I have a 97 maxima, I just put in Intrax lowering springs and now when I drive on the highway or on a rough road I hear a loud rattling on all four corners. It sounds like the springs are bouncing around loose (as in no compression on the springs) but when you look at them they are as compact as could be. What is going on? Any ideas??
thanks..

 

Odd, when I had my Intrax's installed, I never had that problem. Actually, other than the rough ride, the Intrax's never gave me problems. You sure they were installed right?

 

Pretty sure the were installed right, not to much to it. I dont have a rough ride. mine rides almost exactly the same.

 

Did you replace your shocks as well? If you have the originals, they can retain memory and could need to be replaced.

 

they dont have shocks. they have struts all the way around. If that matters?

 

Yes struts! What I'm saying is it's likely if you had more than 30k on your car before you had them installed, the strut will retain memory from the stock spring! They may look well seated but they can rattle around.

 

Well I will look into that.thanks for the help!

 

Look under your fender well and look at the top of each spring and the bottom part do you see a black rubber thing that wraps around the top and the bottom of the spring (note not the complete spring just top and bottom of it). If you dont then whomever installed the springs did not put it on that helps keep the springs from making noise. Check that and see. I have intrax on my car and dont have a problem at all. I hope this helps

[img]C:\My Documents\My Pictures\001.jpg[/img]

 

Did you check to see that all springs were seated correctly and torqued to spec? Fronts should be torqued to 50 ft/lbs. and the rears should be hand tightened. I forgot to tighten one of the fronts with Intrax and it rattled every time i hit a small imperfection...

 

are these what they call spring isolators? or spring caps? how do you put these on? do you have to remove the whole assembly? thanks for the help

 

what are these black rubber things called? spring caps?

 

I also have a sound comming from my Intrax/Tokico set up. I gave it some time - thinking they were settling. They continue to do it. It is so noticable I think it makes my car sound cheap. Mine only rattle up front and when you think they wouldn't. I can hit a meteor impact crater and nothing, but I can run over the small rumble strips in the road and hear them. I have been told to check the bump stops. They are 'supposed' to be cut to accomodate the new springs. I am going to check with my install shop and I will repost then.
BTW that black boot according to the Nissan manual is called a bound bumper (maybe that's considered tbe bump stop by most people) and on the 95's there were two types used. I think the boot portion is to keep debris off the shiny valve and, looking at the picture, there might be another part that might be a 'bump stop' of sorts. Also, yes, you have to remove the whole assembly and disassemble it to remove this boot.
I need this fixed as well. It's embarrassing to me. It sticks great, but sounds cheesy. What to do?

 

I put my Intrax on 2 months ago, they just killed the rear shocks. I put in KYB GR2's in the rear, the threads on the top of the new shock don't go all the way down like the stock threads, so when I tightened them all the way, they were still loose(because or the drop). So I went to home depot, got 10 washers(5 for each side), put them in between the nut and the top plate, no more ratteling. Hope this helps.

 

Sounds like a plan. I will check that on mine. Thanks for the tip.

 

Listen I dont know what they are called. They slide right into the spring on the top side and on the bottom side of the spring. They prevent the springs from making direct contact with each other there for not making any noise and I hope is that and not your shocks. here Ill show you a pic of what it suppose to look like

[img]C:\My Documents\My Pictures\004.jpg[/img]

 

sorry about the crazy pic is only i was trying to scan one not two it is like a piece of thin hose cut in half and slides right into the spring. I was only trying to help

 

can you try and repost the spring picture? i'd appreciate it...it could help me solve my problem. if you can't...could you email it to me?

 

Ahhh, now I think I get what you're saying. The cap is like an "end cap," like has been stated, and it goes at each end of the coil to seperate the coiled spring from the strut's mating surface (the basket that the spring sits in). IS THIS RIGHT?
I don't think that would be the culprit. Isn't the coil wound in such a way that there is a little divot in the struts to accept the ends of the coils? And if thats the case, then wouldn't you have a whole circle of the coil resting on the struts mating surface/basket? Assuming I don't have these caps (and I don't) do you think grease or some other lubricant would maybe quiet it? The stock springs/struts don't have these caps do they? I think my problem is probably the bump stops.
I'm going to leave all this typed, but now I'm thinking maybe the very end of the coil IS hitting the edge of the struts basket, where the divot tapers back up to the basket. I'm gonna try the grease thing and if it works then I am going to check into those rubber end caps. Again thanks everyone.