Front Upper Shock Mounts and Coilovers Writeup
 

I have replaced my stock shocks and lowering springs with coilovers to overhaul the flawed upper mount design, and I'm very pleased with how the car handles.

There has been a lot of discussion about improving the design of the front upper shock mounts/bushings. Many people including myself have had these literally crumble into nothing, and replaced them with new aftermarket bushings from Welsh Enterprises. These aftermarket bushes were definitely nicer than the OEM rubber, but both OEM and aftermarket suffer from an inherent design flaw. The inner part of the mount is captured in rubber, but is semi-free to move, and it loves to move. My relatively new mounts got so dislodged that the inner rubber piece was crushed into bits. I replaced the mounts only about 2 years prior to this, when I swapped the springs to H&R lowering springs. Now that I needed to replace the bushings a third time, it became clear that I needed to find a permanent solution to this. The Welsh Enterprises mounts were fairly pricey, so I decided to try to find coilovers to completely overhaul the front shock absorber setup.

I went with a company called Ceika. They manufacture custom coilovers for a variety of different cars, including our X100's. The kit is typically sold by them in a set of 4, but I opted to only get the front 2 coilovers. The reason being that the rear suspension of the X100 is such that the top mount for the spring wouldn't adapt to a coilover properly. According to Ceika, you would need to re-use your springs or get shorter ones, but they would sell you the shock absorber??? So you *could* order them, but I wasn't sure of exactly how to set it up, and I was happy with the ride height of the rear in my car with my lowering springs as is. They charged me half the price + another $100 for the two coilovers by themselves, which was a fair enough price I think. So, all in all, for just the front two coilovers, I paid $750 for the "sport" configuration; I believe there was also a comfort configuration as well. It is a better deal if you get all 4, but I wanted to save as much money as possible here and only got the front. If anyone else wants to do the same, you just need to email their customer service and they'll help.

The coilovers handle seriously well in my initial testing. I have ZERO harsh bumping or metal rubbing or squeaking, like I had before with my failing uppper mounts. I now also have spring pre-load and ride height control. I'm really pleased with this setup, as the coilovers are also advertised to be fully rebuildable, so I think this upgraded setup will last a long time- much longer than the OEM-designed mounts at least.

I now also have a pair of front shocks and springs, with H&R Lowering Springs and Bilstein shocks. They have roughly 7,000 miles on them, and the rubber top and bottom mounts are crumbling, but if you replaced the bushings you could definitely run them. Looking to make a deal with anyone who wants lowering springs and maybe some decent shock2s for their X100. PM me if interested!

Ceika X100 Coilovers

Interesting, certainly hope all goes well.
On the older parts, PM me with your information and thoughts to price.

So you don’t require the top shock mounts? Can you provide a foto from inside the engine bay showing the mounting?

I also have Ceika coilovers. This is what the fronts look like.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...53c60051e7.jpg

Did you get the rears as well or only the fronts?

I agree that coilovers are the way to go instead of dealing with the seemingly non-stop front upper mount issues and replaces lower bushings at the same time while incorporating a modern spring/damper that are designed to work together.

There is a full front and rear coilover option - Nitron - but it is not cheap. I am running it and in full soft settings rides like OEM+

https://www.ebay.com/itm/32528102318...Bk9SR-ztlMnIYg

I got both front and rear, but at the time I purchased them, the rear used the original springs, shocks only. I think they may have an option for full spring and shocks in the rear now.

There needs to be something other than the stock lower mounting bolt if that is an option.
The stock setup is suitable for damper mounting only, never designed to carry the weight of the car.

I wander if the Nitron kit is better then the adaptive CATS shocks? I can't think on the road at or around road speeds it makes all that much difference, £4k is a lot to spend and the CATS suspension already rides very flat in the bends.On track with the adjustability I should think the Nitrons will be better but that's on a track with nice flat smooth tarmack somethign we don't get in the UK on public roads. The Ceika kit is pretty interesting because it's cheaper then OEM but it doesn't keep the CATS setup for those that already have it.

I have the CATS setup upgraded to handling package shocks. It rides flat when you're not driving too aggressively, but on backroads in very spirited driving, you do get some body-roll. I think stiffer anti-roll bars would solve that at a much cheaper price, if handling is what you're looking for.

I guess we all have our own interpretation of "spirited" and "not too aggressively" Gian but l imagine we are somewhat on the same page there.
I have all the R features and the car stays flat regardless of the aggression level, wouldn't change the setup for quids. The thicker front bar is only about 1mm bigger and l believe the rear bar is actually thinner. Got calipers, can measure.

This is the Ceika setup.
https://ceika-store.com/collections/...xkr_y51_-96-06

To me, spiritedly means track driving or, if a track is not available, treating the backroads like the Nurburgring and driving as if you were doing a time attack at Goodwood. Completely reckless driving that should not be attempted on public roads will get some body-roll on cars with the CATS suspension. However, I think the biggest problem is not the damping or handling, or ride, but the lack of lateral support in the seats. Attempting any kind of serious driving will have you slipping out of the seat before you have felt g-forces.

Aside from Nitron, a member did work with Ceika and made a one-off mount to run true coilovers on the rear.

Nitron is in a different world than the OE suspension.