Help identifying adjustable coils

[Obi-Wan-YJ]

We just bought a 2007 GT with a slough of mods. Among them is an adjustable coil suspension that lowers the car too much to clear speed bumps. We need to raise it up a little higher. We pulled the tires and took a look at the suspension recently, but we couldn't find any real identification regarding what brand/model we might have.

Here's the front strut. It has the numbers "660107 12 221" printed directly on the coil, but google didn't turn up any hits. No other identification on the item. The screw fitting looks like we can raise the coil maybe another 1.0 - 1.25", which should give us enough height at the wheel for daily driving.



Here's the rear. The shock body has "2104 CN 118973" stamped into it, but again, google found no matches. I found no marks on the spring or its base. The spring base has maybe another 0.5" of height to offer, which isn't enough for us.



So here's my questions:
1. What brand/model suspension is this?
2. If we do max out the height in the rear springs, how do I know how to properly adjust the shock? Just disconnect the bottom & test the range by hand?
3. My son (it's his car) says that the suspension is really harsh. Given the other mods that were put on the car by the PO, I'm sure this is a racing suspension. Is there a softer option that will get us higher than this kit will allow?
4. We do not have the spanner wrenches that were originally used to adjust the coils. Will channel locks work, or should I buy some generic spanners of the matching size?

 

[86GT351]

Any coil over style suspension is going to be a harsher ride.

 

[MrBhp]

Buy the correct spanner. You're going to need two. I believe you can put a rubber spacer under the rear spring perch to give you more lift. I think that's what I did, but just to quiet things down a bit. The springs look fairly heavy. There are plenty of choices on the spring rate. Get something light. Those rear spring perches look like Vorshlag. If you reach out to vorshlag, don't expect much advice. They are dicks, but they have good stuff. So know what you need before picking up the phone. The main thing is get adjustable struts. Set them to soft. My car rides much better than stock. Handles better, too.

 

[cavero]

Maybe it's this guy? I got a hit with the "118973" + 2007 Mustang coil over suspension

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266806006993

Only difference I can see is yours are all red, vs some black on the ebay version

Edit --- I don't know why I was thinking yours were all red -- these look pretty much the same

 

[Obi-Wan-YJ]

That does look like a similar configuration. If I translate the published spring rates into Imperial, it's 447 lbs/inch front and 335 lbs/inch rear, compared to the factory's 134 F / 120 R. From what I'm reading, those new spring rates should ride reasonably well as long as nothing's bottoming out.

I finally just now heard back from the previous-previous owner. He installed the coils about 5 years ago. He no longer remembers the brand, but thinks he got them from "Classic Auto Part." That store name isn't turning up anything useful.

 

[MrBhp]

335 is stiff for rear springs. I run 220

 

[bigmace]

Just replace them witih some OEM style shocks / struts, and some decent 1.5" lowering springs. Will make the ride less harsh and 1.5" is just enough to get rid of the monster truck factory stance, but still good enough to not scape on stuf.

 

[Obi-Wan-YJ]

Just replace them witih some OEM style shocks / struts, and some decent 1.5" lowering springs. Will make the ride less harsh and 1.5" is just enough to get rid of the monster truck factory stance, but still good enough to not scape on stuf.

I neglected to mention that we also have tires+wheels off a 2018 Performance Package, which has 255/40ZR19 fronts and 275/40ZR19 rears instead of the factory 235/50ZR18. They're effectively the same height, but will those wider tires rub on the factory springs? Got any photos of an s197 that was lowered as you suggest?

 

[cavero]

Lots of people have that combo of 255 up front and 275 in the rear with no issues, but it might also depend on the offset of the wheels. I've got 19x10's in the rear with a +48mm offset and have no issues running 285's.

As far as pics go, Steeda's sport springs drop the car 0.25" in the front and 1.5" in the rear so should be able to search for pictures of those.
This is how my car sits on them



Have more pics here:

https://www.s197forum.com/threads/lookin-for-19s-need-help-deciding-pic-heavy.138896/post-2509725

 

[Obi-Wan-YJ]

As far as pics go, Steeda's sport springs drop the car 0.25" in the front and 1.5" in the rear so should be able to search for pictures of those.
This is how my car sits on them

https://www.s197forum.com/threads/lookin-for-19s-need-help-deciding-pic-heavy.138896/post-2509725

That looks really good at that height. Do you have any trouble with speed bumps or parking lot curbs? How well do those Steeda Sports ride as a daily driver?

This is ours the day we got it. Last night, we raised the suspension about 1/2" up front and as far as we could (3/8") in the rear. The front still has plenty of room to adjust, but the rears will need longer coils or something. At full droop, the rear springs & mounts just wobble around loose enough to pull out by hand. The bottom edge of the rocker panel still stands about 3/4" taller in the rear. We're about to get new tires, and moving from 255/35 to 255/40 up front should add about 1" to the diameter & 1/2" to the ride height there.

 

[cavero]

That looks really good at that height. Do you have any trouble with speed bumps or parking lot curbs? How well do those Steeda Sports ride as a daily driver?

This is ours the day we got it. Last night, we raised the suspension about 1/2" up front and as far as we could (3/8") in the rear. The front still has plenty of room to adjust, but the rears will need longer coils or something. At full droop, the rear springs & mounts just wobble around loose enough to pull out by hand. The bottom edge of the rocker panel still stands about 3/4" taller in the rear. We're about to get new tires, and moving from 255/35 to 255/40 up front should add about 1" to the diameter & 1/2" to the ride height there.

View attachment 117062

Oh I'm misremembering - Sport springs are 1" drop in the front ,1.25" drop in the rear.
Steeda also makes Ultralite springs which are 1.25" drop in the front, 1.5" in the rear
And they also have Street K springs which are 0.5" drop front, 1.4" drop in the rear (these are ford racing brand)

Speedbumps - only the particularly nasty ones, I just have to crawl over them really slow so I don't compress the springs and bottom out. But 99% of the time no. On curbs and driveways, not really from the springs. I do have a chin spoiler, which can make curbs a problem when I'm pulling into a space, so I back in most of the time.

Ride quality is Ok as long as the potholes aren't too bad, it's hard for me to say because i've been riding on them since '08 (jeeze...18 years?!) so I'm pretty used to it. I wouldn't call it cushy but I can still take long trips (~400-500 miles) on them. Honestly the mustang rides better than my wife's stock Mazdaspeed3.

Worth looking into, you might want to consider an adjustble panhard rod and a bumpsteer kit

 

[Kev555]

We just bought a 2007 GT with a slough of mods. Among them is an adjustable coil suspension that lowers the car too much to clear speed bumps. We need to raise it up a little higher. We pulled the tires and took a look at the suspension recently, but we couldn't find any real identification regarding what brand/model we might have.

Here's the front strut. It has the numbers "660107 12 221" printed directly on the coil, but google didn't turn up any hits. No other identification on the item. The screw fitting looks like we can raise the coil maybe another 1.0 - 1.25", which should give us enough height at the wheel for daily driving.

View attachment 117022

Here's the rear. The shock body has "2104 CN 118973" stamped into it, but again, google found no matches. I found no marks on the spring or its base. The spring base has maybe another 0.5" of height to offer, which isn't enough for us.

View attachment 117023 View attachment 117024

So here's my questions:
1. What brand/model suspension is this?
2. If we do max out the height in the rear springs, how do I know how to properly adjust the shock? Just disconnect the bottom & test the range by hand?
3. My son (it's his car) says that the suspension is really harsh. Given the other mods that were put on the car by the PO, I'm sure this is a racing suspension. Is there a softer option that will get us higher than this kit will allow?
4. We do not have the spanner wrenches that were originally used to adjust the coils. Will channel locks work, or should I buy some generic spanners of the matching size?

Max speeding rods coils, They are Chinese and budget coilovers. I have them fitted but they are a bit harsh due to having them set like that to keep them hammering the rear bump stop.

 

[Kev555]

 

[whitmanink]

Max speeding rods coils, They are Chinese and budget coilovers. I have them fitted but they are a bit harsh due to having them set like that to keep them hammering the rear bump stop.

ive seen so many posts on wrx fourms and others that show pics of Chinese knock offs and the shocks breaking !?

so be mindful of the brand and reputation

 

[Kev555]

They suited the budget at the time and got average to decent reviews. I'm not the guy who's going to be doing 120 on a bumpy back road on them LOL. I have them fitted for 2 years but mine look a lot better than Obi wans as car is only a fair weather summer car. To be fair his coil overs look like they have done a fair few miles and on a daily driver and they are still intact. Sometimes some of the top shock brand names in the market sub out some or all production to Chinese factories. Everybody does to some extent.

 

[Obi-Wan-YJ]

I'm not the guy who's going to be doing 120 on a bumpy back road on them LOL. I have them fitted for 2 years but mine look a lot better than Obi wans as car is only a fair weather summer car. To be fair his coil overs look like they have done a fair few miles and on a daily driver and they are still intact.

Yeah, this car has seen about 20K miles in the 5 years since this suspension was installed. Several of the adjusting nuts seemed to be frozen in place.

Going forward, this will be my son's daily driver, and he's about to move to an older part of town that's notorious for having rough streets. He has no plans to drive it on a track just yet, so I think streetability needs to take priority.

I don't know if we can swap out just the coils for something that's a little taller and softer (more like 250 lb/in progressives instead of the current 450 F / 350 R), or if we'll have to replace the entire suspension to make that happen. I did take some measurements on the rear coils when I had them out: 180mm tall, 87mm OD, 63mm ID.

 

[Kev555]

We have WD40 releasing spray here for freeing them up, Not sure what the best American releasing spray is but keep spraying them for a few days and clean up the threads with a wire brush. Are yours adjustable for softness and the top of the shocks?

 

[Obi-Wan-YJ]

We have WD40 releasing spray here for freeing them up, Not sure what the best American releasing spray is but keep spraying them for a few days and clean up the threads with a wire brush. Are yours adjustable for softness and the top of the shocks?

Yeah, we have lots of penetrating fluids. WD40 is not very good at that. Liquid Wrench and PB Blaster are better. Kroil is better still. None of them worked within the first few minutes, so I'll keep soaking things for a few days and try again later.

I haven't checked to see if the shocks have adjustable valving, but my impression was that it's the coil spring rate that really makes the ride harsh. Am I mistaken?

I need to find some instructions on how to properly adjust everything on that suspension to make it work optimally. Having terse, Chinese-translated instructions that say "turn this nut to adjust preload" doesn't help if I don't know why I want more or less preload compared to what I currently have.

Our new control arms (stock, but with non-rotted bushings) and some proper spanner wrenches just arrived today, so we'll be back under that car again soon.

 

[Kev555]

Those little knobs on the top turn clockwise and anti clockwise to adjust, IIRC its 24 clicks clockwise to either reach the softest or hardest setting. Try it out on the front ones, I found the rears are a bit more tricky to adjust the ride height with 19" wheels, trying to achieve the correct height and keep the spring slightly compressed when the axle has all the weight off on the lift. Lifting it higher at the rear may be limited due to the shortness of the coil over spring mount on the rear. This was the only down side I saw to the Chinese coil overs.

 

[Obi-Wan-YJ]

Those little knobs on the top turn clockwise and anti clockwise to adjust, IIRC its 24 clicks clockwise to either reach the softest or hardest setting.

Thanks for the tip!

Lifting it higher at the rear may be limited due to the shortness of the coil over spring mount on the rear. This was the only down side I saw to the Chinese coil overs.

Yes, we encountered exactly that problem on ours. We maxed out the ride height on our rear springs, but it still sits lower than we'd like (too low for my floor jack & probably too low for speed bumps), which is why I'm curious about finding taller, softer springs that will still work with this adjustable lower mount. If we could find springs that were roughly 230mm tall and a little softer, that would give us the flexibility to tweak the height around our desired range... assuming our current shocks can handle that range. I haven't tested them yet.