Hey guys, First I just want to let you guys know that I'm new at this so my knowledge is not that great and I apologize in advance if i don't make sense at any time here.

Okay, so I am looking to buy coilovers for my G within the next few days. I need you guys' help making the right decision since there's not much feedback out there for AWD coupes. So far, I've only found the following options for AWD:

Stance XR1's
Ksports
BC
Fortune 500

Any one of these is in my budget. But i am having hard time making the decision. I will get SPC rear camber kit because i want it to be as close as possible to the factory spec. If i can get replies with pros and cons that'll be great!

 

They're all pretty much the same basic design from the same factory with different colors and names. Some of them supposedly "build" them in-house to their specs with say their own piston or shim stack but how much of that is true is hard to say. Fortune and Stance seem to be more customer service oriented and customize their shocks more than the other makes you mentioned.

That's a simplified version but basically all the lower budget damper kits come from two factories, one in Korea, one in Taiwan. So I'd go with your price point and your options in terms of spring rate as well as true-type vs. OEM rear spring location.

 

Thanks! I went with Stance. You are right about the customer service. I pm'd Lance here on this site and he responded quick.

I also looked at the spring rate and ksport was way too high. Stance is 12/8 which is what most people say is better for AWD G.

I ordered them on Tuesday and they'll be here tomorrow. I am so excited to install them some time this weekend or next week. I will post back with installation pictures and as well as before/after pics.

I will be installing them myself and with the help of my buddy. We're both noobs at this so hopefully it all goes well. I will be removing the OEM bucket and installing SPL Toe Arms since these coilovers only come in TRUE style.

I don't know how to install the SPC camber kit. I am assuming I just hand it over to the shop where I will be getting the alignment? I'm not sure. Any help regarding this would be great!

Anything else I should be aware of before the installation?

 

Welcome to the site, just save all your SPC instructions to take to the shop, the front arms have several different ways to set caster and will be detailed on the instruction sheet, the rears are pretty basic as far as installation. look forward to your reviews of your new setup, congrats!

 

Hello everyone!

Installed them last week and just got an alignment done today. It took me and my buddy about 11-12 hours over the course of three days. One of those three days I was working on it by myself. Here are my thoughts of the installation, Stance XR1s coilovers, Next Level Performance, ride quality

I want to start off by pointing out that I did not receive any sort of universal clip or anything as NextLevel Performance claims they include for mounting the brake line onto the strut. I was disappointed especially because I had asked them via PM. I had to use steel hose clamp to attach the brake line to the struts. I will contact them so see if they'll send me that Universal Clip.

For most people it's the rear that usually takes longer but for us it was the other way around. The front was PITA!!! It was because AWD setup is different from RWD. I could not find any DIY videos or articles for AWD installation. We had to figure it out on our own. You'll see how in the pics below.

There was another thing about installation that we wish we knew before the installation. It would have saved us a lot of time. That is, work on both of the wheels at the same time. For example, if you are working on the front ones, then install both coilovers at the same time. Same goes for the rear. DO NOT install one side all the way and go on to work on the other side because you will not be able to lower the wheel assembly to get the old strut out on the other side because the sway bar will be pushing it up since the installed side is shorter now. Take both of the struts out first and place the new ones in before you jack up one of the sides to install the wheel assembly.

Here are the installation pics:

My G has this fork where the bottom of the coilover goes into. This is different from what I've seen in the DIY videos or articles. I am guessing AWD come with this set up. I could be wrong.







We had to detach upper control arm from the wheel assembly to get the strut out of the fork.





Finally here are the before and after pics.

Before:










After:











It's sitting at about 26.25" Front and 26" Rear from ground to fender. These aren't exact measurements. I want to be at 26.50" all around and currently all four sides are little bit off from each other. I will adjust it once I install the camber kit.

Damping setting is at 6 less than the stiffest.

I don't really want to comment on the ride quality yet because i have only driven it about 10 miles or so but I can say that it's definitely stiffer from OEM and you can hear and feel the bumps but nothing too crazy so far. I will write another review on the ride quality after putting some miles on them.

Here's the Alignment sheet without the rear camber kit installed. They were charging me $250 to install it so I decided to install it myself. I know rear camber will get better after I install the kit but what do you guys think about the front? I really don't want to spend $500-$600 on the front control arms if it's not that big of an issue. Any suggestions?

 

I spent over half hour to write up the review and it didn't even get posted! So frustrating! Am I missing something? Is somebody going to review my post before posting it since it had pics in it??? I wish I had saved it before hitting "submit" button!

I will attempt to post it again when I have the time! BTW I love them so far!

 

Dang that sucks!! Definitely try again.

BTW...glad you like them so far.

 

Are you referring to the big writeup in between post 4 & 5? It's showing up for me w/ all the pics, let me see if I can copy and post again.

 

See if this works~
Hello everyone!

Installed them last week and just got an alignment done today. It took me and my buddy about 11-12 hours over the course of three days. One of those three days I was working on it by myself. Here are my thoughts of the installation, Stance XR1s coilovers, Next Level Performance, ride quality

I want to start off by pointing out that I did not receive any sort of universal clip or anything as NextLevel Performance claims they include for mounting the brake line onto the strut. I was disappointed especially because I had asked them via PM. I had to use steel hose clamp to attach the brake line to the struts. I will contact them so see if they'll send me that Universal Clip.

For most people it's the rear that usually takes longer but for us it was the other way around. The front was PITA!!! It was because AWD setup is different from RWD. I could not find any DIY videos or articles for AWD installation. We had to figure it out on our own. You'll see how in the pics below.

There was another thing about installation that we wish we knew before the installation. It would have saved us a lot of time. That is, work on both of the wheels at the same time. For example, if you are working on the front ones, then install both coilovers at the same time. Same goes for the rear. DO NOT install one side all the way and go on to work on the other side because you will not be able to lower the wheel assembly to get the old strut out on the other side because the sway bar will be pushing it up since the installed side is shorter now. Take both of the struts out first and place the new ones in before you jack up one of the sides to install the wheel assembly.

Here are the installation pics:

My G has this fork where the bottom of the coilover goes into. This is different from what I've seen in the DIY videos or articles. I am guessing AWD come with this set up. I could be wrong.







We had to detach upper control arm from the wheel assembly to get the strut out of the fork.





Finally here are the before and after pics.

Before:










After:











It's sitting at about 26.25" Front and 26" Rear from ground to fender. These aren't exact measurements. I want to be at 26.50" all around and currently all four sides are little bit off from each other. I will adjust it once I install the camber kit.

Damping setting is at 6 less than the stiffest.

I don't really want to comment on the ride quality yet because i have only driven it about 10 miles or so but I can say that it's definitely stiffer from OEM and you can hear and feel the bumps but nothing too crazy so far. I will write another review on the ride quality after putting some miles on them.

Here's the Alignment sheet without the rear camber kit installed. They were charging me $250 to install it so I decided to install it myself. I know rear camber will get better after I install the kit but what do you guys think about the front? I really don't want to spend $500-$600 on the front control arms if it's not that big of an issue. Any suggestions?

 

Yes!! This is it, thanks blnewt! Wonder why it wasn't showing for the rest of us or at least some of us because it must've not showed for j50ny since he posted before you.

Anyhow, I noticed that i did not include the Alignment sheet so i'm including it here with same questions.

I know rear camber will get better after I install the kit but what do you guys think about the front? I really don't want to spend $500-$600 on the front control arms if it's not that big of an issue. Any suggestions?

 

IMO, your front camber is good if you drive hard. Rear camber seems a tad excessive. I have -2° front and rear on my stock suspension, I am wearing the front tires into cones again so I need more negative camber. My rear tires look like they are wearing at half the rate and are wearing evenly across the tread. Since the only adjustment built into the front suspension is toe, you'll need aftermarket upper control arms if you want to change camber or caster.

Spec for front toe is 0 to 1 mm, so you need that fixed right away. Like the Bene Gesserit know that fear is the mind killer, toe is the tire killer. Rear toe looks okay.

 

First off thanks for posting this I have used so many DIY's on this site but haven't been able to do one myself so I appreciate that you've taken the time to go out of your way to help the rest of us out.

The only thing I would qualify about this is that you don't want to do both sides at the front at the same time on the AWD because if you disconnect both front axles from the hubs at the same time (when you make the knuckle droop outwards for clearance), its a major PITA to get them mounted again and you can risk them becoming unseated at the differential on reinstall. Its much easier to just drop the sway bar (you don't even have to really drop it you just have to undue the end links where they connect to the LCA and you can rotate it out of the way). by having one side of the car on the ground it holds the axles in place and keeps everything nice and tight an lined up

 

You don't even have to disconnect both ends of a bar. Disconnecting one will do the trick unless the free end bumps against something that interferes with getting the other hub into the position you want.

 

Thanks! Even though the front total toe and as well as individual toes are in the range that's described on the sheet (-0.08 - 0.25 deg for total toe & -0.04 - 0.13 deg for individual)? Or is that not how you read it?

 

There isn't a lot out there for AWD guys so I thought I post my experience and help the AWD community

Yes I agree. The better way to do it would be dropping the sway bar but we had limited tools and decided to take the upper control out because it was easily accessible. I totally agree with you though, better safe than sorry.