What to do abought the suspension

Hey guys for the last year i have had BC Racing Coilover on my 85 toyota mr2 and for the last year my soon to be wife has refused to do more then ride up the street in it because of a combination of bad ride quality and poor roads. The coil overs are set up right now with 280lbs front and 450lbs in the rear with the factory front and rear sway-bars still attached. Now I've pretty much decided since the car has slowly been becoming my daily driver and i haven't been doing many track days lately i should do something about the suspension.

The two options I'm looking at are to re-spring my coilovers to something a little softer like 200lbs front and 350lbs rear or just sell the coilovers all together and get suspension techniques springs and tokico blue struts.

So any thoughts?

Depends. If your current shocks are really stiff the ride may remain pretty harsh, even with considerably softer springs. New springs on the current coilovers is likely the cheaper option, but new struts and street springs are more likely to appease your future wife. I've been married 27 years and appeasing, even if it is more expensive, usually causes less grief, but you'll figure that out soon enough.

I'm guessing the shocks are set to their softest damping settings?

You might try temporarily disconnecting the sway bars to ensure they aren't adding a binding element to the suspension movement, which can cause weird suspension issues.

If you can find the data on the configuration of the struts and suspension, someone smarter here could run through the numbers and determine what the wheel rates are and what could be with different springs.

I currently have the shocks set about half way thought there adjustment range, any softer and I find the ride way to bouncy any harder and i find there is no give what so ever. I emailed the company about the suggested rates and there tech emailed me back saying that i shouldn't need to have the coilovers revalved but if i decided i wanted to they would do it for 100$ a shock. I will try disconnecting the sway bars and see what how it effects the ride quality. Thanks for the quick answers guys

Disconnecting the sway bars won't do anything positive for you, IMHO. Ride quality won't improve and it may do some funny things in corners.

Go with the Koni's. They are not that harsh. I had ST springs and Koni inserts on my 87 MR2 (RIP), plus TRD bushings. I have Konis and GC coilovers on my AE92 now.

Oh, my wife wouldn't ride in the MR2 until I started to keep ear plugs in the glove box. Apparently a 20v and a glass pack are a tad loud. You couldn't hear the radio when the motor was running, but whatever.

DeadSkunk wrote: Disconnecting the sway bars won't do anything positive for you, IMHO. Ride quality won't improve and it may do some funny things in corners.

Uh, not necessarily. Many factory sway bar solutions bind terribly and cause the spring rate to go near infinity as they attempt to move. They should be used as a tuning aid, not as a replacement to proper suspension tuning. Not saying they aren't useful or that they should be removed, but that to determine where the problem might be one, has to reduce the variables.

I've found that many sway bars contribute to the side to side jerking that many find objectionable, this is because they are doing their job of transferring loads from one corner to the other, get the oscillations right and you can end up with weight bouncing all over the place. This can be exacerbated on lightweight cars with stiff suspensions.

Agreed with Hess.

I daily an 86 aw11 with Konis, Eibach Prokit springs, TRD bushings, on 205/45 16inchers and it's very tolerable, even on the moon-cratered downtown Atlanta streets that I have to drive on everyday. You still have to be mindful of potholes & manhole covers, but overall not bad.

I've always thought the Tokico blues are fine for a budget suspension (as long as the spring rates aren't too high). However, we've gotten quite a few horror stories in the MR2 community about them failing prematurely. Maybe it's a quality-control issue with our application? Dunno.

Even if the blues were reliable, the Koni's digressive damping curve and range of adjustment really are a huge boon on the street. I've ridden in a friends aw11 with similar springs and Tokico Illuminas and it wasn't nearly as comfortable.

That said, $150/corner for the Konis vs. $100/corner for a rebuild is kinda a tough choice. You'd be rolling the dice though on getting something back that actually suits your needs. Also, shipping and the convenience factor may or may not negate the price difference.

As far as wheel rates. The MR2 uses a macstrut setup and it's almost 1:1 IIRC. Makes picking spring rates easy.

edit- almost forgot to mention. My wife has no problem driving the MR2 on her nearly hour-long commute to work (one way). She is a car-person though.

Sell the coilovers and get a good quality shock and spring package. Shocks make a huge difference.