Giving up on Koni; questions re: zx2 struts

[Vanished]

I know, i got ripped off from Performance Plus here in the city...all tuner shops have jacked up prices. Oh it's all in canadian too.

[nightfire]

Thanks everyone.

As luck would have it, Lazer Auto managed to find all 4 Tokico HPs in stock at a dealer and got them to me by Thursday (last week). It was $580CDN with tax, which is steep, but I really needed them like yesterday. Anyway, I installed them with new dust boots/bumpstops, top plates and bearings (though I used my old front upper spring retainers or whatever they're called).

Total cost with my springs is probably around $1100cdn.

To be honest, I'm not overly impressed with the Eibachs. I guess I was expecting more stiffness. :/ I'm really pleased with the Tokicos though. Handles a lot better.

I'm pretty happy with the ride height. It looks good and it's not too low, so I can still clear speedbumps and my parking garage ramp.

Still, I wish the springs were firmer. How much stiffer are the H&Rs?

[Vanished]

You might not want to go any stiffer really...if your worried about body roll strut bars will help. If you go stiffer I couldn't see a whole lot more gain, you'll just have a much harsher ride. Personally i think the eibachs are a good balance of both.

Anyway good to see you got all the parts, to bad you had to spend 1100 tho! Hahaha...go and hit up some clover leafs.

[nightfire]

You might not want to go any stiffer really...if your worried about body roll strut bars will help. If you go stiffer I couldn't see a whole lot more gain, you'll just have a much harsher ride. Personally i think the eibachs are a good balance of both.

Anyway good to see you got all the parts, to bad you had to spend 1100 tho! Hahaha...go and hit up some clover leafs.

Hmm.. maybe you're right. I drove with blown shocks and bad springs for so long, maybe I just have to get used to proper functioning suspension again.

I'm gonna order some strut tower braces next week. Do you know if anyone still makes bigger antiroll bars for the GS?

[Yoda]

You might not want to go any stiffer really...if your worried about body roll strut bars will help. If you go stiffer I couldn't see a whole lot more gain, you'll just have a much harsher ride. Personally i think the eibachs are a good balance of both.

Anyway good to see you got all the parts, to bad you had to spend 1100 tho! Hahaha...go and hit up some clover leafs.

Hmm.. maybe you're right. I drove with blown shocks and bad springs for so long, maybe I just have to get used to proper functioning suspension again.

I'm gonna order some strut tower braces next week. Do you know if anyone still makes bigger antiroll bars for the GS?

The current Eibach MX-3 springs have a connection to MTL. Years after Eibach drop the MX-3 application in North America. Ray (one of the ex-Lazer guys) at R. Thibert contacted Gary at Eibach (NA) about starting production again just because there was so much demand from the Quebec and Ontario market. Eibach instead of just restarting production of the old springs they ship in several different set of spring for test and evaluations. I was the one that wrote the evaluation and sent them to Eibach. Some dropped the car to much, some were to stiff the final out come are basically tuned to Quebec roads and driving style. You also have to keep in mind Eibach has to look at product liability especially since the product will also be sold in the US so like any product sold to the general public this spring kit still leave a lot more understeer than what I would have recommended for myself

There were no direct bolt-in aftermarket anti-roll bar kits for the MX-3. You have a 1996 so you should already have a 22mm rear bar instead of the 20mm of the older cars anyway. I was working with a manufacture of industrial springs in Calgary to make larger rear anti roll bars back in 1999-2000 to have some made but then people started to figure out that the Canadian MX-3 GS after the Americans stopped importing them had larger rear bars every body was looking for these and the interest and market died for an aftermarket kits. There is no point to adding a larger front bar. It will only make the car push harder into a turn. If anything you would want a bigger bar in the back and stiffer rear springs. This would be a very common set-up on for any Mazda FWD car set-up for a road course.

[nightfire]

You might not want to go any stiffer really...if your worried about body roll strut bars will help. If you go stiffer I couldn't see a whole lot more gain, you'll just have a much harsher ride. Personally i think the eibachs are a good balance of both.

Anyway good to see you got all the parts, to bad you had to spend 1100 tho! Hahaha...go and hit up some clover leafs.

Hmm.. maybe you're right. I drove with blown shocks and bad springs for so long, maybe I just have to get used to proper functioning suspension again.

I'm gonna order some strut tower braces next week. Do you know if anyone still makes bigger antiroll bars for the GS?

The current Eibach MX-3 springs have a connection to MTL. Years after Eibach drop the MX-3 application in North America. Ray (one of the ex-Lazer guys) at R. Thibert contacted Gary at Eibach (NA) about starting production again just because there was so much demand from the Quebec and Ontario market. Eibach instead of just restarting production of the old springs they ship in several different set of spring for test and evaluations. I was the one that wrote the evaluation and sent them to Eibach. Some dropped the car to much, some were to stiff the final out come are basically tuned to Quebec roads and driving style. You also have to keep in mind Eibach has to look at product liability especially since the product will also be sold in the US so like any product sold to the general public this spring kit still leave a lot more understeer than what I would have recommended for myself

There were no direct bolt-in aftermarket anti-roll bar kits for the MX-3. You have a 1996 so you should already have a 22mm rear bar instead of the 20mm of the older cars anyway. I was working with a manufacture of industrial springs in Calgary to make larger rear anti roll bars back in 1999-2000 to have some made but then people started to figure out that the Canadian MX-3 GS after the Americans stopped importing them had larger rear bars every body was looking for these and the interest and market died for an aftermarket kits. There is no point to adding a larger front bar. It will only make the car push harder into a turn. If anything you would want a bigger bar in the back and stiffer rear springs. This would be a very common set-up on for any Mazda FWD car set-up for a road course.

I see why your nick is Yoda now.

Thanks for the info. I have a lot to learn about this stuff..

I think my problem actually might be related to bad sway bar bushings because there is practically no pitching on acceleration or hard braking.. just excessive roll. And there's a clunking sound from the front and I'm sure its not strut/spring or ball joint related. A bad bushing might help explain the excessive roll too.

I'll take a look later this week.

[nope-mx3]

There is no point to adding a larger front bar. It will only make the car push harder into a turn. If anything you would want a bigger bar in the back and stiffer rear springs. This would be a very common set-up on for any Mazda FWD car set-up for a road course.

I`m in the final stages for my Mx-3, getting it ready for some trackdriving.
What I`m looking for is some camber settings etc.
I`m gonna use semi-slicks, so Mazda`s recommended camberangles wont be the best I guess.
Going to get a 4-wheel alignment and corner weighting at the same time.

Just need some tips on wich numbers I should tell the techs.

-n

[Vanished]

Sorry to bring up and old ish thread but if you haven't gotten these numbers yet talk to Electric Energy, he got some good settings on his car for auto x.

[Steeb]

imo, i if you want more peformance, illuminas from probe/mx6/626 etc and ground controls with about 100# stiffer spring rate than the ots gc kit comes with