ENDURAPRO PLUS 20K Mile Inspection

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Paul P.

I’m lucky enough to be one of the first in the U.S. to put our new ENDURAPRO shock absorbers to use in the U.S. My 2008 Honda Fit was fitted with the ENDURAPRO PLUS (16-click damping adjustable) shocks and struts, which I eventually added our S.TECH lowering springs, around March 2018. I figured it’s time to visually inspect these shocks and see how they’ve held up.

As previously mentioned, this car is typically my daily commuter for work. I average about 14,000 miles in driving a year. While I technically have just over 21,000 miles on these ENDURAPRO PLUS shocks, the other miles I drive for the year has been on my truck. Still, I think over 21k of miles on our ENDURAPRO PLUS shocks is a pretty good age to finally give them a look-see. Mind you, the average shock absorber lifespan is typically 36,000 miles in the U.S. Not too sure how that average came to be. We see shock absorbers last much longer than that. Quite honestly, I should have inspected these shocks a long time ago (a reminder to all to inspect their cars)!

Prior to giving you a run-down of the inspection, I will say that overall the shocks still feel great! Over time, I’ve readjusted the damping click settings simply to find that “sweet spot” in comfort. After all, installing lowering springs will alter the ride quality. Currently I have the fronts and rears set to 8 clicks from stiff (essentially the middle setting). I had previously had it somewhat softer in front and stiffer in back, as I felt it worked well whenever I had the car fully loaded. I may end up softening the front just a little, once everything is reinstalled.

Speaking of fully loaded, that is probably the most awe inspiring experience that showcases how our shock absorbers perform! It really is! As you probably already know, our ENDURAPRO/ENDURAPRO PLUS line includes internal Hydraulic Bump Stoppers, which helps alleviate that ever-so-fun suspension oscillation whenever the car is at maximum capacity.

Again, since it’s my daily commuter, typically there isn’t much extra weight in the car, other than my kids’ seats and some kids junk in the back seats. With lowering springs that are a bit stiffer than stock, it can feel relatively firm over bumps and gaps in the highway. Overall, our S.TECH springs aren’t terribly stiff.

However, after my bi-weekly trip to Costco, which usually consists of purchasing several cases of bottled water, my kids’ diapers and formula, and a bunch of other necessities you have no choice but to purchase in bulk, the trunk gets heavily loaded, and you can both see and feel that added weight. Then add my sons, when i have to pick them up at their Nana’s house. It’s basically like I’m loaded for a long-distance road trip.

This is where our Hydraulic Bump Stopper really comes in to play. Our Southern California highways are anything but smooth, and there are plenty of large gaps, expansion joints, dips, pavement cracks/potholes, ramp-like bumps over overpasses, etc. It’s a great way to put suspension to work, and at highway speeds, this provides us with a horrific ride, and one that puts our vehicles through pure torture. Did I mention that I also have to listen to “Elmo’s Song” on repeat whenever the kids are in the car???

But seriously, over this type of highway terrain, TEIN’s Hydraulic Bump Stopper really does its part in helping absorb these high-speed impacts, preventing the polyurethane bump stop from doing that work and helping the shock absorbers rebound nice and smoothly. Honestly, it has to be one of the more rewarding parts of my commute. Now I can understand what trophy trucks must feel like over big jumps,,,,,, just at a much smaller scale. Hahahaha!

Anyway, on to the inspection:

One thing I noticed was the front strut mounts were making a bit of noise, especially when steering at slow speed. I initially thought it was the bearing making the noise. But, for all I know it could have been a problem with the struts. This just confirms it was indeed the upper mount. However, as mentioned during the initial installation of these ENDURAPRO Plus shock absorbers, the front mounts probably contributed to a slightly lower ride height than target, due to the mostly rubber mount taking a set after 80,000 miles of use. Now at 101,000 miles, it is time to change these components out to fresh new factory style mounts.

Old mount on the left, new on the right. You can see how the mounts have sagged over time. It was starting to make some noise, most notably at low-speed.

For the rears, the only thing I noticed was a hole being worn into one section of the dust boot. Looks to have made contact with the tire. Not a big deal, and replacement dust boots are readily available.

I also checked gas pressure while the shocks were off the car, and all of them seemed fine. By checking I mean I fully compressed each damper by hand and checked the rebound, as well as tried different damping settings during the same procedure. I will say the damping click adjusters were slightly stiff up front. However, that could be due to not using the included ADD Caps to cover them (this keeps dust out of the system). A simple spray of WD-40 or similar type lubricant will displace any dirt or corrosion in between the click knob and its base. Also, any exposed thread on the piston shafts for the front dampers accumulated some surface rust. A wire brush cleaning and some WD-40 helps clean that up. But since I removed the struts from the original upper mounts, the threads got a decent clean up simply from the removal process.

Front strut out. I needed to remove the bearing, as I thought this also contributed to noise I was hearing at low-speed driving.

With the bearing out, I decided to inspect the shock. All components removed help to make a more detailed inspection.

Good thing I inspected the struts! There was some dirt I had to clean up around the dust seal.

While I’ve had the ENDURAPRO shock absorbers off, I checked bushings in the control arms, ball joints, sway bar end links, and tie rod ends just to make sure of their condition, which fortunately they are. I’m sure at some point I’ll change out the front lower arms (bushings by themselves are not readily available). For the rear twist bar, it’s hard to source just the rear bushing, so I’m going to keep searching for a solution.

I did have the tires changed at around the 3,000 mile mark on these shock absorbers. I wanted to try something a bit more sport oriented, but not very expensive. Also, my “tuning philosophy” (if you will) for starting to modify a car is usually in the order of- decent tires, sport (not race) brake pads/shoes, and some decent suspension (as in shock absorbers and possibly springs), especially if there is a damping adjustable option. This before ever considering more power. With ENDURAPRO Plus shocks and S.TECH lowering springs and some Stoptech Sport pads and plain rotors installed, I needed decent tires. So, I contacted the guys at GT Radial to order a set of their Champiro SX2 Summer tires. I’ve followed the 86 Cup group and saw that these tires offer very decent performance and very good wear resistance, and I wanted to try something other than all-season tires that this car has used over the years. I opted for a size slightly smaller in diameter than stock just to see if there was any gain in performance.

A new set of tires go on the Fit, courtesy of GT Radial

A big thanks to Gonzo, who invited me over to his Chateau. He’s got a full tire changing station in his garage! His son Enzo also came out to help. Good kid!

I will say that these SX2 tires still provided very good comfort. Being a daily commuter, this car only gets an occasional spirited drive. For me, that comes with the excitement of driving through Angeles Crest, since it’s kind of in my “back yard”. Interestingly enough, I found that these tires at 31psi cold, and a 13-click front shock setting (soft) and 6-click rear shock setting (somewhat stiff) had very good and predictable feel. I could very lightly get the back end to rotate with a touch of left-foot braking, and the feeling was pretty consistent throughout my drive through the hwy. The Fit is a very front-heavy car, so it takes a little coaxing to get the car to turn in, since the car understeers easily. One thing I could appreciate from these tires is the wear resistance. Rated as a 200 treadwear, these tires held up better than some 360 treadwear tires I had on previously (which actually only lasted about 13,000 miles before I changed them out to these SX2’s). Dunno what the deal is with that, but those are my figures.

Mind you, these aren’t all-season tires, so I take it a little easier during rainy days. However, wet weather driving is actually quite nice on this setup. Not that I was expecting to hydroplane on a summer tire on wet pavement, it actually handled heavy rain and puddles very well.

While this is sounding like a tire review, what I’m getting at is that these small changes to this daily driven econobox (TEIN S.TECH Springs, ENDURAPRO Plus Shock Absorbers, and GT Radial SX2 tires) have already made this car more enjoyable for my drive. Does it make me miss having a much more sporty car? Absolutely. But, gotta work with what I got. I think most importantly is the value of all these parts as a whole- Not a lot of money spent (granted, I got the shocks for free for testing on my car) to “upgrade” the car. So, for most of you guys looking to make your car a little bit faster and more fun to drive, this should be something to think about.

By the way, the slightly smaller diameter tires I chose actually helped improve a few things such as MPG (when I really take it easy on driving) and acceleration (most notably in higher gears). I was expecting MPG to be a bit worse. However, it has affected actual speedometer readings a tad, but the factory speedometer reads ~1 MPH lower than actual.

All in all, I’d say I’m more than pleased with the car as it currently sits. Not a ton of money invested in getting some performance out of it. Decent suspension, very good tires, and sportier brake pads up front, and I’m a happy camper!

More Applications of ENDURAPRO/ENDURAPRO PLUS Available!

Featured

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Paul P.

We’re well on our way with our new ENDURAPRO & ENDURAPRO PLUS premium shock absorber line, launching new vehicle applications nearly every month!

To simplify what we have available, I’m adding our New Product Guides previously sent to our authorized dealers and distributors:

FK8 Civic Type R Suspension Development

Posted on January 23, 2019 by Paul P.

We’ve already showcased our FLEX Z prototype suspension for the FK8 Honda Civic Type R at the SEMA show last year, but we’re now making more headway into production of this kit, as well as lowering springs and the upcoming MONO RACING suspension kit for this platform.

FK8 Civic Type R Suspension Soon Available

Development took longer than expected, mainly due to the availability of this platform in Japan. Why that was troublesome for us is that TEIN Japan usually gets a head-start on product development whenever a global vehicle platform is available. That saves TEIN USA the development time on designing the suspension (altogether possible for us to do, but it still comes with its own development delays).

Prior to the SEMA show, we knew that TEIN Japan finally had an FK8 to do testing on and had prototypes they could send to us. So, as soon as that opportunity came around, we contacted a local partner in having his Type R brought in and tested, and eventually asked ever so kindly to use the car for our booth display at SEMA 😉

As many of you consumers already know, the FK8 front suspension is a far cry from the design for the standard Civic’s that platform shares. It has a very unique strut suspension, much like the Super Strut design of the Toyota Celica.

In fact, the design was so unique that it posed another issue for us in both disassembly and reassembly of the suspension. Of course, we try to offer a suspension kit that is a bolt-on affair for the consumer, so it took a bit of self-education to figure this out ourselves.

Also, newer cars like the Type R have factory electronically controlled suspension. This was a problem because once the factory suspension is removed, a fancy warning came on the dash display. This led us to develop our new Canceller Units that will be included on applicable vehicle applications we make suspension kits for. With the Canceller Unit, no more warnings on the dash, and that means a customer can opt for one of our EDFC controller units, like EDFC ACTIVE PRO.

Production Canceller Unit for FK8 on display at SEMA 2018.

***Canceller Units are vehicle specific unfortunately. Again, we will include them for suspension applications that require them.

Canceller Unit (*prototype used for testing only) installed on FK8 front strut

Canceller Unit (*prototype used for testing) installed on the FK8 rear shock absorber

EDFC would actually be a blessing for this car, since Honda decided to make the shock absorber upper mounting position in an inaccessible design (since our damping adjustment is at the top of the piston rod).

Soon we hope to have these kits available! Please keep posted with us for more info, or keep checking our website for new product releases!

“Yeah, I’ve got a set of TEIN Coils”

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Paul P.

Whenever we hear that (blog title), we tend to understand that a customer has a set of our lowering springs. However, for some strange reason, people online or that call us are referring to our suspension kits as coils, whether it be a complete suspension kit like a STREET FLEX or STREET BASIS, even a SUPER RACING setup.

We must ask- WHY ARE YOU REFERRING TO THEM AS “COILS”?!

We’re just as guilty, using different terminology than what some people may understand. For example, saying “coilover” implies simply that- a coil over a damper. This is how most people know of our product since our height adjustable setups are typically coilover, but is this a coilover?:

STREET FLEX for 2003-2009 Nissan 350Z

As pictured above, this “coilover” kit uses our Height Adjust System (H.A.S.) for the rear, as pictured on the left. So it is in fact not a “coilover” with exception of the fronts (pictured on the right). We’re wrong for ever referring to such kits as a coilover package. Instead, this is a suspension kit. But, for simplicity’s sake, and in acknowledging what are customers know us for, we continue to call them coilovers. It’s easy, and it won’t confuse our customers.

There are other things/terminology we may use that may be either incorrect to some, or just named differently. For example, the name “Shock Absorber”. It is in fact a “Damper”. Shock Absorber is incorrect because it isn’t absorbing shock. What it is doing is turning kinetic energy (the up and down motion of the vehicle and unsprung mass) and converting it into thermal (heat) energy. Nothing is really being absorbed. It is a transfer of energy from one form to another. However, most people understand them to be Shock Absorbers, so we just roll with it.

And yes, it is “Damper” and not “Dampener”. They may share some similarities in meaning, but they’re in fact used differently. Dampener is typically used to describe a wet or moist condition. But it can also be used to describe a deadening or depressing. Damper, on the other hand, is mainly used to describe a reduction in oscillation or amplitude of force.

We also hear people ask for “Pillar Ball Mounts”, which is easily understood to be (how we know it) Pillowball Mounts. Not a big deal.

Another one that we hear is when people refer to our Seat Locks and Spring Seats (where you can adjust a spring’s setting and vehicle ride height) simply as “rings”. Sometimes we hear them being called “collars”. We use collars, but they are usually much smaller and are used as a spacer in our upper mount assemblies.

That’s another one- upper mounts being referred to as “top hats”. Not really a big deal, and some upper mounts kind of look like top hats. So, [top] hats off to you for using that description!

Willy Wonka wears a Top Hat. He can also be condescending sometimes.

There are some less obvious things that we cannot fault a person for. For example, our inverted dampers for strut type monotube setups, like our older MONO FLEX and our SUPER RACING. People will refer to the shiny part of the damper assembly as the piston or piston shaft. Again, although that is incorrect, we cannot fault the customer for that. Since the damper is inverted, the whole assembly is upside down. The piston shaft is now on the bottom side and inside of the threaded shell case.

MONO FLEX for 2002-2007 Subaru WRX

In the above picture, the shiny rod coming out of the threaded shell case (black) is in fact the damper body and not the piston shaft. The piston shaft is itself inside the threaded shell case and completely out of view.

There’s also the use of the name “Serration Bolts” which we use for the studs in our upper mounts (that secure the upper mount assembly into the strut or shock tower). We realize that confuses a lot of people when they need replacements of these components. Sorry!

The use of “Strut” may also be confusing for some. The above picture of the MONO FLEX for Subaru WRX shows struts, which this chassis of Subaru uses for front and rear. When we say strut, we’re referring to the MacPherson Strut design, which other than being a damper, also serves as a structural member of the suspension by supporting the knuckle assembly. The knuckle assembly comprises of the wheel and brake components. Struts have to be a bit larger in size and be able to handle large side forces/loads.

In comparison, a “SA” type of damper (short for “Shock Absorber”), which is used in Double Wishbone or Multi-link type suspensions, doesn’t have to support such side loads. They are used strictly to control vehicle motion. This is also why we don’t make camber adjustable upper mounts for our SA dampers. It’s position or angle will have no affect on wheel camber.

Can you see the difference between these two suspension designs?

For sure there are other things we hear from customers, but this covers a majority of terminology we hear.

Hopefully that helps break down some of our terminology for suspension components!

New Products for January 2015!

Posted on January 23, 2015 by Paul P.

We’ve finally received our first shipment from TEIN Japan for 2015! Actually, we were expecting these items at the beginning of the year (Jan. 6th, to be exact). However, due to continuing strikes at the Port of Long Beach, we had to delay this shipment for way longer than expected.

But, now these new parts are available!!!

Contact your nearest authorized TEIN Dealer for purchasing!

Specialized Brackets

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Paul P.

As you may have seen through our blog before, we offer a Specialized Damper Program. This allows a customer to create a one-off suspension kit made to their specifications. A great option for those customer who can’t find a readily available suspension kit for their vehicle, whether it be because it is an uncommon vehicle or it is a vintage vehicle that no longer has aftermarket support. It is a unique offering that gives the customer endless tuning possibilities, and all made with TEIN quality!

We’ve also been able to do custom lowering springs through this program. We know, that sounds a bit confusing because “Specialized Damper” implies that we can make the dampers only. We’ll work on that name. We do like using the term “SPD” if that helps! Nevertheless, we are able to create anything a customer is looking for, short of custom torsion and leaf springs.
What we never really brush up on is our ability to create individual components. Just recently, we had some lower knuckle brackets made for a Scion FR-S which was already using our Mono Flex coilovers. The person wanted some more ride height adjustment, as the knuckle bracket was already maxed at it’s highest setting (lowest ride height). But, he also wanted some camber adjustment from the bracket, a feature included on our Super Racing coilovers for MacPherson Strut type suspension. For those applications we include a new upper knuckle bolt with off set washers to allow a few degrees of camber adjustment. Not exactly a cheap option because of the components needed, but definitely possible to create.

Since this is a custom order, it still takes some time for TEIN Japan’s SPD (Specialized Damper) section to create the components. However, if it is a time-sensitive job, please contact us for quotation and we’ll see what we can do!

The nicest thing about this type of service isn’t that you can create your own custom pieces, but we build them to match your current suspension. As you may be able to see, our Mono Flex dampers use a different shade of green than our Street Basis, Street Advance, and Street Flex suspension. We can do custom colors by request, too. However, that does cost extra. But, who doesn’t like green?!

Anyway, please give us a call if you have any requests for custom damper components. We’re here to help!

Coilover Mixing Headaches

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Sergio M.

Hey Everyone! Back again with some more tech tips which hopefully help out with you TEIN coilover systems.

Generally around this time of the year we receive many TEIN dampers sent in for our overhaul service. Most customers are looking to do a base repair and possibly consider some replacement parts for the dampers.

However, some times the parts they are looking for may not exactly be a TEIN part. Some coilover kits we offer at times may not come with the pillowball uppermount as a feature desired and the customer decided to look elsewhere for a mount that they can adapt to the coilover system. Although some companies do claim that their pillow mounts would work with multiple manufacturers, the possiblilty of a misinstallation is still there, as you can see from the attached photos.

Most pillow mounts offered utilize the following components:

1) A design-specific lower collar or washer which the bottom of the mount would sit against on the damper piston shaft.

2) A collar or pillow nut (Pillow nuts commonly used on Macpherson strut type dampers) used above the mount to center and maintain the mount bearing to the piston shaft.

3) A top nut (Commonly used on Multi-link type dampers) to secure the mount to the piston shaft.

Even if used on the dampers it may not be the correct type/design for the piston shaft causing the mount to be loose creating noise during normal operation and/or odd wear to the the piston shaft surface which can eventually lead to a break on the shaft, or can even catastrophic internal damages due to a design flaw which would allow the component to bypass the bump stop and max out the damper stroke.

All of these situations can definitely take a bit out of you wallet and give you a bad headache. With the details and photos shown, I do caution anyone who does consider mix-n-matching coilover system components. Make sure that fitment is solid, and check the fitment if any noises are heard And if multiple collars are required to properly mount, you may want to consider not using the mounts and whether going with another type or just sticking with the coilover manufacturers recommendations. It would save you time, money, and a bad headache.

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