Description
A direct evolution of the previous TEIN Street Flex, the new TEIN Flex A range has been developed to combine both comfort and performance for sporty drivers. In order to provide the best pricing, engineers at TEIN have completely re-designed the Japanese production plant and manufacturing processes. As a result, this offers the best quality/price ratio ever offered from TEIN.
Thanks to its oil and gas twin-tube design, Flex A offers excellent comfort at low speeds on rough roads, whilst providing outstanding performance and accuracy in fast driving - on road and circuit. The ride height and spring preload are adjustable separately, giving full damper stroke at any height. A new oil formulation was used for Flex A, giving stable performance at all temperatures. Damping is adjustable via 16 stages.
These coilovers come with upper mounts, allowing camber adjustment on front McPherson suspension. Using Japanese manufacturing, TEIN products enjoy a long lifetime and protection against corrosion, dust and temperature change. They also come with a 1 year warranty.
Features
- The perfect compromise between comfort and performance
- 16 levels of damping adjustment
- Twin-Tube Structure
- Ride height adjustment with little to no change in ride quality
- OEM specification brake hose fittings
- Anti-corrosion coating and dust boots
- 1 year warranty
More Information on the TEIN Flex A Coilovers
FLEX A is equipped with new feature 'Hydraulic Bump Stopper (H.B.S.)' which has been tested and proven effective in the world's harshest motorsports including World Rally Championship and European Rally Championship. When a lowered vehicle goes over big bumps, urethane or rubber bump stopper often causes a big upward jolt and/or rebound and can disturb controllability. On FLEX A, H.B.S., mounted inside the shock absorber, effectively generates damping force near and/or at full-bump, to absorb big impact smoothly. Comfortable ride in vehicles even at full occupancy will revolutionize the industry.
Considering the use of larger tires/wheels and the lowered ride height, FLEX A uses twin-tube system, in pursuit of ride comfort on streets. In order to maintain the ride quality on streets with rough spots here and there, a shock absorber has to have sufficient stroke, be low-frictional and move smoothly. As an oil chamber and a gas chamber are not arranged serially in a twin-tube system, it is easy to secure enough stroke. Also, low gas pressure keeps friction low. Its smooth stroke movement makes it possible to follow rough and bumpy road surfaces quite well, offering supple ride at low speed and stable ride at high speed.
Full-length ride height adjustment system, used for FLEX A, enables adjustment of ride height by adjusting the case length, without changing the damper stroke length and/or spring pre-load. This has the advantage that the change in ride quality is kept minimal when the height is adjusted. This system not only makes it possible to maintain good balance between the low-down appearance and ride comfort, but also provides more setting choices for sport driving as well.
FLEX A has ever-popular 16-level damping force adjustment (comp./rebound together) feature with the use of needle valve. By turning the adjustment knob, damping force (stiffness) is adjusted linearly step by step, to change the ride and handling of the car to suit driver's needs/preferences. Use of well-reputed 'ADVANCE Needle' at the needle valve for oil flow control widens damping force adjustable range to about 200% of the existing lineups.
FLEX A kit includes upper mounts exclusively designed for each vehicle model; either reinforced rubber mounts or pillow ball mounts. Pillow ball upper mounts for front strut suspensions have camber adjustment feature.
Upper mounts and lower brackets are coated with rich TEIN green powder paint. This powder paint has high coating film strength, is highly durable yet is low-pollution. After the shot blasting pre-treatment, the patented '2-layer/1-bake' treatment using anti-rust powder paint is applied for superior durability and high corrosion resistance. On shell case, TEIN's self-developed one-of-a-kind 'ZT Coating' is applied, for tougher protection against chipping, often caused by bounced pebbles, and rust.
For strut suspensions, sufficiently-thick ribbed plate is used for knuckle bracket to maintain high rigidity. Flange shape edge of the bracket provides larger contact area with the bracket lock, which is fastened with the conical washer inserted in between, to effectively prevent loosening of the bracket lock most commonly occurs on front strut suspensions.
FLEX A has adopted the new wrought aluminum spring seats and low-friction hard-resin thrust washers. These effectively reduces the friction with springs, caused during ride height adjustment, and makes it easier to adjust the ride height with pre-load on the springs.
Included springs are made of high-tensile steel SAE9254 (tensile strength 200kgf/mm2 or over) and cold formed for excellent resistance to sagging and for superior quality stability. Surface is powder coated for superb protection against chipping & peeling, for high durability and for superior anti-corrosion performance. The most suitable shape of spring (straight or barrel-shaped) is determined for each vehicle model, to provide wide ride height adjustable range and to secure sufficient stroke without compromising ride comfort.
Specifications
| Front | Rear | |
| Damping Force Adjustment: | Yes | Yes |
| Ride Height Adjustable: | Yes | Yes |
| Upper Mounts: | Rubber Reinforced | OEM |
| Spring Rates (Kg/mm): | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Ride Height Range: | -1.1 to -2.8 | -1.5 to -2.9 |
Vehicle Fitment
- Vehicle Region: USA
- Vehicle: Toyota Prius
- Model Years: 2010-2015
- Production Years: 2010-2015
- Chassis: ZVW30L
- Engine: 1800
- Drivetrain: FWD
- Notes: RR: For Post-Facelift model, interior needs to be cut or removed if it interferes due to individual differences.
- Part Number: VSQ08-D1AS3
- EDFC Compatible: Yes
EDFC Series Enables In-Car Damping Force Adjustment!
- With EDFC (Electronic Damping Force Controller) series installed, damping force can be controlled from the cockpit with ease. Stepping motors attached in place of adjustment knobs control the damping force quickly and accurately.
- Use of EDFC turns 16-level adjustment into finer 32-level or 64-level adjustment mode (64-level only available with EDFC ACTIVE / EDFC ACTIVE PRO), to provide the optimum performance by fully utilizing the damping force adjustable range drastically widened by the use of ADVANCE Needle.
- With EDFC ACTIVE / EDFC ACTIVE PRO, damping force can be controlled automatically according to changes in G-force and/or vehicle speed, to offer very smooth and slick ride like never before.
