Cheap coilovers
Last Updated on July 22, 2024 by Mutiara
Against a friend’s recommendation, a cheap set of coilovers from eBay were purchased and tested out on a Mazda MX-3. Appearing much larger in the product photographs, their actual size was quite a surprise. Following are some photographs of the comparison.
The original product, usually appearing like the following picture, is very well presented.
The actual product, compared to MX-3 springs. Another example of an installation on an MX-6 (furthest to the right).
Once installed the car ride quality was like riding on crappy springs and no struts at all. There are also reports of them making pretty bad noises during operation.
An explanation provided by steeb on mx-3.com is any spring will bounce if it is not properly dampened or paired with a dead damper. Even using 500# ers spring with a brand new zx2 strut will bounce also. The cheap eBay coilvers have very short springs so they make up for it by increasing spring rate. Increasing spring rate of course in turns reduces ride quality. Even tho they are cheapo coilovers, they have firmer spring rates than any off the shelf lowering spring. firmer spring rates are mandatory in order to use shorter springs and to keep from bottoming struts or shocks.
Its a basic suspension theory that most people apply to any car. Firmer spring rates are also necessary to reduce the amount of travel the suspension sees during bumps, which helps to reduce bump steer. Bump steer is caused by toe changes during suspension compression or rebound on a car lowered past the point where its control arms are no longer parallel with flat ground.
The best suspension performance is when control arms are parallel with the ground. lowering more than that without increasing spring rates drastically will create excessive body roll which must also be cured by using even stiffer springs. At stock height the front and rear control arms of the MX-3 are parallel with the ground
Firmer springs need a proper damper. Underdampened springs to the regular joe will feel harsh bouncy where as a properly dampened spring will feel rough.
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Therefore the biggest reason against purchasing eBay coilovers is the lack of information about the spring rates, which is required in order to properly build a damper that can handle those rates. A second reason is because there is no helper spring to keep the real spring properly seated if the suspension is at full droop. A major driving hazard unless fixed.
