utkinpol

Just spoke to my mechanic - he pretty much called me an idiot for buying those JIC Cross coils. He says he took off 8 sets of them from cars in last 2 years - #1 failure, rod ends and monoball failure (they use some bottom of the line stuff) #2 strut shaft bearing wear (camber changes), China made, etc, etc. Says I should put PSS10 instead if I cannot afford JRZ. He is probably right - but are JIC Cross so bad?

Would be great to see how many of people here had problems with JIC products compared to how many are OK.

Gundo

Sorry to hear this bad news. I remember talking to the team at the now bankrupt Farnbacher-Loles about coilovers and they hands down suggested JIC. Good luck

Nugget

JIC are well-regarded in the Miata community as well. It's odd that their 997 offerings would be so problematic. They're definitely a reputable manufacturer.

utkinpol

You know, there are always more sides in each story than it appears to be. It would not exclude possibility that my mechanic simply wants to sell me PSS10s himself. But, well, he has no real motives to lie to me neither. Go figure.

I have some money problems right now so I probably will try to sell those COs anyway for same price i got them from Vivid racing but if it will not go I most likely will put them on my car anyway.

I tried them myself with springs taken off - from what I know about shocks they do work fine. So only problematic element would be that monoball bearing that may fall apart eventually from constant street abuse. Like with any of those products usage pattern on a track is quite different from street use and problems are different too.

I was mostly wondering to see list of actual JIC users here and find out for how long do they have those COs on. May be more people will show up.

cgfen

a well respected member of this community and an active race car engineer once wrote this to me when i was asking similar questions

start quote

nyhow, to your questions:

HD's are ok, a little soft for any track work. You'll get the same ride height adjustment range with any of the Bilstein dampers.

PSS? systems are so so in terms of performance and ride comfort. I have never really been that impressed with their valving to be honest. Kinda harsh on the street, not stiff enough for track.

Moton's are great, but spendy. Once they are set up, they soak up bumps on the road and perform on-track like a damper should.

There is KW, but I dont have any personal experience with them. Lots of people are really impressed with them.

The JIC Cross stuff isnt that great either, I understand they are made in China, their material quality proves it.

At this point, for the money, perhaps KW stuff seems to be the best of both worlds.

PSS10's are improved over the PSS9's, better adjusters. For the money, maybe they are a decent route.

All of the Bilstein kits come with rear drop links, a shorter version of the std P-car ones. They do work, as long as the anti roll bar mounts stay tight and dont walk around like so many have had happen. Extra locking collars helps cure this problem.


end quote.

Me? i bought the PSS10s because the price was right and have no complaints, but wish i would have ponied up and bought the KWs, mainly because they are double adjustable

cheers

Craig

utkinpol

My mechanic suggested I should find used set of PSS10, get stiffer springs for them then send them in for re-valving, he says it`s about of $400 job and it should result in pretty decent setup.

May be I will do that. Not sure.

rijowysock

i have the KWv3 and like them, i had problems with the rears when i first bought (was a production flaw) but they fixed it quickly and sent me a new set of rears and 10k on them now no problems.

utkinpol

I have same thread on 996 forum and from it seems to be there are plenty of people who have those COs on their cars without any issues.
Anyway, if anybody wants those JICs I have - PM me. I have decided to get rid of them after all and will go with JRZs or Motons. COs are new in the box and seem to be in OK shape. I got them for $1990 that was quite a good deal. They are for 997 C2 or C2S car.

atr911

Countless evenings have been spent researching coil overs for my 997. Here is what I have found:

KW - Double adjustable is nice but unless you're a suspension engineer, it's just one more thing to confuse you when setting up the car. Build quality is excellent and since they're double adjustable the valving is inconsequential. Still though, hard to beat Porsche engineering.

PSS10 - I agree that the valving isn't so hot and the spring rates are a bad compromise. GMG will take them, revalve them and modify the spring perch to accept different spring rates. The total tab is about $4500. That's JRZ/Moton teritory.

JIC - Manufacturing is being brought over the USA in the next couple months and only time will tell how build quality changes. Otherwise a good price for what you get. This is the first I've heard of failures.

JRZ - Tested and true but not cheap. Monoballs are required and ride can be pretty harsh. Great for a track weapon.

Moton - JUST released (with the help of GMG) a street, single adjustable, non-remote damper that bridges the financial gap between the boys and the men. $3500-4000 gets you real Moton dampers and springs. You decide if you want to buy the adapters to fit them to stock mounts or buy monoballs. IMHO, the best bang for the buck and if they're real Motons, you can't go wrong. Important to get a good shop to set them up for you though!

The bottom line is that porsche engineering is hard to beat. A member here actually recorded his best track times on stock suspension and worst times on aftermarket sways/coil overs. The OEM suspension cannot be beat on the street and to beat it on the track takes some real R&D and experience. Talk to the guys at GMG, TPC, TRG. These guys have done their research and know what they're talking about.

utkinpol

I do not think JICs I got are quite that bad, actually, a lot of folks use them and quite happy as it turns out but my intent was to get Motons from very beginning, so, I will most likely pause a little bit and find a proper set of them as I do not want to redo suspension every season. Will see. If I will not be able to sell them until the end of the season then may be I will put them on.

It was a hasty decision to get those JICs from vividracing, Not sure what to do with it now. Issue wth JICs as I see it that it is a hit or miss, it got all the features - steel monoball at top, camber plates, monotube, 15 step adjustment... If it works it is a great setup. If it works.

afridi

I just bought KW and they are sitting in a box. I decided to wait before installing them till I at least got my hands on a sway bar set. I do have access to some suspension experts and if installed i could get them adjusted well for the track I frequent. However I am also having second thoughts wondering if I should just stick with the stock suspension as one hears quite often, its hard to beat Porsche when it comes to things like this!

utkinpol

I hardly ever drive my car on regular streets somehow... Used to get it out a lot but this season usage pattern changed dramatically and most of time car spends on road while driven to a track or to Devens.

Second thoughts are quite typical. Stock suspension is a great compromise between two pretty much non-compatible tasks.
But as soon as you start running on r-comp slicks like hoosiers stock suspension is simply no good no more as it is way too soft to react fast enough. KW and PSS coilovers are also too soft for track. JRZ, Moton, Ohlin are the top brands... But to drive on Motons on regular less than perfect street is quite a torture, there is no doubt about it. It simply comes to a braking point where car got to be dedicated to something specific - either to leisure or to sport. And any in-between solutions are not really cost effective, they are even counterproductive a bit as they push you out of stock class but do not provide same competitive edge as higher class products. Soooo, one chooses for himself here.