• December 3, 2008
• Category: Suspension
• Written By: Chris
• No Comments

It’s been about two weeks since I had the K-Sports installed on my 2006 TSX (Chassis CL9). I must say they have out performed my expectations. I have ridden on mainly Tein’s in friends cars and these K-Sports feel every bit as solid as their Tein’s. Relatively quiet, smooth but firm rebound, and moderately stiff spring rates make these coil overs and nice choice.

Speaking of Tein, I have ridden on basics and SS, the basics were in a 2006 TSX and the SS where on a 2007 TSX and 2004 TL, the latter having EDFC. For the basics I was not to impressed, first they seem to have a chronic issues with developing a squeaking issue in the rear on TSX set-ups and second, they have no dampening force adjustment. Granted, Basics are an entry level coil over and at around $750.00 +/- $100.00 they are a fairly good budget choice.

The SS on the other hand I have to admit are much nicer than my K-Sports. Softer and smoother rebound, very nice spring rates and dampening force adjustment via EDFC or the old manual method. This should be expect of a coil over system costing over $1000.00 on average. The ability to use EDFC even though listed as incompatible with TSX SS applications is a definite convienience.

The K-Sports offer a wonderful middle of the line coil over, I’d say falling somewhere between Tein Basics and Tein SS. Another advantage to the K-Sports is you can adjust the shock body for ride height as opposed to adjusting the spring perch seen with most Tein set ups (to see how this works read the K-Sport manual by clicking here). This allows you to keep the full amount of suspension travel and lower your ride height to a near bagged appearance.

Over the course of my two weeks of ownership I have dropped another half inch for a total of about 3 inches of drop (7.62 centimeters) and still have about another inch and a half (3.81 centimeters) to go before the K-sports are tapped out. With this now lower stance I have noticed a bit of fender rub over bouncy corners at a higher rate of speed, to remedy this I have adjust the dampening force to be firmer to compensate for the added body roll of a hard turn into a bump.

Adjusting ride height with the K-Sports is fairly simple and straight forward. Raise the vehicle up and place it on stands, remove the wheels (you can get away with leaving the font wheels on), take a flat head screw driver (K-Sport suggests a brass punch), and a hammer then tap the base collar counter clock wise to loosen it. Adjust the collar up to the amount of drop you would like to add, now grab the collars and spring in your hand and turn clockwise until your base collar is pressed against the shock body. Take your hammer and screwdriver and tap the base collar clockwise to lock it and check to make sure the spring perch collars did now loosen. That’s it. It took me about 45 minutes to adjust all four corners.

Overall; these coil overs are impressive for their price and should be considered by anyone looking for a decent set of coil overs on a budget, because lets face it, we can’t all afford a $1600.00+ set of coil overs but would sure like to have some of the high end coil over adjustments.