Actually, yes, before I heated the coils I tried that. I removed one coil from the front springs and it didn't lower the car any (it probably needed two coils cut). So, rather than take the springs back off and screw with them, I just heated them up

Anyway, cutting coils is fairly common. Lowering springs are really essentially just shorter springs (albeit some have some actual "engineering" behind them in terms of spring rates, like Eibach's, but still).

My brother has a '79 CVCC and we cut two coils off his front springs and it dropped it about an inch, really nice subtle drop.

 

people have, but the car will ride like total crap... you'll be bouncing off the bumpstops all the time cuz the stock springs are softer and designed for more travel. all drop springs are stiffer, that way they keep you from hitting the bumpstops so often, plus help with the handling.

 

1 - don't cut coils. the extra coils are on there to keep the springs from coming out of the perch.
2 - don't heat coils. they are holding up close to 1000 pounds each. once you heat it it'll change the temper of the spring and it'll break when you least expect it.


From shox.com

038. Suspension Tech. Springs 1989 - 1994 Lowers car 1.5 inches. # 60175 190.48

036. B & G Springs 1989 - 1994 Lowers car 1.6 inches. 179.0

035. Eibach Pro-Kit Springs FREE SHIPPING 1989 - 1994 Free shipping in the us (AK,HI ,PR, and CANADA please call for reduced shipping quote). Lowers car 1.2 inches (6311.140) 248.96

they also sells struts for a good price. all items are 100% warrantied since this is an authorized dealer.


there's a GD that's going on also...
http://forums.maxima.org/group-deals...free-ship.html

 

What exactly did you do? Did you take them off and use a torch?
Might try that out til i get the money for the upgrade.

 

don't do it!!!
do it right or don't do it at all.

 

179 isnt bad for those B&G springs, Thanks for those links man.

 

I like to cut things and use blow torches, but I'll withstrain myself this time haha

 

self mutilation and smoking crack?

hold back this one time...ok? thanks!

 

I will man, thanks for the help.

 

oic.. never thought about that, but it makes sense. in fact there's a warning about that for the z31 rear drop springs, that if you use the big drop rear springs may you have to tether the suspension somehow to keep the springs from popping loose at full rebound (since they are not coil-over-shock like the 3rd gen Max is). of course on the Maxima that isn't possible, since it's all coil-over-strut, but nevertheless i can see how it would cause problems if the spring managed to turn or otherwise re-orient itself between the upper and lower seats.

but on a scale of 1-10 how close was I on my reason for why not to cut coils?

 

How much if i send you my stockers and cash? lmk

 

No, we did it on the car. We stuck the torch in there and heated it, and while it was heating up the car would slowly drop, and we then removed the torch when it reached the level that we wanted.

I wouldn't recommend it if you have the money to do it "right", but I did drive around like that for two years with no problems. Heck, people have been doing that for decades. Obviously, nowadays with lowering springs available for purchase for virtually any car there's no "need" to do it, but what do you think poor greasers in the 60's did.. I mean this kind of stuff started somewhere, not that that justifies it, but still, it's been around

 

thats really bad, itll probably mess up ur car, and be hella bouncy.

 

couldnt have said it any better haha

 

Well. If you were local to NYC, I would consider. But if your not local I just don't want to deal with the hassel of shipping them. Plus its a everyday driver so it would need springs right away if I took out the eibach's for him.
BTW they ride great but he is more into luxury so he dosent like them, dont know why he got them in the first place.

 

dont cut the springs, thats the classic 16-year-old-civic-huge-wing-fart-cannon way of things

 

yea dude thats the ricer way out lol

 

lmk if he changed his mind...

 

I can get you D2 springs for 165 shipped brand new.

 

Don't bother doing springs if you aren't doing shocks. I got a set of S-techs I bought off the org and I am holding off on installing them until I get a set of Illuminas after I get my masters degree finished, then Ill just build up the shock/strut+spring combo with camber bolts and install the whole thing as one deal. That way it wont be as big of a nuisance as if I did everything seperately and I can troubleshoot any problems during the buildup without losing my daily driver.. Then Ill drive it to a shop and get the thing properly aligned.

I think if you take any shortcuts by just doing the springs you will end up spending more money overall. You would need new shock/struts within a few months after your stock ones blow and your tires will wear out really fast without an alignment and proper camber/castor. So overall it will cost you more money then if you just waited.

 

whats the drop on those? lmk thanks.

 

i agree, its not gonna ride great if you use the stock struts.

 

hmm i guess castor would increase with a drop... same "run" but less "rise" in terms of algebraic slope of imaginary line between the strut mount and the balljoint..

 

i just brought some eibach spring a month ago but i want some coilover shocks so i dont know what im goin do about mines, i will sell mines for $100, or cheaper just to get them things out my gargage. i never used to ebay site but im goin check that out.

 

no coilovers exist for 3rd gen maximas. Never have. Never will. So i duggest you keep your eibachs. All the "89-94 maxima coilover" crap you see on Ebay is for the never-sold-in-the-US RWD A31 Cefiro, which they assume is a FWD 3rd gen maxima since the A32 is a 4th gen in the US.. cept the 3rd gen is a J30, not an A31.

and really? you are selling mines for $100? what kind of mines? land mines?

 

OK, This made the tread worthwhile, maybe make it my signature,

now back to a message to the original poster. DON'T TOUCH YOUR SUSPENSION UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND IT!!!!!!!!!! mess with your engine and it goes bad, it might cost some money but that's only your engine, mess with trans, same thing, body work, might look crappy but who cares, but **** up your suspension you could be rolled over cause a 13 car pile up and ruin a lot more than just your suspension. On that note realize that your entire suspension is all about geometry and that is how it works. Stiff springs sound great but that would be for a smooth surface, any bumps in the road and it can makes your tires have less contact with the road than soft springs, and tons of body roll is better then not touching the ground. Secondly lowering your car messes with the geometry of your suspension and your roll center. Lowering can give you a lower center of gravity but more body roll. While it's less noticeable with stiffer springs lets think what you've gained. Stiffer springs for a crappy ride simply to counter the more body roll from a bad roll center, and lower is all you have really gained. Now if you really want to do this right start doing some homework on suspensions, I'll even get you started on a few things, look up Camber, Castor, Roll center and Kingpin Inclination/offset. What you will learn is that you can have a lower ride without sacrificing ride quality or performance, however simply changing springs is not it. You would wants SE spring rate but shorter, roll center adapters, and thicker sway bars, you may go even stiffer in the rear to create less understeer while you are at it. Now that I've talked way too much I'll stop till someone wants to say that's all wrong and roll centers and kingpin offsets aren't that important and stiffer is always better.

 

After reading this entire thread this really was some of the best information put out there. I was thinking about lowering my Maxima also.. But now I am going to hold off on that because it sounds like to do it right you need a good sum of cash.

 

Thank you for the compliment, it doesn't need to cost as much money as it sounds however unless you want it to be great, but it does take a fair bit of time and knowledge. For a simple better handling car without lowering and messing with suspension geometry sway bars are probably the best option. Just changing sway bars properly can decrees body roll, and if you tweak thicker rear or front can affect over/under steer, meaning you can balance it to a neutral steer or at least close. The point I was going for was if you are lowering cause it looks good it'll cost more money to do it right then people realize. Yes it will look good, you might even get some ladies from it, but they won't ride with you again once they realize your ride feels like a coin operated bed at a cheap hotel. Why not learn about it so you can have it all?

EDIT: I've decided to post a few links on things discussed for anyone interested, here's the thread if anyone is interested. http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....45#post7514145

 

I'm running Suspension Techniques sport springs F/R w/ KYB GR-2's, Suspension technique F/R swaybars and they really work well together pretty nice ride handles dips, bumps and all the road irregularities very calmly....Taking corners like crazy...I'm wearing 225/45/17 BF Goodrich G Sports...springs f/r cost me about $150 from JC Whitney...here's a few pics, It's a 1.5" drop F/R.....

 

The prices mentioned here are all pretty common. You may even get a more killer deal through the org.

If your worried about cost and cant dish up $200 for springs I dont know if you should even be upgrading anything. Just save up and do it right.

+1

 

Dam this thread is back haha

 

My focus is on heated coils. haha.

 

Hahaha I like how my old thread got brought back up by some guy saying he's selling mines for $100

 

same thing i was thinking. heating coils is alot cheaper than eibach. hahaha

 

damn it just won't die!

 

that didnt help..

 

it disappears and continues to come back up out of the grave, everything that can be discussed has pretty much been discussed already. From cutting springs, to heating springs, to aftermarket lowering spring to custom lower springs with softer spring rate and other suspension components to gain the benefits of stiffer springs without the disadvantages. Nothing more can be gained from it, especially when new posts aren't giving any new information.

As for that didn't help, you are right, it didn't, but I didn't see a question in your post to help with, nor the past few. the past times it's been brought back from the dead have been not really relating to the OP's question but general statements. If there is in fact a suspension question that has not been answered already in this post a new post would be best. That's all!

 

Still wish I had some damn Chik-Fil-A

 

+1
lmao. a new chick-fil-a opened down the road for me. theres ppl camping out like dumbasses..
anyways. i feel like the 'ghetto' way of lowering (cutting, heating) is acceptable if thats all you got. **** hopefully ill have my sexima lowered by next week. but i need to find somebody with a torch first. anyways. most everybody here on the org flames the **** outta anybody that even brings that up. lol.
ive read around and heating springs seems pretty good. and i highly doubt anybody has ever died from a car wreck due to cut springs. lol

 

If they did I don't think they would be able to tell you what happened anyway!