On S2ki... I see posts every now and then. Yes, I mentioned it is rare... but, still happens.

I don't read about any blown OE shocks... unless they are super old.

 

80-100K miles, you see blown OE shocks.

Same lifespan as a set of PSS9 or something like that.

 

Tein are EXTREMELY reliable and well built. Everything about them is super high durability, and it goes thru rigorous quality checks. Customer service is also very good.

Their rust proofing is unbeatable. Springs are excellent quality. OEM style durability on the boots and other rubber parts. Shocks last forever. Welds look excellent. Etc etc. Its top notch shit in those regards.

Even their made in China line is massively well built and will last forever.

Tein was (is?) an OEM supplier as well.

A lot of parts on your Honda are made in China, BTW.

Tein's shock and setup tuning is what isn't all that great, in a lot of instances. That's their downfall. Not reliability or quality. The Flex, for example...sucks ass. But it will suck as much ass as when new, for a long period of time.

 

I actually thought you were being sarcastic. Are you?

"Rust proofing" was a joke. They rust if you even look at them sideways. Shafts bend from regular use, no potholes, not a slammed car, driven 10 miles each way back and forth to work and some autocross use. All 4 bent and had to be replaced during rebuild. And my rebuild (from Tein) made it about 20,000 miles before spewing all the oil out of one of the coilovers (a set, by the way, that had less than 30,000 miles on them the first go around). Adjustment is a total joke as well. Basically full soft or full stiff and forget just about anything in between. I would never consider them a serious alternative, I dont care where they were built lol.

 

Hmmm not sure which model you had, bruv. Maybe the old "super street" with the zinc plating on the threads?

I used a set of Street Advance for 78K miles on my upper midwest daily driver. They worked great and the rust was non existant. I drove this car primarily in the Chicago burbs...but also Detroit and NYC. No stranger to potholes. They were rock solid.

I've never had to run at full soft or full stiff. All the settings made sensible difference between the clicks. Though I did find that they need to be run on the "stiff" side to keep them from wallowing.

Their quality actually blew KW's ST line out of the water. I had awful luck with the ST's I had briefly.

My wife's station wagon has a set with 70K miles on it now. We just got back from a 1,500 mile trip thru the mountains. Also another car that's spent significant time in the Chicago area and NYC. Again...rock solid and comfortable...and totally rust free.

I've never had a set of Teins fail me...and I've used them a lot.

Again...I'm not saying the calibration is always brilliant. And the point is probably moot because I would not recommend any of their models for a S2000.

But I've never seen a shitty set in terms of leaks or quality issues. Just saying since we're having a discussion is all.

Here's a picture of my 78K mile old ones from my old TSX.
I took the photo because I thought they were remarkably clean for 78K miles in the upper midwest.
The spring perches broke free easy asf even after all this.

 

Mine were SS-Ps from the 2007ish era. I mean, my second failure could have been a bad rebuild, but they did go to Tein USA for the rebuild. I will say their customer service was ok (responsive, got the job done on time as estimated) but was pretty put off when one blew not that many miles later. And when I had that rebuild done, I bought the S2k right after, so they never saw autocross use after that build. Just driving back and forth to work on mostly highway (outer loop of a city). And it did not just leak, I lost all damping on the way home and found that whole wheel well covered in shock oil. Other issue was that the camber plate adjustments would strip if you even thought about them wrong. Had to be super careful to get them tight enough without damaging them even using a short allen wrench to prevent it from happening. Just did not give me a lot of confidence in them after having them. And in terms of autox, most serious folks just assume they are street tuner stuff and pass them by. But the car I had them on did not have any other great options for adjustable coilovers back then and the Teins at least had decent specs for it so I bought those. Maybe I just had the one model that were not that great?

 

Yeah, maybe man. I used the Flex back in 2003 era for my S13, and they were rock solid in terms of durability. I even wrecked the car once and folded the front left wheel under the car. I thought for sure it would break or bend the coilover.

Nope. They just shrugged it off.

They shrugged off my late-teens B serious install procedure too. Back then, we were still using flint tools and painting pictures of buffalo on our cave wall.

I talk a lot of shit for a guy who used to torque any sized bolts by jumping up and down on the wrench.

 

I think Tein gets a bad rap from most people buying their cheaper options. I have had Teins on a few previous cars and have had several friends over the decades with Teins, none of us had any issues with them.
One of my friends had SRC's on his S2K and he tracked a lot as well as drove them all crappy LA streets and had zero issues. From what I remember back in the day Tein SRCs never seemed to die, no matter how much you abused them.
Some people weren't a fan of the valving but it seemed like almost all of the top times were set on them.

 

My SS-P's were hardly their "Cheap" option lol. I believe they were about $1,500 15 years ago, so not on the super expensive end, but still not cheap compared to other options at the time and not something I would expect to have those issues with. Koni yellows are far superior in performance, reliability and damping IMO and those even have their drawbacks compared to many more costly setups. Granted, the SSP's came with camber plates (but see my notes on the hardware on those) and are full coilovers but I think $1500 in 2007 is what .. $2,000is in todays dollars? So would not expect those issues for a $2000 set of coilovers today.

 

Their SA line that I think has been fantastic is their mid-entry level. I think I paid $600-700 for them. Built like tanks.

Is the valving stupid? Yes.
Are all 16 settings useful? LOL..no
But can I still find a setting so its not stupid? Yes.

SRC's seemed to have been popular for fast times at fairly smooth tracks that favor a high spring rate and a particular (linear) type of damping.

Not sure how well it would work at a bumpy track like COTA, Autobahn CC, PPIR, etc...or ....Sebring.

LA streets aren't bad compared to most of the country either lol. Every Californian should visit and drive the midwest in spring/summer at least one time. Or NYC/Long Island ....good god.

But yes. I agree that SRC's would probably outlast anything else in that class of coilover. The valving just makes them semi-unusable outside of CA or Japan.

I think Tein does all their US based testing in CA. So...not in the real world lol. Which probably explains their damping calibration.