2024 Project

Technical Area Steering & Suspension
1

The big project this year is going to be lowering the ride height of my NC 3.5 with new coilovers.

I love the car but it just sits too high for my liking and too high for a sports car. I’ve recently painted the brake callipers and whilst the wheels were off noticed the bilstiens were getting a bit crusty and the rubber boot on them has split in several places… I believe they are all the originals so are probably getting a bit tired and I would like to start getting some track days in as well…(I’m really just using this as a reason to justify the spend😉)

I’m not that bothered about being able to adjust the damping on them so I’m looking at the lower end in terms of budget… at the moment I’m considering the Tein Street Basis Zs or the MeisterR Sportives…

I’ve heard of the MeisterR before and they seem to be very common on the mx5, but know less about the Teins….

I’m guessing at the price range they are much the same…?

Does anyone have any recommendations on one over the other…? The only bad thing I ever heard against both is that they do like to rust, and quickly…

My other question is that on a few installation video I’ve seen, especially on UK cars, is that the rear ARB and drop links tend to get rusted together, and that they need to be removed to get access when swapping the rear suspension…

I plan to swap the coilovers myself and it would be Sod’s Law that I’d have to hack off the rear drop links/ARB, so would it be worth getting new ARBs and drop links at the same time and swap out these as well…

Thanks in advance….:+1:

2

On all the NC’s when I have fitted springs or coilovers, i have found it easier to drop (drop only, not remove at the droplinks) the arb at the rear by unbolting the body mounts and working that way (with a little wiggling of the suspension here an there when needed.

However if the droplinks look suspect, probably now is the time to change them.

Only ever used Meisters so can help with the other

3

I can highly recommend changing the ARB’s when you lower the car. You can go with any of the branded bars or use the popular RX- 8 Yellow dot bars front and rear. These were very cheap at one time but the breakers have noticed how popular they are now and upped the price. Seach the Suspension Tech area for RX-8 roll bar or the like on this site
The problem with the Drop Links are the rusted fixings and if you are going to change the dampers, springs and ARB’s plus drop links dont even try to loosen them just drill or cut the ffixings off on the car side, trust me it’s quicker and easier.