Coilover Suspension Hunt

On my search for the ultimate suspension setup, i have come across a variety of options to choose. What makes the journey easier is that Charmant has the exact suspension system with AE86 (i've been saying this over and over, i guess you got bored with it, eh?) and there's an extensive list of aftermarket suspension parts for said model.

My priorities in no particular order when it comes to suspension setup are:
- Performance
- Long-term cost
- Initial price

In short, i want a suspension system which performs well which is cheap enough and allows me to keep running it with as minimum of maintenance cost as possible. Well, don't we all?

You see, i don't really care if it's adjustable-height coilover or not. I don't think i'll change the height often enough to justify me a purchase. However, if there's a system which fulfills said priorities, why not? Here's some of the options i found so far..

Taiwanese Coil-overs
You know, D2 Racing, Ksport, G4 Racing or the sorts. Of course i can be wrong when i say that those brands are actually made in Taiwan but i am just channeling what hundreds have said on many web forums. Their coil-overs are ridiculously cheap. I got an offer for Ksport's cheapest AE86 coilover line Kontrol Pro for less than a thousand dollars!

Those brands look like they come from one manufacturer in Taiwan. They look very much alike except for the color. Don't believe me? Here you go.


Above is Ksport and below is D2. I am sure someone with adequate photoshop skills (and time) can alter Ksport's orange color to purple and end up with similar looking kit with D2.

A coilover for less than a grand?! So what's keeping me from buying them? Notice the rear shocks on these kits and compare it with Charmant's stock ones. One major drawback that's keeping me from these kits is how they now combine the springs with the damper while on the stock system, the springs and dampers are separated. On the stock system, the vehicle's weight is exerted on the spring perches and mounts that is designed and meant to hold such load. Since these kits now combine the spring with the damper, the load would now be on the damper mounts. That doesn't sound as a good idea for me. The top damper mount on the chassis is not what worries me. It's actually the lower mount on the axle which got me scared. See here..

I am no expert in metallurgic but i am not comfortable putting such weight on a very small shock mount. However, Yohann has been using D2 with no problem. So it's now up to you whether you want this kit or not.
One good point to note about these kits is that you keep the stock strut case and no altering is needed to be done. The front dampers which come with the kit slide inside the strut case while the adjustable sleeves sit on top of the stock spring perches. Also, they come with monotube dampers which is said to outperform twintube dampers.

In case you're wondering, the stock Charmant strut case is integrated with the spindle (the shaft where your disk brake and wheel spin) as seen below.

This means, any coilover kit manufacturer must figure out a way to fit spindles on their kit. It can either be from making their own spindles (like in Greddy Type-S kit) or somehow fit the stock spindles on the kit (by keeping the stock strut case ala Ksport/D2 or modifying the strut case). I personally prefer a kit which keeps the stock strut case as usually it's the cheap and allows you to use other brand of strut inserts (dampers) such as the way Ksport or D2 do above. A kit which comes with their own spindle can be very expensive and while ensures you easy installation, leaves you with a question of whether can you use any strut inserts on the kit.

JDM Coilovers
Shiny, top notch performance and expensive are the treats of these coilovers. Greddy Type-S and Tein SS-P both retail at around US$2,000. With shipping and tax, i'll be paying close to US$3,000 for these kits and that's nearly half of what i've spent on The Dog so far. LOL.

While i am sure the kit is certainly worth the price, i just don't have the budget (and sanity) to shell out that kind of money when i have no plans to use The Dog as a dedicated track ride. Pictured below is Greddy Type-S taken from a very good review of them here. You can see that they come with spindles so you can ditch those stock strut cases or use them as dildos if you prefer.
Look how they also keep the rear springs separated from the dampers which ensures you that the load is where it was designed to be.

Megan Coilovers
Megan coilovers could be just another Taiwanese coilover. However, i chose to write about them separately to share you a unique thing i learned about them. Here's their kit.
First you'll notice that on the rear, they did it Greddy style as the springs and dampers are kept separated. This is certainly a good decision. However, pay attention to the front parts. See that they have the brake cable mounts? That tells you that these are not meant to slide inside the stock strut case i.e the strut case is also provided on the kit. But where are the spindles? This is what i am going to share about this kit. Taken from Megan's website:

These dampers are NOT a Direct Bolt-On, however, because you need to Re-Use your OEM front spindles. We did this to maintain a lower cost for the enthusiast, as the OEM spindles are perfectly able to be reused in most cases. The operation is simple and most shops that have the ability to weld using either a MIG or TIG welder can complete the operation in usually under an hour.

After removing your front Shock casings with the spindles, mark off 40mm from the top of the spindle base and cut. Once you have the spindles with 40mm of tubing protruding from them, simply slide the Megan Casings over the shock casings until they are butted up against the spindle casting, and simply weld COMPLETELY around the casing with either a MIG or TIG welder (NOT AN ARC WELDER!!!). Once this is done, simply screw on the bottom bracket onto the suspension system and you are ready to go reassemble your front suspension.

So basically you need to cut your stock strut case keeping the spindle part and weld the kit's front dampers on it. Though simple, it sounds like a risky job to me. If I am going to pay a thousand dollars for a coilover kit, i certainly don't like that it comes with a risk of messed up welding process which leaves you with a useless kit.

Short Stroke Conversion
I won't bother you with details. See here.

This is basically modding your stock strut cases by shortening them to fit shorter stroke strut inserts, cutting the spring perches to allow adjustable perch sleeves to be welded over the strut case.

You'll need to get short stroke dampers, adjustable sleeves and springs (Ground Control Coilover kit is a good idea) and adjustable camber top mounts. These alone would cost me at least a grand. I still have to pay for the conversion work and still left with the stock suspension on the rear. Being sure that this would outperform any Taiwanese coilovers mentioned above, I was going to pick this option until i found another option below.

Hotbits Coilovers
My good friend Stanley might have heard about them as the manufacturer is based in Malaysia (if you do, share us about it, will you Stanley?). Hotbits have a few options for AE86. The first one is monotube shock dampers that requires you to reuse the old springs and are non-adjustable height. The second one is coilover kit that you can upgrade as you and your wallet allow. The basic coilover kit comes with non-adjustable monotube dampers with adjustable height. For extra, you can either get a one-way or two-way adjustable dampers. One-way adjustable dampers allow you to adjust the compression and rebound damping rate simultaneously. This is called the DT1 series. Two-way adjustable dampers allow you to separately adjust said damping rates and known as the DT2 series. Need more? How about progressive springs (known as helper springs by Hotbits)? Separate canisters on the dampers? Adjustable camber top mounts? These will be added to the kit if you're willing to shell out extra.

What i like about them is that they are rebuild-able meaning that you don't have get new dampers when the old ones are busted. You just take the old ones to a certified Hot Bits service center and they'll renew your old dampers. The rebuild cost is of course much cheaper than getting new dampers and guess what, we have a certified distributor in Indonesia!

I am still currently corresponding with our local Hot Bits distributor, digging out information about their AE86 coilover kit. So far i have been told that they don't have any stock in Indonesia and need to order from Malaysia. Also i was told that the rear springs are kept separated from the shocks (sweet!). However, they have no pics of the actual AE86 coilover kit so i can't tell how they do it for the front part. I sure hope that the kit comes with their own spindle like Greddy but i can only guess until i get a reply from them. Will update this post when i have more info.

The basic coilover kit (non-adjustable rate damper, no adjustable camber top mounts and no helper springs) cost me pretty much the same as Taiwanese coilovers. So you can see why i am so eager to know more about this kit. The three priorities i mentioned earlier in this post are fulfilled by Hot Bits. Cheap initial price, low long term cost (rebuild-able dampers yo!) and good performance. Well i can't really say much about performance yet but testimonies from other Hot Bits user in Indonesia promise me a satisfactory purchase so if everything goes well, most probably i'll invest in one of their kits.