apex1

Thats surprising. I remember on the s2k the bump damping was very soft however, running them with a more spring rate than you would expect helped. Iirc running stiffer spring rates and appropriately adjusted rebound netted better ride. My theory was the stiffer spring kept the shock from blowing through the travel into the bump stops.

Also the low damping response also benefited the ride on high frequency chatter on the street. Many people scoff at the twin tube, but there are benefits to not having ultra high damping sensitivity. Especially without a blow off mechanism.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

The springs were an unmitigated disaster, but you had no idea then and it’s still not stopping you now from making it clear that it’s still the case.

RC300

Hi guys,

I’m from the 300zx world but want to share my experience.

One year ago, I bought one set of MaxSpeedingRods (Chinese) coilovers, adjustable damp&rebound (both the same rate), 8kg Front 6kg rear. 135€ the set (yes ! Ebay)
2 months later, one of the rear leaked like hell, the lip seal of the rod was shot.
Then , I bought another set (non adjustable this time) just to be able to drive and purpose was to rebuild the original set. 80€ the set (yes ! Ebay)
In the meantime, I contact them to get a replacement cadridge. After fighting and threatening them, I received a replacement cadridge for free (TNT postage from China).
They wanted I pay for the postage but I have never given up and got it. But finally, I noticed 2 months later after testing on the bench damping and rebound, the cadridge was for another car (!) and the adjustment rod was shot (no effect).
So, they screwed me up for this story.

I always buy Chinese stuff because I enjoy to try, but you need to be prepared and need to be engineer, lol.

So, the advantages are following:
_they are cheap
_they are sustainable if you rebuild them all yourself (see below)
_they are finally well designed (simple design but makes the job)
_they use the same internal parts than many other chinese branded and more expensive stuff
_they are twin tube oil design (no gas to mess up)
_they are fully rebuildable and easy to rebuild

Minus:
_they are not evenly made (oil level inside and I got a clunk because of a nut loose inside the piston !!!!)
_they may leak after a while (poor quality check)
_they need to be greased outside (otherwise the body rusts)

The ride is overall stiffer (even with adj ones) but safer (less body roll).
And because they are so cheap, it does worth to rebuild them. I would never put $1000 in branded and overpriced suspension stuff.

To rebuild them, you need the following:
_FKM lip seals (they use cheap NBR lip seals) x4 12x25x7mm
_FKM o-ring seals x4 OD51x3mm
_ISO32 hydraulic oil

I discovered they were not filled evenly with oil and it triggers some discrepancies into the dampening stroke and rebound (there’s a death range on the first stroke).
Replace all the oil, then this way you control the levels.
On one of the pistons I discovered a loose nut (!), was not torqued to the right torque. Brass bottom valve requires 5-6Nm and the piston nut requires 20-22 Nm.
“Pillow ball” uses 2 rubber bushing, a metal sleeve and 2 thick washers, it’s a cheap design but will not make clunks if the top nut is torqued correctly (25Nm).
Metal pillow ball will make clunks after a while and this is a nightmare in the cabin.

Then on the bench, you check the dampening amount of force and rebound with a dynamometer at different settings. This is the way to check the adjustable **** works or not.
They all gave me nearly the same values for the same settings.
I even found out the adj. version was even stiffer at the lowest setting compared to the non adj version (!?).

Loki

iTrader: (1)

Yeeaaah. It's easy to equate stiffness to performance, but stuff like that ^^ is where you end up with lots of stiffness and no actual performance for your troubles.

Jose Zuma

Got them installed,

So far, so good. They feel good, more connected to road yet way more stiff than stock.

For the price, they are good, will keep you inform after more KM

CaymanRotary

That was my conclusion as well. For the price they are acceptable.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

Oh yeah? You then later concluded what we all told you at the beginning.

CaymanRotary

At the beginning you made fun of me for buying shitty coilovers and hoping I wasnt going to kill myself was what I remember.

Steve Dallas

[1] This statement is NONSENSE ON STILTS. Mazda put thousands of engineering and testing hours into building a safe and performative suspension. Maxpeedingrods never even bolted a set to a car. Suspension is a system, and changing one variable (body roll) without attention to all the other variables, almost always results in a product that is less performative and LESS SAFE. Yours is a rubbish statement.

[2] You get what you pay for. Companies like Bilstein actually engineer and test their products for performance (and safety). That effort creates overhead, which makes their products cost more. They also build to a much higher quality standard and honor their warranties, which also create overhead. When you buy Bilstein, you receive a product that was engineered for your make and model, was actually installed, was physically tested and refined, and has an real warranty.

When you buy a cheap suspension, you get something "developed" by looking at documentation for dimensions, scouring the internet for spring rates, then slapping the resulting stuff into a box with fingers crossed. There is zero real engineering and zero real testing involved. They don't even install them and test for fit in most models.

You don't know me, but I am a certified performance driving instructor. I also have a competition license with BMWCCA, SCCA, and NASA. I personally drive around 30 student cars per year, and am exposed to hundreds more. People show up with coilovers like these all the time. And they fail all the time, sending their owners home early. They also perform like garbage on the track. Hypothesis: That set of $1,000 Bilsteins will be 3 seconds faster and will last at least 5 years at 8 to 10 track days per year. That set of Maxpeedingrods will be 3 seconds slower and fail on the 1st or 2nd track day.

(Fun fact: When you reach a certain level, speed costs ~$10,000 per second. $1,000 for 3 seconds is a relative bargain!)

You can buy junk for cheap, repair that junk for cheap, and what you end up with is still cheap junk.

UnknownJinX

Long time no see, Steve. Hope you are doing well man, I want to get into some competitive driving as things open up as well.

Normally I would say it's you money, decide how you are gonna spend it, but since this is about safety I wouldn't be so easy. These things are so cheap that they can fail at any time without much prediction, maybe in ways that might make you lose control completely, you never know. Do it right with good money or don't do it.

Just because something is expensive doesn't mean it's overpriced, BTW.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

You’re memory is even worse than your advice sometimes, because I’m sure it wasn’t your intention to bear false witness against me. Which my comments are still in this very thread. Earlier in my mistaken path of life maybe, but now I never wish for even the people who consider themselves to be my enemy to harm them selves. Just as I never said any such thing about you. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t point out that they might harm themselves if they don’t take heed and consider their way. Entirely different context and intent.

CaymanRotary

I got no issues with you Team. You are a wealth of knowledge and been here a lot longer than me. Much respect, be seeing you around I'm sure.

My advice isnt that bad most of the time.

Jose Zuma

I can confirm they are still working as expected 2022.