Time to buy coilovers?

March 18, 2019 Off By Marcus

(This post contains affiliate links. Check out the affiliate disclosure here)

Are you having a coffee and thinking about upgrading you suspension, but don’t know what to choose. You hear everybody talking about coilovers and that it’s the best thing in the world since color tv. This raises the question, what are coilovers and should you invest in a set?

What are coilovers?

Coilovers are like a conventional strut on a McPherson suspension (spring and shock are one unit). One of the more easy ways to see a difference, are that coilovers uses a smaller diameter spring and are at least height adjustable. It does not matter if you buy the cheapest or top of the line stuff, they will still dampen the bumps in the road. This does not mean that cheap are equal to expensive, the price will determine shock design and adjustability level.

Adjustability

As mentioned above coilovers are adjustable, but what does that mean? Lets go over what you can adjust and where on the price range you will end up. All of the below have one thing in common, you can change the springs to the desired stiffness you want.

Cheap price
- Simple shock design, mono tube or twin tube might not be specified.
- Height adjustment.
- Not recommended for track use.
- Mostly for lowering cars.
- Lifespan can vary.
Moderate price
- Mono tube of twin tube design.
- Height adjustment.
- Compression and rebound adjustment.
- New top mounts with pillowball or rubber bushing included.
- Adjustable lower mount. For going low without changing the spring preload.
- Brake line mount.
- Street and track use.
Expensive. When only the best is good enough.
- Design can be customized to your needs.
- Height adjustment.
- Helper spring included.
- External oil reservoir, for added volume and cooler oil.
- Separate knobs for adjusting compression and rebound,
- New top mount to specification.
- Adjustable lower mount.
- Brake line mount.
- Good warranty and support.
- Street and high level track use.

What do you need?

Choosing the right coilover can be tricky. On one side we have the cheap ones that are good for your wallet but will sacrifice handling quality. But on the other side we have the expensive race stuff that will give you great handling and a big hole in your wallet. As you can see the choice can be difficult. The best thing you can do is to take a minute or two to figure what you are going to use your car for. Because a track/drift car will require one type of coilover and a street car another. Remember that an expensive kit comes with a lot of adjustments possibilities, so many that it can be hard to set up right if you don’t know what you are doing.