Sonic Tuning Coilovers

[superskaterxes]

So some of you may know but a close friend of mine (Wei) owns a shop that makes wheels/coilovers/HID's ect and ive started picking up alot of his products for my own cars. he does alot of business with the BMW community as far as coilovers and wheels go and i figured i would give them a try.

from what i have read they stack up pretty well to a higher end coilover like KW but without the huge price jump from BC/megan/DGR.

here are the general specs:

Features:
• Full length adjustment system on lower mount
• Separate ride high and pre-load adjustments
• 6061 t6 Aluminum alloy construction: lower mount, top mount, spring seat and locks
• 12 level adjustable damper - adjustable dampers allow fine-tuning of the suspension stiffness to best suit the driving condition.
• Scm440 hardened piston rod: special high strength grade material with extra hardening process effectively improves the chances again deformation, fracture and leakage.
• Special formulated oil - stable and durable high quality oil seal can minimize any suspension failures or oil leaking to increase durability.
• Inner polished seamless steel tube - quality high strength tubes ensure the strength of the struts (cylinders). The micro finished inner surface ensures a precise and smooth action, which can reduce the chances of fluid leakage and prolongs struts endurance.
• Mono tube design ensures quick response and comfort. suspension fluid is separated from high-pressure gas in order to reduce damper failure.
• Advanced formulated rubber parts: effectively increase the endurance and help eliminate abnormal noises.
• Forged aluminum alloy top mount: increases the strength and effectively reduces the weight to provide sensitive driving feedback.
• Sae9254 spring: high strength material formed spring effectively minimizes deformation.


MS3 spring rates are 7k/5k
MS6 spring rates are 12k/5k

the S1 version dont have the adjustable top plates and the S3 version does, i believe this is the only difference but i can check.

heres some picts, these arent the exact MS3/6 versions (they are actually for BMW) but you can get a good gauge of the quality/components which would be the same for the mazda version.






















and here are some review threads i found for the BMW version. everyone seems to have great things to say about the quality of the coilover itself and the adjustability.


Sonic Tuning S1 Coilovers (Impressions) - BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum - E90Post.com

Sonic Tuning Coilovers installed - BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum - E90Post.com

Sonic Tuning Coilover Review - BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum - E90Post.com



ive also been told my buddy is bringing his coilover to here to get it shock dyno'd against stock, KWv2, and a koni yellow. they had it done once already by a member on the BMW forums but couldent locate the results.

Road Race Technologies



im gona place my order in late january and shipping takes 2 weeks AFAIK so if anyone wants to jump in on this order give sonic tuning a call and tell them you want to be placed in with my order (anthony from MSF).

202-425-5255 ask for Wei (pronounced way) he will know who i am. the price is $899 shipped i believe for the first few sets and he diddent say how long that would last.


ok here's what i have so far

MS6: 2 sets of the S3
GenWON: 5 sets of the S1, 3 sets of the S3
GenPu: 3 sets of the S1, 2 sets of the S3

GB pricing will be 1099 for the S3 and 999 for S1, if we can get more then 5 people to order then everyone will get $100 off.

so the first 5 people will pay $1099/$999 depending on what set they want, then when we reach 6 people the first 5 will get a $100 refund by CC or Paypal and everyone else after that will just pay the $999/$899 price!


these come with a 1 year warranty against wear/tear (ie if you blow a shock) and a LIFETIME warranty against manufacturing defects (such as a broken coil, snapped bolt/bracket, ect). Sonic Tuning prides themselves on customer service and always making sure the customer stays happy no matter what. go ahead and read some of their posts on the BMW forums and see how happy the customers are.

since Wei hasent finished the vendor form you can just go ahead and call him directly to place your order. i will update this thread with how maby people we have so we can keep track.

[MS3-a(sore)ASS-rex]

I talked to one of their reps that knew you around when the whole forum wars fiasco was happening. Are they gonna release these for the 3 too? It's been months since I first heard about it. I had volunteered to test them too

[BigjohnB20]

Damn I just picked up some USED RPM springs and Koni shocks for just a couple hundred shy of that price. Great to see another option for the 6 guys, especially at what looks like a good cost/performance point. Interested in how these turn out.

[Domino81]

That's awesome. I notice he's having a special on the website right now selling wheels for $399.

[superskaterxes]

Originally Posted by MS3-a(sore)ASS-rex I talked to one of their reps that knew you around when the whole forum wars fiasco was happening. Are they gonna release these for the 3 too? It's been months since I first heard about it. I had volunteered to test them too

yah these will be for the MS3 and 6 (spring rates posted in OP)

Originally Posted by Domino81 That's awesome. I notice he's having a special on the website right now selling wheels for $399.

check out this thread, there arent many left

http://www.mazdaspeedforum.org/forum/foru...-5-48-a-99078/

[Lex]

Interested in shock dyno results, then may pick up a set. Price point is great but quality and longevity are even more important.

[Domino81]

Originally Posted by superskaterxes yah these will be for the MS3 and 6 (spring rates posted in OP) check out this thread, there arent many left http://www.mazdaspeedforum.org/forum/foru...-5-48-a-99078/

If there's still some left around tax time I planned to get ST100's. Before that thread was ever opened.

[MS3-a(sore)ASS-rex]

Originally Posted by superskaterxes yah these will be for the MS3 and 6 (spring rates posted in OP) check out this thread, there arent many left http://www.mazdaspeedforum.org/forum/foru...-5-48-a-99078/

Love you

[RyansSpd3]

Options are always good..will be in the market soon

[forcedinduktion]

Look like quality shit for the $$$. How would these compare to the AMR coils?

[superskaterxes]

Originally Posted by forcedinduktion Look like quality shit for the $$$. How would these compare to the AMR coils?

AFAIK the AMR ones are like 3-4k so these def arent in the same ballpark but sonic also sells a s7 and s5 coilover with separate rebound/compression adjustment and even external reservoirs. these would be track only and they have tons of time attack cars using them on the track with fantastic results.


EDIT: i was thinking AMR = AST

[RyansSpd3]

Amr is like 1500 bucks lol

[Nliiitend1]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he was thinking of ASTs

[superskaterxes]

Originally Posted by Nliiitend1 Yeah, I'm pretty sure he was thinking of ASTs

yah these were def the ones i was thinking of lol




shock dyno will happen this week sometime. will post results when i get them!

[Domino81]

Hey, Skater, in the event I still have time what's up with the center bore? When I contacted them they said they'd bore out the hub for me for extra $$$. Do these come with the proper center bore hole size? 67.1mm IIRC.

[RichieRichness]

Ant, you know i'm gonna want your BCs once you go with these Wei Springs.

[superskaterxes]

Originally Posted by RichieRichness Ant, you know i'm gonna want your BCs once you go with these Wei Springs.

sorry sir, already sold =(

Originally Posted by Domino81 Hey, Skater, in the event I still have time what's up with the center bore? When I contacted them they said they'd bore out the hub for me for extra $$$. Do these come with the proper center bore hole size? 67.1mm IIRC.

all of the closeout wheels they have left were all 54.1 IIRC which is the subaru standard bore. they have a machine shop around the corner that bored each set out to 67.1 that was ordered for exact fitment. this was done at no extra charge for anyone.

[Design]

Looks like they use an adjustable preload assembly instead of a helper spring. Spring rates seem pretty close to KW's OTS rates.

I'm interested to see photos of the actual product. Do they reuse the rear jounce bumpers or supply their own? And it looks like they supply their own upper assemblies both front and rear? And how is damping adjusted - one knob for both compression/rebound or separate adjustments for each?

[superskaterxes]

Originally Posted by Design Looks like they use an adjustable preload assembly instead of a helper spring. Spring rates seem pretty close to KW's OTS rates. I'm interested to see photos of the actual product. Do they reuse the rear jounce bumpers or supply their own? And it looks like they supply their own upper assemblies both front and rear? And how is damping adjusted - one knob for both compression/rebound or separate adjustments for each?

i wont have picts of the actual CO until i get it. they reuse the stock bumpers.

def have new top hats in the front (pillow ball with s3 version) but reuses the rear tops.

one knob for comp/reb.


the main difference between these CO's and say the KW's is the QUALITY of the components and the design. the s1 isent some crazy track CO (the s5 would be) but its similar to BC in that it was meant for street/light track duty but with much much much higher quality components.

[jroc]

why so low rate for the rear on the ms6?


im loving the stiffer setup on my car.

[superskaterxes]

no idea, i imagine it makes the car a little more even but its just what the designers came up with

[Nliiitend1]

Being monotube, I was pretty certain that they have a simple primitive single-adjustment knob for both compression and rebound, as true double-adjustable monotubes are hard to produce below the pricepoint of say, ASTs or Hotbits...

Definitely not something you're going to see in the sub $1K (or even sub $2k, probably) price range.

[superskaterxes]

Originally Posted by Nliiitend1 Being monotube, I was pretty certain that they have a simple primitive single-adjustment knob for both compression and rebound, as true double-adjustable monotubes are hard to produce below the pricepoint of say, ASTs or Hotbits... Definitely not something you're going to see in the sub $1K (or even sub $2k, probably) price range.

theres nothing wrong with a single adjustment on a budget CO as long as the shock dyno shows good separation of dampening levels for both comp and reb. clearly its not going to be the quality of a multi adjustment knob but these sonic tuning coilovers should show very good results from what i have been told.

[Nliiitend1]

Originally Posted by superskaterxes theres nothing wrong with a single adjustment on a budget CO as long as the shock dyno shows good separation of dampening levels for both comp and reb. clearly its not going to be the quality of a multi adjustment knob but these sonic tuning coilovers should show very good results from what i have been told.

For me, having one knob that adjust both circuits is not really worth having an adjustment, because the chances of the "right mix" being present along the entire range of adjustment is pretty low.

I'd rather have a damper where if it only has one adjuster, it's adjusting rebound only (Like a twintube Koni Yellow, or the twintube KW V2 dampers). Adjustable monotubes aren't worth investing in as far as I'm concerned unless you're going to "go-big" and get a setup with independent circuit control (AST has a line of rebound-only adjustable monotube dampers that go for ~$2k a set for most platforms, and that's about the cheapest I've probably seen).

Of course, this is why I run a twintube double-adjustable setup... Because it offers me the fine-tunablitity I'm looking for (compression AND rebound, completely independent of one another) without costing ~$3K.

[RyansSpd3]

^^^^ what coilovers you running?

[Nliiitend1]

Originally Posted by RyansSpd3 ^^^^ what coilovers you running?

MAZDASPEED - Accessories - Mazda USA

[forcedinduktion]

Yea the AMRs are like 16xx with camber plates

[Nliiitend1]

Right, and AMRs still utilize simple single-knob rebound/compression combo adjusters, just like BC, Sonic, Fortune Auto, DGR, etc....

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[SamInAustinTX]

Looks tempting... Might give them a call seeing as all of the BC's are backordered

[SamInAustinTX]

Wouldn't have them until late next month :/

[grantmm]

Originally Posted by superskaterxes AFAIK the AMR ones are like 3-4k so these def arent in the same ballpark but sonic also sells a s7 and s5 coilover with separate rebound/compression adjustment and even external reservoirs. these would be track only and they have tons of time attack cars using them on the track with fantastic results. EDIT: i was thinking AMR = AST

yum

[superskaterxes]

Originally Posted by SamInAustinTX Wouldn't have them until late next month :/

it helps if we all place an order at once because shipping is really expensive from taiwan lol if your still interested let me know and ill put you on the list to order them late jan.

[TexasSpeed3]

subbed

[shadesofgray19]

What was the result of the shock dyno?

[superskaterxes]

Originally Posted by shadesofgray19 What was the result of the shock dyno?

they have been swamped the last 2 weeks but he said he made an appointment for this week to get them done. sorry guys!

[Pololo_MS3]

I might be interested as well. Of course test results, graphs and an actual pic of the setup is a MUST before I place my order. I have been looking for a budget decent setup that will serve 2 purposes street and occasional track days...

Keep me posted...

CB

[superskaterxes]

ok i made the appt for the dyno for tomm!!! hopefully will have results posted tomm too

[h.h.sk1nny]

Damn. My wife is badass but not badass enough to let me pick up CO's yet. Maybe next year when I go FR

[SamInAustinTX]

Dyno results??

[grantmm]

^^ Results?

I didn't see this posted ealier, but any info on where these are made? Was the dyno a full sweep for adjustments?