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MR2 suspension options


steve b
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I'm looking for the perfect fast B road suspension setup for my normally aspirated UK MR2.

 

At present its on old 78,000mile struts & unknown lowering springs that are too low, as big bumps bottom out the front.

 

All the coilovers available (Tein range, D2, K-Sport) from spec appear to be much harder than even the 20% stiffer turbo import bilstein suspension so I doubt would be much good on anything but track. The import bilstein struts are double the price of the OEM UK toyota struts so I think i may purchase a new set of the OEM toyota ones. The question of Springs then arise, half the manufactures I have contacted don't even know their own spring rates or if the "drop" on them is based on early or late cars (that ride at different heights).

 

I have spoken an owners of Eibach/UK Toyota struts = He said "better than stock, virtually no drop" but also another owner with Eibach/Bilstein he said "really bouncy ride".... Now this bothers me as surely a 20% "uprated" damper should give a less bouncy ride than a standard one with the same springs?

 

Anyone recommend any particular springs for my application?

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I must say the MR2 is incredibly unsupported in the suspension department. Last year i tried to develop some packages but found the door shut in every direction.

 

In truth i'm hesitant to advise due to the gray areas.... What's the word from the owners clubs?

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I must say the MR2 is incredibly unsupported in the suspension department. Last year i tried to develop some packages but found the door shut in every direction.

 

In truth i'm hesitant to advise due to the gray areas.... What's the word from the owners clubs?

 

 

Owners clubs not much good as the cars seem firmly split into different types of owner, those that almost exclusively use them on track so want stiff un-compromising setup & those that race in the championship so all on 20% uprated yellow bilsteins & very short (so very low) hard Tein springs. Then the town centre and dual cariageway hero's that just want the slammed look. Only a handfull seem to use the car as an all weather, cross country daily driver (too many horror stories they'll throw you through a hedge in the rain).

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Thanks for the advice. I'm wondering about going for the AVO springs & a set of new OEM dampers, all AVO could say was 10mm drop & 25% "uprated" designed direct replacement for UK cars, which sounds almost ideal 2mm drop would be spot on I think, they are however very cheap at £98.

 

I found some Koni adjustable struts and springs from an ebay company that look good value at £475, but i'm a bit concerned as every other parts supplier says koni only supply strut inserts for rebuildable units (only found on 1989MY cars).

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  • 1 month later...
I must say the MR2 is incredibly unsupported in the suspension department. Last year i tried to develop some packages but found the door shut in every direction.

 

In truth i'm hesitant to advise due to the gray areas.... What's the word from the owners clubs?

 

What kind of packages were you looking to develop?

 

As steve says the uk owners clubs are a bit gash when it comes to suspension advice tending to just go with the 'OMG GET TEIN SUPASTREETZ'. On the us boards most people tend to swear by koni inserts and eibach/trd springs for fast road use.

 

Currently I run Ohlins/soqui struts with some unknown jdm spring (kg/mm? espelir? god knows) and trd f/r arb's. The car is ok on the smooth stuff (ie tracks) but terrible on a b-road once it gets bumpy. It's not very confidence inspiring, i've been thinking of maybe some softer springs and possibly ditching the rear arb for a smaller one.

 

It seems the only decent coilovers are the KW Variant III's and maybe the H&R ones which I think have been discontinued. Hell they stopped making the Billsteins after toyota discontinued part of the strut housing and they only started making them again last year because billstein decided to make everything themselves.

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I must say the MR2 is incredibly unsupported in the suspension department. Last year i tried to develop some packages but found the door shut in every direction.

 

In truth i'm hesitant to advise due to the gray areas.... What's the word from the owners clubs?

 

What kind of packages were you looking to develop?

 

As steve says the uk owners clubs are a bit gash when it comes to suspension advice tending to just go with the 'OMG GET TEIN SUPASTREETZ'. On the us boards most people tend to swear by koni inserts and eibach/trd springs for fast road use.

 

Currently I run Ohlins/soqui struts with some unknown jdm spring (kg/mm? espelir? god knows) and trd f/r arb's. The car is ok on the smooth stuff (ie tracks) but terrible on a b-road once it gets bumpy. It's not very confidence inspiring, i've been thinking of maybe some softer springs and possibly ditching the rear arb for a smaller one.

 

It seems the only decent coilovers are the KW Variant III's and maybe the H&R ones which I think have been discontinued. Hell they stopped making the Billsteins after toyota discontinued part of the strut housing and they only started making them again last year because billstein decided to make everything themselves.

 

I feel most sw20's out there are intended for fast road/ track so i wanted to evolve some decent coilovers at a realistic price, i personally think the "supersreetz" are pants so bettering them seemed an easy task.

 

Development was through AB's shocks and GAZ but failed because the potencial sales seemed low unless the product went global, then the marketing costs exceeded the risk/reward.

 

Your problem is the rebound, nothing to do with the arb.

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  • 1 year later...

just to unearth an older thread, Ive installed hsd coilovers to my mr2. Ive heard great things about wheels in motion but havent had the opertunity to bring my mr2 down yet.

 

personaly having gone from k-sport (dont think you need to ask why they arnt on anymore) to hsd i have to say its a world of difference. I was looking for a slightly tighter feel to the car without the typical bone jarring race coils that seem to be in abundence for the mr2. Hsd seem to fit the bill.

 

since the last post have you had any experience with the hsd coilovers?

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Experience in what area?... Height/ dampening/ maintenance?

 

It depends on what your looking for, as a replacement for OEM and fast road/ odd track day i think they are great value, if your a keen track day star then you will come last...... Advancing the Geo wil help tune the inbetweens.

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thats a fair reply to a non specific question :P

 

i suppose i was simply looking for an educated persons nod of approval as far as far as the technology goes. im no track day driver so my interests are much the same as mr2big on the mr2oc, with his light ferrari blue v6 mr2. a comfortable but adaptable gran tourer (or as close as you can get in an mr2)

 

theres certainly a lot of improvement to be done to my geometry and unfortunatly in rural Herefordshire i dont know of any great places to take my car to achieve this. but im redirecting this thread so i'll start my own to keep this on topic.

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  • 2 years later...

hi all new to this forum, found this thread through ebay, i'm also quite interested in B road bashing in the mk2 mr2 and am also unsure what setup to go for and find the mr2oc's equally useless for anything other than trackday setups, i don't really want to go for coilovers i've seen some kybs from the states for around £400 on fleabay, think they're fixed rate adjustable aswell.

 

i have absoloutly no concern over if the car has terrible ride comfort but i dont want it to be 'choppy'

 

where did you see the avo's matey can't find them??

 

the billstein b8's seem sensible but are more expensive then the kyb's :o

 

any help much appreciated

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When your buying blind it's really hard for anyone to advise you on dampers/ coils because we all look for different things from them. The only real way to control your desire is coilovers. This way you control the height, bump and rebound, basically tune them to what you expect.

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We've just had a SW20 in for a suspension, wheel and tyre upgrade. We've fitted the BC coil overs and spent alot of time with the car testing different damper settings, tyre combinations/sizes and geometry settings (the customer was willing to leave it with us until we were 100% happy with it). Me and Pete have spent a fair amount of time brainstorming with it and we're very happy with the outcome now. The BC coil overs are a little more expensive, but with them we've achieved a very good, and actually quite comfortable, fast road set up for it!

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no worries i understand it's hard to advise someone through a forum, its hard enough trying to explain things sometime's, i know the bc's are good but quite costly didn't realise they had camber adjustment in the top mounts aswell, i'll have a look into the kyb's and see if i can get some rebound rates or settings and see if i can find someone who's already used or using them

 

thanks all

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  • 9 years later...

I am about to replace my MR2 MK3 suspension with a coilover kit as previous posts have said you can dial in settings for compression / rebound etc to get the perfect road set up. The units I have selected (price / performance) are: Koni Sport Suspension Kit (H&R springs), Part Number: 151 21338, Supplier Part Number: 1140-3991 and will get these @ £762.60 from Carnoisseur in Dunstable. I am getting them fitted by Spires-st in Warwick as they can ensure the chassis set up is optimised as well. (See EVO Magazine article on tuning a Porsche 911 996.2 set up.)

I don't use it for track days, but want to improve the ride quality a little and eliminate the read axle tramp/bounce on fast corners and roundabouts.

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