Even on 22 year old struts, TEMS makes a slight difference. I say keep 'em, go for the Illuminas!
Would I regret removing TEMS?
- Thread starter Supra90gr
- Start date
I replaced my super low milleage TEMS with coilovers and never looked back.
It all depends on what your tastes are and what you intend to do with your car. For me I don't care much for comfort and I like a super stiff ride with minimal body roll. Plus I only drive it 1500 miles a year.
If you daily drive your supra I'd recommend sticking with TEMS.
If your TEMS are shot and you want to retain the TEMS feature your only choice are tokico ilumina 2 struts and some type of lowering spring. Your other low cost alternative that would yield increased performance and still maintain comfort would be bilstein struts with your stock springs. (You can lower your ride height with these too)
As for the Tems, I could feel the difference when the system stiffened under sharp turns, heavy braking/acceleration. Its a nice system that offers good performance with comfort. Contrary, it is easy to exceed the limitations of the TEMS if you push them hard around corners. Once I went coilovers, the performance aspect went way up but comfort levels went down the toilet on anything but decent roads. As I stated earlier, it all depends on your tastes and what your looking to do with your supra.
It all depends on what your tastes are and what you intend to do with your car. For me I don't care much for comfort and I like a super stiff ride with minimal body roll. Plus I only drive it 1500 miles a year.
If you daily drive your supra I'd recommend sticking with TEMS.
If your TEMS are shot and you want to retain the TEMS feature your only choice are tokico ilumina 2 struts and some type of lowering spring. Your other low cost alternative that would yield increased performance and still maintain comfort would be bilstein struts with your stock springs. (You can lower your ride height with these too)
As for the Tems, I could feel the difference when the system stiffened under sharp turns, heavy braking/acceleration. Its a nice system that offers good performance with comfort. Contrary, it is easy to exceed the limitations of the TEMS if you push them hard around corners. Once I went coilovers, the performance aspect went way up but comfort levels went down the toilet on anything but decent roads. As I stated earlier, it all depends on your tastes and what your looking to do with your supra.
Poodles;1355407 said:
i ditched tems in my car... i could tell the difference between normal and sport but the koni adjustables even on the firmest setting arent too stiff to daily drive. atleast for my taste. i will only be on a track maybe once a month and i dont regret getting rid of the silly sport button. its just another thing to fail... the less electronics the better
Yeah I have to admit that TEMS in my car makes ZERO difference. Whether on good roads or bad, fast or slow, hard cornering or not....My tems work, and I know they do, there is just no noticable difference. Plus I figure when I scrap the weight,I might take a couple of pounds off the car. I can find some better usage of that slot where the switch is for something like neons for car shows and maybe even a nitrous switch.
To the OP
Originally you spoke about switching to coilovers but then you mentioned budget issues. If you don't have the budget for coilovers its ok to go with a decent shock and spring combination. I have always been a fan of running the koni or bilstein dampers with a quality spring over the lower quality coilovers. As far as TEMSs you have one option for dampers, the Tokico shocks keep it, otherwise your going to lose it. It depends on what your looking at doing with the car. I can tell you this however, you have a great sway bar combination with the whitelines, those give you a great head start in the handling department. Is your car going to be raced in anyway? Do you plan on lowering the car with springs or just looking to replace the dampers.
Originally you spoke about switching to coilovers but then you mentioned budget issues. If you don't have the budget for coilovers its ok to go with a decent shock and spring combination. I have always been a fan of running the koni or bilstein dampers with a quality spring over the lower quality coilovers. As far as TEMSs you have one option for dampers, the Tokico shocks keep it, otherwise your going to lose it. It depends on what your looking at doing with the car. I can tell you this however, you have a great sway bar combination with the whitelines, those give you a great head start in the handling department. Is your car going to be raced in anyway? Do you plan on lowering the car with springs or just looking to replace the dampers.
PSST: Check the date on the original post.
I own the car in question now. It's lowered, tems is LONG gone, and I don't miss it one bit
I own the car in question now. It's lowered, tems is LONG gone, and I don't miss it one bit