NA Standard Shocks differ from Bilsteins

I have a non turbo supra. In the summer I changed from standard shocks and springs to Eibach springs and Bilstein shocks. I am considering changing back to the standard springs with the Bilstein shocks to improve the ride, but I have a quick question:

At the front, the spring seat on the Bilsteins is about an inch lower than on the std NA shock (see picture). I noticed this when I originally changed them (http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?t=42043), but I didn’t actually get round to measuring them until now. At the rear the shocks are of a similar size.

I presume this is because the Bilsteins are designed for the TT and that the standard NA has a different set up. Currently the ride looks lower at the front than the back (and the Eibachs don’t help as they lower then front more than the back anyway).

I have noticed that the Eibach/Bilstein combination does occasionally suffer from lift-off oversteer and I assume there isn’t currently enough weight on the back wheels.

I plan to keep the Bilsteins, but when I change back to the standard springs should I:

- Put my old NA springs on, which presumably have the correct spring rates, etc but are still too short (affecting the ride height).

- Or should I get some TT springs, which presumably are the correct size, but may not be designed for the weight of the NA?

Any help would be appreciated!

as far as i'm aware mate, the two shocks are easily interchangable as the bilstein's were an option on jspec cars (including N/As). it's simply that the bilsteins are stiffer than their black counterparts.......

sorry i've not really helped u much....

Thanks. Does anyone know which springs an NA with the optional Bilsteins has? Are they same as TT, standard NA, or something else?

yep. springs should all be the same if standard ones.....

Well it looks like I'm ok to use my stock NA springs then.

It's weird though, cos my springs seem too short for the Bilstein shock. When you assemble the strut the spring is hardly tight (you don't need a spring compressor to assemble it). The springs are fine with the stock NA shock.

I'm wondering if the spring seat on my Bilstein is lower than it should be, for some reason? My Bilsteins aren’t marked with Toyota.

Anyone got some proper Toyota Bilsteins laying around that they can measure for me (per diagram above)?

 

It's weird though, cos my springs seem too short for the Bilstein shock. When you assemble the strut the spring is hardly tight (you don't need a spring compressor to assemble it). The springs are fine with the stock NA shock.

 

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when i did my jspec left the struts stock for time being but put eibach springs on didn't need a compressor either. it actually raised the car but it has settled now