Suspension setup
 

What's better?
1)Tein full coilover (tein flex) or 2) bilstein shocks with eiback lowering spring

This is for spirited driving, i dont mind harsh ride. Want good cornering and lower ride.

In other words, whats the difference in buying a full coil vs buying shocks and springs separately and put them together?

Bilstein shocks + springs

A good set of shocks + springs is better than average coilovers.

The only down side is u won't be able to adjust ride height, but most people won't touch the ride height after they install their coilovers anyways
Posted via RS Mobile

If this is for spirited driving/daily street use, I would highly recommend Bilsteins and Eibachs. Coilovers would be overkill and should be pursued when and if you are ready to do some serious tracking.

id personally go with the tein ss with the edfc controller. its costly, but its worth it because you can change how soft/stiff you want the shocks from inside the car.

are the springs more important or shocks for ride characteristics ( tighter corner, comfort ride, lower stance etc)?

there are far way too many companies that make lowering springs beside the big name HR and eiback.
Shocks can be had from bilstein, koni, and tokico

You need to find a good shock and spring combo.

You need to tell us what kind of car this is for.

The Tiens offer full adjustability so with some seat time and tweaking they will perform the way you want. Not just the way your stuck with.
But are you into tinkering with your ride?

this is just a general question, but if you want to know the car, its for a 2005 A4 3.0 cabriolet to be exact

I would get spring and strut combo, less moving parts, easy to maintain, cheap, and you are unlikely to NEED coilovers anyways.

:lol You say that now...

Just an FYI, upgrading your springs/shocks are only about 30% of the puzzle when it comes to good cornering.

Billy HD's are good with lowering springs. They tend to have a little less than optimal dampening (for my cars atleast).

Yeah, because pulling over and opening the hood/trunk is SO hard.
Bilstein all the way.
Your A4 is comfy and still taut. Why would you throw that away for stiff ass coilovers?

My H&R coilovers (bilstein internals) are just slightly stiffer than stock. Height adjustable, but no dampening adjustments. Much improved handling, without sacrificing the Lexus comfort at all. The only stiffness I complain about is from my low profile tires and old bushings

oh and a word about teins, they rust like no tomorrow, every moving part seizes up from the rust, and they leak/blow easily. not to mention the stupidly stiff ride it comes with to "make" the driver think their cars handle a billion times better.

a good spring + strut combo can pwn the teins easily.
they're just not meant for the NA market.

What car is this for?
I would go with koni yellows and GC coilovers which you can choose your own spring rates depending on your style of driving.

.

The bilsteins for sure

i dun have that problem on couple sets of Tein that i had, I never tried to adjust it after the third or fourth year but I still had tried to adjust within the first couple years for diff setup etc...the longest period that i have tried loosen them up was 2.5 years and they came loose for adjustment without a problem...i put anti-seize on them before installation (on any coilovers) and I haven't had one that I can't loose for a long time...

edit: oh and the longest period that I have owned a set of Tein (HR) was 7 years with appro 130k, no leak minor surface rust with regular "clean up" (i normally pressure rinse my car 2 to 3 times a week so I don't have to hand wash as often), and my other set lasted me 4 to 5 years with appro 80k with one blew shock cuz i ran over a "pothole" on marine drive in a rainy day (i hear the noise, and car drives fine after ~ lucky it wasn't a bad one so when i checked it couple days later, i noticed the shock started to leak)

OP: i will pick bistein shocks with eibach springs for A4, had them on A4 / A3 / TT etc and they worked very great! also the pss9...have not yet tried Tein on euro's yet...

And the Teins are not rebuildable while the Billsteins are.

they are rebuildable...

^
Where.

E knows his shit :thumbsup:


ya Teins are rebuidable

blisten combo is the way to go between the two


but KW > all
no rust issue

:thumbsup::thumbsup::D

Why send your money and dampers to the US when you can get your Bilsteins overhauled/spec'd and shock dyno'd locally?

1. you only asked me where

2. how often do you have to do so if you take care of them properly? I have friends who are running tein flex for over 60k on a S2K and STi with over 80k etc etc without any issue, even tein basic at 65k range with no rust or anything (and car is parked on the street, not garage kept)...

I doubt too many ppl are willing to RE&RE them so often just to "dyno'd" them locally, I know there are ppl who is willing to do so but 80% of ppl won't...

yet like i said, bilstein is a better setup for OP's car and I am not recommending Tein on european cars, just that another person says it's not rebuildable while it is rebuildable, and RX Renesis mentioned about the rust issue but most ppl won't adjust it after they found a correct height setup yet I have also adjusted some Tein's after about 2.5 years and 40k...even had friend purchased them used, seized and we just cut the purch out and replaced them...but it was seized because someone over-tightened it, it's stripped...