TheSamba.com :: View topic - questions about the cheap coilovers that everyone hates

Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:03 am

I'm looking for opinions from people that have actually had these.
Every time someone shows a pic of a car with those shocks they get slightly flamed, just what is wrong with them? I ask because my first baja which i had in the early 90s was a swingaxle car that came with those shocks. I never noticed anything outstandingly good or bad about the ride, I just left it at a setting that provided a little lift and that was that. It didnt see any hardcore offroading action, just kinda slow 1st and 2nd gear kinda stuff.

Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:12 am

The key to your not understanding is that "it didn't see any hardcore offroading action". Those shocks are the cheapest of the cheap in order to sell foe what they do as coilover shocks. You don't even have to get to the hardcore level to destroy them. Yes, easy does it and they do provide some lift but if you barely get aggressive they blow cookies in short order!

Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:30 am

so you had some at one point?
do they actually break as in come loose, fall apart, or just lose all valving action?
would you say they are comparable to a cheap monroe shock with a spring added or even worse?
i'm not at this time planning to buy any, but i like to understand why something gets flamed. i made my own coilovers once for a squareback, i was happy with the results and might give that a try again.

Wed Jul 30, 2008 1:14 pm

absolutly every aspect of these shocks is under par, you would be better off in most cases without anything at all IMO. if you have these make sure you get them off and never use or buy them again.

if you really really desire the information about them sucking i can give it to you. but i dont feel like typing that much right now.

Wed Jul 30, 2008 1:43 pm

Just to give you some idea: I had a Murray gokart w/ a 6.5hp Tecumseh OHV mower engine that had the EXACT same coilover shocks as the EMPI's. I mean NO difference. So, if you're telling me they're good for both a 200lb gokart and a car that weighs 10 times that, I don't buy it!

Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:15 pm

i have them on the front of my rail as the spring, no torsion bars. the front weighs almost nothing i can pick it up easily. in this situation they work ok but not great. on the rear of a bug i cant imagine them doing anything to control the suspension.

Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:25 pm

Like I said they are terminally cheap, loose all their fluid and quit dampening. No I personally never used them! However I have sold a ton of them (against my reccomendation) and rarely if ever had a satisfied customer. Those that brought them back were politly reminded I didn't want to sell that to them and they were S.O.L. on a refund! And yes I will sell it to you if you are NOT willing to take my FREE but hard earned advice.

Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:58 pm

I used some on my bug for a long time. I never had any problems with them leaking. The very little spring they added did help, but not much. I had 35 yr old torsions in my old car that were pretty worn out.

They didnt do a whole lot of dampening either, but I never noticed a difference between them or the white KYBs. :? I actually blew the kybs on the front of my car in 1 trip but never blew the empis :lol:

Wed Jul 30, 2008 3:21 pm

i actually asked RLAP this the other day and this is what he said

Quote: coil overs is a general term for a single suspension unit that involves a gas or oil shock and a spring over it packaged into one unit. typically coil overs are a very very ideal suspension unit, they are basically as good as you can get. but it all depends on quality. and that is there the issue lies.
normally you get a shock and coil set up that has enough of a spring rate to support a cars total weight and a shock paired up to that spring rate to dampen correctly. but what people don't do is the math, in the end there are alot of company's out there that just use the term "coil over" loosely for the junk the put out and people buy it.

so over all coil overs are not bad, its the common mistake people make when doing the suspension on a car and using bad coil overs. which is why on the samba one of my pet peeves is when people actually use those junky empi coil overs, they just buy them because they dont know about suspension theory, valving or spring rates. they just bolt them on. so what people end up using are those crappy empi ones which dont have enough of a spring rate to hold the car up so they have to be used with the stock torsion bars and the added spring rate of the coil and the stock torsion bar makes the car handle like shit and the shock that they have is not nitrogen charged its just a crappy oil shock that dies very quickly and has really really bad fade, so you have a terrible spring rate with no dampening that will make your car handle terribly, and go over bumps and dips like its on a trampoline.

if you have those cheap coil overs, or know someone who does make sure they take them off, your probably better off without them.

hope this helps

Wed Jul 30, 2008 4:07 pm

Two rides in your rail only difference being the shocks will educate you.
Just raise the back of it with thicker torsion bars or turn the stock ones.
The procedure as well as limiting downward travel is well documented in Building Bajas and Buggies by Jeff Hibert. In my rail with a swing, I an thirty mm bars with no preload and triple KYB gas shock. Shocks were free. Two Bilstien probably would of done the trick. I used those shocks to raise Beetles whose owners were to cheap to pay the money to level the car out correctly. If you never push it hard through rough terrain they may be all you need. I took them off Bajas I bought because I use them off road. People who I offroaded with used them, none of them broke they all leaked after a few months but they all of them (drivers) turned backed when it was my time to choose the trail. That shock has its place in very limited applications.