Mild suspension upgrade advice request

[Victor Charlie]

I'm ready to start work on my MKIII suspension, and I would love help figuring out what to blow a little money one. I would like to spend less than $1000 in parts, not including the dampers.

Background: I have an NA-T swap, mid to late '89 body, TEMS apparatus added from a parts car. This is primarily a street car with 400rwhp when I put the louder catback on, but I use a stock catback setup for the neighbors peace of mind most of the time.

I'll order Illumina dampers with the TEMS, of course. have new lower ball joints and tie rods, otherwise stock so far.

If I'm taking the suspension apart for cleaning/restoring/rustproofing and new dampers, what bushings should I change, Also, anything else I should upgrade?

I was going to use stock springs b/c I don't want to lower it in this climate, but if I can get better performance with new springs without lowering the car, that would be nice - haven't seen that available.

Thanks, Vic

edited: sorry, i didn't reword the question when I decided to start a separate thread, rather than writing a vendor. Now it should make more sense.

 

[honestabe]

For the catback, ditch the stock setup and get a 3" setup. A lot of mufflers do come with silencers, such as mine. Put the silencer in when you want to be quiet and remove it when you want to be loud.

You're not going to be able to get a stiffer ride without lowering your Supra. Honestly, I'd ditch the TEMS and get coilovers. TEMS is a novelty thing. There's a reason why nobody offers stiffer springs without lowering your ride, it's because the car handles better if you lower it. You can get coilovers that will make your ride better and only drop your Supra about an inch or so. My Teins allow me to do this. Get swaybars with poly bushings, swaybar endlinks, and a full set of poly bushings. Also, I'd upgrade the traction arms.

BTW, why do you want to keep the stock ride height?

 

[Poodles]

Main reason they stiffen the ride while lowering is simple. Lowering is what everyone wants, and if you lower the car, you reduce suspension travel meaning you need to stiffen them up so you don't bottom out.

 

[Hmong_1G]

Get coilovers as spring and shock combo will still run close to that area. D2 and teins are nice. Megan blows out to quickly, nex are cheapos, eibach are ok( no tunerability). Energy suspension bushings are mild poly's but great for a daily drivers. Go with super-pro (??) or RK for much firmer poly's.

There is more... alittle digging around, you will be able to find what you want.

 

[mecevans]

you got a pm

 

[Victor Charlie]

First, thanks for the info.

For the catback, ditch the stock setup and get a 3" setup. A lot of mufflers do come with silencers, such as mine. Put the silencer in when you want to be quiet and remove it when you want to be loud.

Will do. I have a decent muffler without a silencer to put on, so I have to find a silencer to accomplish that, also wonder about other options, but I want to stick to the suspension topic for this thread.

BTW, why do you want to keep the stock ride height?

Because I'm in Michigan at a cul-de-sac at the bottom of a long hill, and we get a lot of deep snow, so clearance is an issue. I have a truck to fall back on, so it's not that big a deal. I think I will take your advice and lower it a bit.

TEMS:

Why is the TEMS a novelty? Naive question, I know, but this is a new system of the car I'm getting into. For a daily driven sports car, isn't there any advantage?

Related question: what is the difference in design that makes a coilover special. Can't you get the same by changing the springs and dampers?

I probably don't want to car adjusting itself, I'm thinking of just putting a switch and wiring to manually override the TEMS and pick suspension setting, though I haven't looked into how to do it yet.

This is mostly a street driven car that needs to look, drive and act respectable most of the time. Maybe my goals are different from many other members. Would that matter?

 

[Victor Charlie]

Main reason they stiffen the ride while lowering is simple. Lowering is what everyone wants, and if you lower the car, you reduce suspension travel meaning you need to stiffen them up so you don't bottom out.

I get that. Lowering for better cornering is good. probably worth a little trade off in snow clearance.

 

[Victor Charlie]

Get coilovers as spring and shock combo will still run close to that area. D2 and teins are nice. Megan blows out to quickly, nex are cheapos, eibach are ok( no tunerability). Energy suspension bushings are mild poly's but great for a daily drivers. Go with super-pro (??) or RK for much firmer poly's.

There is more... alittle digging around, you will be able to find what you want.

Thanks, good info on brands. Good point on price. See previous questions about coilovers vs. TEMS.

 

[Poodles]

In your case, I'd freshen the suspension (replace all worn parts) and get a good alignment. Keep the TEMS as it's a nice feature, and install swaybars (I like my whitelines a hell of a lot, Raptor Racing carries em). Anything more and you start getting complications IMHO.

While my setup looks good, it's very stiff and I scrape a lot. I was actually kinda happy with my car with just the whiteline swaybars...

 

[suprarx7nut]

Some people really dont care for the tems set-up, but I like it. I'd say get some tokico illuminas (compatible with TEMS) and get some very mild springs (Whiteline comes to mind) and swaybars with some new poly bushings.

Of course just going with coilovers wouldn't be a bad route to take either.

 

[Poodles]

I honestly looked for a while trying to find stock height springs that were a bit stiffer as the 89+ ride height isn't really that bad.

 

[Victor Charlie]

you got a pm

No pm received.

 

[Victor Charlie]

I honestly looked for a while trying to find stock height springs that were a bit stiffer as the 89+ ride height isn't really that bad.

Back full circle to maybe keep TEMS, maybe don't want to lower it, maybe don't have an option for springs without lowering, but that might be okay with the sway bar.

I like it, it saves money, surely will be better than what I have now: 4 blown cartridges.

Bushings: just order a "Set", mild polyurethane, or do I need to ask for anything more specifically. The weather is getting nasty, I'm going to have shop install them, but I prefer to order parts myself since there are no supra shops out here.

 

[Poodles]

You're in for a hurting if you have a shop install the bushings....or should I say your wallet is.

Energy suspension makes a set, as does RonnieK (forum member). Neither covers the spherical bushings in the rear hub.

 

[honestabe]

Driving the Supra in the snow? I wouldn't. There's too many bad things that can happen, like sliding into things/things sliding into you. If you look at my Supra, I have it lowered a couple inches and never scrape. I also have my coilovers set to be very stiff and am more comfortable driving my Supra than I was in my 2001 Camry I just sold, and I have back problems. Getting a full poly bushing set and sway bars would be really good upgrades.

TEMS is a novelty because you have both a soft and stiff settings. In my eyes, a Supra shouldn't ride like a Cadillac because it takes away from the sportiness of the car. Coilovers are much better since they allow you to fine tune your suspension. I know with my Tein's I can pre-load the springs to be very stiff, set the dampening to be soft (to give a little bit of suspension travel and comfort), and adjust the ride height. This is very advantageous since you can fine tune the suspension to fit your needs and wants. With regular lowering springs and struts, you don't have this adjustment. You're stuck with what they give you and that's it.

 

[iwannadie]

Get new bump stops, they aren't that pricey from the dealer. When I did my suspension a few years ago my bump stops were in tact but were very hard rubber. The new ones were a huge difference in feel(off the car). I have to imagine if my suspension does bottom out having the nice soft rubber would help.

 

[Canuckrz]

TEMS is a novelty because you have both a soft and stiff settings. In my eyes, a Supra shouldn't ride like a Cadillac because it takes away from the sportiness of the car.

Our cars were designed to be luxuary grand touring cars, not a balls to the wall sports car.

 

[honestabe]

Our cars were designed to be luxuary grand touring cars, not a balls to the wall sports car.

This may be true, but we all know that driving a Supra and having a lot of body roll and suspension travel just doesn't feel right in a sports car. IDK about ya'll, but I love having almost zero body roll and roughly an inch of suspension travel. If I want to drive a car that has a very soft suspension and a lot of body roll, I'll drive a Cadillac.

 

[Victor Charlie]

This may be true, but we all know that driving a Supra and having a lot of body roll and suspension travel just doesn't feel right in a sports car. IDK about ya'll, but I love having almost zero body roll and roughly an inch of suspension travel. If I want to drive a car that has a very soft suspension and a lot of body roll, I'll drive a Cadillac.

Thanks, this is all great info.

I have tried to be true to one vision for what I am building, but it's tempting to deviate. As for not driving in the snow: then you don't drive much at all around here. Snow starts this week and goes to April, and you never know when you are going to be at work and the snow is going to roll in.

I have to admit, I love driving the supra in the snow. I drove my 87 turbo in the snow with very narrow dedicated snow tires. It was easy to control, a lot like drifting but lower speeds. People drive safer in the snow here than in the summer when they are drinking at the lake and driving very fast. Summer accidents are more likely to be fatal. Defensive driving and good skill at handling a car in a drift, pun intended, will go along way to staying out of trouble. I have had only one minor snow related accident in 15 years here, and that was in FWD Camry.

I wonder about tuning the suspension for snow driving. The forces are so subtle, I think a stiff suspension might not be good, but a fully tunable suspension might be interesting to play with. Decisions, decisions...

 

[Poodles]

Lowered + snow = supra impersonating a snow plow :rofl: