Thank you. I wish people would give this disclaimer before proclaiming this or that is best, which is all the time on the forums.

 

I might be wrong but I thought the dampening of the struts and the stiffness of springs are 2 separate things; and adjusting the height does not affect the stiffness of the springs . . . experts care to chime in?

 

Certain brands of COs (JIC, BC, some others) have the ability to adjust the height without changing the spring rate (i.e. compressing the spring).

If you look at the JIC, the threaded body inserts into strut on the bottom portion of the assembly. The lower red aluminum ring is what secures the height once you set it. By loosening the red ring, you can raise/lower the height as you see fit. If you see this type of construction, then the unit is height adjustable independent of the spring rate:



On the Tanabe unit, there is no such mechanism to make adjustments:

 

^ Is the tanabe a progressive spring? If so with the tanabe, would it be the more you lower your car the stiffer the spring will be?

 

I believe they're not... for the most part. More linear...

I think you can also change the springs by getting the pro210 series.
Tanabe USA Inc. - PRO210 Max Custom Springs

 

No / yes

 

Basically the way the tanabes work is you adjust the height by making the spring longer or shorter.

Any good quality coilover will allow you to adjust the height without adjusting the spring. And will have internal dampening adjustment.

I was considering going with the Tanabes for temporary but after i saw how they work i immediately scratched that decision.

Honestly if i was gonna do coils as inexpansive as possible, id get the BCs. Def best bang for the buck.

 

Thanks for clearing things up guys!

 

Maybe I havent seen enough coilovers, but I have never seen one with that type of design where changing the ride height effects the spring.

I was unaware of that with the Tanabes.

 

^^Yeah that blows.

 

I'm NO expert with suspension but I think I can chime since we have basically installed almost every single coilovers available for the g37. I myself have tried 3 of them already on my G37. JIC, CKS, TEIN and test drove a G37 with KW V3'S

The TANABE and KW'S height adjustment are both done via the springs. The threads are on the sturt body it self and the spring purch can be raised or lowered to desired height. The main difference between the two is that the KW'S have dampening and rebound adjustments to fine tune the stiffness and the rebound of the sturt, depending on the users liking. The internal design and valves are compeletely different on both. They are both progressive spring design so adjusting them higher or lower does not affect the spring rates. So technically, the spring length dose not change on both.

Since the KW's have dampening adjustments, you can actually set it all the way to the softest setting and it will ride like a caddy or a boat, but you have that option as for the tanabe's SUSTEC PRO OC are only slightly stiffer than the OEM but does not have dampening or rebound adjustability.

As for the the JIC'S, CKS, TEIN coilovers are different, The main adjustment for height is recommended to be adjusted through the strut body. The lower part of the strut has a threaded cup for height adjustment . You can actually change the pre-load (but not recommended unless your know what your doing) to make it even stiffer and it also changes the ride height a little.
They were designed so you can totally fine tune your suspension if you ever thing about doing some serious track events but the system itself is very streetable thats why dampening adjustments is very important to some.


I've had the JIC'S for more than a year and i have played around with the settings a lot to fine tune it and get it to very compliant daily driving for my taste but good enough for your occasional canyon run. I've even tried changing the dampening to 4 clicks from the softest and i found that the ride quality was very close to stock.(too soft for me)

I've also tried the CKS true coilovers and they were great but the true coilover design on the rear put a little too much stress on the chassis and made it creek. They will be offering these in the conventional setup and i'm waiting to try them once they are ready. These will suit the more track minded users.

As for the OP, your PM stated you wanted 99% street drivable coils, my recommendation is the TANABE'S SUSTEC PRO OC.

xyz, hope this helps

lol sorry if there's a few grammar mistakes... i haven't slept yet

 

thanks for the input lou!! helps a lot

 

Thank you Lou for chiming in with some actual knowledge of what you are talking about. It's a great help to dispel the vast misinformation and assumptions being spread here.

 

Lou, how do you like the Tein's?

 

Tein's we had was a prototype. Its was designed to be stiffer than production but it was great. I just didn't like the color