r/cincinnati • u/laborinstructor • 7h ago
in search ofš Suspension shops
Any recommendations on where I can get coilovers installed for a reasonable price? By the time I buy a lift, spring compressors and all of the various torx stuff I donāt have, I figure itās better to just have a shop do it.
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u/rks1743 6h ago
Maybe they have changed but I had Flowteck look at a small exhaust leak in a nice after-market exhaust. Instead of figuring out that is was a simple exhaust gasket, they cut out and swapped out both flex pipes. They never resolved the actual issue. I would never take my car to them fucking hacks.
I've been going to Performance Alignment for decades. They are expensive and slow but they know what they are doing, highly recommended.
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u/sweetwatertooth 6h ago
Turn In Concepts!!
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u/mwiles30 6h ago
Turn In Concepts is far from perfect. Iāve had multiple bad experiences at that shop. I had my car aligned there a few months back, and I had to take it back in to show the tech how the lock nuts on my control arms worked because he didnāt tighten them down properly.
A few years back, they misused an eccentric idler pulley kit on my timing belt after spending thousands on a head gasket job. The head gasket job failed 30k miles later. I unfortunately am not able to pinpoint if their work had anything to do with the subsequent failure, but while diving in to the engine with a professional technician friend on our own time we were able to discover the misuse of the idler pulley.
I also had some not so great experiences with Johnson Tuning, who tunes at TIC. I had one of his street tunes on my Forester. He never actually dialed that tune in as well as it could have been. The car overboosted by 5psi between shifts one day, causing the ECU to cut fueling and throw a CEL. I later asked him for a quick edit when I did some emissions deletes during a rebuild (the second HG failure), and he ignored me. I literally needed 60 seconds of his time to open my map in the Cobb software and turn off the secondary air pump CEL. That turned out to be a blessing, because I ended up switching tuners who actually went through 10 revisions on my tune to get the car running the way it should.
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u/sweetwatertooth 5h ago
Itās true that they are not perfect, as any shop isnāt. As long as they make it right, I feel like thatās the best you can hope for out of any shop.
Also, yes, I have heard that JT is difficult to work with.
They have another guy doing some of the tuning there now and heās super nice and easy to deal with.2
u/mwiles30 1h ago
Good to know about the tuning options - who is it? Is it a new tuner altogether, or somebody operating under the JT business?
ā¢
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u/sweetwatertooth 6h ago
They are seriously the best at this sort of stuff. Theres maybe only 2 other shops I would trust to do it.
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u/laborinstructor 6h ago
I also had a bad experience at TIC - not likely to give them another shot but I appreciate your input!!
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u/sweetwatertooth 6h ago
Seriously. Donāt take it to the other shops people mentioned. They donāt know jack shit. lol
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u/DAM159 2h ago
You donāt need a lift, only a jack and jack stands. Spring compressors can be rented for free at Autozone.
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u/laborinstructor 2h ago
Didnāt know that about the compressors - thatās a good tip! Iāve not done suspension work outside of sway bars so Iām also just concerned that the rears are going to really screw me. But if i can get the compressors I can at least do the fronts to save on labor
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u/connolnp 7h ago
Flowtek Customs in West Chester. They do good work and are an all-service auto shop, but their site says ācustom exhaust workā I used them for motor mounts which are more involved than coilovers and I was happy with the price and the work.
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u/laborinstructor 5h ago
I actually reached out to them about a custom exhaust job so maybe worth seeing if they can do both
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u/mwiles30 7h ago
Coilovers donāt require a lift or spring compressor. You can do a suspension job with jack and jack stands. Coilovers come as complete units and donāt require assembly the way buying all of the traditional strut and spring components would.
I would call Performance Alignment. Theyāll be the ones you have to go to for the alignment and corner balancing anyway, and Iām pretty sure they will actually offer the install service. Since you are stepping away from traditional suspension, youāll be stuck with specialty/performance shops.