Well, being a "newbie" on this board, here is my one entitled stupid post.

I'm debating on getting either a Sway bar or new struts. Currently, I am on the stock struts w/118K miles on them and H&R Springs...with considerably less miles on them.

What I want is better overall handling. Would I be better off and replace the old but seemingly fine struts, or should I replace the struts later and get the sway bar now? Oh, the humanity......

What do you think I should do...and why?

 

I believe people who have gotten Tokios claim that the car becomes like new, as in, it feels like a better Maxima, as for sway bars, I'm not too sure as of how much improvement they will do for a car, so I can't answer that portion of ur question

 

get a sway bar. the improvement is amazing and you will notice it the second you drive the car after installing it.

 

i have the front and rear sway bar and the front strut bar, and things are AWESOME, i cant say i need any more improvement... the rear anti sway bar was the best thing for that car tho, totaly changed how the car worked.

i dont think the rear strut is really needed... does anyone recomend it? since i will likly be doing alot of autocross i might just go ahead with it and use a cheap one, easy to install i hear... but with the mods i have i dont think it will change much of anything (from what i hear), unless onyone objects to that.

 

I Dsay Shocks/struts Imo

 

How about some patience...a little bit more of savings and you get both since they are so closely related. Specially if you are one of those that enjoy and have fun driving a Max. After both... THEN IT DEFINITELY WILL BE LIKE A TOTALLY DIFFERENT CAR !!... just my $0.02

 

patience is...nice. But why put off tomorrow what you can do today? I do think after some responses here and talking to a few friends that I will go with the Sway Bar. 2 resaons: I can do a sway bar and a tranny cooler right now and still have money left over for beer (always good) Also, after looking at finances, I would have to go with the KYB GR2 right now instead of the Illuminas I had been looking at. The KYB's are good, but why not go with the best?

So thanks for the opinions and all. Sway Bar now, Illuminas later...probably in a month or two.

 

I think from what people have said in the past is that a RSB is good if you have stock suspension and you can notice a huge improvement, but if you have an aftermarket lowered suspension then the RSB improvement isn't as great

http://maxmods.dyndns.org/index.php?MaximaSwayBars
"With the Multilink Beam Suspension on the 4th and 5th generation Maximas there is a stock Rear Sway bar inside the beam. On stock springs many have claimed much better handling with little effect on ride quality. However with aftermarket springs and struts, an aftermarket rear sway bar can cause the suspension to bind. This can create snap oversteer in turns and a rougher ride over uneven surfaces. It will flatten the car out, but it will also be unpredictable at the edge of traction. Some like the oversteer the bar can create, but an unprepared or unexperienced driver might end up in a ditch. Many have had no problems controlling their cars, but those who have taken it off say that the car is much more controllable without a RSB."

If your suspension is fine then you might as well buy the RSB now and then later on if you decide to leave the RSB off after you buy the struts, you can alwys sell the RSB

 

save the money that your gonna spend on the tranny cooler cause you don't need it stock goes along way. buy the sway bar first cause its cheaper and you'll cut dow the rear body roll that you have now and later you can get the illuminas to add to the icing on the cake.and then the stage two low tie bar and subframe connectors and

 

dude you have aftermarket springs on stock struts?...why not just get aftermarket struts in there before the car starts sagging from blown stock struts?

 

i would also second the struts/shocks over the RSB. expecially since you already have springs on there. the RBS, IMHO, is more for high performance and skilled driving, otherwise, it can make the rear very unstable and too much to handle for some drivers. however, the strut/spring combination can be a huge benefit to any driver and will feel great.

 

I know I'm probably running on borrowed time, but it has been over a year and the stockers are still running strong.

I found a pretty good deal on some KYB GR2's...non adjustable, but how often would I change settings on Illuminas anyway....

Ugh....

 

I would get the most expensive part(s) out of the way first, that way you'll never have to worry about them. You can find a pair of tokiko's pretty cheap, at least compared to what I want to get (coilovers). Then I'd get the sway bar, then maybe a front strut tower brace