right then guys

ive had a few PMs reference the AP coilovers so i decided to get a grip of myself and get a review on here

here goes:

Price

I paid £400ish for them which was well cheap in comparison to everything else on the market(springs+damper kit or coilover)The cost of supply and fitting was only slightly more than a supply only on Eibach/FSD setup.( at the time of sale)

Fitting

Got them fitted by Impossible Performance in Canterbury for £180, undercutting everyone else i spoke to by £20. Only problem i have is that the steerring wheel is off line although the tracking is ok. Thats on my ToDo list.

Lowering

I have mine lowered around 20mm all round (give or take a few mm).

However i am going to lower the front another 5mm.

I have had no issues with arch rubbing and or kerbs and humps so far.

Initially my main worry about lowering my car the weight of all my kit i have in there at times. i have had the back seats down with kit upto the roof and although lowering it alot more it still never caused it to rub the arches.

Adjusting The Height

the front is easy to adjust and they come with a lever key type tool to do it. Just jack it up use the tool and compress or uncompress the springs.

However the rear is much more awkward. It requires jacking up and I believe by undoing the bottom of the damper, then taking the spring out of its housing which is awkward as it needs levering (the spring and dampers are seperate items in the rear) you ten screw the nut on the height adjusting cap that sits at the bottom of the spring to change your height.

Handling

I found that my straight line acceleration traction had improved quite alot probably due to the stiffer springs limiting the weight transfer to the rear.

It handles much better as well as you would expect.

I did notice a little understeer, but i think it just highlighted it a little more than before. So ARBs will be fitted when funds are available.

Ride quality

Until recently i would have said it was good until you hit lumpy undulating roads, however when i last checked my tyre pressures i found that the idiot employee at my local shell garage had put my tyres pressures upto nearly 3 Bar when i only asked them to be raised to 2.3Bar(result) However now they are back to the normal 2.1Bar it is massively better.

Although you will feel every man hole cover and should still take humps slow because it is definately not as forgiving as the std setup.

However after driving Maters and sibarts vRS I found the ride quality was not in the same league as Koni FSDs/eibachs. They were awesome and even more comfy than standard.

Would I Reccommend Them

I would recommend them to anybody, the quality seems very good, the handling and ride is good, they are height adjustable so you can change your setup anytime(with a little knowledge)

However if money is not in shortage then i would massively reccommend the KoniFSDs/eibachs as the handling was on par with my setup but the ride quality was a huge improveent on the APs as well as standard suspension. although you cannot adjust the height. I

However i will mot be changing mine for a long while as I am very happy with it(exept my steering wheel being off centre)

cracking simon , thanks for that

Great write-up.Thank you Simon.:)

I have them on the Fabia VRS and generally the same can be said.

Ride quality on normal a roads and dual carriageways is excellent if not better than standard.

But on back roads and poorly maintained city roads it is fairly hard.

Ive decided to get a my suspension corner weighted and full geometry setup done to her. Ready for some hardcore nurburgring action over the summer.

I think this will be worth the money. with the coilovers being adjustable the balance of the car if not cornerweighted could be off, of which I am starting to think it might be, as my steering is better left than it is right, and self centre better from one side compared to the other.

It was initially setup with a tape measure and they were pretty equal, but i think since the springs have settled it has differed more.

twice now i have been to have my steering wheel and tracking sorted since having them fitted and twice they have failed to get it back to its original level centre. Although they insist that the tracking is perfectly fine. ive now done at least 4000 miles since they were fitted and have seen no extra wear on tyres so i guess its ok.

The guy at SMD racing reckons they dont have clue and that it is easily sorted, when you know how and have experience with geometry on lowered cars,

So hopefully ill have a transformed car this time next month

Edited 8 April, 200917 yr by simonskerton

Looking forwards to your results