SE Springs vs Eibachs anyone made the switch
- Thread starter MACK
- Start date
philbo909 said:Yeh looks fine with SE and //M tyre size, an msport arch gap
ben g said:Doesn't look as bad as I thought it would
I think M Sport is a good compromise between the 2. I may fit my M Sport rear springs to check the difference myself.
I'm going to get some Suplex SE front springs ordered and once they're on I make a final decision on how it ride/handles/looks and whether to stick with the SE or go back to the Eibachs.
Once I've made my mind up on the springs front I'm going to try some 245/40 and 215/45 tyres as a half way house option between the M spec and the standard ones. Again it will come down to how it rides/handles/looks
ben g said:Doesn't look as bad as I thought it would
I think M Sport is a good compromise between the 2. I may fit my M Sport rear springs to check the difference myself.
Just re read your comment Ben, sorry I didn't pick up on it initially but what do you mean by "its not as nice as the top photo" its got me a bit stumped.
MACK said:ben g said:Doesn't look as bad as I thought it would
I think M Sport is a good compromise between the 2. I may fit my M Sport rear springs to check the difference myself.
Just re read your comment Ben, sorry I didn't pick up on it initially but what do you mean by "its not as nice as the top photo" its got me a bit stumped.
I assumed the top photo was with eibach rear springs fitted? It looks lower than the 2nd photo. Perhaps it's the sunlight playing tricks?
ben g said:MACK said:ben g said:Doesn't look as bad as I thought it would
I think M Sport is a good compromise between the 2. I may fit my M Sport rear springs to check the difference myself.
Just re read your comment Ben, sorry I didn't pick up on it initially but what do you mean by "its not as nice as the top photo" its got me a bit stumped.
I assumed the top photo was with eibach rear springs fitted? It looks lower than the 2nd photo. Perhaps it's the sunlight playing tricks?
I see what you mean now. No both photos were taken with a few minutes of each other at the same car park. It does seen a bigger gap in the second photo though. Strange as both parking areas seemed flat
The ride is definitely better, but its difficult to tell how much influence the front is having on general ride quality on the move at a decent pace at the moment. At very slow speeds and over slow bumps/road humps in particular where you can easily distinguish front to rear, its clearly much better. I guess I wont really know until I've fitted the matching front springs. I've ordered some, just waiting for them to arrive now.Zeddicus said:
The tyres are definitely helping to fill the wheel arches. I suppose that shouldn't come as a surprise, the M Spec tyres have sidewalls that are Fronts 11mm & Rear 13mm taller than the standard zed ones, so that's most of the extra 15mm of ride height SE suspension has over M Sport taken care of. Then the added effect of the spacers pushing the wheels closer to the arches further reduces the visual gap.
Well finally found a bit of time to get the fronts on. The ride is without a doubt now much better than with the Eibachs on, or indeed the 50/50 mix (eibach fronts/se rears) I had on for a few weeks.
However there is a slight drawback, inevitably there is a bit more body roll when fast/hard cornering, but its not too bad really. You dont notice it too much during normal corning. Roll wise its probably on a par with my original setup of old knakered OEM M Sports shocks and springs.
I'm going to trial this set up over the next few weeks or so before making a final decision. During that time I'm hoping to get a good few A/B road blasts in and then see what I think.
Got to say though I'm really liking this improved ride quality, its now very similar to my wife's F21 M Sport in terms of ride quality. That's also on 18" wheels and F 225/40 R 245/40 Non Runflat Tyres.
Here's a few pics of it with SE Spring on all around. Note please remember its also running M Spec tyre sizes and F15 R20 spacers
However there is a slight drawback, inevitably there is a bit more body roll when fast/hard cornering, but its not too bad really. You dont notice it too much during normal corning. Roll wise its probably on a par with my original setup of old knakered OEM M Sports shocks and springs.
I'm going to trial this set up over the next few weeks or so before making a final decision. During that time I'm hoping to get a good few A/B road blasts in and then see what I think.
Got to say though I'm really liking this improved ride quality, its now very similar to my wife's F21 M Sport in terms of ride quality. That's also on 18" wheels and F 225/40 R 245/40 Non Runflat Tyres.
Here's a few pics of it with SE Spring on all around. Note please remember its also running M Spec tyre sizes and F15 R20 spacers
ben g said:Seeing as we're doing comparison pics
_20180707_204206.JPG
Well for comparison purposes
here's mine on the same ellipsoids with M spec tyres & spacers on the eibachs (sorry not a great pic)
this time on eibachs with mv2 on standard tyres & spacers
this one is not long after I got it 3 years ago. ellipsoids no spacers standard tyres on M Sport springs
Attachments
I do agree the M Sport springs are probably about perfect ride height/arch filling wise with M spec tyres. The only problem with them is they're harder riding than the Eibach's, hence why it comes down to a choice between SE and Eibachs for me.philbo909 said:Yeh looks like an msport gap to me, personally I'd do msport springs and M tyre sizes
I know what your saying, it really is a form over function kinda thing.ben g said:
OK fast forward twelve and a little update just in case anyone is interested or thinking of following suit.
Well what can I say, last week I finally got around to changing the springs back to Eibachs and I have to say I'm glad I did.
The rationale for this is I've never been particularly happy with the car on SE springs in terms of both aesthetics and handling. Ride was the best I've experience in a zed though, shame you can't retain that aspect.
By far the main reason I changed back was the car just didn't handle well enough for me on the SE springs, it was just too wallowly in the bends and felt a lot more understeery and unresponsive on the front end than it did on Eibachs. Yes the ride is harder but its actually not too bad at all really for sports car, obviously the M spec tyre sizes I'm running will be helping somewhat in this respect and removing the spacers has also helped in this respect. I have to say the new found sharpness to the steering and lack of roll in the bends plus some decent weather have made me really appreciate the car again. Feels much more like sports car should.
As I mentioned above I've also removed the spacers and fitted some new front tyres since the SE springs were fitted last year. The new tyres got rid of the tramlining I was experiencing (despite the fact there were 5mm+ left on the PS3's that came off) which was annoying the hell out of me. Removing the spacers definitely improved the steering feel/response (google scrub radius for an explanation on that one) and also the ride and handling (I think the leverage principle explains that one with the wheels being further from the spring plus the extra weight of the spacers).
Aesthetics wise the car obviously looks better on Eibachs than it did on SE springs. But the removal of the spacers does make the wheels seem to be a bit to far in the arches which is a bit annoying, however the improvements in the steering/ride/handling are worth it in my opinion. On the plus side though without the spacers the car doesn't bottom out on some of the twisties near me like it used to previously on Eibachs despite the higher tyre sidewalls being retained.
Next port of call for me is finally getting the 107s refurbed, which I've been planning on doing for years now!
While there off I'm going to be running a set of MV2s with the standard profile Bridgestone non RFT tyres. Not the best tyres in the world by any stretch, however I'm going to try to use the experience to decide if I want to go back to standard profiles in terms of ride quality, steering feel and handling. The M spec tyres are definitely comfier but they do add roughly 0.5kg per corner in unsprung weight as well as looking a bit agricultural, which also has the effect of making the wheels look smaller to my eyes.
Well what can I say, last week I finally got around to changing the springs back to Eibachs and I have to say I'm glad I did.
The rationale for this is I've never been particularly happy with the car on SE springs in terms of both aesthetics and handling. Ride was the best I've experience in a zed though, shame you can't retain that aspect.
By far the main reason I changed back was the car just didn't handle well enough for me on the SE springs, it was just too wallowly in the bends and felt a lot more understeery and unresponsive on the front end than it did on Eibachs. Yes the ride is harder but its actually not too bad at all really for sports car, obviously the M spec tyre sizes I'm running will be helping somewhat in this respect and removing the spacers has also helped in this respect. I have to say the new found sharpness to the steering and lack of roll in the bends plus some decent weather have made me really appreciate the car again. Feels much more like sports car should.
As I mentioned above I've also removed the spacers and fitted some new front tyres since the SE springs were fitted last year. The new tyres got rid of the tramlining I was experiencing (despite the fact there were 5mm+ left on the PS3's that came off) which was annoying the hell out of me. Removing the spacers definitely improved the steering feel/response (google scrub radius for an explanation on that one) and also the ride and handling (I think the leverage principle explains that one with the wheels being further from the spring plus the extra weight of the spacers).
Aesthetics wise the car obviously looks better on Eibachs than it did on SE springs. But the removal of the spacers does make the wheels seem to be a bit to far in the arches which is a bit annoying, however the improvements in the steering/ride/handling are worth it in my opinion. On the plus side though without the spacers the car doesn't bottom out on some of the twisties near me like it used to previously on Eibachs despite the higher tyre sidewalls being retained.
Next port of call for me is finally getting the 107s refurbed, which I've been planning on doing for years now!
While there off I'm going to be running a set of MV2s with the standard profile Bridgestone non RFT tyres. Not the best tyres in the world by any stretch, however I'm going to try to use the experience to decide if I want to go back to standard profiles in terms of ride quality, steering feel and handling. The M spec tyres are definitely comfier but they do add roughly 0.5kg per corner in unsprung weight as well as looking a bit agricultural, which also has the effect of making the wheels look smaller to my eyes.MACK said:OK fast forward twelve and a little update just in case anyone is interested or thinking of following suit.
Well what can I say, last week I finally got around to changing the springs back to Eibachs and I have to say I'm glad I did.
The rationale for this is I've never been particularly happy with the car on SE springs in terms of both aesthetics and handling. Ride was the best I've experience in a zed though, shame you can't retain that aspect.
By far the main reason I changed back was the car just didn't handle well enough for me on the SE springs, it was just too wallowly in the bends and felt a lot more understeery and unresponsive on the front end than it did on Eibachs. Yes the ride is harder but its actually not too bad at all really for sports car, obviously the M spec tyre sizes I'm running will be helping somewhat in this respect and removing the spacers has also helped in this respect. I have to say the new found sharpness to the steering and lack of roll in the bends plus some decent weather have made me really appreciate the car again. Feels much more like sports car should.
As I mentioned above I've also removed the spacers and fitted some new front tyres since the SE springs were fitted last year. The new tyres got rid of the tramlining I was experiencing (despite the fact there were 5mm+ left on the PS3's that came off) which was annoying the hell out of me. Removing the spacers definitely improved the steering feel/response (google scrub radius for an explanation on that one) and also the ride and handling (I think the leverage principle explains that one with the wheels being further from the spring plus the extra weight of the spacers).
Aesthetics wise the car obviously looks better on Eibachs than it did on SE springs. But the removal of the spacers does make the wheels seem to be a bit to far in the arches which is a bit annoying, however the improvements in the steering/ride/handling are worth it in my opinion. On the plus side though without the spacers the car doesn't bottom out on some of the twisties near me like it used to previously on Eibachs despite the higher tyre sidewalls being retained.
Next port of call for me is finally getting the 107s refurbed, which I've been planning on doing for years now!
Could look at 215/45 and 245/40 as a middle ground?
mjennings23 said:MACK said:OK fast forward twelve and a little update just in case anyone is interested or thinking of following suit.
Well what can I say, last week I finally got around to changing the springs back to Eibachs and I have to say I'm glad I did.
The rationale for this is I've never been particularly happy with the car on SE springs in terms of both aesthetics and handling. Ride was the best I've experience in a zed though, shame you can't retain that aspect.
By far the main reason I changed back was the car just didn't handle well enough for me on the SE springs, it was just too wallowly in the bends and felt a lot more understeery and unresponsive on the front end than it did on Eibachs. Yes the ride is harder but its actually not too bad at all really for sports car, obviously the M spec tyre sizes I'm running will be helping somewhat in this respect and removing the spacers has also helped in this respect. I have to say the new found sharpness to the steering and lack of roll in the bends plus some decent weather have made me really appreciate the car again. Feels much more like sports car should.
As I mentioned above I've also removed the spacers and fitted some new front tyres since the SE springs were fitted last year. The new tyres got rid of the tramlining I was experiencing (despite the fact there were 5mm+ left on the PS3's that came off) which was annoying the hell out of me. Removing the spacers definitely improved the steering feel/response (google scrub radius for an explanation on that one) and also the ride and handling (I think the leverage principle explains that one with the wheels being further from the spring plus the extra weight of the spacers).
Aesthetics wise the car obviously looks better on Eibachs than it did on SE springs. But the removal of the spacers does make the wheels seem to be a bit to far in the arches which is a bit annoying, however the improvements in the steering/ride/handling are worth it in my opinion. On the plus side though without the spacers the car doesn't bottom out on some of the twisties near me like it used to previously on Eibachs despite the higher tyre sidewalls being retained.
Next port of call for me is finally getting the 107s refurbed, which I've been planning on doing for years now!
Could look at 215/45 and 245/40 as a middle ground?
To be honest I was planning on going 245/40 at the back anyway next time around as the 255/40 do look a bit bulbous on the 8.5 inch rear 107s as well as the sidewalls looking a tad big. Plus the 245s are much cheaper too. I didn't really want to go any smaller than that at the back due to the fact I running a 3.64 diff and I'd have to change it again for a 3.46 one if I reverted back to the standard 255/35 to keep the same overall gearing as I have now with 255/40.
Ill see how I feel about the whole thing after having the standard tyres sizes on for a week or so whilst the wheels are refurbed.