3dog

iTrader: (1)

Pearlpower

iTrader: (2)

3Dog,
I commend you on a very well written response. Have you had a chance to compare your JICMAGIC FLT2-A's to anything else? Not many have them here and was curious in case I wanted to try something else. Thanks

rominl

iTrader: (4)

ah gotcha, 3dog, yeah i was wondering where the JIC jumped out from. but it depends on what you get. the bilstein and the tein HA they come not assembled coz' you need the pillow mount from the car, but if you get stuff like your JIC, the tein flex, the tein CS, they are all pre-assembled

of course, you pay more bills too

3dog

iTrader: (1)

no i haven't

i read a review of davegs4 where he said if he were getting coilovers again he would get stiffer than the BILSTEIN PSS. i did read later that he decided they were stiff enough
here is link to his review
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...+pss+coilovers

here is a short list i stole from manarays list of stiffness ratings.

Tein CS: 9/8
Tein Flex: 10/9
Bilstein PSS:12.25/8.17
JIC SF-1 12/9
Tein HA: 14/10
JIC FLT-A2 - 14/10


here is a link to a thread i read about the JIC SF-1's
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...=jic+coilovers
then i read where the SF-1's were discontinued and replaced with the FLT-A2's

here is a link to a review of the FLT-A2's
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...s&pagenumber=1

then i read about manaray switching from teins to JIC FLT- A2 that was in oct of 2003 he thought very highly of the JIC's. they had just been released to the USA market in july 2003
i e-mailed him and asked him how the BILSTEIN PSS compared to the JIC FLT-A2 here is his answer.

" As for the FLT-A2's vs. the PSS, well the PSS height adjustment directly affects the pre-load (like the JIC SF-1). The FLT-A2's has a independent pre-load and height adjustment. This allows you to lower or raise the car to whereever you like w/o affecting the workings of the shock. If you raise or lower the car with a pre-load affecting system, then it's similiar to installing spring on a stock shock. You do that and you're basically running the shock "harder" than it was designed to run because you're running in a constantly compressed state. with the coilovers, it's SIMILAR, but not as bad because coilovers are designed to handle such situations....however, it's still "OPTIMAL" to run the shock at it's "prefered" pre-load rather than too much or to little pre-load...the FLT-A2's allows you to run the shock at it's "optimal" pre-load." quote was from e-mail 10/08/03 thank you manaray.


i had read that the teins required maintenance and only lasted 20-40 thousand miles. i don't know if that is true but it did influence my decision.


at the time i called steve at carson toyota and he said he could get me the JIC FLT-A2's for $1500. i ordered them that very second. this did not sit well with the wife, as that was $500 more than the BILSTEINS and i caught a lot of flack for that. i just found out that the price thru steve is up to $1649.
i have to add that i feel they are very high quality, but the instructions were in japanese and it took my mech an entire day to install and get the height right. so that cost me 8hrs labor. but i love the ride and going thru curves the speed is limited only by the size of my n+ts that day.


i feel like i'm hijacking your thread and that is not my intent so i'm going to stop now.

by the way that is a great review format you used, so many categories and i really like the winner is part.

thank you
3dog

OsideGs4

I just got my Jic's ..... I was wondering what is the "optimal" pre-load" setting ... one turn? ...3 turns? Mine did not come with any instructions and I bought mine directly from JIC

gsfour

Jeez! I wonder if people think I'm a Honda wannabe!

3dog

iTrader: (1)

you'll need to try some settings and see how you like them. i started with 6 turns front and 4 back. i liked that but then i tried 4 front and 2 back and thought that was to soft. next i went back to 6 and 4, liked that, but to really check out all the different settings i thought i should try some stiffer settings. so i went 8 front and 6 back and i liked how the car cornered even better. so then i thought how about 10 front and 8 back. that is pretty stiff but really handles nice and that is where i've left them.

i read somewhere to have the front two turns stiffer than the back and i have no idea why or even if it matters. so far i have not experimented with that.

i've had my JIC's for a year now and love them. did yours come with any install instructions? mine did not but i heard manaray was working on making some. hope you enjoy them.

3dog

KevinGS

Great review, PP. So informative.

I certainly don't want to have my car slammed, just lowered subtely like an inch, inch and half max. I will have 19" or 20" rims on my car...but I still want as good a ride as possible.

I definitely want to increase handling performance, but do not need cat-like agility, or go-kart like responses.

Question: The Teins seem to fit my profile fine, as it seems I can control ride height AND ride stiffness. Did I surmise this correctly about the Tein product?

And if you just buy an Eibach spring kit which lowers the car about an 1-1/4 inch, what do you lose in ride comfort, besides all the adjustability?

OsideGs4

3dog........


I was actually talking about the preload ... not the dampening. Yeah ive had them for about 3 weeks now and i luv them ......I slammed it on 20"s ....... so i had to buy a fender roller ... wich should be here tomorrow!

SexyAlexie

i love my tein flex enuf said.

-alexis