Help me decide whether or not to buy

[wr-ecks]

I dont know much about Coilovers so Im need of some help.

Quick rundown of what I do with my car (05 STI): DD almost every day. RallyX about once a month and once or twice a month I might do some pretend stage rally driving out in the woods on some semi-well maintained service roads.

I found a killer deal on some TEIN FLex coilovers for my car, for some silly reason nobody really makes some decent adjustable struts for my car so Im kinda forced to get coilovers if I want something good. Would these be good for me?

Will they A: stand up to some rally abuse?
B: I know these will improve the overall performace of the suspension on the street but what about the dirt? Will they be worse or better than the stock struts while rallying?

Thanks.

[409industries]

1) No Tein Flex coilovers are designed for the street. The only ones i am aware of that are for gravel are the Tein HG's. The Flex's will not last in rally, and why destroy a decent set of street coilovers when you can get some AGX's for much less which will hold up better? The only reason i can think of is ride height adjustability, which is almost silly if you're going to be rallycrossing the car.

2) you might see some improvement in handling in the beginning, but they probably wont last (see above)

3) where did you find this killer deal? Id highly recommend getting the EDFC controllers if you have a SO that complains about a stiff / bumpy ride! :)

[odi]

Your 05 sti struts will work better on the gravel that the TEIN Flex.

Hot Bits makes a set of gravel struts for your car starting at $1800.

[Rally OBXT]

I vote to stay with your stock struts and springs till they break. Then think about upgrading.

[wr-ecks]

I vote to stay with your stock struts and springs till they break. Then think about upgrading. That was actually my plan. I dont feel like im limited by my suspension or anything like that. My driving skills are still pretty weak so its not like its a must have thing.

3) where did you find this killer deal? Id highly recommend getting the EDFC controllers if you have a SO that complains about a stiff / bumpy ride! :)This killer deal actually comes with the EDFC controller and my SO can drive her own car if it bugs her. ;-)

and why destroy a decent set of street coilovers when you can get some AGX's for much less which will hold up better? The only reason i can think of is ride height adjustability, which is almost silly if you're going to be rallycrossing the car.To be honest, Its been a little while since I last checked, but when I did they didn't make agx's for my car. Ill have to look again. AFAIK Im pretty much stuck buying coilovers for my car, no easy option for struts.

I appreciate the advice, Ill just wait until some used gravel specific coilovers come along. Thanks.


Hot Bits makes a set of gravel struts for your car starting at $1800.

Ill look into it. Thanks, at the moment I dont really want to spend that much but who knows, maybe Ill change my mind.

[pcowan]

I've got the HGs for my 04 and I love them for RallyX. On the street they're just fine except I don't like how high the car rides in the front. As a solution I've a set of Flex's and I just swap the fronts on between races.

I've been looking at my stock struts and I think there's a chance the stock STi springs will fit in the HG struts. The benefit here is that the springs are a slight bit shorter but nearly the same spring rate allowing me to lower the CG a bit, and not have to swap struts all the time at the loss of a little bit of suspension travel.

When looking at the HGs for the 05 hubs, the nice thing is there there's two different specs available: HG Dirt & HG Gravel, one being meant for stage and the other more rallyx focused it seems. With the 04 it's only the "Dirt" that's available.
--pete