched and tested. install is easier also since you don’t need to compress springs etc with the new ones.
Just because it’s a true coilover doesn’t mean it’s good. Tein, Megan, etc etc $900-1100 coilovers are almost all shit. I’d choose a set of Koni yellows with brand XXX springs over cheap coilovers every day.
then we’ll have to agree to disagree… I’ve been in an evo with tein basics - they were great, just not adjustable or firm enough for autox etc, but did their intended job very well.
ive road in or owned pretty much any of the cheap sub 1000 dollar “full” coilover kits and a correctly setup koni gc combo will own it everyday as far as reliability and performance, not to mentions koni’s lifetime warranty as well as eibachs lifetime warranty on their springs
In order to obtain the adjustability to lower a car 3", the springrate usually has to be pretty high to avoid bottoming out. Coilovers are typically geared toward aggressive driving.
High springrate without VERY good damping will always feel like crap.
who told you that? if anything is lowered 3" depending on the vehicle it will need to be a high spring rate or else it will bottom out or ride the bumpstops