Advice on SW20 suspension & bushes

Re: Advice on SW20 suspension & bushes (MG_MR2)

Mon, 08 Jul 2019 12:54:09 GMT

Great info, I appreciate it

Re: Advice on SW20 suspension & bushes (Reddtarga)

Mon, 08 Jul 2019 12:10:23 GMT

With Konis, I found Eibach Pro-Kits rode firmer than stock, and only gave a slight drop on the stock '90 model ride height.

TRD black springs were the lowest I tried, and lowered about 35 - 40 mm lower than stock '90 height.
Car looked great, but ride was too hard for my taste.
With them I measured only about 20 mm front travel, and I suspect that front bump travel is the critical spec.

I use my car mainly for normal street use and found best all round combo was Koni/stock 92+ springs.
These ride about 3/4" lower than stock '90 springs.

Re: Advice on SW20 suspension & bushes (MG_MR2)

Sun, 07 Jul 2019 17:20:08 GMT

^^^ thanks, that’s what I was looking for. I’m thinking H&R, being that it’s a 20mm drop that should still leave enough travel. What springs did you use with the Konis?

Re: Advice on SW20 suspension & bushes (Reddtarga)

Sun, 07 Jul 2019 15:01:49 GMT

I run KW-V3 coilovers, that are still going great after 60 k kms.
Top shelf gear IMO, with a surprisingly good ride on the softest settings.
I also use the stock strut tops with them front and rear.
Front wheels are 7" wide, 35 mm offset, with 205/50 R15 tyre
Still have adequate tyre clearance at 1 degree negative camber.

I have also used Konis with various spring combos and found them to be high quality.
But remember when you go lower on the stock struts you loose bump travel.

Advice on SW20 suspension & bushes (MG_MR2)

Sat, 06 Jul 2019 16:54:14 GMT

Hi,

I’ve done extensive research into options to upgrade the suspension in my 90 SW20 turbo (forums, google, reviews, etc).

My conclusion is my options for a a good setup (good quality, nice ride, effective on track, rebuildable) are KW adjustable coilovers (very expensive, $3k) or Koni Yellow shocks with H&R springs (obviously would then buy strut tops, likely KYB, and misc parts - bump stops, gaiter etc). The best I’ve found is around $1200 for the Koni/H&R springs (from Germany surprisingly, although it seems anything sourced from within Australia for our cars is more expensive). I have a number of concerns but given the Konis are designed for lowered springs (H&R springs are only 20mm drop F&R) I feel like it should feel/work well.

The other thing I would look at doing is upgrading bushes. The best I’ve found is a ‘complete’ kit through prothane (US) for about $200 delivered (again, I don’t like paying the same amount in postage as the part but the equivalent Superpro in Australia is a lot more expensive). I don’t love the idea of polyurethane bushes but trying to find rubber bushes is near impossible. With the combination above I would try source rubber engine mounts (front & rear) to balance out the rigidity of poly bushes.

Really looking for any advice from knowledgeable minds re what I’m saying above and possibly better ideas/sources.

Thanks