any1 have ZEAL?

[lotusonwater19]

I just ordered some zeal (Bs) coilovers and i'll get them soon. i just want to know if anyone here has them or had experience with them. is alignment necessary? how the different settings feel on the street and racing. if anyone auto-Xs with them. anything in general i need to be very aware of.

[SilverY2KCivic]

Originally Posted by lotusonwater19

I just ordered some zeal (Bs) coilovers and i'll get them soon. i just want to know if anyone here has them or had experience with them. is alignment necessary? how the different settings feel on the street and racing. if anyone auto-Xs with them. anything in general i need to be very aware of.

Do you have any specs such as spring rate numbers on them? Eitherway, I have Tein coilovers myself, but have heard good stuff about Zeal coilovers as well. Unless you plan on getting them corner weighted (what are your goals in terms of driving style for your car) I'd just have them all set to an equal ride height all around. Depending on how much dampening control they include (my Teins are 16-way adjustable) you'll notice a big differance between the softest and stiffest settings. Softest on mine feel near stock, and stiffest give the car WAY more bounce than you could tolerate on the street. On an auto-X course difference between settings can take seconds of my traptimes.

Alignment IS NESSACERY no matter what mod you add to the suspension. Any adjustment made weather it be installing new shock or springs, or adjusting the ride height, you'll always want to get an alignment since the mods will always tweak the settings from what they were. Adjusting the dampening control won't require an alignment though since it's changing the shock settings internally and not doing anything to suspension geometery like phyaical parts do. Hope that info helps you out some, post back here when you get them in and let us know how they feel and what you think of them!

[SilverY2KCivic]

Out of curiosity, what made you chose Zeal over say Tanabe, Tein, HKS, A'PEXi or any others out there? I don't hear too much about Zeal, though I hear they are very comparable with JIC units. Just wondering.

[lotusonwater19]

i chose Zeal because i've seen ppl wit my car in autocross with them and because i can get them for cheap. intead of $1200 i payed $700.
BUT....unfortunately i just got word from the Japanese manufacturer that its on back order for 9 months because they ran out for the year and the machinery is hand operated so its gonna take a loooooooongass time.
SO.....solution...i told them im not going to wait, got my money back, so now im getting Tanabe version2s but they are on back order too for 60days but i can hold out for 60days, and the Tanabes have the helper spring which the Zeals didnt.

[SilverY2KCivic]

Originally Posted by lotusonwater19

i chose Zeal because i've seen ppl wit my car in autocross with them and because i can get them for cheap. intead of $1200 i payed $700.
BUT....unfortunately i just got word from the Japanese manufacturer that its on back order for 9 months because they ran out for the year and the machinery is hand operated so its gonna take a loooooooongass time.
SO.....solution...i told them im not going to wait, got my money back, so now im getting Tanabe version2s but they are on back order too for 60days but i can hold out for 60days, and the Tanabes have the helper spring which the Zeals didnt.

Helper springs are good to have I suppose. I'm not too sure what they do exactly, but I think they provide the spring rate for the streets (something pretty small) and then allow the main springs to kick in when doing harder type handling and cornering and such. I haven't heard much feed back on the Tanabe's other than knowing of a person that uses Sustec Pro SS's on his drift car.

A'PEXi World Sports are supposed to be quite nice and in fact I know a guy with some on his 240SX (S13 gen) and he likes them. I haven't had any complaints with my Teins. In fact anyone that's rode in my car since I've had them hasn't had anything bad to say about them either. They all love them. I'd totally recommend them to anyone looking for an affordable fully coilover system setup. But I don't think you should be dissapointed with the Tanabes. I got my Teins for $850, and that was almost 2 years ago when prices on this stuff was higher. Do you know which Tanabes you are getting?