I installed Intrax spring and KYB struts on JeremyG's car as a favor but my wife will not let me spend that much
time on OTHER peoples cars unless I get paid for it.
So I will install Springs and Struts for $100 for a whole car. Just struts is same amount because it is same
amount of work. I have it down to a 5 hour job.
THE MOST IMPORTANT INSTALLATION TIP IS TO NOT LET THE
SHAFT PIVOT WHILE YOU TIGHTEN THE TOP NUT THIS CAN
RUIN THE STRUT!
The trick to tightening the struts is to completely assemble them off of the car and torque the top nuts as shown
below, Note you do it differently for the front and back struts.
For more complete suspension installation tips see the following webpages:
Phil Nguyenn's Intrax Install
I have done Intrax springs too, I have found that it is NOT necessary to use a coil spring compressor to remove stock
springs. Just loosen the nut on the end and keep your fingers clear. The front spring pops a little (maybe 1") but
the rear spring is almost completly loose when you remove it. I was able to install INTRAX rear springs (and STOCK
ones too) W/O a coil spring compressor. I was can sometimes install INTRAX front springs W/O a spring compressor by
using my body weight to compress the spring but I often resort to a spring compressor. Stock springs I HAVE to use a
spring compressor to install.
Stealth 316 Ground control Install
Jeff Lucius's page is for installing a Ground Gontrol adjustable height springs with stock electronically controlled struts.
The TEIN installation is basically the same with differences listed below.
Front Struts:
Assemble coil-over assemblies as shown is TEIN instructions.
Loosen springs so there are no thread showing below spring perches.
Make sure aluminum cone is seated down as far as possible. There is a flat spot on strut shaft that matches flat
spot on aluminum cone. If the flat spot on the cone is not down all the way past the threads it can still spin.
Use one of the TEIN wrenches to hold the cone in place then use a torque wrench to tighen top nut. I kept one
finger on shaft at all times to make sure that if it started to spin that I stopped immediately. See picture below.
Rear Struts:
Install Spring assemblies as shown is TEIN instructions.
Loosen springs so there are no thread showing below spring perches.
Use a 10MM wrench to hold the small flat spots on the shaft while tightening
the big nut on the top of the strut.
Again I kept one finger on shaft at all times to make sure that if it started to spin that I stopped immediately.
See picture below so see the flat spots on shafts.
The problem with doing it this way is that you can not easily use a torque wrench unless you use a crows foot
wrench and a torque conversion table. Using a crows foot magnifies the actual torque applied to the bolt.
I didn't have a crows foot so I torqued another nut( same size) elsewere to the correct torque then I used a open end
wrench to spin it a little tighter. That gave me the feel of the correct torque and then I applied the same torque
to the nut on top of the strut.
Suggested Settings:
We have not really had time to play with the settings so we copied these from some 3si posts:
HEIGHT: When initially installing there needs to be at least 1" of thread showing below the bottom of the spring perches.
Any less than this and your tires might hit the wheelwells! The settings used in the final pictures below are
Front: 1 1/4" of thread showing below bottom spring perch.
Rear: 1 1/2" of thread showing below bottom spring perch.
STIFFNESS: The cool thin about the TEIN struts ins you can REALLY tell the difference when adjusting the settings.
Turning adjustment knob fully clockwise is as stiff as the suspension gets, and we could feel everything in the road.
I think I could count how many ants we crushed on our first drive. Turning adjustment knob counterclockwise 16 clicks is
as soft as you can go. It is still harsher than my ECS suspension in sport mode but my struts are shot.
You can feel the road but 16 clicks soft make the drive nice enough that your wife might not complain too much.
I have heard that setting the suspension this soft wil make the car bounce too much but I can't verif.
G8rbob used the following setting sucessfully at his last autocross.
Front: 8 clicks counter-clockwise from stiffest setting
Rear: 5 clicks counter-clockwise from stiffest setting
Getting your car off of jack is no longer easy:
One problem with lowering ride heigth was that we couldn't get the car off of the jack, it was too low!
We ended up putting the rear tires on 1 1/2" concrete slabs (boards would work too). We could then remove the jack
and drive the car off of the slabs. See picture below:
Many of these tips were gleaned from this 3si Thread:
Optional Spring rates, almost all manufaturers have optional rates these are just the ones I know of: TEIN HA Series, Turbo AWD 564 lbs/in front 336 lbs/in ReaR, 10/6 KG/MM
A Tein dealer told me that 10/6kg/MM was as soft as you could go w/o re-valving the springs,
He also quoted me $230 for springs purchased separately or no cost to get them as part of a coil-over set
Stock Spring Rates:
Thanks to Eric Gross who Posted stock Spring rates and strut dampening rates on Team 3S
ECS (all) Expansion Contraction
Front Hard 2530(558) 1190(262)
Front Med 1580(348) 1120(247)
Front Soft 620(214) 970(214)
Rear Hard 1710(377) 1010(223)
Rear Med 1160(256) 880(194)
Rear Soft 560(123) 670(146)
Non-ECS Expansion Contraction
Front 1080(238) 540(119)
Rear 1000(220) 550(121)
