So, who has them, or had any experience with them? How was the ride, performance and what we’re they in?
Looking to do a suspension upgrade in my g200 charade. Anyone on here used coilovers in a charade, yellow speed or not?
Ask Yellow Speed if they can provide a dyno sheet. They will prob not be much different from a Tein coilover, which are not very good. Yes you get a coilover and prob love the though of adjustment that lets you “slam it down”. Spring rate is something you have to play with (tune). But the a major problem with cheap dampers is just that - they are cheap. On a dyno they will vary left to right. If they have external adjustment I will guarantee that the adjustment is not linear click to click. Entry point to a really good damper is a Koni.
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some love them, some hate them, the ride is stiff so you will feel every little bump in the road but will make the charade handle better than standard
“stiff” is a relative term for greatly increased spring rate. Can the damper though control the spring frequency?
I think my current pedders sports (1inch drop) + koni m101 struts are doing great in the Cuore, I had a much more expensive setup in the TRXX (Excel rear shocks, hotstuff rear springs, hotstuff front coilovers) and without a huge amount of knowledge of suspension I would say that the Cuore handles better, its not as jolting or throwing you out of the seat if you hit a big bump/imperfection in the road.
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Thanks for the replies guys, exactly what I wanted to hear. 
@Mr_Gormsby, I have custom Koni coilovers setup in my other car and they are very good indeed. Problem being though is they had to be custom made and I think the same would apply to the charade if I want something pretty decent. I’m not going to go out and buy something just yet, just getting peoples opinions/experiences.
If Yellowspeed are game to send dyno data (they have a graph on their site) and can tell you the spring rates is a good start. Do some measurements. What is the installed length of reach unit, for example distance from bottom of leg to under the strut top at ride height. To ge an idea of uninstalled, same measurement jacked up. Go to a basic online spring calculator and get an idea of your rates too.
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Thanks,
Forgive me for being nieve, but I thought that if companies are selling model specific suspension they would have determined usable rates ect for different applications. But I suppose cheapness means perhaps that step was not thoroughly completed.
Would the advantage of finding out all those measurements and determining spring rates be to ensure that the purchased items meet the correct parameters?
g102 charade shocks fit on a g200 and will give it a nice drop with loweringsprings.
they are shorter but if i remember correct you have to use g102 shocks with g200 loweringsprings on a g200.
i had vw golf 2 coilovers fit on the front of my g102 but wont go verry low…maybe there are options for combinations with different springs you could try
and had opel corsa b coilovers fit on the rear of a g102 but will almost make contact between spring and wheel…but that depends on your wheels…
Does anyone know what spring rates they are running? I know I run the risk of offending some, but just “bolting this and that on” is pretty hit and miss. This is not to say I am an expert, rather I am keen to learn and understand what is really happening. Basically FWD needs a stiffer rear than front so weight transfers to the drive wheels. If this is true then we need to know what rates we have and if we have a trailing arm like in a MIra then we need to know leverage ratios too.
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I could probably look at mine when I get home. They where installed when I purchased the car though.
According to the yellow speed Europe site this is the spring rates that come with them.
i am just trying to add a bit of rough info from what guys over here do with lowering g200/g102 models.
i dont have any spring rates
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There’s also these guys https://www.ftunedaustralia.com.au/collections/f-tuned-racing-gt-race-competition/products/daihatsu-charade-g100-g200 but i agree with gormsby. A proper setup rather than just coilovers will be alot better. Lower isn’t better 
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I appreciate not being “flamed down”. Likewise I am not here to make fun of people nor criticize. I just want to figure out what is going on and to learn what really works and what doesn’t. So far I have been going in the right direction as verified by some bench mark performance indicators. My L200 Mira runs 115lb front and 500lb rear. Front dampers were shortened Koni red (1/4 turn out from fast rebound) and Hyundai Koni red in the rear (run near full slow on rebound). Am going to 150lb front as speedwise such is increasing and the car is hitting the bump stops on small mid corner bumps (currently making adjustabe legs for some externally adjustable Koni sport - will be nice to have clicker on the outside). Rear has already been graced with 550lb rear springs on an adjustable outer thread and Sachs externally adjustable dampers that now mount vertically instead of being inclined. When all this is sorted I will look into the front sway bar and perhaps a small rear cockpit adjustable bar to balance things on the fly. Happy to have anyone point out anything I am doing wrong and keen to take a stab at helping others with a view to “understanding” better.
@welby, I had a look at the FTuned stuff, but again similar questions can be asked about them as can the yellow speeds. Isn’t someone in here a rep for FTuned?
@Mr_Gormsby, one would require more knowledge than another to consider flaming them down. Based on your experience it would be hard to do, at least by me. Haha. I appreciate your input as it always helps to remind me of the things I’ve missed, two heads are better than one and a forum full of them is better again.
Looks like I’ll be trying to take some measurements and such this weekend to try and get a handle on what’s needed.
Two heads for sure.
I’m certainly not a suspension sales person. If I had the money I’d be going to Murray Coote and having full custom MCA bits made or else Penske (but what I want starts at about $2500 per corner). If one is heading up into the FT tuned prices it would be best to talk to a specialist (I can recommend a couple in SEQ but you’d have to ask for details).
Look at the base of the FT tuned. They are like a Tien in that the damper unit only goes part way throug the lower bracket. But unlike the Tien I’ve seen they are at least an inverted unit with the main weight being in the top and unsprung (like a Bilstein). The strut itself is shorter than it could be. Issues are reduced internal bushing overlap (somewhat negated by the inverted unit) but it could mean limited travel. Comparing your lengths with theirs would give insight if thing could be lowered (I assume most want this - but hopefully such that the car hits bump stops in hard use) and how much usable travel you end up with. I was in the past aiming for at least 70mm bump and 90 drop in the front. Now that I am going up in rate and the car has gone beyond road those figures might go down 20mm (compromise here with going to 195/50/15 which are proving hard to fit in). Rear used to have less travel than those old front figures and was about equal in bump and drop. I do a heap of measuring and do so without springs and sitting on stands at ride height. Just to move on when all seems about good as one can get it corner weighting to get equal percentage weight transfer across the diagonals is well and truly worth it.
Here’s some good info that is worth a read.
First up, tor those not familiar with MCA they are the world time attack champions. Murray has been state and national rally champion and was basically as “works” Mazda driver. For the Australian amateur his stuff is the best in the world, since it is up there in quality and design with the best from Koni, Bilstein, Ohlins or Penske but the Cootes are available for tech support.
https://mcasuspension.com/technical-section/Suspension-Setup
Then for those wanting some more foundation stuff and a longer read
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I couldn’t tell you spring rates…
But I can tell you why I went with the choice I did and I feel it worked out pretty well…
I went with M101 struts front and rear, I am not 100% these actually differ to the L700 strut but the spring I chose was for the GTVi model and it did have a different spring rate to the EJ Sirion/L700 spring they had. I mainly chose to go with the GTVi spring based on running the 1.3 Litre 4 cylinder engine.
All in all I am very happy with the suspension now, and was going to go down the route of hyundai rear shocks if I wanted it stiffer in the rear… but I don’t think I need that… I just tried to look up spring rates and found that the rear spring I used is also compatible with a Holden Gemini…
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Higher rate springs make things stiffer. The Hyundai shocks may give that feel or sensation if the valving is different to those they are replacing. How they feel “stiffer” is that they are “slower” and damp the springs more.
I work with computers… cars are my hobby and I do try to learn as much as I can… some things though seem to go over my head a bit. I wish I could provide you better feedback then I have. I guess that’s why I stayed within somewhat “oem standards” this time instead of hacking up hyundai shocks, which btw was introduced to me by efimira.
What I have now I think is working good though, its only a small drop but is a stiffer spring and is not causing discomfort to my daughters the two mornings a week that I have to drive them to school (around 3km drive).
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Wish I had some of your computer prowess. Gormsby becomes Gumby when it comes to moderate electronics and most computer stuff (the one exception is having some ablity and experience writing G code from first principles - but am quite out of practice at the moment).
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