so basically after reading all of your guys` comments my best bet is to go with h-tech springs with illuminas?? wtf is that? and on top of that being that my car has 102k miles my shocks are going to go out in no time? so im basically screwed over until i save up enough money to by coilovers... then ill have to get a camber kit?...awesome.........

 

No?? You simply get the h-tech springs and the illuminas as your struts/shocks. You will have a warantee on the struts because you are using the h-tech springs. It is probably going to be about the same or maybe a little less than coilovers, but it is just as good. Hope this helps clear it up.

 

Ok bud, let me begin by telling you that you are very correct in assessing the risks of negative camber, but with a <$300 budget, I dont think you'll be dropping low enough to have it become a relevant issue. What you should be more concerned with is suspension travel as Phenriyv1 has already mentioned. What you should do, IMHO, is pick up a moderate drop spring with a progressive spring rate such as Tein H-tech or Eibach Prokit and modify your Upper Strut Mounts so that that the piston bolt extends up into the engine bay at least 2/3 of your drop (search: Ben's Strut Mounts). This means if you drop it about 1.5" then your mounts should allow the piston nut on the shock to be 1" above its stock position (might require some crafty backyard engineering). What this does is allow you to drop with your stock shocks without subjecting them to constantly excessive internal pressures from overcompression. Hell, if you can get the upper strut mounts right in this sense you can even cut your stock springs () and just sleeve the bottom with some foam/polyurethane. This should be your focal point if money is so tight that you cannot afford to buy new shocks and springs. Good luck!

P.S. - Your BEST bet will be to purchase coilovers that offer ride height and camber adjustments settings a la D2 or Ksport. Just save up $800 or so.

P.P.S - Never buy shocks or springs used unless you know the seller on a personal basis so if they turn out to be utter crap (which is the case most of the time with used suspension parts) you can come to their house and blast them out of bed with a fire hose.

 

haha thanks for the information man ill surely look into that complex idea you had about the piston bolt thingy. but you mentioned cutting your stock springs, isnt that bad?

 

Search for Ben's Rear Strut Mounts and look at how they are designed. Do the research, reap the rewards. They allow your shock to be fully extended rather then crushed down by the lack of spring support. I didnt say cutting springs is a good idea, but if you can invest at most $100 into acquiring the strut mounts then you would be able to get away with cutting the springs without destroying your shocks, the way you would if you didnt facilitate the added travel. Hehe, in other words, I'm just trying to save your broke *** some money. Good luck!

 

haha thanks man for the heads up

 

Yes. From http://www.kyb.com/service/warranty.php

While your rears are on 1.5" and are still covered, the fronts are lower than 1.7" and are not warrantied. Of course, you can get around that because they don't really have a way to check it easily, but if the strut bottomed out a lot they can tell based on checking the seals and internal bumpers.

Unfortunately, there is really nothing that I could find that gives us the actual suspension travel on an A32, so it is difficult to say what percentage of the available travel is lost when yo ulower by a certain distance. On my B15 (Sentra) forums, someone calculated the total compression distance available and people use that when determining how much of that travel they are willing to give up. On my SpecV, I gave up 1.0" in the front and 0.7" in the rear. People on here have no idea how much compression travel is left after lowering- they just bottom out or they don't.

I hate to say this, but the B15 guys have advantage over us, with a huge layout with all of the spring heights, spring rates, etc., which allows people to compare the rates of aftermarket springs to the stockers, thus allowing them to pick a spring that has increased rates to compensate for the loss in travel. Over here, we are too concerned with the "look" of the drop rather than the actual performance of the drop.

 

It depends on what you mean by "better." For me, the difference was in the spring rates.

Also, on the H-techs, the front is relatively low versus the rear (.4" difference) whereas the Eibachs are closer (.2" difference). With the A32 having smaller wheel arches in the rear than in the front, 4th gens fall victim to sag-@$$. The H-techs compensate for this with less drop in the rear and more in the front.

 

I disagree. Springs don't really wear out. Struts- yes. But springs are pretty much a constant.

(yes,they CAN wear out, but it is really unlikely)