Originally Posted by rominl

lately there have been a lot of discussions on what coilovers to get, which one is soft, how soft, etc... and it seems to me that these questions pop up from time to time as well. so i decided to write this little review of mine on the three most common tein coilovers setup - HA, Flex, and CS. while everything i say is just my opinions, i think i am the only one here who has gone through these three suspensions for an extensive amount of time so hopefully i can help a bit.

tein HA
that's my first coilover setup after i got my car back in 2002. i rode a little while on the stock 17s and the HA before i changed to my 19s, and i rode on 19s and HA for quite a while. with the stock wheels, the HA actually rode pretty well, you could feel the road a lot more than stock, and you can totally feel the suspension traveling, but nothing like unbearable.

handling wise of course, it was awesome compared to the stock setup. it actually reduced TONS of body rolls, i was actually very surprised that even without sways the car handled so well already

after i put my 19s on that's when i started to feel the stiffness of the coilovers. yes it's stiff. to the point that i went from setting 6 (from stiffest) to around 11. still even at 11 on uneven road, bumps, or imperfect freeway driving, i really found myself jumping around a little bit.

after a while i actually found the coilovers to be a bit way too stiff, specially after i put on the trd blue race sways as well. with my parents coming over to visit me soon, i figured i need some change...

tein Flex
well i decided to stay in the tein family coz' of couple of reasons - price (i can get good price), edfc capability (not that i will put it on though), and adjustments (both height and stiffness adjustable). the question was, flex or cs? after a little bit of thoughts i decided to go with flex, reasons to follow...

the first thing i felt after the install was -- gosh this is awesome ride quality! compared to my HA, the flex damps a lot softer than the HA, on uneven road, i could hear the wheels going boom boom boom, but the cabin stays almost the same, and i don't find myself jumping around inside the car anymore, even on the exact same road where i jumped like crazy in the past with the HA. that was with almost full soft settings. i was extremely please with that.

handling wise though, i could immediately felt the difference, where the flex didn't make me as confident as i was in the HA. even with the same trd blue sways, the car leaned a bit more than the HA for sure. now keep in mind, i am NOT saying the flex handles worse than the HA. it might be the case, but for road use i doubt you can see much difference. but the feel was very different on turns and curves. it was noticeable

well, while i was very happy with the flex, and actually felt even better when i replaced my trd blue with daizen (that's another story), apparently my paraents have some even better sensors. one time i asked them how the ride is, and they said it's ok but still not lexus enough...

well.....

tein CS
after couple of thoughts and talks with my wife, i guess the only way out is to get the CS. i decided to go from HA to flex coz' i knew the flex is stiffer than the cs so supposedly it will handle better. also the flex is a more advanced system where you can adjust the height in two ways (end up might not be a good thing after all, another story as well). but after riding on the flex for 5000 miles with my parents, they were still not happy enough, so i decided to order the tein cs....

honestly the first time i saw the cs i actually missed the green on the flex and the HA. the gold color of the cs is no doubt funny to me. so finally i put the cs on, adjust the height to my likings, and rode around the blocks. weird enough, i didn't really feel much difference at all from the flex. at least not until i hit the freeway and drive more.

this is so close to the feeling of the stock suspension! remember i said that with the flex, on the freeway uneven section, i hear the boom boom sound and the cabin stays relatively steady? now with the cs, also on the softer side, the boom boom sound is definitely less than before (at least quieter), and the cabin is like almost stand still! this is really comfortable! the difference between the flex and the cs is deifnitley not as big as that of the ha and the flex, but after you ride around you can still feel it.

moreover, the car is definitely quieter. when i got the flex people (including the installer) told me the flex tends to be a bit nosier. i didn't really feel anything when i had the flex, but now i have the cs, i could tell it's quite a bit quieter. i guess it's just the design of flex that it's a bit nosier.

handling wise, honestly, i think the cs and the flex handles about the same, at least feeling wise. in the beginning the cs gave me a feeling of loss road feel, coz' the suspension is so soft. but after a while, i got used to the setup and things started to change. i can still take turns the same speed as i did with the flex, no problem at all, and the car response very well in the cs system. i am actually pretty amazed that the cs, being so soft when you drive over uneven road, can perform so well on curves.

overall
so overall, before you ask, do NOT ask me which one is the best. there is never the best, it's all about what you want. seriously, tein desgined these three models for a resaon -- fits your needs. if you go to track, you want superb handing feel, and there is no one who's going to complain about a harsh ride, the HA is a clear winner to me. if you want a good balance between ride and handling, and you still want more road feel, the flex is not a bad system at all. and if you want the ultimate almost stock ride quality and comfort, then you should look nowhere else but the cs. it's very comfortable, even with big wheels, and it's very quiet.

if you wonder about height adjustment, the HA definitely allows you to drop the car most, to the point that i actually wonder who would need their car to be that low anyway (you can't even drive your car if you crank all the way down). the flex has the medium drop range, and imho this is the best for most people the cs though, it has the least drop. with my 20s, i have no problem doing it zero gap front and back. however, if you have 19/18/17s and want zero gap, you will probably use up all the threads to get that. if you want to tuck those wheels, then you should forget about the cs, i dont' think it's low enough for you at all

and of course, if you are in snow area, you might want to think about the HA coz' it might develop rust. the flex and cs are both aluminum so they are better in that sense. also, the HA will need to use your stock pillow mount so installation is a bit more challenging. the flex and the cs are full direct suspension swap so it's easier. the flex comes with metal pillow mount (another potential candidate for noise) and the cs comes with hard rubber pillow mount.

moreover, you might want to look out for the flex and edfc setup too. the flex has a much taller stiffness adjustment ****, and together with the edfc, so far, only the RMM stb will fit. even the ugo doesn't. with the cs and edfc, the ugo stb fits no problem at all. and actually with the flex and no edfc, even the trd stb i have fit VERY close to the **** already too. so pay attention to that as well.

i hope i cover most of the difference between the 3 tein coilovres.

update (6/13): i have tested the new tein cs setup, please read post 175 for review