- V -

iTrader: (1)

I've been driving on these coils for about a month now and I wanted to share my thoughts. I'll split it into 3 categories. Handling, Ride quality, and Comfort.
Lets get started

Handling:
In one word: Awesome. I'm grinning like an idiot every time I take a corner now. The car just goes where I point it without any hesitation. Driving on the road on the stock suspension, whenever I went to change lanes or make a turn, I would turn the wheel, then the car would kind of squat to one side before starting to turn. It was a fraction of a second delay that I didn't even feel before but I'll be damned if its not noticeable now. Any tiny adjustment to the steering wheel will translate almost immediately to the road. It feels very precise without being touchy. Driving over imperfections on the road or hitting small bumps no longer upsets the car either. Before I would feel the wheel pull to the side of the car that the bump was and while it still does that, its nowhere near as hard as it was before and I don't feel like I'm losing control of the car. Pro-tip: before getting the suspension, make sure whatever you keep in your trunk is strapped down with something because its gonna be flying around back there.

Ride Quality:
This one is a little tricky. The car feels smoother than it did when stock on pretty much any other kind of road EXCEPT one with sudden dips or humps. A very good example is when you're coming up to a long bridge and there is that little bit at the start of the bridge where the pavement is just a little lower than the cement they use for the bridge so your car kind of humps over it. Before the coils, the car would just squat over it and then the suspension would even out and absorb the "altitude change". You would still feel it of course but it wasn't too jarring. With the coils, that is no longer the case. I don't feel as if the car is losing control but going over those humps feels almost uncomfortable. You feel the g forces and its much more sudden. As a result I find myself letting off whenever I come up to dips and hump in the road similar to those.

Comfort:
The way I define comfort is by the level of harshness of the ride, the level of vibrations in the car and level of noise in the car. In terms of noise and vibrations, there is no change. If anything there is less vibrations and noise since my previous suspension was so old but the car is harsher then it was before (obviously). You feel bumps in the road more (when i say bumps, i mean actual bumps not cracks or rough pavement). When going over them, the body of the car used to sway and absorb them a little better but now it levels out faster but at the expense of comfort. The level of harshness is hard to explain in text but the best way i can describe it is this. If you have a older relative that maybe has some back issues, they would feel completely comfortable and relaxed in the stock form of the suspension but they will likely be uncomfortable and tense up with the coils installed.

I'm still fine tuning so I will likely post an update on my thoughts about this suspension once i have it perfectly dialed in. So far I've been playing around in the bottom half of the stiffness range.

onizukhoa

Sorry if I over read, but what kind of steering wheel did you change yours to?

- V -

iTrader: (1)

Steering wheel is out of an SC430. Cant remember the year for sure but its one of the early once, 2002 or 2003

perfctreig

for some reason, I missed this thread. Definitely following it. Great job so far!

- V -

iTrader: (1)

Repainted the b pillars and the nose grill. The clear coat I used was *** but it's better that the peeling mess it was before. I do like how the nose grill came out though. Its got a matte-ish look and the flakes in the pain pop when the sun hits it without being super shiny.

RudysSC

Lookin good!

- V -

iTrader: (1)

Time to rebuild the power steering pump since NOBODY makes a replacement for the 99-00 SC
Progress so far:

• Took the entire intake off as well as the accessory belt. Pretty easy
• Drained the reservoir and removed it. Messy
• Disconnected the return line underneath the car and turned the wheel to drain that. Also messy
• Removed the bolt holding the pulley. Not too bad.
• Got bit in the *** by an ant. Not an experience I wish to repeat.
• Tried to remove the high pressure line off the pump. Need a flex head 22mm wrench for it but don't have one. Want to slap whoever designed it.

Pictures so far:

Bimmerbill

I look forward to the successful completion of this project. I have been in these same circumstances several times in my life. By the way I finally got my springs and shocks/struts in and I have got to roll my fenders now. Thank goodness i own a Eastwood fender roller tool.
Good luck.

- V -

iTrader: (1)

Thanks bill. What suspension your suspension/wheel/tire combo? I'd be interested to know how the roller works out for you. been considering buying one to roll my fenders since nobody around me wants to do them

Bimmerbill

V, I am thinking about you on this PS project hope all goes well. I found some Supra springs by Meagan on a close out deal that I could not turn down. I sat on them for a year and finally found a set of KYB gas adjust on the same kind of deal. Then I went looking for the mounts and found all four corners at a real deal. A good friend has a lift and he helped me install them. Being on a fixed income at my age I have to make my money go as far as possible. After owning a lot of cars over the years that were lowered I am very pleased with the ride and handling. It also has a Supra Godspeed front sway bar and if I can ever find the Supra mounts the rear bar will go on.
Ok lets get back to the roller which is a well designed tool and i do not know how many of my friends have used it since I purchased it a number of years ago. The main thing when using it is to keep a heat gun on the area being rolled. This keeps the paint from cracking. There is a You Tube video by a guy named Devine doing the wheel openings on his Soarer and he took off his wheel opening trim to roll the fenders. I believe this is the way to go but will try to reinstall trim after after modifying the trim at the top where the fender is rolled. By the way Eastwood supplies a very informative instruction manual with the tool.
Please let me know if you have any questions
Bill

- V -

iTrader: (1)

Flex head wrench came. Took the pump off and cleaned it up. Then took it apart. Taking off the vane and shaft was a horrible experience but now I just need to clean everything, reassemble and flush.

- V -

iTrader: (1)

Finished!

• Cleaned all the interior parts and replaced the seals. Was considering doing the bearing but it was turning just as good as the new one so i didn't see the point of potentially destroying the vane shaft if i messed up.
• The little plates were a pain in the ***
• Lubed and put everything together. Torqued everything to the proper specs
• Installed it to the block. The high pressure banjo bold was a bigger pain putting in than taking off. If I had the time or desire to do so, i would relocate that whole thing two inches up by adding an angle joint to it.
• Replaced with Amsoil ATF and bled everything. Only needed about 1.5 quarts to have the fluid coming out red.

Gonna be washing the car tomorrow to clean off all the greasy handprints

- V -

iTrader: (1)

I thought I posted these some time ago but I guess I forgot. Anyway here are some pictures of the car when I was visiting some family. The second one is my favorite picture of the car that I've taken so far

Bimmerbill

Hey V, no arguments from me but I personally like the first one better, shows the wheels off more.

- V -

iTrader: (1)

Well its been a while since I've done anything to the car since I've been up to my neck in coursework for my final semester in uni. Now that I'm done, I'm going to use the little breather i have before starting work to take care of some stuff.
Recapping the ECU was first on the list and i just finished doing that today. Replaced 8 out of 9 capacitors that were on the ECU. Left the 330μF capacitor alone as it looked perfectly fine, is known to be reliable and was going to be a PITA to remove. I still have the replacement just in case though. List of the part numbers below for anyone who might need it. There is a list for the LS400 but I haven't seen an official list of caps for the 99 SC400 specifically. All the caps were available on mouser at the time of purchase. (WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT DOING THIS IF YOU ARE A SOLDERING BEGINNER! Send the ECU somewhere to have it done for you. Tanin have great rep in the community)

Qty. 2 of 10μF - 50V - EKZE500ELL100ME07D
Qty. 3 of 47μF - 63V - EEU-FR1J470B
Qty. 2 of 100μF - 10V - 35ZLH100MEFC6.3X11‎
Qty. 1 of 220μF - 16V - UHW1H221MPD
Qty. 1 of 330μF - 35V - 35ZLH330MEFC10X12.5

Things to do next:
Fix the remote entry system so I can use the key remote again
Wash, claybar and ceramic coat the car + general clean and detail interior
fine tune the suspension - I've tinkered around with it since and i almost have it dialed in to where it rides nice and smooth with no bounce.
Roll/shave fenders - I need to do this before my next tire change so that i can put 245 in front and 255 in the rear.
Coolant flush
Rear diff fluid change (maybe)