Yesterday I had the tires and suspension overhauled on my '03 touring. I went with new Michelin Pilot Sport 225/45/18 & 245/45/18s to match stock tire sizes on the original touring rims. The suspension was replaced with Koni Sport Yellows and Tein H-Tech springs. A proper alignment was also performed as I had bad inside wear on the two stock potenzas. The ride quality is much more subdued with this setup. There is still some road feel but not the teeth jarring ride I was used to on the interstate. I set the fronts 1.5 turns from full soft and rears to full soft. I am going to try the rears at medium because I'm missing a little bit of the rear end responsiveness and feel, this is a sportscar afterall!

My big question is that when I go into hard acceleration the feeling of torque throwing you against the seat has been diminished. Is this due to the new springs or rear shock/strut setting??? I'd like to get that feeling back with this setup if at all possible. If not it's a small price to pay to remove dreaded bounce. The understeer seems to have been improved greatly which I am very happy with.

Thoughts on the seat of your pants torque feeling???

 

Did you replace any front end parts to take care of the tire feathering issues?

 

Nice choices on your new components.

I'm sorry, but from my experience, your new springs will probably settle a bit over the next week, rendering your freshly administered alignment... improper. Most folks wait a week or so after spring installation before having an alignment done. I'm surprised your shop did not offer this advice. I'd drive around for a week or so, and then invite your shop to take another look, make adjustments as needed, and wave good-bye without requiring additional payment. Good luck.

 

As long as he took a spin around the block, the alignment should be fine. I have lowered about half a dozen cars and have yet to see any settliing beyond the first drive around town. This is with many different springs - goldine, teins, eibachs, and hotchkis.

in reality, what is going to settle? The spring is seated in the housing and once you introduce some weight to the spring like swerving or driving through a corner, the car will take it's natural stance. No different that letting down the car off a jack and having it sit up a bit higher than normal. Just take it for a quick spin and boom, it's settled.

 

If you tighten the rear shocks I doubt it will help get that feeling back because you're adjusting rebound, not compression. The softer springs let the car squat more under acceleration which improves grip and makes for smoother launches even though it doesn't feel faster. However, since they're easy to adjust you should try tightening the rears just to satisfy yourself, you may like the ride better when they're tighter.

Your alignment should be fine, the H-Techs have settled very little in the year they've been on my car. I had an alignment done the same day they were installed and my tires show no uneven wear.

 

Thanks for the feedback! Okay, I guess I'll drive a bit on these and see how I adjust to them over time. It's a big change so perhaps time will tell. I can always try going back to the OEM springs later for the price of install and alignment :-( What settings are you using for your Konis front & rear??? I like the ride but now my '01 Toyota Celica GT-S has more of that 'sporty feel'. I hope setting konis to med/firm may help make up for this???

Cheers!

 

No, my front end was aligned as follows. I'll be keeping an eye on wear and purchasing a camber kit if uneven wear returns.

Caster
L 8.39
R 8.06

Camber
L -1.00
R -1.03

Front Toe
L 1/32
R 1/32

 

My shocks are set full soft front and rear because the roads around here are horrible and full of potholes. Another reason why I run the Konis on soft is to try to get more life from the tires.

I don't know the alignment numbers but they are all within spec. I used the Michelin Pilot Sports for 2 years (excellent tires) and although they get noisier as they wear (like any high-performance tire) my tire wear has always been even.

Try adjusting both (to maintain balance) front and rears to medium or full stiff and see how you like them, they take only a few minutes to adjust, you might as well be sure before thinking about reinstalling the stock springs.