chrisw
07-02-2004, 10:51 PM
hey all,
just finished installing my new Ohlins this afternoon. I have been tootling around town trying not to trash my tires (alignment is tomorrow morning).
anyhow,
wow.
These struts are everything I expected out of my DMS 50's Street length struts...
I would say these struts are about middle of the road in terms of prices for coilover struts. They are definately worth the extra cost over something like JIC's or the average tein struts that are popular options.
The bouncyness of the ride is gone. The evo is as stable as a BMW, and this is the first time I have had a quite ride since I bought the car.
The install went pretty easy. A little easier than a subaru, but not by much. With the Ohlins, you need to provide your own camber plates for the front. I thought it would not be a big deal, but neither Tein, cusco, nor Zeil had any product in this country as far as I could tell. I have been looking for a couple of weeks now. However, I did have some left over cusco camber plates for the WRX. I had to re-drill the holes for the studs, but it worked out ok. After that little problem, the install for the front struts was straight forward and completed in about 1/2 hour for both struts.
The rear struts were a pain in the arse to remove. If I were to do it again, I would use a spring compressor so you can compress the rear struts enough to remove them. I resorted to a pry bar and brute force. I was not going to be denied...
I had some minor issues setting the spring height, but that was expected since I have Hypercoils springs with custom spring rates, not Ohlin springs normally shipped with the strut. Jason @ Britts (ogvw) warned me ahead of time that this might happen. Having lived with DMS struts for a while, I had no issues with this. I knew I would have to experiment with the ride height (which is why I was tootling around town to let the springs settle) to get the final ride height, I made sure the spring was contacting the upper and lower perches then tightened 1/2 turn.
I can't wait to see what these struts can do...
just finished installing my new Ohlins this afternoon. I have been tootling around town trying not to trash my tires (alignment is tomorrow morning).
anyhow,
wow.
These struts are everything I expected out of my DMS 50's Street length struts...
I would say these struts are about middle of the road in terms of prices for coilover struts. They are definately worth the extra cost over something like JIC's or the average tein struts that are popular options.
The bouncyness of the ride is gone. The evo is as stable as a BMW, and this is the first time I have had a quite ride since I bought the car.
The install went pretty easy. A little easier than a subaru, but not by much. With the Ohlins, you need to provide your own camber plates for the front. I thought it would not be a big deal, but neither Tein, cusco, nor Zeil had any product in this country as far as I could tell. I have been looking for a couple of weeks now. However, I did have some left over cusco camber plates for the WRX. I had to re-drill the holes for the studs, but it worked out ok. After that little problem, the install for the front struts was straight forward and completed in about 1/2 hour for both struts.
The rear struts were a pain in the arse to remove. If I were to do it again, I would use a spring compressor so you can compress the rear struts enough to remove them. I resorted to a pry bar and brute force. I was not going to be denied...
I had some minor issues setting the spring height, but that was expected since I have Hypercoils springs with custom spring rates, not Ohlin springs normally shipped with the strut. Jason @ Britts (ogvw) warned me ahead of time that this might happen. Having lived with DMS struts for a while, I had no issues with this. I knew I would have to experiment with the ride height (which is why I was tootling around town to let the springs settle) to get the final ride height, I made sure the spring was contacting the upper and lower perches then tightened 1/2 turn.
I can't wait to see what these struts can do...