I've acquired a set of Eibach Sportlines, and I'm looking at allocating a portion of my tax refund on decent struts for them. The catch is, I'm probably not going to be installing them myself. The experience would be great, but I can't gamble on my own skills when I need the car on a daily basis. So -- I was thinking of going with the Tokico D-Specs to give my mechanic a break.

My question is: Should I be going out of my way to get Konis, the more popular choice? Am I sacrificing performance in exchange for the direct fitment? Has anybody had a chance to compare these two stuts on the same platform? Also, has anybody confirmed -- with certainty -- that Tokico won't be anal on warranty issues for applications like this? Any thoughts welcome.

And before Darkstars chimes in that I bought the wrong springs -- they were $72 on eBay, lightly used. The price was right. Plus, nobody seems to be able to commit to shipping the Road Magnet springs to Canada. Their loss, too late.



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Who said anythign about wrong springs? My personal preference doesn't make something else wrong..... your money buy what you want.

The D-specs and Koni's are very comparable, either way you can't go wrong. I would go with the Koni's but like the sportlines, that doesn't mean the D-specs are the wrong choice. What kind of mechanic are you taking it to? If its just some independant shop and not someone whos delt with Koni installs before I wouldn't want to be the1st they try. The Dspecs will be much easier on your mechanic and you can't mess those up.

either way save your money, I would be surprised if you couldn't find any local JBO members willing to spend a day helping you out with an install. If your worried about down time buy the D-specs, get new strut mounts and rubber spring isolators all the way around and assemble them before you even touch the car. If you do it that way and your just swaping full asemblies on each corner it wont take more then a couple hours. For the front you pull off the 5 lug nuts take the wheel off, then its 2 nuts and 1 bolt from the top that hold the strut mounts to the car, and 2 big ass nuts on the bottom, remove the nuts and pop the bolts through with a hammer and its out, the one just sets in place and reinstall, do that on each side. For the rear there 2 nuts on the strut mount form in the trunk, on in the strut mount from in the wheel well and then a bolt at the bottom of the shock and its out.

Its very very VERY simple to do suspension work on J-bodies

No certain tools needed for removing the springs or struts??

removing OEM stuff you need a spring compressor, most auto parts store let you rent them for a refundable deposit. Aftermarket stuff I've found you don' need a spring compressor, witht he shorter springs there is very little tension on the strut mounts when its all uncompressed. but thats it for special tools.

Darkstars wrote:Who said anythign about wrong springs?

I was just making a prediction based on your previous opinion that "Sportlines are junk, sell them" because "they look nice but ride liek @!#$". Those aren't exactly the qualities I was searching for in the "right springs". As my car is a daily driver, I do sort of want to balance looks and comfort. It sounds like the Road Magnet springs might have struck a better balance, but oh well -- at least I didn't get Dropzones.

My mechanic is an small-town independent who likely doesn't get a lot of requests to lower vechicles, let alone install strut inserts. Sounds like the D-Specs will do the trick, once the government mails my check. Thanks for the run-through on the install, Darkstars. I'd thought of looking for some help to do it myself, but I'll probably just pay the garage bills to avoid embarassing myself, and having to hunt down or borrow a bunch of tools I'll only use once.

Plans for my car this spring:

- Put a plug in the effing NAIL HOLE that was plaguing my right-front MR7 last fall.

- Make a second attempt at tinting the windows.

- Install these Sportlines:



- Install these brake rotors and ceramic pads from Cquence Motorsports:



And I'm considering EITHER getting some Yonaka Samurai seats in pleather with red stitching, or looking at starting to put together a mild body kit -- something like the RKSport front and rear lips. Basically, I was leaning toward the seats, since I wouldn't mind getting used to a lower car BEFORE I put a cow-catcher on the front. But the bare-bodied car does leave something to be desired, though it does have a certain clean-looking charm. Any thoughts?



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well like I said not liking the sportlines is my personal preference, it seems liek no comfartable balance between to firm and too bouncy.

Darkstars wrote:not liking the sportlines is my personal preference, it seems liek no comfartable balance between to firm and too bouncy.

So what we're saying is that it's a good thing my refund was more than expected, and I'm not going to put stock struts back on like I had planned?



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