Megan Racing Coilover shock install and first impressions
 

I know there was a thread for Megan Racing coil overs, but I wanted it to be clear that this is about a real install with real results. The other thread just seemed to bash Megan Racing without much substance. The other Megan Racing coil over thread on this forum is in fact what spurred me to buy these coil overs. Maybe a leap of faith, but I try to support SoCal businesses since I live there and the product actually looked good in the pictures.

I agree that Megan Racing brings products to market at a low price point and the fit and finish is not as nice as more expensive brands, but I am concerned primarily with performance, not reputation or "wow factor". If I were, I would be driving a Porsche Cayman S for $70,000.

Down to the nitty gritty. The shocks were $900. The install went fine. No modifications were needed. The length of the shocks was fine. Some people have suggested they are too long because they are designed for the G37. They are not. When I first set them up, the car was almost 3" lower than stock. I couldn't even get it off the rack because it was so low. Total low rider show car, but not driveable.

I raised it to 1.75" lower than stock (picture below) and drove it for a while. It sucked:
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k3...utt/toolow.jpg

It scraped the exhaust on speed bumps. It scraped the air dam on little bumps under braking. The front tires scraped on the fender liners during cornering or braking.

Then it raised it to 1.30" lower than stock (picture below):
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k3.../justright.jpg

Now it looks good and rarely scrapes (no full profile picture yet). It does touch down the Stillen exhaust on big speed bumps, even when I go sideways over them. It doesn't scrape the fender wells.

On to the damping characteristics.... They have 33 levels of adjust with 0-8 recommended for race, 9-18 for auto-x or hill climb and 19-32 for street. I told my installer to set them up for 9 at all 4 corners. They messed up and gave me 9 from softest, which is actually 23. It was a little softer than stock. I changed them to 8. It was too stiff for road use. It was bouncy and tiring. Traction control light would go off on entry to corners before apex because it was "skittering" around. I changed all 4 of them to #12 and they are now a bit stiffer than the C6 Z51 Corvette or C6 Z06 suspension, but ideal for what I call agressive street driving. I've had adjustable Koni's on a supercharged Mustang Cobra, TRD non-adjustable on my lowered Yaris and Pfadt's on my C6 Corvette. The damping characteristics and spring rates are similar to the Pfadt's, but superior to the Koni's and TRD's I have had in the past.

If This coil over system operates for 20,000 miles trouble free, I would give it the highest rating possible. I definitely like it and my 370z handles better than my C6 Corvette did with the Pfadt coil overs. If this system gives me problems, I will report them promtly. The least negative camber I can get with stock adjustability at this ride height is -2.5 degrees rear, -2.0 degrees front.

Here's front and rear install pictures:
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k3...acingfront.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k3...Racingrear.jpg

Cheers!

-Phim

Thanks for the writeup Phim.

I agree with you there, I've had more expensive shocks in the past and still had reliability issues. sometimes the bargain brands do give you a lot of bang for the buck, but I guess we will have to wait and see.

Thanks for the review and pics :tup:

About how long should after market suspensions last, lasting 20k seems a bit short. Everything looks good though.

Interesting. Are the height adjustments capable of getting closer to stock height? I'd like to stiffen up my car a bit (probably swaybars and maybe some chassis stuff first, but maybe some coilovers later), but I'm trying to avoid much drop. Ideally I'd like to stay within an inch of stock. The parking lot entrances around Houston suck, I scrape up the front spoiler pretty badly as it is, no matter how hard I try not to.

I personally love Megan Racing's stuff. I had their street coilovers on my 240SX for about a year with no problems, got into an accident and totaled the car, bent the lower A-arms on two corners. Took the coilovers off and they were fine, so I put them on my next 240. Never any problems even after that.

They really are excellent for the price.

Thanks for the writeup. How difficult is it to adjust damping?

The Megan bashing isnt unfounded. I hope you get to your 20k miles without rattles or anything falling apart. Thanks for the review and for taking the risk to test something out! Let us know how things progress and how they do on the track.

At 1.3" lower than stock, the rear is approaching its maximum height, but the front still has a ways to go. Now that I've driven it more, I've had a few run-ins with low lying objects...usually parking lot entrances in Bakersfield, CA. I think I want to bring it up another .2" to .3" inch. I'll see how much I can get out of the back, then match that in the front. I'm going to wait for a month to let it "settle" before I realign it. On a side note, my tuning shop knew I would be in for multiple adjusts and charged me $650 for install of shocks/sway bars with with 3 yr/36,000 mile guarantee on align, with agreement that I would get realign at 1 month. A little pricey, but the right thing to do, IMO.

On a side note, I have about 250 miles of "spirited" driving on these coil overs and the handling is outstanding compared to stock. The car still tends to understeer while braking, but I think that is a function of 245 width tires and a 54/46 weight balance. Other than that little quibble, this car is outstanding! I rented an '08 911s in Vegas a few months ago (7k miles on it) and the handling prowess and feel of my 370z with coilovers and sway bars beats the stock 911s hands down.

I'm expecting 60+k miles from them, which will be longer than I own this car. I was just saying that if $900 coil overs go 20k miles, that's good enough for me because this is a low mileage "pleasure only" car.

Apologies for the images, they're from iPhone.

Just hand turn the knob on the top of the shock. There is 32 clicks. Here's a picture of where the front adjust is:
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k3...rontadjust.jpg

The rear is more challenging. You need to remove the fat anchors that go into the palstic side panels in the rear cargo hatch, one on each side. Then gently pull the plastic side panel away and little plastic tabs inside will give way and let the panel be pulled loose. Then you can see the adjuster knob. Squeze your hand through the small hole to turn the knob. Then gently press the plastic panel back into position, feeling the tabs re-seat into their correct spots, then push the single, fat , locking tabs in each panel, then push in the center of the locking tab to "lock" it. It takes me about 10 minutes to do front and rear adjust, but it can be hot and dirty. I put on gym cloths and set a little box fan next to me to cool the intake runners and whatnot.

Here's the rear adjustment:
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k3...rearadjust.jpg

Cheers!

-Phim

Thanks for the pics.

Side profile picture of the final drop you ended up with?

rabble rabble... megan racing... rabble rabble... hate them... rabble rabble...Z looks good... rabble rabble...

Not yet. Going to wait for a month for the springs to settle, then do final adjust. The first picture was -1.8". It's currently at -1.3" and still scraping on some objects. Also getting tire rubbing under hard cornering over bumpy surfaces.

Thinking about going to -1.1" because of scrapining in front fender wells and undercarriage (with stock sport package wheel/tire combo).

Will post pictures when I get final height adjust and alignment done.