Hi everyone! First post, but i've been lurking for quite a while. This here will be my review on a new suspension system recently released by Tein called the Basis Z. They are basically the same as the Tein Basis, except these are now sealed units which are not rebuildable and cost is cut significantly. I purchased my set of suspension for under $500 shipped to my door. I will break this review down into different sections in order to keep things clear and prevent clutter. Alright, here we go.

Car
-2006 G35 Coupe 6MT.

Packaging/Contents
Very standard. Everything came neatly packaged in cardboard. No parts were scratched or missing. Nothing out of the ordinary. Came with spanners needed for height adjustment and also a simple instruction booklet thing which shows you which order the struts should be assembled in.

Installation
Install was fairly straight forward. I have never installed suspension before, but after reading a few DIY here I had it figured out. Since this isn't a DIY thread, I'll just leave it at that.

NOTE: For the install, I did NOT use camber arms as most people on here like to recommend. I am not into slamming my car, my goal was to have reduced roll under cornering and better damping than OEM suspension. My alignment shop was able to get me close to the specs I wanted even without arms. My car height rested at 27" from ground to top of my wheel arch all around.

Performance
Here I will break it down into two subcategories under street and track. My G is my only car and I put 400+ miles per week on it commuting to work (80 mile round trip 5 days a week). Weekends consist of carving around some south bay backroads in the santa cruz mountains.

- Street
I found the car to be very compliant in the street and the ride quality is not harsh AT ALL. The suspension allows the driver to feel the road and its imperfections without having any "crashing" feeling while hitting bumps or even potholes. After installing the suspension, there was significantly reduced nose dive/lift during acceleration and braking. That translated to better response for daily driving and also improved throttle inputs/ adjustments during spirited driving. Steering response improved and was much sharper on turn in compared to the OEM sport suspension. This is most likely due to the increased front spring rate. These dampers work surprisingly well for this price range. While hitting large bumps at high speed on the freeway, the suspension has no oscillation or as most people like to call it "bounce". All in all, the Tein street basis Z is VERY good for street cars looking for a bump in performance on a budget.

- Track
I took the car up to Thunderhill Raceway this past weekend and had a blast. It was my first time EVER driving out on a track and it gave me a chance to finally test the suspension at a higher limit than I ever could on the street. As expected, these shocks are on the soft side for track duty. Body began to roll much more than I would prefer on track, however the predictability was still there. Mid corner steering inputs were immediate and precise. Having the suspension reduce nose dive increases confidence in the braking zone and allows me to have more precise pedal modulation versus a front end that dove hard. To sum this up, if you are looking for a track oriented suspension, you should go elsewhere. Best lap time was a 2'26" CCW-Bypass for those who may be curious.

Alignment and Setup
My car was running on continental contisport contact tires in the rear with Pirelli Pzero in the front in OEM sizes. Car was pretty balanced at the track with tad bits of understeer when I overwork the front tires (my fault for having shitty tires).

- Alignment
FRONT
Toe: 0
Camber: -1.3

REAR
Toe: 0.05 inch toe in
Camber -2.3

RIDE HEIGHT
27" all around from ground to top of wheel arch

This was achieved with SPC toe/camber bolts on BOTH the camber arm and the spring bucket. Yes, I had to dremel out the subframe to enlarge the hole. Part # is SPC 72055 for both and you need 2 kits with a total of 4 bolts.

Thanks for reading. Hope this helps anyone who may be looking to purchase suspension or may be considering the Tein Basis Z. Also feel free to PM me regarding alignment issues. I've done a ton of research on both Z and G forums before buying everything that I needed. I'd be more than happy to help.

 

Thanks for the review. Good timing as I am looking at a set right now for my 6MT sedan.

This might be a dumb question but I have never installed adjustable coilovers before - how do you set the ride height with the weight on the suspension? Do the wrenches provide enough leverage to raise and lower each corner? Or do you have to set the coilovers before installing them?

I'm currently running the G/Z combo on my sedan with OEM sport (red) shocks. That lowered it overall 1" from stock. It's good but the longer wheelbase means I scrape a bit on my driveway. I'd like to go up by 1/4".

 

To set the ride height, just use the supplied spanner wrenches and crank at the perches. It has enough leverage to move 1 corner of your car. The best way would be to count threads before installation to prevent large adjustments which would take a long time. Minor adjustments assuming your ride height is within an eigth of an inch or so would take a few minutes only.

 

@calvinc - Thanks for the write up.

I actually just installed the same kit! I bought it a few weeks ago to replace my leaking OEM struts on a 'new' to me G35 Coupe with 140k miles.

Since springs and struts were way more expensive I decided to try the new kit and it feels great so far. I'm lowered more than you, at about 26 inches on the fenders. I'll post pictures if you want its just a bit late tonight, I took before and after measurements.

 

Yeah, one of the reasons I purchased this was because it was under $500 for essentially a set of springs and dampers with proper valving. My original purchase was just going to be a set of Tokico HP shocks and H&R sport springs but that was over $600 on randomly matched parts so the basis Z was definitely a better option.

How did you go about aligning the car at that ride height?

 

Since you have the 06 coupe, does yours comes with Rear active steer? (RAS). Mine does and the toe bolts came with 72055 (that goes to spring perch) were too short and barely hold any thread. I had to buy the longer toe bolt kit 72265.

 

I forgot to add that my car doesnt have RAS. The 72055 bolts were just a direct swap with the OEM ones in the spring bucket arm and also in the camber arm.

 

Before (blown struts)


After


Current Alignment (Saving up for new tires and adding OEM 19" Rays then the shop will re-align)

 

I'm a noob to the whole coilover thing for the most part. And I had a question since these really interest me. As far as adjusting the ride height I have almost the same height as op does with the coils on. Would I be able to maintain that same ride height if I install these. The height is good and want to keep it that way if I can

 

Maybe not exactly OEM ride height, but I have these nearly as high as they can go at 27". It is pretty close to OEM and I dont scrape anywhere except for steep driveways.

 

Replaced the rims -

old


'new'


I'm still scraping on the driveway pretty bad - I may ask the shop to raise me up a bit to get to your height @calvinc

 

Odd, looks so much better. I see you're in the Austin area, I found 5 Star 7 years ago and absolutely dig that shop. All the guys are super chill, they do great work, love to work on modded cars and are very reasonable on pricing. I was there so much Long and I became friends and I don't trust many people with my cars.

If you haven't looked up CentexVQ do so. Super cool group I am an OG in, they get together and do things all the time. One of the best car clubs I have ever been in but I live in Corpus now and don't get up that way much.

 

Awesome! Yeah they were great to deal with - really odd I didn't hear about them from anyone else. Everyone kept saying SoulSpeed.

I'll try to join the CentexVQ facebook group now. I'm in the BRZ/FRS group, but I feel old going to the events with my other car.

 

Cool, PM me the name on your FB profile and I'll make sure you get added to the group.

 

Keep in mind that because with coilovers the shocks and springs share contact points, you can make the ride-height slightly higher by adding a shim or spacer to the top of the coilover. I wouldn't go more than say 1/4" or *maybe* 3/8" without using longer bolts. If you want to eek out just a 1/4" or so to clear your driveway, that could work. cut a piece of steel or aluminium to match the shape and bolt pattern of each coilover top and try it out.