Can pillowball top mounts be added after the fact?

[gregmacd]

I have a set of Spax coilovers on my FD. I\'m led to believe that the reason the ride is so harsh is because they have solid top mounts. Is it possible to add in pillowball top mounts or would I be better off budgeting the £600 odd quid for some Tein Flex coilovers?

[Jit]

all the set of pillowball topmounts ive seen are knocking i dont know how long those pillowbals last tbh...id rather use the stock mazda mounts tbh....

[gregmacd]

OK cue next noob question.

So given the ride is very harsh and I have these Spax coilovers that supposedly have solid top mounts. Is there anything I can do to get a little more comliancy (is that a word?) into the ride?

[Jit]

can you not fit standard top mounts? My personal experience of spax stuff is that it is often on the teeth breaking side anyway and i dont know how much of an effect swapping the top mount ot a standard one will really give...
My advice to anyone looking to change suspension now is to buy OEM Bilsteins from the RZ...theyre not back breakingly hard but theyre great for spirited driving. I got a set reserved for the blue car when it arrives and thats testament enough to how much i like the setup cos the stuff ill be pulling off is feed coilovers!

[gregmacd]

I hear what you\'re saying man but I\'d like to be able to fine tune the ride height.
 
I think I might be better off binning the spax and just getting the Tein Flex that everyone seems to rate.
 
I know suspension wise a well set up spring/damper combo is always the best solution but given the state of British roads and the fact that I would like to participate in track days and drift days I feel that having coilovers and adjusting the damping for road or track would give me the best compromise.

[Jit]

thats fair enough...in which case ive heard plenty of good things about the tein flex... id still stick with standard top mounts tho!

[peterwolds]

i dumped the bilsteins as so hard, got tein superstreets with standard mounts - softer ride on uk roads,ok on dragstrip,cant say how they are for drifting though

[Hayward North]

i dumped the bilsteins as so hard, got tein superstreets with standard mounts - softer ride on uk roads,ok on dragstrip,cant say how they are for drifting though

Just got the very same on mine pete but got the tien tops as well, with the top mounts you can add a edfc and motors to adjust the suspension from inside the car

[gregmacd]

so how\'s the ride on normal (dug up multiple times) roads with the Tein tops because if I were going to buy the Teins I\'d definitely want EDFC.

[clive]

Hi Grant,

Sorry but replacing the top mounts will not help your ride quality in any way as the aftermarket top mounts are only there to stop the top of the strut "wandering around" and altering the camber/ castor settings under hard cornering, thus helping to keep the suspension geometry wherever it has been setup to be.  

hope this helps

[gregmacd]

OK I\'ll take your word for it, I may have misunderstood what I was told. I thought I had been told that the reason the Spax coilovers I had were giving me such a jittery ride was because they had solid top mounts as opposed to pillowball top mounts.
 
So is it just that they are hard coilovers then?

[peterwolds]

Just got the very same on mine pete but got the tien tops as well, with the top mounts you can add a edfc and motors to adjust the suspension from inside the car

Steve what did you have before ? must say i am pretty happy with mine still twiddling with settings a bit 12 clicks off hardest setting all 4 corners think wwhen i get chance will harden front/soften rear - the "hard way" not with edfc :Laugh

[Hayward North]

Steve what did you have before ? must say i am pretty happy with mine still twiddling with settings a bit 12 clicks off hardest setting all 4 corners think wwhen i get chance will harden front/soften rear - the "hard way" not with edfc :Laugh

Had some real old Tien HR\'s but they corroded as they looked a gazzillion years old , the buttom adjusters that were ally had corroded and split so they were just waiting to fall appart.
Took the opertunity to replace my arb\'s front and rear for cusco ones as well as the arb mounts (15mm shorter), arb brackets for ally Super Now ones.
Also replaced the track rod arms and track rod ends and droplinks for uprated ones as well

Ride is much better with the super streets.

Just need geometry doing now and it should handle a million times better