Tein Mono Flex

[plAythiNG]

I actiually
Looked into this further.. The usdm veraion of the mono flex, its actually the tein flex model. I will be ordering the 7/10 spring rates

[plAythiNG]

I actiually
Looked into this further.. The usdm veraion of the mono flex, its actually the tein flex model. I will be ordering the 7/10 spring rates

[ChargeR]

7/10 is softer than ideal for track use with "semi-slick" sub 100 treadwear tyres in my opinion but it is a decent compromise and it will probably work well with upgraded anti-roll bars. That is beside the point of this thread though. Why do you feel you need to upgrade? What are the shortcomings of the Buddy Club dampers?

What I am getting at is that the Monoflex aren't much of an upgrade from the N+ except perhaps in manufacturing quality and possibly damper performance. Looking at Didz' failure with the Tein's doesn't inspire confidence though, and the record of the N+ on ClubRSX is not good either with a number of failures.

Both the N+ and Monoflex are a monotube design with the damper being inverted at the front. The piston sizes are undoubtedly pretty similar and I believe the construction is the same for both, being a mix of steel and aluminium with the rears being mostly aluminium. Both adjust rebound and compression damping together with the same external adjustment knob with too many clicks. The Monoflex has spherical upper mounts compared to rubber on the N+ so points to the Tein's there. Since none of us have seen a shock dyno plot or testimonials from a damper engineer regarding either damper the performance of the shock itself is a complete unknown and you can't really make a purchasing decision based on that except by assuming that with Tein's better reputation and manufacturing comes a better damper. Gambling in other words.

The main differences for me are that the Monoflex has camber adjustment at the front upper mount whereas the N+ adjusts camber at the holes where the strut meets the knuckle. Each method has its merits but I believe that adjusting camber at the knuckle is possibly the better method as long as the adjustment doesn't slip. Adjusting at the top mount increases steering axis inclination by the amount of camber added, and a high steering axis inclination is not desirable and is one of the many flaws of the DC5 front suspension and care should be taken not to increase it. Conversely adjusting camber at the knuckle/strut interface does alter the scrub radius which increases steering kickback, tramlining and can have some odd handling effects when taken to extreme. But Mugen does it the same way as the N+ and Moogen know what is up.

Despite what Didz says there will be a limit to how much you can lower with the Tein Monoflex and there is every chance they will not lower as much as the N+. At the front the main limiting factor for ride height is spring length and the bottom of the damper body physically running into the CV boot. See HERE for reference on what ride heights the Monoflex will achieve. 50mm of lowering at the front and 40mm at the rear seems to be the limit, but this is referenced to the JDM DC5R ride height which I understand is about 10-15mm lower than the Australian car. In any case this is certainly no more and probably less than the N+ will lower if that is a consideration.

[plAythiNG]

Thanks for the well in-depth post on the monoflex versus N+.

A big factor in me choosing the mono flex over the N+ is because of the upper mounts. Yes I can go for just putting on another set of upper mounts to compliment my N+ - I just feel that buying it all in one set is a better option than mixing a coilover with another brand's upper mount plate - then again, Charger is using Todd's plates?

Ultimately the reason behind choosing a coilover with upper mounts is from the street / looks perspective. Originally this car was modded to look like a tough street car, ie: fat, low offset wheels. Like Charger said, to adjust camber up front, this is achieved by the use of aftermarket camber bolts such as Ingalls, Whiteline, or SPC. The downside of this as Charger said has an ill-effect on scrubbing. On full lock, i found my car had a imes scrubbing the inner rim onto the strut. Having said that, and also my previous post in my appearance thread (where I plan to use my money in other areas of my life) I may consider getting a 25mm cusco rear sway bar. Testing this out and seeing if this can provide me better handling capabilities than investing in a sub $3K set of suspension.

THanks Tom again for the priceless information!

[ChargeR]

Glad to try and help, talking about different coilovers is one of my favourite things. I think if you get a large diameter rear sway bar and add as much camber at the front as you can with camber bolts then the stock Type S suspension may be pretty decent and if you stick to the plan in your blog thread then you still have plenty of time to decide what spring and damper you want to use later in the year. You will probably get a lot of body roll though and also a lot of tyre roll over. Less bump steers though .