Yep, the new Tein Street Basis (not the old Tein Basics), which are height-only coilovers w/o damping adjustment. Moreover, the rear shocks aren't height adjustable, just the top-seats over the rear springs.

http://www.tein.com/products/street_basis.html

 

Yeah I'm just confused because from what I've seen, to be able to adjust both preload and height, you would need 2 sets of locking collars as shown here in these BC coilovers:



Here are pictures of both the front and rear of the TEIN basis which only has 1 set of locking collars on each:





This then would leave me to believe that the TEIN basis only allows you to set ride height and you cannot set preload. However, the problem comes when I called TEIN last week and spoke to a rep who said you DO have to set preload. But I am looking at the pictures and parts do not see how that is possible.

Am I missing something here!?! I'll call TEIN back on Monday to clarify if this doesn't get cleared up.

 

This seems to be the case w/ the Basis too, seems to be a WIN as far as ease of adjustment but leaves the springs "loose" when fully decompressed. Shouldn't be an issue unless you're getting airborne on a regular basis

 

Car is at the shop right now for rear SPC Camber & Toe kit, and rear-only Tein Basis install (shocks, springs and adjustable upper seats.) I don't plan on picking it back up until end-of-day.

After which, I expect to drive it minimally this week, and tweak the rear height sometime before the week is over. The plan is to match rear floor-2-fender height with the front, at 26 3/4".

And then an alignment early next week, where I'm intending to tell the alignment shop how much neg camber I'm wanting. Based on experiences over the last year and a half with this car, swift springs, various spring bushings and a handful of alignments... (LOL, wow ) I'm thinking -1.8* to -2.0* just for the rear. The fronts will likely dial in same as always, around -1.0* +/-.

I wouldn't expect any review thread, just comments here. I'm not at the shop for the install, and this whole rear-only approach is kind of goofy anyway.

 

I'm interested to know the process of lowering them and what camber you where able to set it at to get the rear wheels to want to tuck a bit when lowered with out eating any tires (Always wanted to spell that out T-Y-R-E-S not sure why).

 

Picked the car up and drove it home just a little while ago... avoiding highway speeds for the next week, until I get it re-aligned.

My mechanic adjusted rear height and camber a half-dozen times until he got it where he felt it was right. Toe was something he approximated with string and eyeball, and camber was also eyeballed for flush fitment. However, height dropped a quarter inch between the early afternoon install, and the late afternoon pick-up, so it's all really just guesswork. Obviously I need an alignment.

In another 2 or 3 days, I'm going to take all kinds of measurements and see how I need to adjust height. Based on how it looks right now, I'm thinking it needs to come back up 3/8". I must say, he did an exceptional job of eyeballing camber. The rear wheels are extremely flush with the fender. Really, really flush. It's kind of nice. And if I'm to judge from the previous driver's side being whacked at -2.7*, I'm guessing the rears are both between -2.1* and -2.4* right now. It's weird how you can approximate to that detail after obsessing over this crap, but I swear that feels right.

I wasn't there for the install, but was told by my mechanic that the camber arm is pretty tight with the rear Eibach Sway bar. Not touching, but surprisingly close. Fortunately, both parts move somewhat in unison at that point, so not to worry... or so he says, LOL. This is the very first time I've run across that observation. Also, I neglected to leave him both CO wrenches, and only the one. Apparently that was a PITA not having both and trying to lock the two rings together. (Oops. CO noob here.)

My first impressions when driving are that the car feels more comfortable over bumps. I suppose that makes some sense, seeing as how the OEM shocks were already loaded because of the lowering springs. But I don't know, really. It's just a first impression, and one where I'm driving very carefully. I won't be ramping the car with any hard driving until after the alignment.

But so far so good. No bad surprises yet.

 

That seems to be about what HoldMyMouse said about his Basis setup, was a bit on the softer side until he got the sways and then seemed to be very happy w/ that combo.
Did you notice some increase in NVH?

 

Nope. And I've actually been driving around a lot in the last few hours. Had to use my G because we left the wife's car at the shop after picking up mine, to have the AC repaired in her Honda. Wouldn't you know it, on Day One of our 1300 mile road trip vacation, the AC failed on us. Made for some pretty unpleasant driving throughout the trip.

Anyway, the point is I've been driving over familiar and not-so-smooth local roads, and I didn't notice any increase in NVH. If anything, I'd err in the other direction, Brad. No clunks, no bangs, no creaks... just the road, the wind, the engine and the exhaust. So far, of course... just so far. Anything can and often does creep up after giving the seal of approval to a mod, so I'm not actually doing that yet. Just feeling optimistic at this point.

And the more I look at it, the more convinced I am that it needs to come up 1/4" to 3/8". That's going to be fun, messing with CO height for the first time in my garage.

 

It's been two days with the rear coil-overs, and a fair amount of driving. So today I took it to the roof of the nearest ramp garage for level measurements on a smooth surface.

Essentially, right now I'm at the similar height I was at the beginning of this past Spring, before I started messing around with poly spring spacers... but with improved (flush) negative camber, thanks to the SPC camber arms and my mechanic's skills at pre-alignment configuration.



However, now with the CO's, I can properly raise the rear 1/2" to match rear to front, and then re-adjust camber to my liking when it gets aligned on Monday.

According to my mechanic, that's a royal PITA unless he drops the buckets again. Apparently fronts are easy, but rears are knuckle-breakers. So with that in mind, I'm not even going to attempt it. Just going back to the shop in the next couple days and see if he can go Round 2 on adjustments.

And then a Monday alignment at the dealership... and /done. (Until next year, LOL)

 

UPS is dropping my Tein's off sometime today after 2PM.
What do you think the Camber would be like with out the kit installed?

 

Depends on the height, wheels, tires, and personal preference.

In my setup, going for flush-ish, and targeting an even 26.75" height, I'm probably looking at a -2.0* rear camber, give or take.

 

I had my mechanic tug the height adjustment rings downward on the rear CO's, in order to raise the car 1/2". Some observations about that:

• It really isn't that difficult. I should be doing this myself. (He didn't drop the bucket.)
• Where I want the height is very nearly at the maximum height for these CO's.
• Measurements are weird. I swear we only moved the rings a 1/2", but it's easily raised the height 3/4".

So at this point, I'm much happier with the height than I was yesterday. And tomorrow I'm going back to the ramp garage to re-measure after driving around and having things settle again. If it needs to get tweaked one way or the other, I'm fairly confident I can do that on my own Friday/Saturday... two days of settling again before the Monday alignment.

This process... it's not an exact science. Which is kind of ironic, because you would think it actually is.

 

lol its a lot easier than you think its pretty much just spinning the collars. Yeah the measurements are kinda off I suspect its because you don't have any preload settings which does have a little bit of play in that because the springs will settle. I have changed my settings a bunch of times now one thing you want to becareful of is making sure your collars don't seize or else youre going to have a bad time.

 

OK so you basically had the rears as high as they would go? Is the height the same as the drop you had with the springs? Just trying to get a starting point. I know I won't start with the lowest setting .

 

The rears are *nearly* as high as they can go. There are a few threads left, but it's impossible to tell for sure, because the threads are behind the top rung of the spring. I honestly don't know how many threads... if I had to guess, maybe four. At the highest (ish) setting, it appears to be 26 3/4" to 27" floor to fender. My fronts (Swift Springs) are consistently each at 26 3/4" floor to fender. I won't know for sure how it's settled until I take some more measurements tomorrow. Same place, same technique, same yardstick (LOL).

I suspect it's easier to start at the highest setting, not the lowest one, because it's easier to lower the car than it is to raise it, know what I mean? Semantics are inverted here, and I'm certainly a CO noob, but that makes some sense.

I've been driving it a little harder today, not so much at highway speed, but on rough low speed roads. The point is to not be shy about getting bounced around. So far it's holding up quite excellent. No bangs, no thunks, no groans or creaks. And the comfort seems very much on par with the Swifts (which are still on the front). Like I've been alluding to, I'm feeling more optimistic with every day.