Ground Control CO's - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

camry314 · 09-01-2009, 03:05 PM

Is anyone using Ground Control coilovers on their Camry? I see that they make them for Gen4 and Gen1 Solara. I was curious how the upper strut bearing worked with the CO setup.

camry314 · 09-02-2009, 01:41 PM

No one knows about using ground control coilovers? Really?!

'_' · 09-02-2009, 01:46 PM

Gibson99 has them on his car if I recall correctly..

bigbird · 09-02-2009, 02:43 PM

not many have them because they are not good. they arent even real coilovers...IIRC they are adjustable sleeves that have crappy springs and you need to get very good shocks to go with them or youll ware them out quick.

use them at your own risk.

camry314 · 09-02-2009, 04:47 PM

Bigbird,
your right, they are sleeves with coils. When I was on the ground control site, there was an option to enter in the type of shock your using, which I thought was unusual. Looking at the Toyota section, there was the option to select Tokico Blues. Maybe they have something for specific shocks now.

bigbird · 09-02-2009, 08:06 PM

i think the problem when discussed was tha the spring rates were not very good and even when raised up all the way...the drop was still significant. as a result even the tokicos were not very good because they were not ment to be used with such a low ride. again i may be wrong on somthign here. this was discussed like 3 years ago.

Gibson99 · 09-02-2009, 11:41 PM

i had them. at the tallest setting the height was just right for me. tokicos handled them for a while (several years), but be prepared to USE the warranty on the tokicos. and don't lose your receipt! handling was awesome and street ride was quite tolerable even on 18x8's. the springs are eibach race springs, so i dunno where anyone got the idea that they're crappy springs. they are linear, not progressive, so they won't give a super smooth ride on the street, but that's not what you buy coilovers for.

yes, they're sleeves. the upper strut bearing sits on top of the new GC upper spring perch, which is machined from billet aluminum. they need to know what struts you have so they know what diameter hole to put in the center of the upper perch.

pics here: http://s601.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/camry%20GCs/
and here: http://www.gibson99.com/temp/gc

if i had the $ to buy another set of tokicos (i don't have the receipt so can't warranty mine) i would have kept the GC coilovers. funny how being married and having a kid kinda saps money away from the mod bug. *shrug*

bigbird · 09-03-2009, 04:18 AM

Quote:

they are linear, not progressive, so they won't give a super smooth ride on the street, but that's not what you buy coilovers for.

thats what it was...i knew someone had them and actually didnt hate them despite all the bad press in the past. but i was right about the shocks at least

how bad are your roads Gibson? might have had somthing to do with it.

Gibson99 · 09-03-2009, 08:31 AM

i'd say road quality is average to slightly below average. we don't have frost heaves here, but there's a lot of clay here so building a flat road that actually stays flat is not that common. not to mention what our long summers, occasional flodding, and lovely texas heat does to roads... i've never bent a rim, but i've nearly wrecked trying to dodge potholes.

oh... when my shocks were blown, i was constantly bottoming out on speed bumps when i had the GCs. when the struts were healthy, it wasn't a problem.

but really though - how long do the dampers last in k-sports, or even JICs? tokico has a lifetime warranty... if you can keep track of your receipt. i don't think k-sport or JIC has that. granted, full coilovers give you adjustable damping, camber adjustment, and height adjustment independent of preload/corner-weight... but if you actually need that stuff then you'll pay the premium for full coilovers.

all that said, i took the camry to an autocross and entered in the appropriate class - Street Modified. I was up against a nationals-caliber driver in an 07 mustang saleen (sc'd!) another nicely modded 02 mustang (both of which were on RACE TIRES), and a BMW M-roadster, also on race tires. I had blown struts and crappy 205/65/15 continental tires! on a ~55-60 second course, i was about 4-5 seconds behind the saleen mustang. if that doesn't say something about how good of a suspension setup this is, i don't know what will. sure, my LSD makes a big difference too, but it's not like those mustangs were stock, either.

here's the results if you don't believe me... about 3/4 of the way down, look for STREET MODIFIED
http://houscca.com/solo/results07/08REG08R.TXT

bigbird · 09-03-2009, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gibson99

but really though - how long do the dampers last in k-sports, or even JICs? tokico has a lifetime warranty... if you can keep track of your receipt. i don't think k-sport or JIC has that. granted, full coilovers give you adjustable damping, camber adjustment, and height adjustment independent of preload/corner-weight... but if you actually need that stuff then you'll pay the premium for full coilovers.

thats a very good point. most of thoes with coilovers did it for the ride hight adjustability and firmness. but dont race(for good reasons). and they are very expensive when they ware out. i believe theres a set of coilovers for sale on solaraguy now. one is leaking oil and the cost to fix that one(as stated by the seller, about 250) is closing a set of tokico shocks new, or as much as a set of springs

. but as you said, thoes other features of COs are why they cost so much in the first place.

this may be an option for myself. i want a lower ride, stiffer, already have tokicos, but dont want coilovers on a DD because of repair costs. right there its hundreds less then even a used set of COs.

Gibson99 · 09-03-2009, 04:42 PM

if i could get some KYB AGX for the camry, i'd be thrilled. the GR2 is the same as stock as far as i'm concerned, and AGX gives you adjustable damping. that's what i have on the miata, and wow what a difference. i set em at 2 (of 8) for daily driving, and i tend to set the rear to full hard and front anywhere from 4 to 8 depending on how i want the car to drive on a given course.

i actually have a set of tein s-techs sitting around waiting to install... i was kinda holding out hope to get some sort of warranty on my tokicos, but that doesn't look like it's gonna happen, so i may jsut put these springs on the stock struts for now. at least that would get rid of the 4x4 look and get rid of some of the mush that the stock springs have...

bigbird · 09-03-2009, 05:41 PM

if you ever decide to sell thoes...hit me up...im in the market for thoes springs

.

JCamry94 · 09-03-2009, 06:27 PM

That drop looks barely lower than stock on the GC's.

A used set of full coilovers goes for $500ish.

GC's plus tokicos is a lot of money anyway, almost a grand.

Sounds like a bigger risk than I'd be willing to take for such a minimal gain.

bigbird · 09-03-2009, 06:54 PM

show me a good set of used COs for $500

. they will require at least half that in repairs more often then not. shit...even damon sold his for a crazy good price and they were in great condition...and still well over $500. its a risk either way. i perfer spring strut combo, but the adjustability is what would be nice.

JCamry94 · 09-03-2009, 07:00 PM

yeah, I guess I just mean for the price it should be a decision between full coils or just springs and struts.