New struts or buy coilovers?, GT-Four coil discussion Options

[Brian_GT4]

Hey everyone, new member here and this is my first post. Sorry if there's a ton of posts on this already.

Basically, I just got my '95 GT-Four a couple weeks ago and it had a ton of noise coming from the front passenger side. Upon initial inspection by a local shop they thought it was the figure 8 mounts, after a closer look with someone in town who has his own GT-four we found that it was actually the strut that had seized up. It had fluid around it and when we applied pressure to attempt to compress the strut it just lifted the car. We checked out the other strut and it had a bit of fluid around it and could be on it's way out.

I live in Canada and getting parts here for this car is going to be a trick to say the least.

My options at this point are either new stock struts (~$800 CAD) or go to coilovers ($1000~$3000+ CAD).

The car currently sits quite low and I've had it scrape in places I'd prefer to see it not scrape in. My thoughts are with coilovers I could fix the current problem and raise the ride height.

I've read a couple write ups on here about different types of coilovers that are available and I read a really in-depth review of BC racing coilovers. These seem like a pretty cheap and reliable alternative to the TRD or Tein factory superstrut coils.

I don't plan to do much with the car, it's definitely not going to be raced anything like that. It is my winter ride for this winter and I need to make sure it runs reliably and I need to get this seized strut out asap.

Any insight, thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

I'm curious what some other people have done to set up coilovers in their ST205s and what products they went with / how hard the install was.

Thanks.

[malpaso]

I got the same issue few years ago. In Europe I found is the same in terms of price to buy OEM once or coilovers from TEIN. I wanted TEINs. But only till moment I talked to guy who had them. TEINs (as he told me) are extremely hard and in normal driving conditions you totally loose comfort. He recommended me BC coilovers. They were 3x cheaper than TEINs. Only difference is they're not "plug and play". You need to use your old strut for front and weld it to BC. There is topis about this with pictures for sure... (sorry messaging from phone, else would give you the link myself).

[jordisonjr]

I've heard horror stories of running BC coilovers in winter, in Winnipeg, MB, with parts seizing and no longer being adjustable. So I'd be really hesitant to run them out east where there's much more salt.
Also, Coilovers at the max height, most likely won't be higher than stock, in most cases it is lower.

[Brian_GT4]

Yeah I went through the read up on the BC coilovers install and that's what convinced me to pick up a pair. I'm up for the challenge. The trick is finding out what the exact model of BC coilovers I need is.

I've narrowed it down to the C-26-BR, however...

http://www.frsport.com/index.php?target=ca...=&q=c-26-br

There's 3 different sets, c-26-br, c-26-br-ra & c-26-br-rh

In my head I would think that I would just stick with the c-26-br, however I have no idea what the difference is between the other two. If anyone could shed some light on this that would be great.


I did read some reviews about using Coilovers in the winter and a lot of people say they get eaten by the salt that gets thrown on the roads. We get a lot of that here in BC too. The plus side is I have a work vehicle for to and from work travel. The car will be only going out on days when I feel like getting a little sideways haha. In all seriousness though, I'll be pretty picky about the conditions when I take it out. My girlfriend has a golf that we'll be primarily using on the nasty days / as the grocery getter.

I don't think the car has stock springs in it, It sits pretty low and I often scrape when I'm out and about. I've seen pictures of other guys' cars that are way higher. Ultimately though, if it ends up riding at the same height I can cope with that. What I can't cope with is the noise coming from the seized strut and my lack of being able to cruise the car until it gets fixed.

[jordisonjr]

Yeah I went through the read up on the BC coilovers install and that's what convinced me to pick up a pair. I'm up for the challenge. The trick is finding out what the exact model of BC coilovers I need is.

I've narrowed it down to the C-26-BR, however...

http://www.frsport.com/index.php?target=ca...=&q=c-26-br

There's 3 different sets, c-26-br, c-26-br-ra & c-26-br-rh

In my head I would think that I would just stick with the c-26-br, however I have no idea what the difference is between the other two. If anyone could shed some light on this that would be great.


I did read some reviews about using Coilovers in the winter and a lot of people say they get eaten by the salt that gets thrown on the roads. We get a lot of that here in BC too. The plus side is I have a work vehicle for to and from work travel. The car will be only going out on days when I feel like getting a little sideways haha. In all seriousness though, I'll be pretty picky about the conditions when I take it out. My girlfriend has a golf that we'll be primarily using on the nasty days / as the grocery getter.

I don't think the car has stock springs in it, It sits pretty low and I often scrape when I'm out and about. I've seen pictures of other guys' cars that are way higher. Ultimately though, if it ends up riding at the same height I can cope with that. What I can't cope with is the noise coming from the seized strut and my lack of being able to cruise the car until it gets fixed.

Whoops, some how I read you were from Nova Scotia, not BC, I dunno where that came from though
Out there you'll probably be a lot better off than out east as they are known for really rusty cars, and BC, not so much.

[malpaso]

Piece you want is C26 BR RH because of upper mount ball joints at front an rear. See details here:

http://www.bc-racing.co.uk/applications/to...trut-94-99.html

[Brian_GT4]

Piece you want is C26 BR RH because of upper mount ball joints at front an rear. See details here:

http://www.bc-racing.co.uk/applications/to...trut-94-99.html

Thanks a bunch for making sense of that for me. Appreciate it big time.

[jbod]

Nothing wrong with the bc's they seem to do the job. I used a set in one of my 205s and i also used the teins. I guess in a quality perspective the teins had travelled 150,000ks, looked and felt new. Id imagine the bc shocks would last 6-7years before needing a birthday. The teins twice that. Ones from japan the other taiwan. Out of everything twice i have just re sleeved the shock. Chop it in half weld a nut on and put some koni inserts in and your away. Same feel as the GAB or TRD dampner shocks. And can always replace the shock cartridges. Maybe buy a good second hand set of aftermarket direct replacement dampners like the GAB or TRD shocks. Approx 600-1000 nzd landed i have found.

Il currently using GAB dampner shocks really good tho mine are getting old done 150ks or so!

[rustyspoon]

Nothing wrong with the bc's they seem to do the job. I used a set in one of my 205s and i also used the teins. I guess in a quality perspective the teins had travelled 150,000ks, looked and felt new. Id imagine the bc shocks would last 6-7years before needing a birthday. The teins twice that. Ones from japan the other taiwan. Out of everything twice i have just re sleeved the shock. Chop it in half weld a nut on and put some koni inserts in and your away. Same feel as the GAB or TRD dampner shocks. And can always replace the shock cartridges. Maybe buy a good second hand set of aftermarket direct replacement dampners like the GAB or TRD shocks. Approx 600-1000 nzd landed i have found.

Il currently using GAB dampner shocks really good tho mine are getting old done 150ks or so!

How is the travel on the tein coilovers?

[skogs]

Teins travel is ridicoulus. When i did a 3-point turn in my driveway thats slightly uphill, only 3 wheels touch the ground at a time.

[rustyspoon]

Teins travel is ridicoulus. When i did a 3-point turn in my driveway thats slightly uphill, only 3 wheels touch the ground at a time.

Hmm. Not what i wanted to hear