Moving along from the RCS review…and since I decided to go for TITAN, here’s my Day 1 review after installing them TITANs.
Made appointment 2 days in advance with Titan to get it installed. Called up the day before to explain on the setting that am looking for so that they can prepare it in advance – the plan was to ride in the car, jack it up, remove the standard suspensions and then fit in the new TITAN suspensions and spend the majority of the time on setting/tuning/troubleshooting. Reached Titan at 10.10am. Rublik was already there prior to me arriving. There was a Lancer GT parked just beside Rublik’s ride and a Jag XJ6 in the 1st bay and a Volvo with a Swift in the second bay. I spoke to Wai Loong (the owner Richard’s son and we agreed that the setting for my ride will be 7/5 with Medium damping – just like what I told him when I pre-informed him to prepare the shocks prior to me coming over)
Rublik’s car went into Bay 1 beside the XJ6 at about 11.00am and his original suspensions were slowly dismantled. I was told that once the Volvo is done, my ride will go in – I was pretty cool with this arrangement. XC soon joined us along with Selinix. Then the nightmare begun, the Volvo was still not out of the bay and Rublik’s dismantled suspensions were as it was. Decided to go for Yam Char which ended up being lunch. Was hoping that all work would have started on Rublik’s car and my ride would be in Bay 2 for dismantling and guess what – both cars were as it was. Time, almost 1.00pm!!!
Ding-Dong here and there and we soon realized that both mine & Rublik’s Titan were still in the midst of being assembled (not onto the car but at their workshop where the shocks are assembled). Time 3.00pm and Rublik’s front shocks were brought to be installed. Mine was still being assembled. Circa 4.00pm my ride went into Bay 2 and my standard suspensions were dismantled and installation of the Titan commenced. Note that they used a newer design top mount for both mine & Rublik’s car as the initial top mounts used on Inspira transpired some rubbery kinda sound. This problem was brought forward to Titan by our fellow lynspirian, xabi14alonso. The solution was to replace the metal + rubber center bearing with a solid yellow hard rubber. Another improvement that was done by Titan was on the piston itself. The initial piston sidewall which was just bare metal prior hand was given a center groove with the hole fitted in with a rubber seal. This actually reduces the friction between the piston and the tube everytime it compresses and rebounds – as explained by Uncle Richard himself
Installation was completed approx 5.30pm. Rublik’s was done like 20minutes earlier.
They took the car for a test before measuring the height settlement. I chose to sit in the car for the height measurement and there was a 2mm difference before & after I sat. After we agreed that the height will adjusted to 3 finger caps for both front & rear (tho’ I came with the idea of doing a 1 front & 2 rear finger gap), I was told that it’s wise to do further height adjustments after the shocks after settled in. Agreed to it and up on the ramp the car went to get its ‘Manual Wheel Alignment’ done. First time I had manual alignment done on any of my rides and was curious on how the do they adjustments. One of Titan’s staff explained how it’s done and that they’ll do the camber & toe adjustment to 1°. Not sure if I got it right but that’s what I heard.
Car went out for a second trial and the second nightmare started. They found out that the front right shocks were giving a rubbery kinda sound similar to what xabi14alonso was facing before the yellow rubber top was fitted on the top mounts. I took it out for a personal spin as well and the rubbery sound was definitely there and tad a lil’ annoying as well. Surprisingly, Rublik’s car did not have this problem. Up the ramp the car went again and the total troubleshooting took approx 3 hours+. The springs were replaced 3 times. I lost count how many times my front shocks were installed & uninstalled and the rubbery sound was still present. Uncle Richard decided to take apart both the front 2 shocks and assemble a new set all over again. Even after that, the rubbery sound was still present. They tried the earlier design top mounts that initially triggered the rubbery sound and the sound persisted. It was already close to 8.00pm and they decided to take out the shocks and test offline to diagnose where the sound came from. It was official – the sound was coming from the top mount. After a few more tries and they gave up and decided to try out the shocks with the original top mounts. Fitted in the original top mounts and waalaaaah….not a single sound. It was almost 9.00pm and Uncle Richard alongside Patrick told me to ride on with the original top mount first until they design a new top mount for the car and call me over again to replace it. Decided to call it a day at TITAN and head back home. A total of 11 hours spent on installing, testing, troubleshooting, uninstalling and then reinstalling, testing, troubleshooting before giving up on the top mount and reusing back the original top mounts for the TITANs.
POSITIVE End results:
The car showed it was firmer and stiffer than before and not that harsh. The chosen 7/5 spring rate definitely fitted my requirements. I had very minimal bouncing feel when driving. Body-roll was next to none. Rebound rate was really really nice. Tried a couple of potholes & speed bumps at medium speed and the rebound was flat with no drawbacks. Straight-line speeding after initial pick-up draws more control now or atleast for my ride since I have a heavy load of amps and sub in my trunk. The slight understeer + bodyroll that I used to feel when taking corners are not at all there now. One thing that is of a slight concern to me is the fact that car tends to get slightly stiffer than usual with minimal bouncy feel when your speed is gradually reducing from high speed. I may have to try this a few more times to really be sure of it.
1- Had a wonderful 20 mins or so drive on DUKE Highway (whilst smiling on every hard corner taken)
2- Took an awesome high speed corner at 120km/h.
3- …not satisfied took another high speed corner at 130km/h.
4- ……still not satisfied took another high speed corner at 140km/h. (my favorite S-Turn corner exiting DUKE and getting into SPRINT.
5- The feeling when parking the car back at home: PRICELESS!!!!!
6- Having XCInspire the whole time accompanying me during the installation tho’ he did make his time worth for when Uncle Richard replaced his shock’s pistons with the newer design pistons. 
7- Uncle Richard’s patience in diagnosing the problem and the overall hardwork & time spent by his staffs.
8- xabi14alonso coming down to give support and also push the staffs to get started on my car.NEGATIVE End results:1- Tho’ appointment was made at 10.00am but the work did not start until 3.00pm on Rublik’s car and circa 4.00pm on my car. Approx 5 hours wasted doing nothing.
2- Pre-information was given to prepare the shocks prior hand so that time can be saved during the day of installation but both shocks were not ready when we came and took another 4-5 hours to be prepared.
3- The rubbery sound from the top mount was a definite frustration BUT could it have been solved if the shocks were ready earlier as we would have ample of time to troubleshoot and diagnose the problem? I don’t know.
4- Tho’ improvements were done on the top mounts for xabi14alonso’s car and the rubbery sound was eliminated in both his & Rublik’s car – the fact that it carried on to my car meant that the solution did not address the issue completely.
5- Having to use back the original top mounts on the new TITAN shocks.
This post has been edited by Xai-V-iaX: Nov 17 2012, 04:57 PM 
Nov 17 2012, 03:04 PM
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