For us guys that aren't fortunate enough to have Teins yet, what's the lowest setting? Do you mean softest, or when the car is lowered down the most? Is this a low number on the EDFC that corresponds to stiffer? I assume what you're complaining about can't be remedied by cranking the stiffness up with the EDFC. I'm still trying to decide between CS & Flex.

 

hey Jerry,

the lowest (stiffest) setting is when the dampening adjusters on top are turned all the way clockwise. I have mine set one or two clicks stiffer than middle(I forgot the number)

If you want to rail turns, get the Flex or SS. If you want an almost stock ride, but without all the float and sloppy feel, go CS.

 

I got Flex coils, wasn't happy for first few weeks, but than i discovered so many settings/setups, i think that was right choice for me after all, don't regret anymore

Oh, and roads aren't good here in IL, i'm also runing 19'' during summer

for great number of options they give you

 

Thanks Chuck.
The problem I'm having is that I already have the L-Tuned setup, which already takes all the slop out of the stock ride. On short quick bumps it is often jarring, but it isn't stiff enough to prevent all the roll on turns. Does your CS ever seem jarring at all?

If i get flex, I don't want something that goes from stiff, to a boat, with nothing in between. Needs to be variable but usable.

 

So when you say you weren't happy, did it seem like they were too stiff? If so, what did you do to compensate for that?

 

sorry i cant be of more help..only experience i have is the cs with edfc. my complaint before was the lack of stiffness..but after driving around for a while and comparing with my friends stock gs400..there is a world of difference..you still get the ride quality of "LEXUS" BUT like someone said..you dont get the floaty feel.

 

obviously there are bumps out there that can jar any suspension, but I notice no more jarring than any other car, and it actually seems less jarring than stock because the travel is more dampened.

I don't regret getting the CS at all.

 

So when set to full firm, is that too stiff for you?

 

a little, but not if I was in the mood for a firmer ride. I don't have edfc, so once I found a setting I liked, I quit messing with it.

I think I have it set about 6 clicks from full firm.

 

so tonight i was lucky enough to ride a gs400 with similar (but more aggressive) suspension setup than my gs400 with the old tein cs (thanks RMMGS4, seems like you are the first one here to have it installed!!!!). also 20s, and it's on even lower profile tires. it just got the newest tein cs installed, and we took the car for a spin on the exact same route we used last time for the testing (read first post). we did two laps, one with the coilover at the softest, and one at the stiffest, and here's the review.

softest
======
i wasn't told on the settings before i drove the car. the car was amazingly smooth. i could tell it's better from the beginning. in some sense you can say that the rebounce is much slower than the old tein cs, but in a good way. with the old tein cs, especially in the soft settings, you hit a dip, and the car will bounce low very quickly, and then bounce up and down maybe 2 times before it settles. at the softest settings it's actaully pretty unbearable coz 'the car feels very very floaty, to the point that i lose my confident in driving it comfortably

but the new tein cs is totally different. it hits a dip, it will actually bounce low slower, and when you come out of the dip, the car doesn't rebounce as much, making the whole transition much smoother than before. this is great great imrovement

going over railroad or some immediate uneven roads the feel is pretty similar to the old tein cs, not much difference there

when driving the car i thought the car is probably set to medium to stiff settings, but when we finished the first lap i was told it's the softest settings, and i was extremely surprised and pleased with the setup!!!!

stiffest
======
so the next obvious thing to do was to test the stiffest. given how good the softest settings was, i was afraid how the stiffest might be like -- rock hard

NO, absolutely not. the car still drives very nicely. a lot flatter, and you feel the road a lot more from the floor and the steering wheel. more vibration, buzz, pulls, and steering wheel got tighter too.

however it's not as stiff as you would think. rebounce was faster and you coudl feel it's stiffer, but still very comfortable. better than my old tein flex at the middle to soft settings. we were on freeway offramp turn and the car was much flatter than with the softest settings.

you could tell there is quite a big range of difference between softest and stiffest settings, but it's very different from teh old tein cs

the old tein cs, it's more "simple". at stiffest, it's just stiffer. the softer you get, the more rebounce you get, and at the softest settings you just see your car bouncing up and more quite bad. but with the new tein cs. at the stiffest i think it's pretty solid, but yet you can see the comfort level. though i wouldn't say i want that for every day drive. however, at the softest, it doesn't have the bad rebounce as that on the old tein cs. it's much smoother, but has more gives, and it puts in more "insulation" between the driver and the road

summary
=======
this is mainly jsut the driving feel. the new tein cs is definitely an improvement over the old one, quite dramatic i would say. seems like it's cheaper as well, and depending on the weight, it could be a pretty good buy!

is it worth the change from the old tein cs? it's two folds. i say it depends on what settings you running on the old tein cs. i am running middle settings, and i am ok with the ride and handling, and don't think the new tein cs is going to gain much over it. but if you think the old tein cs at middle settings is still too stiff, but at the softest settings you find your car jumping up and down, maybe you should look more into this

hope this helps!

and again, thanks to RMMGS4 for the test drive!

 

1) So how do you think these compare to the Tein Flex?

2) Is it worth changing to these if you have the old Tein CS? Or is it not enough difference to justify doing that?

Jerry

 

hey jerry. these are oveall still softer than the tein flex imho, in a better way for daily drive i think

and about your second question, read my second to last paragraph!

 

Thanks Henry

Budget dictated other mods back then. This will work out nicely for me...

 

So Henry it sounds like what you're saying is the new CS is better/more controlled at the softer end, but if you tend to like stiffer anyway, the new CS and old CS are pretty much the same.

 

Excellent write up.

CEO