- So, in terms of videos when it comes down to coilovers
we always have to have Rainey here because
Rainey is the coilover guy,
I kinda did your intro for you,
but if you guys haven't watched
any of our videos in the past this is.
- Brian, the only person that's static here.
- Yeah, pretty much and Rainey is here to talk to us
about the top most Google asked questions on coilovers.
Are you ready?
- No. - Now you have to remember
that this is the top asked questions
so don't anticipate anything good at all.
- Right.
- Like nothing good.
- It's already set.
- Yeah, so just so you guys know
you're watching Fitment Industries
don't forget to subscribe,
and if you're looking for wheels, tires, suspension
FitmentIndustries.com
Ready?
Alright so the first question,
Are coilovers worth the money?
- Depending on which aspect you're looking at,
I mean for the cost effectiveness of lowering a car,
someone like Eric would want his car as low as mine.
So he's gonna buy something inevitably a little cheaper
than say AirRide or KW V3s or anything like that.
Something like an entry level coilovers
you just want a little bit of a look, yeah.
- I don't think there's really been ever
somebody to say that coilovers aren't worth it.
- Right.
- Because I don't think there's anything negative
if you install a coilovers correctly that would be bad.
You get a firmer ride,
lower center of gravity,
so you get better performance.
If you install them correctly you don't have to worry
about rubbing or anything like that,
so there's never gonna be a situation which
coilovers wouldn't be worth the money
if you're looking to make the car better.
Coilovers, are they worth it, yes.
But if you go into the expensive ones,
the differences become pretty marginal I would say.
- Only depends, like PC offers
the Drift Series coilover
which is gonna be vastly different than your Road Track
you know the guys that KW V3's,
they put them in their Porsche or whatever they want,
so they're gonna be vastly different,
the progressive digressive rates
and everything like that'll be different but,
they have the same general structure
of what they should be doing.
- Next question, are coilovers easy to install?
- Yeah, I mean the ones that are messiest the most
usually is the MacPherson Front,
front wheel drive car,
I just did a 2015 TDI and it requires
removing the axle nut,
well the axle bolt,
and pulling the hub out to get the
MacPherson strut and spring out,
which if you don't have the correct tools it's not fun.
But past that, pretty easy it's three bolts,
four bolts per corner and it's out and in.
And after that it's just simple adjustment with the--
(laughs loudly)
- That was really fun.
- Yeah, well.
- Totally easy to install, I would (laughs)
- Think it's easy.
- Coilovers I think they can be scary for a newbie though.
Because when you're looking at a coiler
from a newbie perspective,
and they start talking about compression and clicks,
and this and that,
and then you got the springs
and you don't know how low you're supposed to go
and I think it can be scary,
I think coilovers are one of those things
where if you're trying it for the first time
I would say send it and try it because
if you follow the instructions
it's not terribly difficult.
But you have to be willing to follow the instructions.
- Yeah, and I've never worked on a TDI
and put coilovers in it,
but it's one of those where I just
leave it the way it came out of the box, throw it in,
you can easily adjust it after that.
- Pretty much.
So the next question is this,
will coilovers void my warranty?
Yes, they will.
- More often than not they're going to,
it's just like lifting a truck here,
I mean it's gonna really depend on your dealer,
I mean some dealerships like Love It On The Ford,
probably okay with it,
because they're a massive massive massive
performance oriented Ford dealership,
but most of your dealers are gonna
say anything usually suspension
or drive change related,
no longer covered.
- Yeah, I think if you buy a new car
and start messing with anything,
especially considering insurance and stuff like that,
they do not wanna pay out if you make a mistake
or you hurt something,
or you damage something,
and they will do anything possible
to void your warranty.
Even if it comes down to like when people
switch out wheels and stuff like that,
that can void warranty.
Or they switch out,
they don't go with the recommended
brake pads and stuff like,
there are horror stories of things
getting voided for warranties
depending on how expensive of a car you buy.
Oh Rainey this is a very tough question.
- Ooh.
- I don't think that you're actually gonna get this right.
The question is,
and I really want you to think about this one,
are coilovers better than lowering springs?
- That's a really tricky one,
because cars like the new SI,
have I think it's like active adjustable dampening
from the factory which I put lowering springs in
because my friend wanted to keep that,
so we did lowering springs and
I'll agree with it like that's fine,
I'd wanna keep that too especially on a brand new car,
and he put 40,000 miles or so on his car
in the first seven eight months he's owned it so I mean,
do you wanna put coilovers on a car you drive that much, no.
Do they both have their pros and cons, definitely.
- It's weird because a lot of times when we even
talk about lowering springs and suspension,
we talk about how lowering springs is the entry level
and if you wanna get fancier then you go into coils,
or air or something like that,
you go into dialing everything into a tee but,
for newer cars a lot of times for you
to keep a lot of that factory stuff,
you can't do anything else besides springs.
And a lot of cars especially another BMW platform,
that all you need to do are springs
because once you get the springs done
and you keep your active dynamic suspension
you get a lower look,
you get the increased performance
and you save tons of money,
and then you have all of the same tech that you had before
you don't have to worry about anything going out.
I think once you get into the older stuff,
the coilovers will eventually outtake
the lowering spring capability
but if you're buying a brand new car
and you're talking about if lowering springs
are better or worse,
you'd actually be pretty surprised to find out
that lowering springs aren't that bad actually.
Final question, are coilovers easy to adjust?
- New, or like my car's never driven in winter,
so you don't get any of that road grab and stuff.
And I always--
- See, I do.
- Oh, yeah. - Yeah.
- Yeah.
- No.
(laughing)
- But no I've driven cars in winter
and what I tend to do is pressure wash,
I'll jack the car up take the wheels off,
pressure wash the threads
and then I'll coat them in WD40
'cause I mean they're coilovers,
I just want the threads to be fine and not gunked up.
But once their newer,
they're well taken care of,
yeah I mean I always spray them with WD40 beforehand,
but I mean if you want used coilovers off Craigslist
and they're crusty like they are up North,
- [Interviewer] That's terrible.
It's so painful, - You probably are
gonna break them. - You're breaking knuckles
so often and everybody,
especially if you're installing
coilovers for the first time,
you're going to make this mistake.
Where you're going to say that
you're going to lower your car,
or you're gonna raise your car in the winter time,
you're going to say that you're going to.
- You don't.
- But then winter comes and you don't.
And then you think to yourself,
ah, I'll just send it through the carwash
a couple times and then it'll be fine.
Except it won't be,
it won't be fine at all.
Because you're gonna go six months,
it's gonna kick everything onto it,
and then when you take off your wheels
to put on your new wheels,
your summer wheels which you
bought at FitmentIndustries.com,
for all your wheels, tires and suspension needs,
you end up looking at your coilover
and thinking to yourself wow this sucks.
And then you're gonna have bloody knuckles
because you're gonna be taking that knuckle adjuster
and you're just gonna be slamming into your fender liner.
If I had any recommendation,
they are easy to install
as long as you take care of them.
WD40 works wonders in terms of the threads,
or a lot of times I know that you can actually
just use pretty much your basic...
- [Rainey] Petroleum jelly?
- Yeah, that you can just kinda put on there
and then it just sits on there and then you,
at the end of the winter when you go into the new season
you can actually go through, clean it,
wash it off,
take an old wire brush and then you're right as rain again.
But if you don't prep your coilovers for winter,
you're gonna have a terrible time I promise.
Pretty much any inclement weather.
- Yeah, another good option too is,
they're kinda pricey and they're more tuned for the
high end cars but they make shock socks.
And it's just a big sock that goes over your shock.
And it protects a lot.
- So there you go,
those are the top most asked questions about coilovers.
Which is really, really generic.
- Yeah.
- I mean it's not bad.
Drop a comment below if you have a question on coilovers,
and we'll try and get them answered.
Otherwise let us know in the comment section below
what you would like us to see talk about next,
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries.
- And I'm Brian from Custom Offsets.
- And we will see you guys later, peace.