DMS has improved their North American customer support presence. And their second-generation-valved 40mm strut seems to have overcome the short comings of the earlier ones. I gave them a try and am glad I did:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...hreadid=445269

Happy Motoring!

 

hey what the hell would happen if i put the 50mm on my rs, would i be able to go off jumps? small ones i mean.

 

At this point, I'd be unlikely to buy another set of DMS 50's. I've had a number of problems with imprecise adjustments (could easily be my own fault, but if the struts are too complex for me to figure out, then I'm not gonna buy any more of them), and servicing them requires a ship-off to texas or canada or (god-forbid) Australia.

just my .02,

-neil

 

Since I got rid of my first gen DMS 40mm's and got the new 50mm's I have not had a problem. Over twice the miles on these that I had on the 40's and they work as good as when I got them.

The only thing I don't like about the 50mm streets compaired to the 40mm's is the front strunts have a lot less travel. The 40's you could rip over speed bumps like stock and the 50's you better craw over them or they bottom. This is at about 40mm lowering from stock.

 

MY one concern (and why I probably won't buy DMS) is numerous threads I have read about annual (or relatively close to that) rebuilds required. Has this issue been addressed?

 

They are not designed for so called street every day use but for racing. They are going to need rebuilds as do most race parts.

I am sure they will continually improve thier design but I think thier aussie pride is getting in the way because they will not even admit there is any problem.

 

It's good to hear that there is some better support, now. I was very interested when I first got my Subaru, but after reading up on DMS and the regular rebuilds, I was turned off. MAybe when my car gets retired to permanent track/off-road car, then I'll seriously reconsider DMS. Right now I can't deal with serious downtime.

 

It's not "serious down time" per say... but you do need to keep a spare suspension lying around so you can swap out the DMS struts for maintenance.

Even without Air tools, you can do the swap and an alignment in afternoon.

I have had both the DMS 40's and DMS 50's. Will I put them on my STI?

sure.. I'll go with DMS the next time I buy coilovers. I know how to deal with the maintenance issues. They key is to manage the amount of moisture inside the strutbody. It's when the grease gets contaiminated that you have the problems with these struts.

I drove my WRX with DMS 50's street length struts. Trust me when I say that I had almost any problem you could have with this setup. For me, it was sorta like love hate relationship...

If you want maximum performance and a tolerable street ride, buy DMS. But keep in mind that you have to maintain these struts on a regular schedule.

IMHO, if your autocrossing or doing regular track days with your daily driver, you should be doing extra maintenance checks anyway.

 

I do lots of extra maintenance checks on my car... I'm overtly **** about such things. I havdn't thought about keeping my stock take-offs around... I'm silly that way. Perhaps I will give DMS a 2nd look. How often is the typical maintenance period for them anyway? I do Auto-x once a month, and hopefully track them once a month, too. "
(moving and hoping to find some good track time again)

 

How much does a rebuld cost, anyway? All this talk has me looking for DMS, again.

 

Mine was free due to the poor design of the first gen 40mm's

I know the place in canada does not do the free rebuilds due to the first gen design sticking.

I would say it depends on what it needs. Most using street setup just need a teardown and new grease and seals which should not cost all that much.