okay so my dad got his drinkin buddy over (my mechanic) and we get to talkin about cars....so im like yeah im about to lower my shiznat....wow i swear it was like they were teaming up on me like sitting there saying stuff like "no matter what aftermarket struts/springs you get it will never be as good to all your other parts as factory parts because thats whats its made for" and other shiiat like "it will drive fine for about a year or so but then it will just wear and tear down parts like wheel bearings and ball joints blah blah blah" so im like trying to get outta there fast so i say i gotta do homework...so i run to my room and now im posting here....what i wanna know is can you guys point out that lowering your car on, oh lets say kyb agx/tein s tech or iluminas/s tech springs is a pretty good setup and will not harm other parts... (im going to show my dad this to shut him up)

p.s. the left pic in the sig is photoshopped....i want it to look like that tho

 

I've been riding on Illuminas and H&Rs for a year. No suspension problems yet. But that won't help your case since they're claiming after a year, the car will turn to $hit.

 

umm 4 years and 75k miles on kyb agx and h&r's, no problems yet.

 

LOLOL my dad is like that. I wanted to get tint's and he goes if the car would of needed tints Nissan would of put them. "The car is fine." lolol.

 

a year and three months now with S.tech/GR2's and nothing has gone wrong yet

and i've hit some wicked potholes to where i thought my steering column was going to just fall into my lap

i mean.....if you put s.tech's on your car don't expect it to ride close to what you have now

 

tein basics will solve all your problems

 

s techs blow and i would tell your father that he is right. the only springs that are better than stock are H&R, Eibach, and possibly H Tech.

 

im not saying hes wrong but the car was made to ride at a certain hight, im all for lowering it but making it ride at a different angle would cause some damage. might nt be serious enough to out weigh the benifits of lowering such as better control and handling

 

there rite... and anyone that desont think there wearing out there car faster needs to wake up.. all these people that say they have no problems, ask if there friggin car rattles.. if it dont, wait a while.. it will. the best advice i can give you is to at least until a sfc kit comes out and do that first. then lower..

 

whats a sfc kit?

 

Sub Frame Connector. Basically Structural tubing that you attach to the bottom of the car....Runs from the front to the back I believe...Makes the car's body and frame much more rigid, improving suspension performance. If you know what a strut tower brace does, this is similar, just in a different area.

 

S-Techs are pretty low and leave you with little to no suspension travel if their installed correctly. The ride suffers quite a bit but taking a nice sharp turn might be fun for you and the lower stance looks good.

But in reality your dad is right. Lowering isn't the "best" thing you can do to a car. Sure it works and accomplishes what it's supposed to do. Bottom line is drivability wise and thats where the factory set up comes up first. By drivability I mean everyday streets with large bumps and such that most cars simply drive over at or above the posted speed limit. I know dam* well I can't do that even with my H&R set up. You can and will reach the limits of suspension on a lowered set up much sooner then with the factory set up. This causes what might be considered a drivability handycap.

We think if it as fun. But it looks good.

 

I was lowered for 4 years and then went back to OEM.

I like it better this way.

 

Time to sell those wheels too Ben. You'll get an even softer ride with the stock 15's back on. Do you want mine?

 

It's not all OEM Just OEM springs now...

 

damn i want to lower it soo bad...but i dont want my suspension going out and then having daddy rub it in my face....hmmm maybe i'll just roll with fat people in my car

 

Your poppa is right. Otherwise, Nissan engineers would have H&R's w/illuminas standard on our cars.

 

Your photoshopped pic looks like a 3 or 4 inch drop. Even if you could find strong enough struts to handle that kind of drop, the ride will probably feel like a skateboard.

I have eibachs (mild 1.5" drop) with KYB AGX struts and I get suspension squeeks and rattles all over the place, not to mention I will be needing new strut mounts and dust boots in the very near future. But in my eyes, the pros still outweigh the cons.

 

Dammit, I wanted to lower my car, but living on a rough dirt road would surely ruin everything. Does all this also go for cars that are only lowered a little bit? I just want to close the wheel gap a bit if I get 18 inch rims, then raise it again for the winter time...

 

well it also depends how fast you drive too, when i first got my suspension i would hit pot holes hard and put ******* on my tires..

i mean it could be good if you respect it and dont abuse the car

 

Your best bet might be to just let it go. To try and prove your point would look like your friends are disagreeing with his expert. You will have the same lecture again, but it might not be so friendly. You are 18 and will be supporting yourself soon, then do as you wish. Just remember, some people are automotive purists and feel that all cars come from the factory the way they should be. You cannot change these people. I have a friend that is bothered by the fact that I don't like badges on my car.
The truth is that all cars are created as a compromise that will help sell more of them.
If you must continue the debate, sports cars are manufactured with lower, stiffer suspensions, and they seem to work well so just pick one. Nissan engineers seem to feel that the newer Maximas should have less fender gap. BWM seems to appreciate a good firm suspension, and Scion seems to know the people like to customize their ride. Just look at their option list.

 

Nissan Engineers were designing the Maxima to ride smoothly and have marginal handling. That is apparent at every level of the suspension design. The struts, springs, bushngs, and even the frame itself are all very soft. The MacPherson struts on the front, and the multi-link beam at the rear are both compromises settling much more for comfort, weight, and especially cost. The stock suspension was designed for those people who wanted a grocery getter with a little bit of pickup. When it comes to suspension parts, on Maximas especially, saying Nissan designed it therefore stock parts are better holds little water. There are cases unless you are going all out race car that you shoudl be careful when modififying the rear beam and at least considering what Nissan engineers were thinking. When you have the beam itself or other vital parts too stiff it can cause binding and twitchy handling.

There is such a thing as lowering your car too much. It will wear things out faster and sometimes handle worse than if it was not as low. The more recommended springs i.e. H&R, Eibach, etc. will not do this or at least not wear things out terribly fast. But wearing out some parts is something to consider at least when lowering and how you can upgrade to things that are better suited to the new suspension dynamics.

 

as long as the pro's outweigh the cons then i can rub that in his grill

 

its not like hes NOT going to let me do it, its my car he doesnt care what i do to it, but i guese the old man was just trying to give me some advice about it so i gotta appreciate him for that

 

if you do decide to say the hell with it and lower, the softest riding combo is h&r springs and illumina struts

 

KSports?????????

My Dad drove my car yesterday, I sat in the passenger seat.

Dad: "I DON'T like your tints, because I can't see out of them. I DON'T like how you rub on everything now since your lowered. I do like the handeling the suspension has!"

So far I'm loving my KSports. If you want a drop like your Signature get some Coilovers.

 

Tell him you're improving the SAFETY of your vehicle with more responsive handling. As far as long term affects? Only lowered car I've ever had was a sunfire and it got totalled a couple months after I lowered it. What I can say is that it went from handling worse than my GF's max, to out-corning it by a longshot. If there was something in the road that I didn't see til the last second on the highway I wouldn't even worry about whether or not I'd lose stability avoiding it. The car handled so wonderfully predictible. Also even being FWD it would oversteer if I let it but was pretty neutral overall.

Now what I'm wondering is what parts exactly does he think are going to wear out so soon? What moves on your car... the rear end is so simple let's not even talk about it. On the front: Tie-rods, ball-joints, cv-axles, and struts/springs. Well let's see I'm pretty sure that last one will be designed to move while lowered! As far as the others go I really have a hard time seeing how something that is designed to function uninhibited through a range of motion is going to matter what range of motion it's operating in most of the time. Your strut mounts? Now that's a different story... you really should replace them when you lower it. Other than that, reasonably lowering your car doesn't change anything except you'll bottom out more in bad driveways and you have to be careful with speedbumps.

EDIT: Oh and as far as lowered cars creaking and rattling... well again only car I ever had lowered was a sunfire and I think if those don't creak and rattle they don't let them out of the factory. Other than that lowered cars are notorious for killing strut top mounts which make a lumber in the trunk kind of sound when you hit a bump, but that's why I said to replace it! KYB strut mounts at tirerack.com, they're like $50 or something. Interior squeek? Pull the plastic part off and put some 2-sided foam mounting tape on where it rubs, tada.

 

when u slam it like that...you're gonna ruin a lot of things...ur tie rods (i think thats the correct name for the part i'm talking about), but its part that is suppose to sit on an angle...when you lower it...it stretches it out like your arm...imagine your arm being sideways all the time n not being able to put them down. that is whats going to happen when you slam it...my car is pretty low...but to the poitn where i don't htink it'll hurt my car as much....trust me...my car is pretty damn low..check my sig below....but ur dad is correct....after market coilover systems will need to be re-valved after a certain period of time...n since you want to lower it that much, your bound to scrape since i seem to scrape everything...but don't argue with them but simply agree n say..yea..i know ur right..but i'm still gonna do it cause its cool..heh

 

yes lowering does put extra stress on other parts, just because the suspension is stiffer,thats the price you pay for good handling.

and if you want to slam like me you will run into scraping and also axle problems, but i dont care cause the way i drive axels crap out anyways....


You gotta set up the pros and cons and see what you think.

 

shouldve sued Honda after that crash.

 

What kind of axel problems did you see?