Ive had my 2.0 sport on 30mm springs for a few years now. The cars been amazing but its at 93k miles now and still on the original Bilsteins. Its starting to feel a tad bouncy so I would assume its time to replace or what I am thinking invest in some coil overs.
Really as far as I can see the only two viable options that stand out are the meisters or the gaz kits. My budget is up to a grand.
I am after some opinions from experience on these kits. The gaz kit claims the ride height can be adjusted in car. As far as I can see the Meisters you adjust with spanner at the strut. It would be so good to be able to adjust the ride height easily as I live on a farm and it only just gets down the lane at its current ride height. It would be fantastic to be able to drop it 40mm once im onto the road.
The car will not see a track and is my daily but being on Cornish B road for 90% of the time I like to be able to make the most of the handling. Only other mods to the suspension are Poly anti role bar bushes. The rest is OEM.
Any feedback on different kits available would be amazing. Also while I am at it would it also be a good idea to replace the top mounts with Poly?
I’ve honestly never heard of coilovers where you can adjust ride height from the car. You can adjust them whilst mounted on the car, but not from above etc. You’d still have to remove the wheels and unlock them to wind them up or down. Damping adjustment is done by simply turning a knob on top of the strut so it could be referring to that?
For a grand the favourite around here seems to be meister r zeta crd with many good reviews. I went for tein flex z but that was just my personal preference - I’m unable to make a direct comparison between the two but I’m more than happy with mine.
And any Coilover kit you buy should come pre mounted with topmounts as part of the kit (unless you go for basic setups which use factory mounts and use spring perch/preload to adjust ride height.
It’s definitely worth waiting to hear other people’s input. If you’re set on coilovers there will be suggestions but people may also ask what the intended use of the car is and steer you towards alternatives
I’m considering Teins, previously had MeisterR’s CRD’s on my NC. I’d definitely go again with those but a consideration now is the price. Most are now £1k+ to buy, the Teins £700-£800 maybe.
Have the MeisterR Sportives ATM on the current NC, they do the job but not adjustable for comfort hard/softer settings.
Teins for me are unknown product, MeisterR I definitely know about and would recommend.
I recently went for tein and think they’re great for spirited road. I haven’t found any negatives and probably won’t track the car in all likelihood. Didn’t want to put them forward as I know there are so many differing opinions and better to get plenty of them
Dean your considered verdict on the Teins has got my interest as I mentioned on your thread. I’m waiting for a time when I can get the Sportives adjusted (up) then make my decision. Winter weather, other projects house wise are slowing things down, I’ll get there, just when?
As I am the only user of the car and it never goes for more than an hour at a time it will only end up staying on a stiffer set up anyway. May as well go with Tein. Thanks you.
Another vote for Koni Sport, great for road driving - comfy enough for cruising, firm enough for B road blasting, nice damping curves. Will work nicely with your current lowering springs too.
I would also consider YellowSpeed Racing too. They are made in Taiwan but then again, are Meisters not made there also ? Best of all, they come with a 2 year warranty and full spares backup, unlike Meister when I phoned them looking for something.
Sadly, they were fitted to the car by the previous owner, just before I bought it. They had been fitted to the car for about a month before I bought it. Started leaking about a year after I bought it.
Not sure whether to replace just the leaky one or both fronts…or go for some Meisters, BC or Teins…
Konis and Bilsteins are rebuildable. GAZ are rebuildable. Japanese Teins are rebuildable. Cheap Chinese made Teins are not rebuildable. Some MeisterRs are made by private label Bor-chuann Enterprise Co in Taiwan, who are better known as BC Racing. Other, more recent, Meisters seem to come from mainland China, If these are rebuildalbe, then only Meister can do it.
All MX5s are already on coilovers. What you mean is adjustable coilovers. The last time I touched any of the settings on my 2008 fitted Protecs was sometime in 2012.
I wrote an article on suspension a while ago explaining a lot of the jargon.
The adjustable height coilovers are mainly to adjust the weight balance of the car by adjusting the ride height when the car is stationery. if you arent going to do full geometry adjustment on the suspension there is little point investing on adjustable suspension. Adjustable damping is how fast the wheel will recoil (move back down after its compressed) DFV suspension like the ohlins have dual valve operation and works on road and track use.
For your car and since you are not going to track IMHO bistains maybe with the shorter springs and damping to suit (I know there’s two versions for the NC but forget whats what) or Koni stuff.
just my 2 pence.
i have the zeta’s on for 50 thousand now and ive been really happy with them.
everyone is gonna grown now but you might want to consider adding the rear chassis braces as they make a huge difference to the feel of the car and if you do bottom out the braces take the hit instead of the chassis and its cheeper to replace a ÂŁ100 brace than what ever else you might crunch!
