AMR engineering coilovers

[an93l]

Anyone purchased from http://www.amrengineering.com/ before? or used their product or any experience with them?

looking into purchasing a set but he said the wait time is 7-8 weeks not sure if i should pay in full and wait.

[EKVTIR-T]

Havent heard of them

they look good though,says theyre assembled in usa but Im assuming made in taiwan/china?

[an93l]

I read on honda-tech they are custom made in the USA and get parts from other companies like swift, hyperco and etc...but i wanna see if anyone in australia has purchased from them before price is about 1.6-1.8k shipped with everything you need camber adjustable top mount rebound adjustable and custom springrate and valving. So sounds pretty good...

[DreadAngel]

Well the brands you mention are all spring manufacturers so that won't give you much clue about damper competence...

The other brands mentioned on the website [Nok, HAAS Automation, Aurora Bearing] are various component/machinery manufacturers. If you can find a good few long pages of reviews on AMR coilovers without too much bias BS and inexperienced reviewers [It's amazing the change people undergo when they experience one good thing then when changed to another say the previous is not so great after all...] then you can make the call better =)

[dc5dave]

Anyone purchased from http://www.amrengineering.com/ before? or used their product or any experience with them?

looking into purchasing a set but he said the wait time is 7-8 weeks not sure if i should pay in full and wait.

Hi, I've got them on my track dedicated eg2 and instantly shaved 2 seconds off my p.b.
They are a great product, I pulled my teins out to run these and noticed a huge difference!
Every click on dampening adj makes a difference, they go nice and low with plenty of travel.
Ill also add Andy is great to deal with. I'd definitely recommend them to anyone.

[dc5dave]

Havent heard of them

they look good though,says theyre assembled in usa but Im assuming made in taiwan/china?

They are all machined in house and I'm pretty sure in Canada. The springs are outsourced to two company's swift and function7
I ended up going with swift as I needed them before an event and F7 were on back order.

[DC2-PWR]

Hi, I've got them on my track dedicated eg2 and instantly shaved 2 seconds off my p.b.
They are a great product, I pulled my teins out to run these and noticed a huge difference!
Every click on dampening adj makes a difference, they go nice and low with plenty of travel.
Ill also add Andy is great to deal with. I'd definitely recommend them to anyone.

Which Tein's did you use? What spring rates? How old were they?
What are the specs on the AMR? Spring rates?

Just for the extra information on the comparison. :)

[dc5dave]

I was running brand new super streets which come with pretty soft spring rates for eg/dc
The AMR's I got 16 front 12 rear so pretty stiff for a small car but they are perfect.

[EKVTIR-T]

Yeah SS are very very soft

hence the name

[dc5dave]

Yeah they are rubbish, no travel what so ever.
I've driven plenty of fast cars with high end set ups I.e r34 GTR with tein super-racing, a spirit R with Ohlins so my comparison is not made directly between the super streets and the AMR's I'm running.
They are all round a good coilover!
and the only company to give a lifetime warranty on dampers which is pretty convincing in my book

[DreadAngel]

Yeah they are rubbish, no travel what so ever.

Tein or AMR?

[dc5dave]

The teins I used are rubbish
You have to spend big bucks to get quality teins.
I had Apexi coilovers on my dc5 which lastest a year and the dampers started leaking and rattling.
I'm all for AMR

[dc5dave]

And ill add that Andy called my personally to find out weights and specs of the car and researched the circuits I would be prodomotly using to determin valving and spring rates.

[an93l]

How much did ur set cost and what was the leadtime for u?

I read on honda tech their pretty good, but i just didnt want to wait for 2 months or so...

[an93l]

At the moment its either these or ill just grab a KW from ebay...

What you guys think?

[DreadAngel]

The teins I used are rubbish
You have to spend big bucks to get quality teins.
I had Apexi coilovers on my dc5 which lastest a year and the dampers started leaking and rattling.
I'm all for AMR

Can agree on Teins, I find most of the Twintube range [except Flex] to be underdampered...

Which APEX'i coilovers were they? New or used? Also are the roads around your normal travel route really poor?

[dc5dave]

I had the type-V on the dc5, they were on a mates ep3 for a few months before he sold it. They were brand new when he installed them.
Yeah the roads are pretty bad and that car was driven pretty hard but I did expect them to hold up a bit better than they did.

[Spoon-Accord]

I'd like to say a few words if I may,

My experience with Andy from AMR myself

Sent him a PM 5am in the morning, he called me back on my mobile from the states, spoke for about an hour had a laugh, he has a right hand drive civic ek coupe si aswell so he is very knowledgable with this specific body and shape.

He asked me a few questions, in regards to what the car will be used for and future usages, I told him car will be turboed and it's an ek9, and told me the waiting period is 3-4 weeks to make them, I said sure that's fine, but I'm in need of a coilover setup ASAP, my car is on jackstands.

He then calls me back next day saying that my coilovers are ready to be shipped and that he asked one of his team members to stay back and fast track my order, I was sooo surprised and very grateful for the help he has given me.

From customer service point of view, simple amazing. It's even better then calling up Optus to enquire about my phone bill!
He has been there every step of the way and still does contact me on a weekly basis to check up on me. Which is unbelievable!

Would I buy another set off him? Hell yes! You can pay 1.2k for bc br's but they are off shelf coilovers or pay abit extra and get something specifically made to your taste. All coilovers by amr engineering is valves specifically to the spring rates you choose (this means consistent ride and comfort)

When they land on my doorstep ill do a unboxing and full review on them.

If anyone out there is/or looking for a set of coilovers at around 1.5k, pm me or just jump on the website and email them, you'll get a response back pretty quickly

Ps. They use hyperco Japanese springs (very good quality)

Previously I had koni yellows and gc/koni sleeves (twice now) and could never convince myself to like them, rode like rubbish and aren't very friendly

[EKVTIR-T]

Good to hear another feedback on the service,seems to have great customer care :thumbsup:


and as far as the Koni/GC you would be in the 2% that dislikes them so not sure whats going on there

[Spoon-Accord]

Yeh it's weird, I've always like to try things here and there on my ek9 (since suspension and other parts are easy to come by for such a common car)

The first koni/gc setup I had was on my ef7 crx, they were comfortable, but that's about it, bumps cause it to bottom out, noisy, popped when I go up steep driveways. In the end, it was headache to me, ride was spot on, but the rest became useless.
Then I went with omni power coilovers, didn't go as low as the koni's buy it was great ! Handled Wvettrr then the
Koni's .

Then onto my ek9, from oem springs and shocks,
I bought a mint set of tein mono flexes,they looked good, easy to adjust etc, but the ride was unbearable , was beyond streetable.

Then went to get the koni's again and sleeves and thought I'd give it another try, for people who want comfort (these work without a doubt) but being a half shock and sleeve type of strut, the spring goes u bet loose when your 3 wheeling up a driveway or steep path. Which really bothers me, as you always think in the back of your mind "is it in place? Sitting on the perch correctly? "

I can't comment on the AMR's yet, but if the Evo and wrx forums are heel over toes on these coilovers, I guess then it is worthy of trying.

Remember my car is daily driven and I do drive my parent to and from work, so comfy wise has to by my first priority

[DreadAngel]

I had the type-V on the dc5, they were on a mates ep3 for a few months before he sold it. They were brand new when he installed them.
Yeah the roads are pretty bad and that car was driven pretty hard but I did expect them to hold up a bit better than they did.

Hmmm, it is a bit unusual for them to wear out that quickly tbh... I'm assuming your set was the N1 Expert V [ExV] not the older Apex'i coilovers. There are many factors to accelerate wearing of parts though such as road condition, excessive lowering, excessive stiffened of damper settings, etc. Shame you didn't have a good experience with them.


Yeh it's weird, I've always like to try things here and there on my ek9 (since suspension and other parts are easy to come by for such a common car)

The first koni/gc setup I had was on my ef7 crx, they were comfortable, but that's about it, bumps cause it to bottom out, noisy, popped when I go up steep driveways. In the end, it was headache to me, ride was spot on, but the rest became useless.
Then I went with omni power coilovers, didn't go as low as the koni's buy it was great ! Handled Wvettrr then the Koni's .

Then onto my ek9, from oem springs and shocks,
I bought a mint set of tein mono flexes,they looked good, easy to adjust etc, but the ride was unbearable , was beyond streetable.

Then went to get the koni's again and sleeves and thought I'd give it another try, for people who want comfort (these work without a doubt) but being a half shock and sleeve type of strut, the spring goes u bet loose when your 3 wheeling up a driveway or steep path. Which really bothers me, as you always think in the back of your mind "is it in place? Sitting on the perch correctly? "

I can't comment on the AMR's yet, but if the Evo and wrx forums are heel over toes on these coilovers, I guess then it is worthy of trying.

Remember my car is daily driven and I do drive my parent to and from work, so comfy wise has to by my first priority

It sounds like the springs didn't match the shocks or the settings [height & damper] weren't quite set right?

[Spoon-Accord]

I'm not sure what it was, but ill never go with a shock/sleeve setup again

It's just a hassle and when compared to like a set of bc's or even AMR's coilovers, it's worth that extra bit of money.
If you want a near stock comfy ride =koni's (downside is they do go that low, and if you do you'll be killing the bumpstops)

I just can't wait till the AmR's arrive, only best thing I'm looking forward to ATM

[Stevil]

Hey dc5dave Im keen to upgrade to coilovers at some stage this year and those AMR certainly sound like a jice package, do you run em of the softest setting on the street ? Id be keen to check em out, r you doing the Nats this year, or are you doing any track days shortly ? Weather permitting I ll be heading down to Wakefield on the 12th to test my turbo. Cheers

[ekslut]

After seeing this thread and looking into the AMR coilovers a bit more I have decided to give them a go too for my EK9. Was tossing up between these or the KW coilovers which I also run on my dedicated track ED, but after hearing nothing but good things I decided to bite the bullet and give them a go.

Like what Spoon-Accord said, Andy is great to deal with and very knowedgeable with Civics (as he owns one too). Got a call from him not too soon after the email and he went through everything I have done to the car and what I will be using it for. He came back with some spring rates, which I asked to be softened up a bit coz I drive pretty easy on the roads and after something comfortable, which he was happy to do. Only slight issue is timeframe, which at the moment stands about 3 weeks to be built but could blow out to 5-6 weeks depending on if he has parts in stock, but said he is putting stuff aside for me so hopefully will be about 3 weeks. So means the civic might be sitting on jackstands for a while or I'll install the OEM gear back in for the time being. But to get a decent set of coilovers it's worth the wait, one thing I have learnt is a bad quality shock is horrible to ride on...which most coilovers are like these days unless you fork out major $$.

Once they come in and I get them on the car will provide a bit more feedback into it all. Used a few different coilover setups over my lifetime, so will be good to see how they compare.

[Stevil]

ekslut if you dont mind me asking, what spring rates did you settle on ? Im keen to give em a whirl too, bit probably not til later in the year.

[ekslut]

ekslut if you dont mind me asking, what spring rates did you settle on ? Im keen to give em a whirl too, bit probably not til later in the year.

Andy suggested F:10kg/mm and R: 8kg/mm at the start, and he assured me that wouldn't feel too stiff as the shock is a lot better quality than a lot of the coilovers out there. But I wanted comfort more than handling so I went with F:8kg/mm and R:6kg/mm, and I think these rates will do nicely.

I will let you know how they feel once they arrive!!

[Hondarally]

Thread revival.

Any feedback on how the AMR's performed? I have a set in the race car, but also have a set of Konis and am tossing up which will be better for a dedicated track car (ie don't care about street comfort). Just trying to decide which ones to set the car up with (haven't driven the car yet, obviously, so have no data to look at). The AMR's have much softer springs than the Konis, so I think that they are more of a street setup (no markings on the springs to determine what the rates are though - Konis have 750/550 lb/in springs on them, which is getting close to what will work on the track, although probably too soft at the back)

On the other hand, the AMR's are height adjustable in 2 places, giving more tuning options for setting ride height, bump / droop etc. The Konis look too tall to work properly on a race car unless I make up different top mounts to lower the car that way.

Might just have to sell the lot and take the car to Murray to sort out for me (and hand over a cheque for $10k)

[Super-DA9]

These look really good, I'm currently tossing up whether to get a set of these or MCA reds.

It would be great if someone who's owned them for a while and or used them for track work could chime in!

[Hondarally]

They do look good, but don't seem to be that well known around here. 2 Race suspension / chassis gurus I spoke to recently had never heard of them (including Murray from MCA). No, he wasn't trying to sell me his gear, in fact he was talking me out of spending any money until we know what the car needs. He suggested that we could probably make something work with what I have, and maybe get the right rate springs to suit the existing hardware and the rest of the car setup. He is very good at talking people out of spending money where it doesn't need to be spent.

I'll be taking the car, with the AMR's and Koni's to MCA in the next few weeks, and I'll get Murray to have a good look at them, and dyno both sets so I know what I have. Will report back if he says anything interesting. The fact that the AMR's are fully rebuildable, and come with a lifetime warranty give you a little comfort, but the warranty doesn't say much if you have to ship them to Canada for repairs.

Of the AMR's and MCA reds, I'd say you can't go wrong with the MCA reds. Not necessarily saying they're better, but they are a known quantity, and MCA have proven themselves in competition for many years now. With the weak Oz dollar, I'd think that the MCA reds would be better value too, and much better local support

I worked out that my AMR's have 600lb and 650lb springs in them, and according to AMR, the valving has been built to handle 1000lb (they said they will go to 1100lb but that might be a stretch). That, and the fact that they are height adjustable in 2 places is making me lean towards using these in the car with uprated springs (800/900 or 900/1000, depending on the session at MCA). The Konis I have might be too tall to allow enough travel on a race car at racing height, so might not be the best option for me. Perfect for the street use, though, specially with slightly softer springs.

I will update once I have a bit more data to report on.

[Super-DA9]

Really looking forward to the test results. Interesting about the valving on the AMRs as I understood they were valved for the specific rates you order?

[DreadAngel]

What Koni's are they? Cause if they're just Yellows revalved etc, AMR's should outperform them if setup correctly for your car.

[Hondarally]

Really looking forward to the test results. Interesting about the valving on the AMRs as I understood they were valved for the specific rates you order?

Yeh I was under that impression, but they told me that in mine, the 600-650's are at the lighter end of the valving, and they will cope with anything up to 1000. Could be marketing, or could be truth (or possibly somewhere in the middle). The rebound adjustment seems to have a fairly big impact, so I might find that screwing up the rebound will cope better with stiffer springs. I can't see any big need to play with bump adjustment with stiffer springs - as the stiffer springs will actually help bump control (compared to a softer spring in the same application)

Dread Angel - not sure - I can't find any numbers that mean anything on these units. They have the threaded height adjustable sleeves, with externally adjustable rebound damping. Not being an expert on Konis, I don't know how these sit in the overall Koni scheme of things. Hence I'll get Murray to have a look at both and hopefully be able to make an educated decision.

both sets came with the car, and the seller told me to use the Konis as they'd be much better than the AMR's (I recall him saying something about the Konis being recently overhauled too, but can't find any documentation to prove that - the spring perches and hardware look unused - just the shock bodies have chipped paint and have obviously been used). I'm not sure whether he had some engineering reason for his comments, or not. I found a problem with the AMR's (fitted to the car at the time). One of the rear units was missing the steel washer under the rubber bush, which allowed the shaft to slide through the bush. I sourced a new washer to properly clamp the bush onto the shoulder on the shaft and all's good. Maybe that was why he was telling me not to use the AMR's - he thought they may have had a problem??

[Hondarally]

Also, running the Konis at their lowest setting still has the car about 10mm higher than I'd like (obviously the optimum ride height is more than just a visual thing, but comparing to other IPRA EK's, the Konis still look a bit high). Not too worried about springs popping off the perches, as if I have both wheels at one end of the car off the ground long enough to drop springs off the perches, then I have bigger things to worry about. Definitely leaning towards running the AMR's - just want to put some science behind my decision.

[Super-DA9]

Do your AMRs have separate bump and rebound adjustment? If so I didn't know they did that but that's awesome

[Hondarally]

No, they are rebound only. I probably should have been a bit clearer above.

My point is that going to a stiffer spring actually helps the bump control, as the stiffer spring resists bump better than a softer spring. Think about the front of the car diving when you jump on the brakes. Putting a stiffer spring in there will reduce the dive, as will increased bump damping. They complement each other. However, a stiffer spring will need high rebound damping to control the rebound. Hence the rebound is adjustable to cater for different spring rates. I'd say that's why many dampers only have adjustable rebound damping, since that gives the most flexibility.

That's a bit of an over simplification, but until you're starting to chase the last hundredths of a second lap time, I think that fixed bump damping (as long as it's roughly matched to the car and springs) won't be the limiting factor. Not saying that bump damping doesn't help, I just think it has less of an impact when you're playing with spring rates.