Which suspension and how to choose?

[Skobb]

First of all, I'm pretty car illiterate lol
I'm willing to learn and do things myself.. But for the life of me I can't find ANY guides on choosing a new suspension setup!
People say that replacing the rears yourself is easy enough, maybe I'd do that and get the fronts done by a shop.. Or just get them to do it all for me. At the very least I want to know enough to make an educated decision on what to buy.

Aim: I want a lower ride and better handling for the occasional spirited driving through the hills . I don't want to completely sacrifice comfort, but as the engine mounts and shocks have been in a horrible state for the last 6 months I'm already pretty used to an uncomfortable ride. Hoping to keep all costs under $1,500.

I don't even know where to start when choosing a setup. Coilovers, independant springs and shocks, brands/models, travel, stiffness, if there's anything else I need to consider, etc

I've got a Carina ED ST183. Is it safe to say that most things would be the same as an ST183 (or any ST18x) Celica?

Should I take the car in somewhere and get them to inspect it and give me suggestions? I'm worried if I go this route I'll be charged an inepxection fee and either be talked into a bunch of overpriced crap (instead of being given options and ideas), or I'll get somebody who says everything is illegal and to stick with OEM.


Advice or links to guides guides and articles would be great Thanks

[Skobb]

[trdee]

If it is a street car and you want better performance without compromising everyday driving comfort, then a fairly basic spring and shock combo will be fine. Get some sports springs with a bit of a drop in height, some good quality short stroke shocks (KYB, koni etc) and replace all the bushes and tie rod ends. Then go get a good wheel alignment. The car will drive way better than before without becoming an uncomfortable POS. Dont buy cheap coilovers. They never have enough travel and are almost always incorrectly damped. Resulting in a super stiff, bouncy ride, and it will crash into potholes etc.

[dnegative]

Dont buy cheap coilovers. They never have enough travel and are almost always incorrectly damped. Resulting in a super stiff, bouncy ride, and it will crash into potholes etc.

There are cheap coil-overs and there are cheap-ish coilovers.
If your on a budget the only real entry level stuff that's not complete shit would be BC BR's but they are not really a daily driver 'smash up the wollies driveway at 30km/h' job.
They are valved and built fairly well for the $1200 they cost, buy them from Justjap and they will throw parts at you if you have a drama under warranty etc

That being said, best option is probably a good set of inserts, set of King springs, swaybars and whatever you need to get a good alignment.

[Skobb]

Ok, thanks guys.
Tips on what springs and shocks to get? I'm making an order from nengun.com soon for brake pads, so I was thinking of having a look at some good Japanese stuff.. But it's really hard when half of it is in Japanese haha
http://www.nengun.com/blitz/damper-zz-r-toyota - Only decent looking coilovers I could find on the site, any good? Says ST202 Celica, I'd have to check they'd fit my car first.. Guess I can ask the guys on a Celica forum for that.

Opting for springs and shocks is probably a smarter (legal) decision lol
Still need a lot of help choosing the right stuff though..

What are some good examples (brands/models), and how do I go about deciding what drop I should go for, spring rate, shock dampening (maybe adjustable)? Trdee, you mentioned short stroke but my searches aren't coming up with much

[maj]

Anything on nengun is going to be expensive, so make sure it's really what you want before ordering it.

Also email them to get them to confirm stock first, quite often some lines on their site are out of date since products are discontinued etc. They are great guys to deal with though. I recently ordered a few pieces of Cusco kit from them.

Also remember if you are not installing the shocks yourself, you are going to need to factor in up to $500 for a reputable place to install and give you a good wheel alignment.

For brake pads, look to find if you can get EBC green or redstuff for your car, and if so, order it from the USA to save yourself a decent amount of $$$ summit racing is usually the best place for this.
JDM brands are usually good but unnecessarily expensive, whereas EBC for example make high performance pads and they are very well priced, just not from australian sources.

[maj]

Also just looking up the ED ST183 Carina, does yours have TEMS? If so that might make replacement parts trickier

If it's not TEMS equipped, Celica ST183 shocks *should* fit, or at least according to toyodiy a lot of the major suspension parts are the same. heres a selection from summit racing for you to choose from:

http://www.summitracing.com/search/y...illocation=dom

Also looks like Eibach make lowering springs, these are VERY good:
http://www.summitracing.com/dom/part...a/model/celica

This uprated swaybar will definitely help too:
http://www.summitracing.com/dom/part...a/model/celica

[Skobb]

Zz, typed up a reply and it disappeared..

Unsure if my car has TEMS, nowhere in the car indicates it does, but looking on wikipedia it seems like they did.
Taking my car in for a full inspection next week, so I'll get him to suss it out.

The links you provided look like the best option so far! What's shipping like?

http://www.nengun.com/project-mu/brake-pad-campaign - This is the reason I'm getting my brake pads from them

[maj]

You'll probably have some sort of button on your dash somewhere for TEMS (Toyota Electronic Modulated Suspension), as it's an electronic way to modify the suspension feel. So based on that info I doubt you have it.

Summit racing postage is very reasonable, keep in mind you are ordering heavy items so it's not cheap, but their prices are fair and they offer multiple services and instant estimates via their website. All quotes are fully insured with tracking.

I don't see Project Mu offering any pads for the ST183, so you might be out of luck there. Otherwise that is a really good deal; I paid around $85 USD per set of EBC Redstuffs and they are just as good as Project Mu HC Plus. Nengun shipping is expensive, but once the products are ordered for you, they are on your doorstep in 3 business days usually.

[Skobb]

I've seen TEMS buttons in other cars, but I was wondering if maybe it did some changes automatically while driving *shrugs*. There wasn't much info, and the wiki was confusing.

Shipping is $230 for the springs and 4x koni yellows.. The yellows won't be in for another 3 weeks though (not that a bit of extra waiting matters).
You reckon the particular swaybar you linked is worth getting? Ie, good brand/part, good price, save on some shipping with bulk order. If not, then I'll hold up on that and get a few other things fixed first.

I was going to go for the B Spec pads from PMU. $220 as opposed to $350, and the HC seems really impractical for my car lol
http://www.project-mu.co.jp/matching...oyota/R162.pdf
You have to click the tabs on the bottom of the page to bring up more cars. They have virtually every car imaginable.

I was looking at the EBC pads a while ago and for some reason I forgot about them. Either they were too expensive to source for my car, or I couldn't find them at all (can't remember which).

[maj]

Usually the TEMS buttons I have seen either make it soft or hard; they don't really actively control the suspension, and TBH you'll probably find the car just as fast in the soft setting anyway.

ST Swaybars are a reputable company, just their designs for particular models are usually not quite as good as others (whiteline swaybars for example) so I can't really confirm if they're the best ones for your car.

However from a perspective that you will be lowering your ride and attempting to eliminate roll through corners, a heavier duty swaybar will go a long way to helping. I do recommend you google up some ST183 swaybar advice though, because the last thing you want is not to have them setup correctly and not get the full advantage out of them.
In some makes you need to install a heavier duty rear sway first before the front, and adjustable sways like different settings etc. Someone with experience setting up FWD celicas can chime in here.
You will save some money on shipping, but if you're unsure you can always revisit it later on.

EBC pads are stupidly expensive in Aus, so that doesn't surprise me. Overseas no where near as expensive.

[Skobb]

Sorry for the late reply, I've been a little busy. When I haven't been busy, I've been busy trying to do some research lol
Just lost all my firefox windows, so I guess now is the time to post what I've found.

One thing I still haven't deduced.. Will springs for the ST182/4 Celicas fit my car? I made up a comparison picture (last pic), OEM numbers don't seem to match, but then again nothing does perfectly.
I need to replace an engine mount ASAP, so it would be great if I could figure out if they're the same as other Celicas, or other 3S-FE cars. I'll probably just make another thread up for that once I get my suspension ordered.

Should also add, I went into Adelaide Tyrepower the other day and the guy said the best bet is to ask my mate who owns an ST184 to come into the shop with me and they can get both cars up and compare.. Which is what I might do just to be safe.


Shocks are the same as the ST182, ST183 Celicas.



ST182, ST184, ST183 Celicas are the same. Therefore shocks for the Carina ED are the same as both JDM and ADM/USDM Celicas.


Tried to make sense of this.. Even though the OEM part numbers are different, I assume they're minor if at all different.. Any easy way to tell if two OEM parts are virtually the same, just slightly different number?