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Megan Racing coilovers...update after 10 days, post 24
Hey guys, as you may or may not know my Hayames crapped out - the driver's side strut assembly got seized up so bad I couldn't move it, and started making a horrible rattling noise over every bump, even after I tightened everything. So my sponsor Proparts came to my rescue and got me a set of the Megan Racing 32-way adjustable dampers.
I won't go into too much detail as to the features, I'll just copy and paste from the website: Clicky
Quote:
Megan Racing Coilover Damper Kits offer 32 Levels of damping force adjustment, full-height adjustment, and are matched with front and rear Pillow Ball upper mounts for camber correction.
Springs are made of SAE-9254 Steel, and are tested over 500,000 times by compression inspection. With deformation less than 5% and high strength sophisticated surface coating, spring durability was highly improved.
You will own full control of your vehicle reguardless if you are driving on a normal street, up to a mountain region, country road or formal race track.
Features:
- Spring Rates: 8kg Front and 10kg Rear
- 32 Levels of Adjustable Damper
- Pillow Ball Upper Mounts.
- Rubber Dust Covers.
- Adjustable Ride Height
- Aggressive Spring Rates
- Single-Cyliner Design
- Aluminum Brackets
32 Levels of Adjustment:
1-8: Suggested for track use.
9-16: Suggested for mountain/aggressive use.
17-32: Suggested for common street use.
- All coilover damper kits come with 1 year manufacture-defect warranty.
- All Hardware is Included
Anyhoo as soon as I got them they felt way more solid (and lighter at the same time) than my Hayame setup. Quality was top notch for every piece. My one complaint was that the anodized red hats (you know I love red) looked pink right out the box. Oh well, it's not like you can SEE it when I'm driving. The pillow ball mount section and camber plates look well-thought-out, but I do have to note that the screws on the camber plate, when set from the factory, will NOT fit in the middle hole in the front strut mounting section, I had to undo one on the fly; thankfully Megan included a middle hole so that camber could be set with clearance for the adjustment screw. I probably have to post a pic to show what I mean, but hostedimage.com is being a bizznotch right now so pics will come later. These coilovers are made in Taiwan, evidently from the same factory as the Apexi N1's. That and the fact that these were getting a lot of love on ClubRSX were factors in my decision to try them, knockoff-sounding brand that Megan may be. Oh and I was told Megan is not a ripoff of the Mugen name, but a translation of a girl's name in Chinese or something. I can't speak or read Chinese so I can't verify this, but I thought I'd mention it, everyone seems to ask me.
For a full week (they came in Monday) I readied my coilovers by setting preload on the springs and greasing the pillow ball mounts, since I'd read that they were noisy right out the box. I installed them yesterday at azn_outlaw's house, with help from ClubEL's Black_EL, and my Raceworld/Vitalmotion buddies LDYKLLA, and Mandy, using a borrowed air compressor from Liro. The install was a SNAP, the guys can vouch that I was actually screaming in terror when the rear control arm bolts came out without a hitch...spoooky. Let this be a lesson to use anti-seize compound religiously. Only one semi-issue here, in that the rears would not slam right away, even though I lowered two fingers from the Hayame setup. But as soon as I started driving around the block they settled QUICK, and now I'm at an almost-perfect ride height. I'd love to drop another finger, but then I may rub with these 19z, so I'll have to wait and see. The locking mechanism for height is independent from that which determines preload on the springs, like the Hayames, but even this is higher-quality. The Megans can slam right down to around -3 and a bit, and appear to be able to raise the vehicle to ABOVE stock height. I'm tempted to go 4x4 this winter, ha ha. Speaking of winter, the coilovers are anodized, with aluminum brackets, so I will really have to take diligent care of them in winter, or simply not drive on them.
The Hayames had an inherent design flaw I was not aware of till recently, where the wheel would wiggle back and forth over bumps, causing toe to come out and chewing up rubber like gum in a hooker's mouth. The Megans do not exhibit this behaviour. Hell, even the Megan coilover wrenches are way more efficient, since they're more "hooked" and can catch on to the perch locks no problem at all, unlike the Hayame wrenches that rounded off perches AND wrench tips on the FIRST install. Stupid Hayame.
Oops, I nearly forgot to mention that since my Hayames required me to flip the tie rod upside down, I had to flip them back to original position for the Megan install. I thought "crap better sock away another 80 bones for an alignment Monday". Turns out I've got a little time. I will still need an alignment but visually the 4 tires are pretty close to OEM spec toe settings so it's not like they're going to shred in a week or anything. I can hold off, cause I want to install my xbrace before I align. And maybe drop another finger too. We'll see how low I can go when my catback goes on.
Now for the driving....I had them set to 23 front and 18 rear for damper (32 being softest, 0 being hardest) since I'm not tracking this car this year and I want to preserve some civility on the street what with the carputer in the back and the gf in the passenger seat...wait, no she likes stiff suspensions. OK just for the hard drive then. I didn't really get to open it up TOO much but round the block nice and easy I didn't hear a single clank or rattle, and the dampers absorbed bumps very nicely. And I was definitely more confident in the turns. On the way home I had to take it easy yet again what with my bwoy's air compressor in the backseat, but still....WOW. I'm gonna try playing with the damper settings and height after the catback and xbrace are installed this week, but overall a fantastic set of coilovers, easily competitive with Tein Basics (which are roughly the same price but not damper-adjustable and the spring load is not independent on height). I'm pretty optimistic that these will be huge competition for coilovers priced at twice the $$. Pics coming as soon as I host them somewhere, and I will be posting up an update once these are broken in.
So there we are, I've seen these for around $1350 and I think that is more than reasonable, these coilovers should be selling for $2000+ for the quality in my opinion.
Here are a few pics of the coilovers themselves. I didn't get to take any pics during install since my hands were FILTHY:
Pillowball!
Front:
Rear:
Yes I know my house is a mess. I never have time to clean it.
Screw you Hayame! You're going back to SPW in California, bitches!
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Thank you thank you thank you to Liro for the compressor, and Black_EL, azn_outlaw, and Ian and Mandy for all the help! Couldn't have done it without you guys!
Hey all, this is pretty much my first post but Im no noobie as most would quickly jump to say. Well, i am a noob here i guess, so...Anyhow very nice setup you got there and I have to say i wish i would have waited a week to see this post. I just got a set of D2 coilovers for my 04 coupe and they aren't perch adjustable as the Megan looks to be. Took me awhile to realize they weren't which really sucks. So how do these ride? The D2's ride really well compared to any other lowered car ive ever owned but they make a little noise over big bumps due to the fact that you have to lower the spring perch to bring the car down (even though they advertise that they are height adjustable without changing the geometry of the shock and spring). Please let us know how they perform based on your experience from the Hayames.
Besides my rear sway bar (bushings need to be greased AGAIN) my car's suspension makes NO noise over bumps. I used to get all sorts of weird rattles and wheel shake on bumps with the Hayames, but they were my first coilovers and I thought that just came with the territory. But these Megans are super-quiet, and I put 350+ km on them these past couple days.
Even without having been fine-tuned for damping and the wheels not yet aligned, these coilovers are just out of Hayame's league. And I thought I was just fine with those things.
More updates once I've unloaded all the crap from my car and taken it on some nice windy roads. After an alignment tomorrow morning before work since the condo management decided to sent their workers at 8am, making me wake up 2 hours early.
hmm ... I may just go with the Megans ... I was considering JIC's or Tein Flex's ... but with an awesome price ... maybe people don't give them enough credit?
The screws on the camber plate usually never come to fit through the hole because it is a generic part that can fit on most cars and the strut holes are different for every car. Like you said, they give you other holes to move the camber plate around. In addition, they seem like they are a twin tube design (ie. top adjusting). The reason other coils (flex, endless, JIC) are more expensive (besides the name) is the use of a monotube design which is supposed to be superior to a twin tube design .
Make sure the springs are just barely tight between the lock nut and the top. That way you will have full travel. Don't use the spring to lower or raise the car.
__________________ Life isnt a test drive, gotta live a little. (02fpcivic)
The Megans are actually advertised as monotubes. And like the Hayames, you really do need to preload the springs with the top two perch locks then use only the lowest one to lock after turning the threaded shock body to adjust height.
The alignment shop took WAYYYY too long to do my alignment (almost 3 hours, the tech was monkeying with the camber plate contrary to my request). So I did get to really open up with these things since I left the shop 30 minutes after my shift started at work, ha ha. I was even so hasty that I missed a monster dip in the road, which led to a disconcerting thump, which while gutwrenching, was not as bad-sounding as my Hayames. I had to do a little weaving on the way to the highway due to construction, and these things really stuck. I'm sure my xbrace helped a little, but I'm still in awe and a bit mad that I thought the ride on my Hayames was "pretty good". Screw those piles of garbage, I'm officially a Megan man! Now I wonder if they'll give me some free swag in exchange for this testimonial.
hmmm...and my rear shocks just crapped out on me (damn oem crap units....struts people..struts..)......I was seriously considering airbags for the on the fly adjustability...but these sound like they may be the way to go.
how long did the install take, and i'm assuming you were using hand tools??
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