How to: Fit ST185 Coilovers to a ST165

[Squid]

Well anyone with a ST165 celica would realise there aren't a lot of aftermarket options for suspension.

The ST185 suspension is similar, but not Identical, the main difference between them is the size of the knuckle bolts on the 185 are a fair bit larger. It seems the most common solution is to make a set of spacers/collars to go around the bolt to fill the space between the smaller st165 both and the holes in the strut which have been drilled for the larger bolt.

I didn't like this idea at all, more parts, more tolerances more room for things to go wrong! so what is the other option? Make the larger bolts fit the 165.

Here is what I did:

• Step 1: Loosen the wheel nuts.
  
• Step 2: loosen (but don't remove) the strut tower nuts.
  
• Step 3: Jack up and support car of Jack Stands:
  
• Step 4: Remove wheel
  
• Step 5: Remove the lower strut bolts:
  Step 5a Apply band aids to stop bleeing on the fingers where you whacked your fingers on the strut. Swear at yourself cos you realise you now own a rattle gun, go get it and remove nuts with minimal fuss...
  
• Step 6: Remove the brake Lines from the strut.
  
• Step 7: Remove strut tower bolts and then strut!
  
• Step 8: Drill the knucles out.
  I chose to use a 16mm drill bit and M16 high tensile bolts as they fitted the teins pretty snugly, I assume this would carry accross other makes!
  
  
  I drilled approaching from both sides to make sure I didn't get far off track. (rembering that you are only shaving 1mm off the walls so the drill tends to centre itself) Here is a pic of halfway thru:
  
  
  
• Step 9: Fit the new struts to the strut tower and loosely do up the nuts
  
• Step 10: Reattach strut to steering knuckle using the new fatter M16 bolts, Do them up tight!!! Notice how snugly it all fits together now!!
  
  
  
• Step 11: Reattach brake line.
  
  
  
• Step 12: Torque the strut tower nuts to the specified torque.
  
• Step 13: Put wheel back on.
  
• Step 14: Lower the car.

Done!!!!

(Insert Pic Here)

Note in pic I changed the wheels while I had things apart!


I will edit later and add the remaining pics (when I finish)

You will notice half the pics are from the left and half are from the right, I got halfway thru the right and realised that i need to replace a CV boot, then got side tracked and didn't finish (I don't have a socket large enough to remove the hub bolt) and I am not putting everything back together to pull it apart again later!!

[horse]

Great work there Squid!

funnily enough the SV21 bolt holes are the same as the ones on the coilovers i have. still great knowledge here for anyone that does this in the future

[Kyoto]

Nice......

[XR Pilot]

Pardon my ignorance, but is this for the front or rear suspension? I followed your link from the ST162 thread

[Squid]

XR - Not really an ignorant question I should have cleared it up! This is for the front suspension, the rear suspension is a driect fit!

The other thing I should point out is I believe standard 185 suspension is about one and half inches lower than the 165 (and possibly more for the 162). But hey the point of this is to put coilovers on, so I am sure you can sort your ride height out!

[Squid]

Well been driving on them, pretty nice I must say, need to sort out the caster.. but other than that 1000 times better than tyhe originals!

[rustyP]

any chance you'll let out wat u paid (or wat u should expect to pay) for tein st185 coilies? cant be cheap... is it worth the money in the ride quality you're getting now?
cheers

[Squid]

RustyP - yeah I paid about $1900 delivered from japan... From a store called perfectrun... very good very prompt and even cluey anough to send a personal email saying are you sure you know what your doing ordering 185 struts for a 165...

Ride quality is excellent, going from a soft spongy feel to something quite rigid and controlled... Still need to do some more to get what I am looking for (strut brace and caster adjustment) but it is a long way there!

[1gt48u]

showing off are we

+ rep for you

cheers

[Squid]

Me, show off? never! lol

[Squid]

OK people - Found the hitch

The m16 bolts are not in fact as snug in the holes on the coilovers as I initially thought... Once the weight of the car acting through them quickly chipped away the enamal, there was about 1mm if movement. Multiply this by the radiaus of the wheel and there is a fair bit of wobble.

Enter the next problem, The wheels were a +45 offset item, which gave me marginal clearance between the struts and the wheel, a little bit of movement and whammo the edge of the spring seat gouges out the side wall of the tyre, and I need two front tyres, and a set of more appropriate wheels hrmmm.

Suddenly there goes a whole chunk of money towards my rebuild

[wilbo666]

I'd be keen to wack spring washers on the bolts as well

Cheers
Wilbo

[MAD180]

Hey Squid,

Im keen to do this conversion to my ST165 also, did you purchase the Tein Superstreets from PerfectRun or a different brand/product?, Also what spring rates are you using in your ST165?

Have you had anymore trouble since installing these, ive noticed it been almost a year since you installed these!

Cheers
-Josh

[Squid]

Josh - The car has been of the road for an engine transplant. I did have the problem as reported above... I took the hubs off and machine drilled them to correctly matcht he bolts, my hand drilling was a bit ghetto. After having done that, I sourced some 185 hubs with the longer studs which will suit my 205 brake conversion... they are yet to be fitted, but I would reccomend tracking some down... makes life so much simpler.

I did get them from perfect run, and couldn't reccomend them enough!

[MAD180]

Great, Cheers for the feedback Squid.I will definatly go through Perfect Run, as Fulcrum Suspension (Australian TEIN retailer) want about $2500 delivered as opposed to $1500 from Perfect Run.