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Parts Shop Max Coilovers - Writeup/ DIY / Review *lots of pics*

201K views 799 replies 104 participants last post by  Sbin 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
My Parts Shop Max coilover kit just arrived!

I have not actually installed it yet, but I will be doing a complete writeup and install guide for you guys soon, within the next week.

I have to at least start out by saying that Parts Shop Max so far, has been an absolute pleasure to work with. Dan@PBM has been excellent about answering all of my questions, and he shipped my kit out ultra fast! I believe I got it in 3 business days. I definitely would do business with them again.

All I can say so far about the PBM coilovers is ... wow.. they are the most beautiful car parts I have ever laid eyes on! I actually feel guilty just owning them, they are too good for the likes of me LOL. I feel like a bad person just knowing these are going under my car, and will be filthy within a month. There really is nothing else that looks like these. The build quality is also superb! The lower shock mounting brackets are probably the best constructed I have ever seen.Seriously beefy!

I love the front top hats, you can adjust them in multiple ways - all other coilover kits for the genesis don't offer any type of caster adjustment, the PBM's can be configured to adjust either camber, caster, or both simultaneously. They also have -2 degrees camber built into the shock body.

The real star of the show though, is the true rear coilovers. I can't wait to try these out!

Anyway, until I install these, enjoy some pics!










































That's it for now guys, I'll be back in a few days with a big update!!


PART 2 - PREINSTALL
 
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#3 ·
Nice. Your mention negative camber already built in, meaning you can't go positive from -2 anymore?


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#4 ·
That's what I understand from he description of them from the Parts Shop Max website

Unique Features:
~ Super Light Linear Spring
~ CNC aluminum components double coated with pure copper, sealed with clear urethane
~ Pillowball uppers front and rear (teflon lined maintenance free)
~ Pillowball lower mounts (except Z33)
~ Fine damper threads to resist loosening
~ Rebound Infinitely adjustable with 12 click tactile feedback knob.
~ Damping has more adjustability all on the soft end of the range to compliment the swift springs and big traction on high power cars.
~ Camber AND CASTER adjustable front upper mount
~ 2 Degrees of negative camber built into lower mount
~ Lifetime warranty against manufacturer defect

However with SPC or RSpec camber bolts, you will be able to get back near 0 degrees camber. You would never want to though, you need -2 to -3 degees front camber for this car since it gains positive camber up front under load , that way you will be around 0 degrees when the front left or right suspension is fully loaded up into a corner. You definitely need more negative camber if you're going lower than stock suspension.

The top hat plate can also be turned so you can adjust camber, caster, or camber+caster. From what my research has gathered, pulling back the caster will yield very positive results for this platform. The car has something like +7 degrees caster up front, which is fairly excessive. The more of that you get rid of, the better the front end will feel. I can't wait to try that particular feature out!
 
#5 ·
I look forward to your install then. My choice in coilovers may rest on your review. My main concern is ease of install and tuning. I won't be the one installing this but my neighbor and I don't want to be changing settings all the time unless its something I can do myself without getting underneath the car. If I can better understand what to adjust and how it adjusts it would make it easier to explain to him what I want. Preload and how ride height is adjusted is confusing to me and this added caster adjustment just adds to the confusion.
 
#12 ·
The good thing about this kit, is that the rears are as easy to adjust as the fronts. I'm not sure about adjusting the rear damping yet, the adjustment knob is on top of the shock, which is a pain in the ass place since it typically means pulling the shock out every time you want to adjust the damping. (this is not unique to PSM though, at least half of the coilover kits for the genesis are the same way, including the shitty ISC's ). Parts Shop Max does include a set of extended adjuster knobs, which I assume are for the rear- I might drill some holes above the rear upper shock mounts, from inside the trunk, and install the extended damping adjustment knobs that way ( accessible through the trunk for quick adjusting ). Front/rear ride height, front/rear preload, and front damping, should be a cake walk to adjust in this car. The rears are definitely going to be significantly quicker and easier to adjust than any set with a separate rear shock and spring, that was why I got this set to begin with ( that , and the caster adjustment, is what pushed me over the edge to buying this set). I honestly found the whole process of adjusting the separate rears on my ISC's to be frustrating and tedious after the first dozen or so times, and it's something you definitely have to do several times to get it right, and most people never get it right. I feel bad for people that don't do their own labor, and have to pay shops over and over and over to get their coilovers adjusted and dialed in properly, post initial installation. If you are in that boat, the non skilled mechanic type, this Parts Shop Max kit is perfect , because adjusting is going to take 90% less time, and the installation time for the rears is going to be half the labor charge compared to the other coilovers out there, due to being one, pre-assembled unit, preload already set, and all you have to worry about is the ride height and damping setting.
 
#6 ·
About the Caster. We actually filed down the strut tower bar holes so I could adjust Caster on my car when getting it aligned lol. Simple solution but it worked..

Looking forward to installed pics!
 
#7 ·
#14 ·
Oh yah, I forgot to mention, THIS KIT NOT COME WITH ENDLINKS. You need 2010 front Endlinks for this kit. I looked around the net for upgraded replacement endlinks , and the best looking ones I could find are made by MOOG, and you can buy them from Rock Auto. They look way beefier than stock and have all metal internals ( as opposed to other brands which can have some plastic\polymer inside )

I'll post some pics of those later tonight
 
#20 ·
Yes my ISC's ( and every other coilover I have ever owned ) have also been painted and not powder coated. Teins, bilsteins, H&R's, etc are all painted.

I am sure the copper powder coating will hold up well, but I worry about the gold plated springs. I have never seen anything gold plated that did not start chipping off after a while.

What's much more important than the gold finish of the springs, is the fact that they are SWIFT SPRINGS!!!



From Swiftsprings.net said:
the Advantage
When drivers look at a set of springs, they concentrate mainly on the rates, but the material and manufacturing process is equally important.

Most enthusiasts will tell you that all springs are the same... we asked some professional drivers for their opinions

*I just replaced my springs to Swift Springs with same spring rate, and somehow the car behaves totally different now.

*Since I've swapped the springs from another brand to Swift, my lap times became very consistent throughout the entire race due to cooler tire temperatures, which saves tire wear.

*We have tested our Swift-equipped race cars on a shaker rig, and the Swift Springs have a lot less harmonic vibration.

*My car is a lot smoother with Swift Springs even though same spring rate were chosen, especially on bad surfaces.

The many positive comments Swift Springs receive would have you believe that Swift Springs is surprised to hear such things in the first place, we are simply getting confirmation that our engineering not only works on paper, but is also proven through use in the field (track). Now, allow us to provide a few reasons as to why we get this kind of feedback from our users.

Priorities that we always have in mind when we develop suspension springs.

Surely you have read some spring manufacture's catalogs before, and you have read that they all claim to have the 4 factors listed below.

The most consistent spring rate throughout the stroke
The largest amount of stroke
The highest durability against loss of spring height
The lightest in weight
We like to believe that all suspension spring manufacturers try their best to achieve these 4 factors. Top suspension tuners know that these 4 factors play an intricate role when considering the effectiveness of the suspension coil spring.

Our parent company, Tohatsu, has been winding industrial springs since 1924. Tohatsu then decided to get in to the auto racing market in 1996. Based on long-time experience dealing with coil springs, we came up with one goal: "We must make the product that will revolutionize the ones we see on the market now." Keeping this goal in mind, we went back to the basics of coil spring design and asked ourselves what is the most important factor that we need to consider on this new project.

The answer?

Maintaining tire grip is the key to faster times and suspension springs take on an enormous portion of this task!

All Springs are not created equal, the diameters and spring rates can be similar, but the process of manufacturing springs plays a huge factor in how they will perform. Through our extensive knowledge in performance springs, we have perfected the process of manufacturing springs that will outperform our competitors.

With this in mind, we set out to produce a new material for coil springs: a proprietary steel alloy we call "HS5.TW". This material was created in order to maintain the 4 factors listed above, as well as achieving the fastest reaction speed possible to get compliance on road surface conditions. Our springs are created with proprietary winding methods, as well as some other trade secrets focused on ensuring our springs separation from the standard market.

In the time since Swift Springs officially opened its doors in 1997, Swift Springs has dealt with many world class race teams in multitudes of different races including road racing, rally, off road, drift, autocross, pavement and dirt oval track, motorcycles, and more. Swift Springs has lifted many racers to a podium finish, and is still continuing to do so. With so much experience behind us, we feel confident that our springs will give you a leg up in any kind of race you participate in.

Try Swift Springs on your vehicle, and experience what many racers are talking about. We strongly believe that you will feel the difference just like every other racer, and you might even wonder why you didn't try it sooner.
 
#17 ·
You are going to love these. I went drifting with them for the 1st time with 1320drift and Benedict. So much more confidence on the car and the handling was stunning. I was laughing at the drift day because I going in at high speeds at 3rd gear and pulling massive angle and a few times at full lock with these coils. You get so much feed back from them. Made drifting a whole lot easier and fun as hell.
 
#19 ·
Hey since you have a lot of experience with these, can you post up more information about the correct way to set up the top hat for maximum negative caster? Definitely looking forward to any feedback you can provide!
 
#22 ·
Congrats Z!!! Look forward to seeing how these ride in person :)

As usual, I'm sure you will post an excellent, thorough writeup to benefit the community.
 
#24 ·
BC coils had the the damper knobs on the side near the top no?
 
#25 ·
BC's have the damping knobs on the side of the rear upper shock mount, you can easily access it through the wheel well. Same as Megans and a few other kits, everyone else has the knobs on top of the shock
 
#29 ·
My stance coils have the adjustment of the side. It makes life a lot easier when I feel like changing things up for a day of spirited driving. Ok, let's face it, every day is a day of spirited driving! :D

Those PBMs look fantastic though. Seeing these pictures makes me wanna ditch my Stance for a set of these! My car will be seeing a number of track days coming up, so I might have to look in to it. Looking forward to the rest of your write ups.
 
#30 ·
OK guys, here are some more pics, I tried to get everything set up as much as possible pre-install yesterday. I'll be doing this install any day now! Here are some more documented steps in the process..

For starters, out of the box, the rear shock body height of the PBM's is set to their absolute lowest setting, I already know that is way lower than I would ever run them, so I raised the shock body height to the max height I consider to be safe. I believe that it is unsafe to have anything less than 25-30mm ( 1-1.25 inches ) of threads in the lower shock body. I used 1.25 inches myself, but the picture shows the minimum "safe" amount. I had to guess what was "safe" because PBM does not provide any sort of documentation on the setup of these coilovers ( no instruction manual in the box, no PDF manual to download from their site ). I used the same 30mm figure that ISC quoted in their instruction manual.



Next, here are some pics of the height that the PBM rear coils come adjusted to out of the box ( left ), versus what I consider to be the max safe rear height ( right ). Looks like there is 2+ inches of wiggle room. These measurements are taken with the tape measure attached to the top of the upper mount. You're looking at 17.5 inches vs 19.75 inches. The camera angle here is a little weird ( exacerbated by the wide angle lens ) but I assure you, the pens are centered under the lowest point of the shock bodies







Some porn:


Now lets take a look at the lower spherical bearing assembly and inserts.. looks very nice indeed!






Next, here is a pic of the extended damping adjustment knobs installed.. the correct way to do this is to install it over the regular knob, and tighten it down with a 2mm allen key. I mounted the extended knobs now, because it won't be possible to do it when the rear shocks are in place. I'm definitely going to drill holes to pass these through.






Some more porn


Next, I tried to install the top hats to dial in max negative caster.. It looks like you have several options for doing this. If you mount the top hat so the oval center part is pointing left/right, you'll get only camber adjustment. If you mount the center oval so it's pointing from the front to back of the car, you'll get only caster adjustment ( that's what I am doing ). If you mount it diagonally, you'll get a combination of camber and caster adjustment at the same time- I opted not to do this because I already have camber bolts, and the lower front shock mount already has the option for -2 degrees due to the oval camber bolt holes we discussed earlier in this thread







Some more porn



Here is the complete front coilover assembly


Lastly, here are the MOOG 2010 style endlinks I picked up from Rock Auto ( for about $70 shipped for the pair ). They have several advantages over the OEM style endlinks- all metal internals ( no plastic or poly anywhere except for the rubberized outer hood ), they are re-greaseable, and come with grease fittings for doing that, they are MUCH thicker than the OEM endlinks, and they have multiple flat spots at the base of the endlinks ( OEM has 1 pair of flat spots ) so properly tightening these should be significantly easier than OEM . These were the best ( looking ) endlinks I could find for the gencoupe. They make rear endlinks too, but I'm sticking with the ebay rear endlinks I already have



The grease fittings screw into the hole in the back..


Notice the multiple flat spots? These things will be a breeze to install and tighten, they should eliminate all of the annoyances of the OEM endlinks



That's all for now folks!

More to come soon!
 
#141 ·
Lastly, here are the MOOG 2010 style endlinks I picked up from Rock Auto ( for about $70 shipped for the pair ). They have several advantages over the OEM style endlinks- all metal internals ( no plastic or poly anywhere except for the rubberized outer hood ), they are re-greaseable, and come with grease fittings for doing that, they are MUCH thicker than the OEM endlinks, and they have multiple flat spots at the base of the endlinks ( OEM has 1 pair of flat spots ) so properly tightening these should be significantly easier than OEM . These were the best ( looking ) endlinks I could find for the gencoupe. They make rear endlinks too, but I'm sticking with the ebay rear endlinks I already have



The grease fittings screw into the hole in the back..


Notice the multiple flat spots? These things will be a breeze to install and tighten, they should eliminate all of the annoyances of the OEM endlinks



That's all for now folks!

More to come soon!
How did you come about this brand of endlinks and how did you discover ROCK Auto, their website looks crappy. Do you think I should upgrade my rear endlinks while I'm at it from the OEM ones?
 
#31 ·
Excellent info. What do you think you'll run for camber all around. -2 in front and use the camber bolt to fine tune it?


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#32 ·
 
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#33 ·
I want these so bad. I'll have them for next spring. You planning on getting any other PBM arms or links, SFRs, or the steering angle kit?
 
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