Thanks Chaplain! I look forward to talking with you next week after you had some time on the coilovers.

 

For those that keep himming and hawwing, this is some food for thought.
I have purchased a lot of suspension variations. I haven't tried the Endura-Techs. Probably won't, HOWEVER I think I could have saved myself a lot of aggravation if I tried them first. Unfortunately they weren't out until late spring this year. I won't only because I think I'm on the cuff of having what I have lately work out for me.

Here lies the detail as to why you want these if you drive on the street:
Everybody's spring rate is WAY TO FREAKIN HIGH! Great to track the car. But the cold reality is you are NOT SPEED RACER! You are boy wonder and need to drive this car on the street. Did you know the rear spring rate on our cars from Honda is 148 lbs. How come everybody is doing rear springs of 350 lbs then on the rear? Front spring rate of 464 lbs?
That's the spring rate of a Honda Odyssey with over 4200 lbs.

Endura-Tech's spring rates of approx. 290lbs front and 168lbs rear is right at where they need to be to handle really well, and be comfortable. The valving is not adjustable and that is the only thing missing, but from what you can read here is, buyers are liking their product a whole hell of a lot!

Just wanted to throw some beneficial information out there for those considering coilovers.

 

Hey brother I am in total agreement with what you are saying I just installed my Endura-Tech today my front is tucking cant put a finger in there and I go over pot holes train tracks what ever and the rides feels stock. I am amazed this is my third car that I have lowered and it is the best ride. The FIT corner better and handles better I just need to take the back down a little bit more. If you are looking for a coilover look no futher you need to get Endura Tech I drove my fit on the highway and street and the fit feels stock but looks lowered my friends were impresed. Great Justin Kenchan thanks for the all of the writeups I will post pictures this weekend. Take care

 

chaplain2FIT- glad you like the setup. this setup has a lot of
potential while keeping dd drivability in mind.

radar- you have to take into consideration that these ET's construction
is the same as you would find in much more expensive setups. meaning,
the spring preload is unaltered when you raise/lower the height. the
height is adjusted by the damper casing. with this in mind, you can't
expect ET to release adjustable dampers at $899... they would have
to degrade construction somewhere...and we don't want that!

the dampness is well matched to the springs. you can hit a big bump
and still ride over it like stock even if you're lowered -1.5" or more.
the bumpstops are also very progressive so it's not an abrupt stop
when you hit them...almost goes unnoticed.

im glad people are finding my posts useful cause i only post things
from actual experience. these c/o's rock!!!

 

I understood that from the beginning. If the valving was adjustable, it would have to be more $$$.

 

kenchan, can the Endura Tech's go lower than they are setup in your photos?

I am buying a Fit this week, and plan to use these coilovers, but want a one finger gap all around if possible.

 

yes they can. also note that im using smaller profile tires so the wheel
gap is more than it would be on a stock FitSport's tires. it would be around
1finger gap on my car if i was running stock tires.

stock tires: 195/55/15
Mine: 195/50/15 (quite a bit shorter)

 

Thanks Man! I plan to run a 205 if possible. Still sorting out how I want the car to look.

 

Modified Magazine had nothing but good things to say about Enduratech coilovers as I flipped through it at the store. They added make sure you get an alignment done asap after installing them. I'll keep that in mind lol how much does an alignment usually cost?

 

i had mine aligned at the dealer for $99, but in factory form only the
front toe is adjustable.

so, if you can find a alignment shop that can do just a 2 wheel alignment
for cheap, that would be the way to go... unless you want to go all
out and get some camber bolts for the front, shims for the rear.

the front toe alignment is needed though when you lower the car.
the toe-out is too much for street.

 

okay so I'll just go to the dealer and see what I can do. Still got a while before I get coilovers anyway. Waiting to do header/exhaust/mugen shortshifter first lol

 

by chance will these coilovers work with the 09's or did honda redesign the suspension?

 

i believe tein japan lists a new part number for the next gen Fit's so
i am assuming that they are not compatible.

 

do you know what the stock front spring rates are? because the higher wheel rate up front, in a FWD car(!) makes very little sense.

 

why? you are aware that the engine is heavier than an empty trunk
with a spare and when you brake the center of gravity moves towards
the front. it's not like the weight of the car is ever even while the
car is in motion.

with a car that doesnt have much torque to begin with, you would
counter the acceleration rear 'squat' by giving i some rake to put
more weight towards the front of the car where the driving wheels are.

at the end, the front needs to have higher spring rate.

 

I didn't bother with spec-ing out the front spring rate. I would "guess" it to be around 225-250lbs which is about 3.8 - 4.3kg.

 

neat.

i wont get into the physics of why. i'll simplify - the end with the softer wheel rate has more grip. by having softer rear rates, you're choosing to have more grip in the rear. which is a fine design choice for OEM applications, as the general theory about designing consumer vehicles is that understeer is safer.

it just baffles me that people would actively choose a coilover suspension set with this front to rear balance when coilovers are ostensibly for higher levels of performance. the other baffling thought - that spring rates are just too much of a hassle to be bothered with.

but, in the end, just because i wouldn't be happy with the product doesn't mean that someone else can't be totally in love with it.

 

btw, the rake that you see in certain cars is due to a wide variety of factors. in fact, a car can have a visual front to rear slope while actually having a slightly higher ride height in front than it does in the back. the visual rake you mention is actually your visual perception of that vehicle's side profile as a whole. the fact that it has a slightly higher front ride height is due to corner balancing, where individually height-adjustable coilovers are adjusted, per corner, to achieve the best possible distribution of weight. front heavy cars (all FWDs, most AWDs) actually try to distribute some weight to the back (by raising the front relative to the rear heights) in order to reduce the polar moment of inertia up front, which reduces front wheel load, distributes some of the work to the rear wheels, and improves responsiveness to steering wheel inputs.

now, on a let's be real note, i know that most people buy coilovers for the purpose of having an "adjustable" ride height which really means that individual wants to lower his car as low as possible, while retaining the option to raise it back up once tired of riding on bumpstops and scraping body kits. suspension performance is, at best, a secondary thought (as evidenced by the popularity of teins) and frankly, i'm OK with that. people should feel perfectly free to do as they wish with their hard earned money.

on another note, i have no doubt that enduratech in their heart of hearts wants to do the right thing and not give casual performance consumers a product that may be too neutral (handling-wise) that would cause folks to be a danger to themselves.

i say this to say, for the performance minded folks out there, carefully consider what you buy.

 

disagree. wheel rate and spring rate are not the same thing. motion ratio, spring rate, dampening, and roll bars together generate the effective wheel rate.

in theory, the front spring rate does not have to be higher than the rear spring rate to achieve a higher front wheel rate.

 

im talking about the EnduraTech system, silly. you are aware you're
posting on the enduratech thread specifically.