Anyone run Eibach R1 or R2 coilovers?

[Vorshlag-Fair]

I do have a daily driver. But I refuse to turn my "race car" into something that cannot be driven on the street whenever (and as much as) I want to.

Yea, I was mostly kidding. You are doing what probably 75-80% of our S197 customers are also doing: street use/daily driving with some HPDE or autocross events thrown at their cars on the weekends. Again, if you care about lap times in any fashion, monotube adjustable coilovers are going to allow for other beneficial mods (aka: spring rates) and themselves help make the car perform better (and almost always ride better).

Typical HPDE events we attend, where 90% or more of the cars were driven there

Cheaper twin tubes are still just as much of a wear item, even if people don't know they are blown. These shocks just just limit some things (lowering, damping, spring rates, spring style choices, ride) that hold back performance, so much so that that I don't find them useful in anything I might care about how fast I'm driving: autocross, road course, time trial, beating my best commute time home from work, etc.

 

[csamsh]

The general consensus I am getting here is that while a quality monotube may have to be rebuilt periodically, the conditions that would cause a rebuild would have likely ruined a cheap damper, which often can't be rebuilt. If you are on any shock without having it replaced or gone through after 2-3 years max, you are wrong. They are wear items.

Seems reasonable.

Also Vince, it's worth noting that the best my car ever rode was with AST 4150's and 800# front, 250# rear springs. After the revalve, mostly for compression, the ride quality became very, very good.

 

[claudermilk]

I daily drive on my MCS Double Adj, I will report back when/if I have an issue. At some point my car will be a dedicated autoX car and I won't DD on them but at the moment thats not the case. When I bought the coilovers I knew that the added level of performance was my main focus and was well aware that if it meant that they needed to get rebuilt at some point or often, thats was going to be the price to pay for suspension component that perform at a high level. Racing is full of compromises, you need to pick the parts that are right for you which means getting serious about what your intended use of your car is. Perhaps TT1's are high price to pay if your 90/10 daily/track (go Bilstein's) but if your car is 70/30 track/daily your going to have a setup that performs extremely well and is livable on the street with an eye towards preventive maintenance to maintain its effectiveness (rebuilds). I think Modernbeat may have mentioned what the rebuild intervals are in a previous post?

Cool, I'll look for the updates.

Monotube adjustable shock rebuild intervals aren't a fixed quantity... its depends on so many variables. Usually you have to rebuild a monotube after:

1. It loses Nitrogen pressure, after which is will leak hydraulic fluid.
2. An adjuster malfunctions - like if it sticks, or spins more than the allotted number of "clicks" or rotations.
3. Any time there's a hydraulic leak at a seal, fitting or hose.
4. Something is bent or broken, from crash damage - obviously.

I've seen customers go 5-6 years before needing a look and others that need rebuilds every 2 seasons. Pro race teams and rally cars are much harder on their dampers and tend to rebuild them much more often, usually from crash damage.

This is along the lines of what I was hoping to read. A) You should be able to tell fairly (heh) easily on a monotube if it needs service, and B) The intervals aren't necessarily as short as I got the impression earlier in the thread.

If a monotube shock has hoses and remote canisters, that adds complexity and places for a leak. Lots of times these leaks have to do how the remotes are mounted, like if a hose has a swivel or is kinked when it is mounted. Or when they are near extreme sources of heat. Or if they are clamped in the wrong place, which can make a piston stick in the bore.

Fortunately, I'm not really entertaining the idea of the fancy remote reservoir setups. I know that's way beyond reasonable for my car's use case. I'm looking at the base single-adjustable setup with an eye to upgrading to double adjustable later (love the idea that the MCS has that option). That's as far as I'll ever go.

Daily driving on monotubes can be done, but these conditions can be as harsh or worse than track conditions, when you consider potholes and poor roads. Some folks are attentive and can avoid big road heaves and potholes better than others, and they tend to be the folks who don't jump curbs on track every lap, too. Yes, even in the age of "blame everyone else", sometimes we have to take responsibility for our own actions. Driving style can very much affect the life of any part on a race car, especially dampers. I'm owning up to this myself, and just wish customers would tell us when they crashed or had an off and we're doing a shock rebuild. "Hmm, wonder why this shaft is bent...?" Hey, stuff happens on a race track and even on the street that is sometimes (but very rarely) completely out of our control.

Fortunately, my car lives in SoCal, so much as I think our roads suck, they aren't nearly as bad as some areas. I like to think of myself as a mechanically sympathetic driver. I do avoid potholes & big bumps as much as I can, thus far I really don't jump the curbing at the track. So far no "offs" (knock on wood).

Hope that helps?

Immensely! I was hoping for a good reply, and this completely blows away what I was expecting! This is why I love this forum.

In a nutshell, so long as I don't go hopping curbs, driving through every pothole and nasty RR crossing at speed I should be able to get away with about a 3-5 year interval on rebuilds. I think I can handle that. One other question on that front: generally what should turnaround times on a rebuild be?

 

[I am Legend]

Turn around time on shocks like MCS/AST/Moton can be done in a few days. Most shocks spend more time in transit than what it takes to rebuild them!

 

[LS1EATINPONY]

Turn around time on shocks like MCS/AST/Moton can be done in a few days. Most shocks spend more time in transit than what it takes to rebuild them!

I can tell you from experience that Eibach will take at least 2 weeks to even touch your shocks. Once they get them they do them that day but they will sit for 2 weeks without a doubt. Thats my only gripe with turn around. Waiting a month to drive your car sucks.

 

[Department Of Boost]

I can tell you from experience that Eibach will take at least 2 weeks to even touch your shocks. Once they get them they do them that day but they will sit for 2 weeks without a doubt. Thats my only gripe with turn around. Waiting a month to drive your car sucks.

 

[LS1EATINPONY]

 

[Shift91]

Hell I have a set of R2's for sale $1800 never even opened