[Supras] Strut time!

[Jeff Mohler]

Skip:

By 'how long do they last' you seem to mean until they totally fail.

Struts..all of them, lose damping from mile #1, and few work 1/2 as good at
mile 30,000 in the normal retail market.

Thats what separates good from normal..and why good costs 2-3x as much.

And nonono..dont leave crap struts in the rear with good up front.."less
rear bar" isnt the outcome, the outcome is a severe lack of damping on
rebound, and a huge tendency to oversteer from the instability.  Not to say
that rears should be stiff..that can lead to oversteer as well, but that
rebound damping is critical.  Less rear bar is allowing the car to settle
more weight in the back end in a turn..instead of adding more overall spring
rate and now allowing the rear to lean as much.

A lack of proper damping is a tank slapper waiting to happen on a stiff
front end.



On 3/16/07, Christian, Skip <wellner.christian at navy.mil> wrote:
>
> Supraman,
>         Does your car have TEMS ?  OEM TEMS shocks are KYBs and they are
> horrible.  Very linear and not enough, IMHO, damping.  Don't know about
> non-OEM KYBs for Supras, but I've found aftermarket KYBs (gas only) to
> be acceptable (you get what you pay for) in the other cars I've
> installed them in.
>         I installed Tokico TEMS shocks with H&R (?) (sorry its been a
> while) lowering springs (with an extra half coil cut off the rears to
> level the car) and found them to be great for street use.  Also, they've
> lasted about twice as long as the OEM shocks.
>         Something to consider, if you plan to keep the car & put on lots
> of mileage, ask how long specific shocks last.  The TEMS Tokicos appear
> like they will make 100K miles easily (now watch one of them blow the
> next time I drive the car :-).  If you pay $100.00 per shock and they
> last 100K miles, that's way better than paying $50.00 for shocks that
> last 50K miles.  Of course, that is unless you thing is changing
> struts.........  Not my thing (not counting BHGs, struts are my most
> hated job after exhausts).
>         Make a list of what the car needs and come up with a budget.
> Maybe changing out only the fronts now and doing the rears in six
> months.  This will make the car drive a little like it has less rear
> bar.
>
> Enjoy, Skip
> '86 MA70 Dead
> '88 MA70 Real Dead
> (shocks are good :-)
>
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