Hunter Z

Someone asked me for a review of my suspension set-up. I have the Tein Flex coil overs with Electronic Damping Force Control, Nismo S-tune Swaybars, and Crawford strut brace (because the stock brace won't fit over the Crawford plenum.

I am very happy with this set-up. I do a racetrack event (HPDE on road courses) about once a month, and canyon runs now and then with a local 350Z club. The Z is not my daily driver. I drive it to work maybe once a week, and a lot on the weekend.

The Tein coil overs with adustable ride height are great. Cornering is very flat, especially with the ride height as low as it will go. The ride is very firm, and with the EDFC on full "hard" setting, very very firm. The EDFC box is mounted just under the dash to the right of the steering wheel, and is very easy to reach there.

The biggest problem with the Tein is adjusting the ride height, which is a giant pain in the azz. You have to remove each wheel, and use two special wrenches (and a hammer) on each coil over adjustment collar. It takes me about 3 hours to raise or lower the whole car, but I admit I am not mechanically inclined, and I work slowly.

Adjusting the ride height has a special benefit for me, because I work in a building with a huge hump to go over to get into the garage. If I am going to the ractrack soon, I leave the ride height low, and don't drive the Z to work. If not, I leave it high so I can get into that garage.

The S-tune sway bars are good, I guess. I have always thought that beefier swaybars are your best bang for the buck suspension mod, and improve flat cornering a lot. Can't really say that the Nismos are better than any other brand.

The Crawford strut brace is a compromise. It fits further forward, because there is no room for the stock bar to go over the plenum. In order to fit it in there, they use brackets that place the bar forward of the actual shock towers. This is not ideal, but it is better than no strut bar at all. It rubs the hood a little bit in one spot. This causes no problems, except that other Z owners who have a sharp eye point it out when I open the hood. The best thing about it is that it looks really cool.

Speaking of looks, with the ride height all the way down, the Z looks sick.

D@ActiveTuning

iTrader: (17)

I thought that if you had the edfc, you wouldn't have to do it manually?

Anishd

EDFC is used to adjust dampening force only. Compression and rebound are actually what can be adjusted. So to change the ride height, you have to do it manually.

SuperRobin

I have the same coilovers but no EDFC. I have the little tool to adjust the dampening... but I don't know how it is used. Seems that I may be srt ion very very hard now, which is a little inpractical for the trips to work.
Height was set at middle setting and is perfect.

350weezee

iTrader: (1)

what about noises? do you get any from the teins, rattles etc...

bhk1004

iTrader: (6)

wait a minute... so the edfc doesnt control the ride height at all? so then the whole point of tein flex with edfc just went out the window for me.... lowering springs here I come....

failsafe

As Hunter mentioned you can only adjust damping with the EDFC. The height is adjusted by the perches on the springs and does take some time to adjust. I don't know of any company that currently offers coilover that allows you to adjust height electronically (other than air suspension). However there is a company in Japan by the name of Roberuta that looks to be coming out with an electronically adjustable perch.
When I got by Top Secret hood last week they included a flyer for the Roberuta product. The flyer shows the adjustable perches on the Top Secret coilovers so I'm not sure if this will work universally or only with Top Secret products. They are driven by a small air compressor but this is not an airbag set up. The air just appears to drive the perches that are located on the top of the spring. Top Secret is currently using this setup on one of their widebody Z33's.

I also have the Tein Flex coilovers with EDFC and love them. They are a bit firmer than stock suspension on the softest setting and extremely firm on the hardest setting. The EDFC is nice because it allows you to adjust the damping on the fly. You can set soft for daily driving the bumpy roads and instantly adjust it if you find a nice smooth, twisty road. I'm running the Cusco sway bars and agree with Hunter- the difference in adding larger sway bars was huge.

If you're installing coilovers I would highly recommend installing bigger sway bars- it definitely makes the suspension feel much more responsive and predictable IMHO.

I scan probably dig my scanner out of the garage if anyone wants to see the flyer. It's in Japanese so maybe someone could translate?

Sharif@Forged

iTrader: (92)

how about 32 adjustment settings front and rear....so you can make adjustments on the fly. That is the biggerst benifit of tein's with EDFC. For 90% of the people, they will set the ride heigh once..and forget it. Personally, I like a 1inch drop all around...and be done with it for good.

The Teins completed transformed my car. The handling is razor sharp, and virtually no body roll. The newer Tein's have pillow mounts, and do not sqeek or rattle at all. The compression is also quieter that the original versions, so I dont here an "air comrpession" sound over bumps and stuff.

On the softest setting, I'd guess the suspension is about 15% stiffer than stock..but significantly better dampened, so it's not bouncing and porpuising like the stock suspension. In the stiffest setting....it can give me a concussion, or destory my dental work. To call it very very stiff is the understatement of the century.

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

The EDFC only allows for 16 full steps of adjustment - the 32 steps is in half mods, which I have personally never been able to tell a difference with.

Sharif@Forged

iTrader: (92)

Correct...but it it is still 32 levels of adjustment. It is user changeable for 16 full steps, or 32 half steps.

Chebosto

iTrader: (43)

my 'gen1' flex squeek like a mouse. its annoying especially on medium to hard setting.. i dont know if its the rear mount or what. but im getting fed up with them.

i only have the Z lowered maybe like 1" from factory. but dang. it handles great with cusco- if only i could get the new rears. but TEIN quoted me over $500 for a rebuild...

ZxRage

how can one tell what version they have, is it stamped on the shock? My rears squeak as well but I just purchased them in February so they are fairly new. Now I am starting to wonder...