Tein Super Street - revalve and re-spring or replace?

[The American]

Tein Super Street - revalve and re-spring or replace?

I've got a set of Tein Super Street coilovers. They have 7kg front and 6kg rear spring rates. On semislicks, it's not hard to find the bump stops in higher speed/grip corners.

Tein advertise availability of multiple spring rate options, and Via Fulcrum Suspension, can re-valve to suit adjusted rates.

Has anyone done something similar with their Teins?

The alternative is another brand of coilovers with matched heavier springs and damping.

[plohl]

I suppose find out how much it'll cost. Usually the shocks should have enough adjustment to be able to go up or down a kg or two in spring rates without needing a re-valve. New springs are about 220/pair using the king spring race seriers, you can get springs cheaper off ebay etc. MCA sell springs pretty cheaply, they're about 62 ID IIRC. You just need to know the spring free length, ID and rate.

The obvious choice if you're replacing them is to get some MCA's - they're local and their springs are cheap...

[Okibi]

Last time I looked at aussie rebuilding costs it wasn't worth it.

The states prices seem a lot cheaper (but then you need to add shipping costs).
http://www.tein.com/service/price_list.html


I'd probably change springs first and see if the valving still suits.

[93_Clubman]

$600 to revalve 4 Bilsteins a decade ago.

[rascal]

Pretty sure it was about $200 per corner for Fulcrum to revalve them when I looked last year
Tein recommend revalving if you change by more than 2kg/m. Fulcrum suggested it probably would still be ok if you went another 1 or 2 on top of that.

I'd probably change springs first and see if the valving still suits.

I agree with this. (and did exactly this..)

I went from 7/5 to 10/7 on the same valving and it seems to handle the extra front spring rate without issue. Rear no issue as still within the +/- 2kgm

[manga_blue]

My HA Teins have an adjustment range of 16 (just softer than OEM) to 0 (rock hard). As I swapped from 5/4 sprngs to 7/5 to 10/7 I found I only had to firm up the track setting from 12 to 11 to 10 while the street setting stayed the same at 14. (Thanks to Dale at Racing Car Technology http://www.racing-car-technology.com.au/ for doing the shock and shock/spring testing for me)

Tein USA sell springs for USD120 a pair last time I looked. http://www.tein.com/products/standard_spring_price_list.html Basically you buy them from one of the regular retailers like 949 or MiataRoadster who then place the order on Tein USA who then ship it directly to you. (At least that's how it used to work a few years ago when I last did this.)

[The American]

Thank you all for the replies. Swapping to higher rate springs without changing the valving sounds like it can be done within limits, and porobably the cheapest option.

[bruce]

I need to try new springs too. My car rides rock hard.

[Luke]

My book says + or - 2kg/mm is within the pre-defined valving for the dampers. Teins website says the same for the Super streets.

When I asked 2 years ago for 2x 9KG 70mm ID 150mm length springs for my Tein Street Flex, Fulcrum wanted $250 + local shipping. Wholesale suspension wanted $300 shipped. Way more than the Japanese/USA price for the same springs.
Re-valving back then was $165 per damper as well which others have pointed out has gone up further since.
I just wanted the Springs at the time, but did nothing in the end as Fulcrum were really pushing the unnecessary re-valving.

The biggest problem I found when researching springs for these MX-5 Teins is the 70mm Inner Diameter. I only found that Tein and Swift make 70mm ID springs short(150 to 175mm) enough, making them a much more expensive proposition than the much more standard 60/65mm or 2.5in ID springs that most other coilovers use.


Personally I wouldn't bother with changing anything on your Super Streets and go with something better for track use. You really want something with separate height adjustment, that does not affect the spring pre-load or damper length like it does with Super Streets.
The standard 7kg front springs are only 150mm free length which would be contributing to hitting the bump stops, but those front shocks also have very limited travel to begin with, hence the short springs. The next Model up Street Flex/Flex Z have 175mm springs for the same 7kg/mm rate giving them about 25mm more travel.
Ride height will become another problem with stiffer springs in them as they don't even have separate height adjustment.