anyone know how difficult it is to just put springs in? im thinking about getting some tein springs that will give me a 2.2f 1.8r drop but i dont know if i can trust them/how difficult it is to install them, my friend has a lift that im planning on using, and im sure he has all the tools i would need.

Very nice, looks great!!!

yeah how do these coilovers compare to hr/illuminas. pros and cons. Im not really heavily into performance.

ahhh...the fun part of the coilover install.... the adjusting and testing...and adjusting and testing.....and adjusting and testing....

wow nice one man, keep it up.

See Mr. D, I told you - just buy them and you'll love them. Now you need to crank up the stereo just to drown out the SCREAMS of JOY. Remember what body roll was when you took corners? Write it down now because I already forgot. Cheers to you.

even after i raised my car, i was having rubbing issues, but i got my alignment done today, and they dont rub, i think my alignment was just that jacked up.

how are yours working out man?
hahahah yea seriously, i took the entrance onto my road off the highway today at about the same speed as i usually do, but oh my goodness, i felt like i was glued to the ground! it feels amazing!!!

Guys after i got my alignment done my car feels great!

Nothing like changing something, getting to an event, then finding out you've got problems. Splash guards scraping, fenders rubbing on sidewalls, splash shields being eaten away, etc. Not to mention corner balancing gone to hekk.

you got the shocks and the coils for 740$ us shipped?? that a great deal......I don't know much about KS coilovers??! I guess that the shocks are adjustable (from what I read) ???

Nice stance, how does it ride?

Drop Looks great, good to hear the ride is amazing. Now all you need are some bigger wheels. That should complete the look and performance

Man... still not installed yet. Went to install them, then so conveniently one of my wheel lock lug nuts decided to break right at the head where the "key" is inserted. so... I spent the next few hours trying to drill that stupid lug off. I also broke the key in the process, so now my other wheels are stuck on the car until the replacement key comes in. Had to take the car to a mechanic so he can cut the stud off the car..my drilling made it worse... did as 'little' damage to my wheel as he could but.....
So im still galluping down the road with my dead JICs.


lol ... my driveway eats at my mud guards every day.

simply amazing, wish I had enough save up.

Would you say that these coilovers are able to dial in track performance as well as the best of them, on the weekend in question? (auto/x and track, not dragstrip)
Thanks Mr.Duck

it sounded like i read that you went from stock to the K-Sports, so you probably can't compare it to any spring/strut combination. but the price is only slightly higher for the coilovers than the Illumina/S-Tech combo, so it is probably worth it, but do coilovers tend to seize up in the winter/snowy wet months? i will be in montana next year. it this a problem that occurs, even if it happens seldomly?

i wish that i had those sitting in my garage tonight so i could put them in on my day off tomorrow! oh well...

anyone know how these compare to a spring/strut combo like H&R/ tokico..im trying to find a softer ride but better handling and a slight drop.. Nyc streets suck..

hey mr. duck, I am about to put the coilovers on my car tommorow and I have a few quick questions for you. First did you use a spring compressor to take off the stock suspensiion and around how many thread turns on each coilover do you have the drop set to? BTW the drop looks good man, just want to elminate as many variables as possible.

No you won't need a spring compressor at all because the stock springs/strut comes off as one assembly. Same thing as the coilovers.

So from what your saying I guessing you preferr the K.Sports over your
current JIC's? Are the JIC's not any good? Im thinking bout getting me some
K.Sports cause I have the $ but I know the GD ends in 5 days buy Im
wondering if maybe I should save my money to pay bills and later get the JIC's.
If you could pick between the JIC's and Ksports wich would choose? Please
Help Im running outa time to make my final desicion.

MR. DUCK:
I love your drop man, just wonderig if you've had any noise or any other issues
with the K.Sports yet?

I installed the coilovers a week ago...i love the drop and the control in corners. The only thing is that the ride is a bit stiff, I am really feeling all the roads imperfections. I have a 2 finger gap in the front and a 3 finger in the rear and I have the dampening turned 1 turn away from the max softness on all of them. I was wondering if I decreased the spring compression by lowering the spring locking o ring, will that soften up the ride....or if anyone else has any other suggestions to help smoothen the ride. Thanks

To the guys asking about comparisons with shocks/struts:

NOTHING will be as smooth as stock/H-Tech/H&R springs with Tokico Illumina or Koni Yellow shocks. Period. Konis and Illuminas are freakin' great shocks that will keep everything under control, and those springs are soft enough that they'll soak up the bumps with ease. If you're coming from one of these setups and going to coilovers, you'll find the coilovers harder over bumps.

That said, the coilovers will virtually ELIMINATE bouncing, wallowing, and rolling, and they give you astronomical levels of grip that you just cannot get with any other setup. This makes the car give you a feeling of control that, combined with the utter lack of bounce after a bump, makes many people think that the ride with good coilovers is better than with any spring-and-strut combo -- even better than stock.

And if you're coming from any lesser spring-and-shock combo -- for example, any lowering springs with Tokico Blue, KYB GR-2, or KYB AGX -- you'll almost definitely prefer the ride with K-Sports. Tokico Blues or GR-2s combined with lowering springs make the ride bouncy -- when you go over a bump, the initial shock will be soft but the car will continue to bounce for a bit afterward. AGXs are just harsh in general. K-Sports make the initial shock a little harder, but they won't bounce (if you set the damping right ), and the car will handle much, much better.

If you have Ground Controls, throw them out right now. If you have $740, or can scrape it together by any means within the next 47 hours, do it.


To anyone trying to choose between these and JICs:

Choose these. Half the price (until 48 hours from now!), same performance (if not better). They don't have all the adjustability, but seriously... do you really actually need more than ride height, damping, and preload?


To anyone trying to choose between these and Illuminas/Tein S-Tech springs:

Choose these. They'll give you about the same ride with much better handling, they're much more adjustable, and they won't destroy your suspension travel when you drop the car 2".


Spaniard, for the track you can add some preload and crank the damping up.


Did I miss anything?

Hey, I thought I should let everyone know- theres a good thread to subscribe to in addition to this one. "Ksport coilover talk"
Theres some knowledgeable folk contributing to q and a there.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=406790

Great post, really good info!
Thanks for the specific track bit too- About that, to add preload, would it take any more than a jack/jackstand/wrench and some leverage? Im such a noob!

That should do it.

How are they compare to the Tein Basic coilovers? They run about the same price.

It'll be hard to find someone who's ridden on both and can give you a good, direct comparison. I can tell you, however, that there's only thing to recommend the Teins: once you install them, you're done, and you know it's gonna work the way it should. The flip side to that is that you can't adjust the way they're set up, so however it comes out of the box, that's what you're stuck with. You can adjust the height but that's it.

The K-Sports are a newer product that doesn't have much of a track record, but they're getting rave reviews for handling and comfort. Plus, they allow you to adjust damping and preload as well as ride height, so you can tune them much more than the Teins. I've also heard that the ride is just as good as with Eibachs/Illuminas (if not even better), which is saying a lot because that's one of the best setups for handling and comfort you can get.

If you have $740 today, get the K-Sports.

Quick Question for everyone...
If yall had the money for the JIC's would you get em?
I think I would, infact Im gonna save up for em... Like Teins JIC
has a good name...Im sure Ksports and D2's coil overs are good
damper systems for the price, but I strongly beleive in that one
saying "you get what you pay for"... Ive made the mistake of buying
a certain part just to save money and it ends up beimg more of a
new problem than an upgrade... Just curiouse to see how yall felt..
I here everyone say the JIC's are more expensive and was just
wondering if thats the only reason you wouldnt get them..

The JICs (I'm assuming you're talking about the FLT-A2) are expensive because.... they're really lightweight and solidly made? Honestly I'm not sure. Some people are saying they have separate adjustment for rebound and compression damping, but other sources say they don't.... To be honest, after taking another look at the feature set, which isn't any better than the K-Sports', there's really nothing to recommend them any more. Both sets have adjustable damping, ride height, preload, and front camber. And there's nothing magic (no pun intended) to the JICs' build quality. They do break, wear out, and make noises. You just rarely ever hear about it because they're always used by people who race or autocross their cars, and those people don't make a big deal of things breaking (it's to be expected if you flog your car).

One thing I have been hearing pretty consistently is that the JICs ride rough, and when people do have problems with them, customer support isn't very good. On the other hand, people have been saying that the K-Sports, which have the same default spring rates as the JICs on our cars, ride really nicely, and that K-Sport's customer service is freakin' awesome.

I have a feeling that JIC's rep comes from the fact that they've been around for a long time and they very clearly don't suck. Personally, I'm just not convinced that there's any more to it than that.

Basically, unless you're constantly at a track (and I mean a real track, not a drag strip) the JICs are nothing terribly special. Add to that the fact that the K-Sports cost less than half the JICs -- not just a little less, mind you... less than half -- and it seems like a slam-dunk for the K-Sports.

So far the K-sports have a better ride then the JICs. however I havent tried the stiffest setting on the K-sports yet. (need to fix something else on the car so not really driving it)

I never was completely satisfied with the JICs when I first got them. I felt the ride of my previous set of Cattman gen 2s (when they were NEW - first 30 days) had better dampening and rebound then the JICs. I had the car slammed either full stiff or 1-2 steps lower and it felt as if I could point the car anywhere and not worry about bumps/oversteer understeer. It damped/rebounded perfectly etc... Till 2 months or so later when the AGXs died from being slammed.

The JICs, had this annoying initial bounce when going over bumps at speed... (actually its the - "humps" - small inclines that spread maybe a foot or so) that felt the same no matter what setting it was set to. It seems the **** only adjusted the damping/rebound following that initial bounce as it either became stiff right away or gradually depending on the setting. I didnt have too much preload either. I actually followed JICs directions given to y2kevse back in the day.

So far the K-sports doesnt seem to have that annoying bounce but I will know for sure when I try the stiff setting.

As for quality etc.... After a year and a half or so...my front passenger JIC strut decided to start loosening the bottom height adjusting perch on its own after about 20 miles of driving after it was just tightened- very dangerous as it makes that wheel wobble as if you have a completely dead tie rod end. I cleaned it out etc thinkin it was dirt and grime.... same problem. I did contact JIC and got a response maybe a week later telling me to do the same but I already decided to get the Ksports and not revalve em.

As for weight - Ksports didnt feel any heavier or lighter then the JICs, but I wasnt really paying attention to weight.

They appear to have all the same adjustments as JICs, the Ksports have one addtional perch (the black one) on the bottom of the front struts that the JICs dont have. Ksports also have those rubber inserts. JICs doesnt have these either.

Also the Gen 2s/AGX had the front dampening adjustment **** on the top and the rears on the outside of the shock. The JICs reversed this. They had the **** on the bottom of the strut which wasnt that easy to adjust on the fly. (had to drive one wheel on a curb or jack the car up and feel around with the little allen key under the wheel above the axle).

Ksports win here as I'm now back under the hood for adjustment. Much easier and it includes 4 allen keys that you can leave in each shock (or take out as u wish). JICs only had two keys which cant be left in the front of course.

Keep in mind JIC could have made changes since I bought my set 1 1/2 - 2 years ago.

i hear jics rust bad

MAXIN, Just wanted to know from someone who lives in NY how they handle the roads, do you drive to the city at all? what do they feel like in terms of comfort on these roads?

mr duck, in the pics u posted, do u have more room to go down or you are dropped all the way to the max?

Mr Duck, Just stoppin by to see if everythings still good and ask how long its
been since you installed em... I might put in my order, Im just double checking
to see if all is still riding smooth with no problems.. Thanks.

There is tons of room left to go much lower.