TC Kline Racing Single Adjustable Coilovers.
So I did this a while back. Quite a while back actually. I've had some problems with the rear dampers, but I'm still convinced it's a good kit. More on that later, let's take a look.
I previously had Bilstein B6 (HD) dampers and Swift Spec R springs. I am still to this day a fan of that setup. So why switch? I really wanted the ability to set my ride height and achieve a relatively light weight suspension setup, but NOT have to spend a lot of money to do it. Additionally, I wanted a set of coilovers which I could switch to Swift springs without any necessary adapters or additional money.
I talked to TC out at the main Ohio shop and we settled on 350lbs front and 600lbs rear for my usage. Daily duty with light performance driving fit the bill for those specs well. I called up Dinan and they sourced me the 12mm sleeves for my rear shock mounts, and I was off to my garage to do the install. I think it took me ~10 hours to install in total. Would have had it done very quickly, but one of the front dampers had excess paint on it. Believe it or not, it wouldn't fit the spindle without refinishing.
So out came the old parts. All old mounts came out too.
Bent end links. Luckily I was replacing them:
Found this nice little asshole present. Man I hate the roads here. One of the reasons I wanted a suspension I could customize the ride height easily with.
New parts!
So let's do the front first.
I strongly recommend a Schwaben spindle spreader. Between this and my big ass pry bars I was able to get the spindles open. Like I said before, one of the dampers had too much paint on it. What a PITA.
Put together this little combo to tighten the top hat nut. Worked like a champ.
All together with new HPA endlinks:
First shot at mounting the wheel didn't leave me enough clearance.. so I cleaned up the hub, and slipped on a 3mm spacer. Ended up being about enough for 2 pieces of paper. Small amount of anti-seize on the hub surface. I know some folks don't like doing this, but after having my wheels bind to the hub, I don't care, don't tell me what to do!
NOW ON TO THE REAR
The TC rear height adjusters are really nice heavy units. Greased them up with some anti-seize and they went right into the old upper spring cup mount point.
Here's the rear shock mount sleeves. 10mm vs 12mm Dinan. Use the correct parts folks.
After talking with other folks having issues with fitting the rear dampers through the body with the dinan mounts, I checked to make sure it fit on the shaft alone. So far so good.
Test fit!
Now here's one thing I really don't like. There's no lower spring isolator. The spring just sits in the lower camber link. After living with these coilovers for a couple years at this point, I can say I DO notice it. I talked with Fe1rx, and he supplied me a solution. That's coming soon!
Here's the spring and damper back in.
Buttoned up. Plenty of thread space. Maybe an issue with 1M/M3 dampers on the HPA M-type lower camber link? Perhaps. I guess I'll find out when I replace dampers.
Done!
Impressions
This kit really is fantastic. For the money, I don't think it can be beat. I had some issues with my kit and QC, but that's fine. It all went in at the end of the day. I had my alignment specs set to the same as I had with the old suspension. Even with an increase of over 100lbs on each corner, bump control is vastly improved, comfort is up, less bump steer, less overall BOUNCINESS, good god. And less rattles. We all like less rattles.
Other good things? Steering feedback and turn in is improved. I can't wait to put on my TC camber plates to really evaluate this. We'll see.
Things I don't like? I'm not sure if it's a problem with my kit but I've had a sagged spring in the rear, and the lower mount bolt threads stripped on both rear dampers. One of them I take credit for, must have cross threaded the nut when I put it on. Was hasty and at the end of the install, too tired, and not paying attention. The other was courtesy of my BMW dealer after they fixed a really badly broken bolt in my suspension that I couldn't get out. Car won't ever be going back there. I'll gladly eat the couple hundred from my own pocket for a new damper than EVER set foot in that crapshoot again. But, still, both? Do Koni dampers have soft threads? I've never had a problem like this before with any other damper manufacturer on any car. Very strange. I currently have my old Bilstein dampers back there while I figure out a solution. To be completely honest, other than a harsher and faster bump response from the high pressure gas monotube, they feel pretty similar.
As always, any questions, fire away.
