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First of all, Hi 3rd gen owners. I'm pretty new to Maximas and got a nice '93 for a really good price.
After a few months with her and some elbow grease, I've started looking into lowering options for my Max (KYB's sorta scare me as strut options and B&G's are a little too low to drive well around San Francisco) and came across custom springs/struts/coilovers on the Tien website. I was wondering if anyone here's tried or inquired about it.
I'm guessing $2500+ for coilovers is probably pretty steep, but owning this car for the last couple months in Cali hasn't been (they hate oldish cars) anyways. So I don't mind saving up a little for a good set of stuff.
Also, what else should I look into to upgrade suspension with the scarcity of aftermarket for these cars?
-Thanks,
TheGodDerp
Don't have many pics of her. This is after first wash<br/>
Plans include (as I save the money):
- BBK (Wilwood or Z32 4-pot)
- Fitting the set of spare TE's sitting at my parent's house
-"Borrowing" the old Greddy SP exhaust and Y-Pipe my dad never installed on his old Max
- Nice drop and rear swap bars
- Stillen kit
Last edited by TheGodDerp; 08-08-2016 at 08:54 PM.
I didn't know that Tein offered a sort of "off the shelf" custom coilover option for $2,500 but that is very steep - ESPECIALLY these days considering most of these cars aren't even worth $2,500. There are basically none of us left any longer who would even remotely consider putting that much into coilovers. Maybe 10 years ago I would have, but these days I wouldn't. I'm perfectly content with my Eibach rear/Intrax fronts on my turbo VE and Eibach front/stock rears on my black stock VE.
Anyway, at least a decade ago now, a couple of members here did build/fabricate custom coilovers for their cars. IIRC, it was Matt93SE and CandiMan and basically the takeaway was that the front struts are pretty much just plain too short to do much of anything with - that you can't get enough strut travel to give a decent ride. If you do some searching on both those usernames you could find all their old posts about it. I would bet Tein runs into the same problem because even though they are pros, they're still constrained by the basic 3rd gen geometry and space limitations.
Was your dad a member here? He has/had a new in box old school Greddy catback? Pretty amazing. I just sold mine a few months ago.
What do the TE wheels look like? Are those just the 5th gen SE wheels but the chrome-ish version? Funny you're doing that, because I'm putting 5th gen SE wheels on my black VE later this week.
Your car looks incredible though. Is that an autotragic or a 5 speed? I was in San Francisco in June and couldn't imagine driving a stick there - at least in the downtown area.
Sadly, the car's auto But it isn't actually too bad to drive stick here, though the first thing I learned was hill starts haha
Anyways, the TE37s are Volks that came off my old 3 series after someone rear ended it in a parking lot.
I don't think my dad was a member since we haven't actually had the car for god knows how long (thanks bro and sis for being born).
I'm sorta just budgeting and looking for options for off the shelf suspension right now since I live in an apartment that doesn't allow me to work on my car
Ahh, gotcha. I thought you meant TE as in the factory SE Titanium Edition wheels on the 5th gen.
Try to find some Eibachs - my black one rides very nice on Eibachs and just cheapo Monroe struts. Since I'm going to those 17" 5th gen wheels I expect the ride to suffer a little bit, but I went with 215/50 tires rather than 45 profile tires so maybe that'll offset it some.
I've heard stories about the Monroes and KYB struts blowing out quickly and whatnot, do you replace them often? The car's a daily driver that goes through the backroad twissies during the weekend, so better handling is always something I'm considering lol
Ideally, i'd love tokicos and some eibachs, but every time i find some, they're gone before i can react
Last edited by TheGodDerp; 08-09-2016 at 08:30 AM.
I've heard stories about the Monroes and KYB struts blowing out quickly and whatnot, do you replace them often? The car's a daily driver that goes through the backroad twissies during the weekend, so better handling is always something I'm considering lol
Ideally, i'd love tokicos and some eibachs, but every time i find some, they're gone before i can react
Well let me be clear that Monroes are pretty low quality. KYB's are about the best we can get these days but even those were never anything more than OEM style aftermarket replacements. Fifteen years ago the KYB's were only what the broke teenagers used, but now ironically they're the cream of the crop.
However, the problem is that there are NO other options. So, you take what you can get.
And no I haven't replaced the Monroes. Then again they're only a couple of years old and I only drive 3-4k miles in any one car in a year. I drive my Civic the most and I only put about 5k miles on it per year.
Damn, if I could've turned 16 ten years ago... I might leave the car stock height if that's the case, since the car sits pretty low already. My luck with low quality parts hasn't been so good (fuel pumps, rims, headlights)
Maximum of 5k miles/year? Wow! I've already done 8k miles in 6 months!
The blue one is a turbo, right? How is it driving around town? Does the front lip scrape on a lot of things when it's that low? They both look amazing, btw.
*update* I got a call from a Tien guy today and he said a set of 4 starts around 1500 (which is so much better than 2500, but still very, very steep). Apparently would be built and modified from OE components. I was pretty satisfied with the ones in my old car, so I might just see, if to sate my own curiosity. My Dad's been interested in getting another Max too after driving mine while folks were visiting, so he's said he might help me out with buying them as a test set. It'd be a pretty cool experiment, since the roads around here are smooth.
Last edited by TheGodDerp; 08-09-2016 at 11:24 AM.
Damn, if I could've turned 16 ten years ago... I might leave the car stock height if that's the case, since the car sits pretty low already. My luck with low quality parts hasn't been so good (fuel pumps, rims, headlights)
Maximum of 5k miles/year? Wow! I've already done 8k miles in 6 months!
The blue one is a turbo, right? How is it driving around town? Does the front lip scrape on a lot of things when it's that low? They both look amazing, btw.
*update* I got a call from a Tien guy today and he said a set of 4 starts around 1500 (which is so much better than 2500, but still very, very steep). Apparently would be built and modified from OE components. I was pretty satisfied with the ones in my old car, so I might just see, if to sate my own curiosity. My Dad's been interested in getting another Max too after driving mine while folks were visiting, so he's said he might help me out with buying them as a test set. It'd be a pretty cool experiment, since the roads around here are smooth.
Well I live 6 miles from work, and have three different cars I try to rotate driving - but I do drive my Civic probably 80% of the time. But regardless, that means I don't rack up many miles at all on any of my cars.
The blue one is turbocharged, yes. Although technically not right this moment. I re-built the engine with forged internals last year and broke it in N/A. I've just been so busy this year I haven't had time to swap all the turbo stuff back on. I have emissions coming up again in December, and at this point I've just kind of realized it makes more sense to leave the car N/A for another couple of months and do my last-ever emissions test in December (cars older than 24 years here are exempt). Then finally after that back to the boost once and for all.
I rarely scrape the lip on anything. I've had a Stillen lip continuously on one Max or another for at least 15 years now so I've long ago gotten used to driving with it. The very outside end of it fits right over standard height parking curb/stop deals - not that I pull up that far anyway. The only time it would scrape is on super steep inclines, like "single lane" driveways that are narrow enough I couldn't just go in diagonally. I honestly can't remember the last time I've scraped it on anything. It's thankfully urethane anyway, so you'd have to really smack it hard to cause it any damage. Much, much better than the average fiberglass bodykit that some other makes/models have to deal with.
Back to your coilovers - $1,500 is a lot more feasible and would be very tempting for me. However, not to be a buzzkill, but I bet Tein declines to produce them or if they do that it's outrageously expensive ($3k+). Our rear strut housings have the rear spindle/bearing assembly built right onto them. So that really complicates things for any aftermarket manufacturer looking to make coilovers and almost guarantees a "thanks but no thanks" situation.
Ah, well, the coilovers look like a pipe dream now haha
I appreciate the input. I'm planning on keeping this car for a while and I've been lurking around so I could budget and plan a custom build until i can get my other girl shipped over to Cali. Just trying to avoid the ricey look that's plagued some of the maximas I've seen. Really nice feeling when people approach the car and call her nice.
Well don't let me discourage you. It can't hurt to try them and see what they'd price it at. Inquiring minds (me) would be really curious if Tein would do it and if so what the price would be
On a side note, it's not impossible as many claim. I found a race built drag maxima (long time ago, not sure why they picked a Maxima). It was selling on eBay as a non street legal vehicle. It had custom coilovers and I remember him saying the rear spring rate had been heavily increased to prevent the rear from dipping during launch. It had a full roll cage and no interior, I wonder what ever happen to that car, anyone know?
Put me in for this coilover deal, since I have give up on suspension parts for my two 3rd gen Maximas own. It will be interesting for many of us to find out the handling of this setup with out compromising any other part/structure of the car. But, Tein is a very reputable company and they have excellent quality products.
Hope they come up with something good, I can make a little sacrifice and purchase a set for my cars.
Right now, it's just going to be researching the suspension and possibly find some other companies, as I won't be making any sort of inquiries to Tien about it until I've got a little more cash and research invested anyways. I've already contacted Eibach, and they've said that they can revive discontinued parts if there's enough interest in them, so that might be another option if the coilovers are too expensive. I might contact Tokico too (fingers crossed).
From my communications with the Tien Rep that contacted me, I'd have to provide some pictures of the suspension for the front and rear for them to study, or possibly even an assembly. Since it would be made to order, they would keep the car on file for rebuilds and hopefully be able to replicate for other guys, but they would be able to tell me from there whether or not they'd be able to manufacture a setup before hand. If they are able to make it, and it's not too outrageously expensive (or I decide to take the dive anyways), it'll take roughly eight weeks to arrive, since it'll be sent to Japan to be made.
I've heard that they made some custom sets for cars like the Mitsubishi Starion and I read somewhere about a set for subi SVX's, which are even more forgotten than our 3rd gens, and Kei cars so I'm a bit optimistic. I'll try to keep this updated as I get information, but it might not be for another month or two (just paid for my damn college classes and car registration).
If anyone else wants to try it, then it would be some good info here. And, since Tien's a known company with lots of experience, they might be able to overcome the obstacles James mentioned earlier.
so i was looking at this for a while and came up with this...
for the rears you'll need to use an aluminum sleeve over the strut housing. find springs with the perch and throw them on. if you want extreme drop you can even grind off the stock perch but you'll rub on everything.
for the fronts...you'll need to find a super short strut insert. similar to the koni inserts that they made a while ago..but find a shorter one. you can then sleeve the outer housing after grinding off the stock perch...then cut off the top of the stock strut to house a shorter strut and then find your spring and perches.
will it be technically a coil over...yes.
will it have camber plates like the other cool kids have...maybe.
is this something impossible to do....no.
it will take a lot of time and experimenting since you have to play with springs rates and etc. you also have to do a lot of research and take very good measurements.
i personally don't have the time to do it so if you have time and wants to have a coil over set up...it can be done.
oh and let's keep in mind this all might exceed $1000...how many of you are willing to put that much in your 3rd gen?...honestly.
oh and let's keep in mind this all might exceed $1000...how many of you are willing to put that much in your 3rd gen?...honestly.
If I have the automotive knowledge/space/time to repair my own car instead of taking to a repair person. I would.
You know how many times people were trying to tell me to give up the 3rd Gen?
I say this because I love the 3rd Gen. Sure other perform better, but I enjoy driving the 4DSC.
If I have the automotive knowledge/space/time to repair my own car instead of taking to a repair person. I would.
You know how many times people were trying to tell me to give up the 3rd Gen?
I say this because I love the 3rd Gen. Sure other perform better, but I enjoy driving the 4DSC.
08-08-2016, 08:42 PM
So I don't mind saving up a little for a good set of stuff.
But it isn't actually too bad to drive stick here, though the first thing I learned was hill starts haha
