haysdb

Question: Which is lower to the ground, a BMW 325Ci Sport or a 1998 Maxima SE?

Answer: The Maxima, by about 1/2"

That is, I measured the lowest point on each car, and the lowest point on a bone stock Maxima is 1/2" closer to the pavement than the lowest part on the BMW.

That is, if I lower the Maxima by 1.2", with a set of Eibach Pro-Kit springs, the Maxima will "hang down" almost 2" more than the BMW.

Specifically, what "hangs down" on the Maxima are several points on the exhaust system. If I lower my Maxima, and do nothing to move the exhaust system out of harms way, I fear I will mash, bash, and trash my factory exhaust system.

Questions: Are modestly lowered Maxima's overly subject to scrapping, especially when backing out of driveways, or over speed bumps? Do the exhaust systems of all 4th gen Maxima's droop below the rest of the underbody? Are aftermarket exhausts engineered to fit more tightly than the factory system?

The underside of the BMW is obviously more precisely engineered than that of the Maxima. The Maxima has various items that protrude as much as 1/2" or more, such as bolts, bends in the exhaust system, and the catalytic converter.

Measuring the wheel wells and the front and rear valances, lowering the Maxima by 1.2" seemed like an obvious thing to do, but looking under the car, and seeing all that stuff hanging down, I am no longer so sure.

XoPtOn

iTrader: (2)

i have the eibach springs and trust me its not that low, only thing i ever scrapped was my front bumper which happens if you go up a steep driveway real fast, going through speed bumps is no differenlty then stock springs, eibach and h&r springs are the springs that dont go to low.

haysdb

The car being mod'ed is my wife's car, which my 16 year old son now drives sometimes. I have wanted to "fix" certain things about the car since I bought it in 1998, so am now excited about doing a few things, but I need to be careful since it's still my wife's car. :-)

Viscous

I have H&R's, which have the most modest drop of only 1.4" front and 1.3" rear. Living in the bay area, CA, for some reason just about every parking lot has huge speedbumps, and I've scraped several speedbumps by just going slowly over them. I thought that the modest drop wouldn't warrant the scrapes but I was wrong. It's not really a big deal though, just dont go plowing over all the bumps and there should be no damage to the underbody/exhaust.

XoPtOn

iTrader: (2)

lol thats weird i never scraped my front going over a bump, if you get springs your going to need to get shocks and struts, h&r and eibachs are your only choice if you dont want a big drop

happyricefob

iTrader: (7)

weird... i thought maxspeeds are lower than H&Rs. but i haven't scrape anything over bumps and sometimes. IMO maxspeed is not low enough...i'm getting sprint springs soon

haysdb

According to the info I have found, and the pictures I have seen (including the one above), Maxspeeds provide the LEAST amount of drop.

http://www.innerbean.com/housecor/sp..._decision.html

http://www.turbofedmax.com/performan...edsideshot.jpg

z32drifter

I have Tein S-Techs 2.25 front and 1.80 rear drop and the only thing I scrape is the front mud gaurds..... sometimes over short steep speedbumps.... and add that my tires are shorter also....since I have 225/50's on