Hello. I'm getting KYB AGX and will probably run stock springs with them. I have two sets of stock springs. GXE and SE as you may have guessed by now. I'm actually considering the GXE springs for minimal noise and best ride quality. Please state your opinions here. Anyone know just how much stiffer are the SE springs vs. GXE?

Anton

 

Not much stiffer but they do make a difference. Well, Nissan says the suspension on the SE model is Sportier and stiffer. But I'm no expert!!

 

Hey...you have the springs, you tell us. So like get a board and put it on top the spring, sit on the board and bounce. Can you tell the difference. Now this is real seat of the pants testing. Ha!

 

Ethan, emax95, told me they were the same thing.

Can anyone clear up this situation?

 

im not sure if they are the same. they say that the i30 has different springs than the i30t (touring suspension) but I dont think they are different...

 

do what curt said...

 

Most likely, the touring suspension is in the struts, not the springs. Hopefully, someone can back me up on this.

 

GLE - GXE - I30 = Same Springs.
SE - I30T = Same Springs.

From what I understand the difference between the SE/I30T springs and the GLE/GXE/I30 springs are the rear ones are stiffer on the SE/I30t's.

 

SE's uses tokico struts!!!.. Not Tokico Blues.. Don't get it mixed up..
If you don't believe my.. Take your wheel off and check for yourself!!!!

 

i drive a SE-L and my neighbor has a GXE... imo, i think the SE springs are a tad stiffer than the GXE. other than that, they're pretty much the same springs... i'd go for SE springs and those shocks...

Grasshoppah

 

I just put the KYB AGX's on my 99 SE last week. This weekend I was at an SCCA autocross to test them out, and they're pretty awesome. (okay, that's out of my system... responding to the actual question

Before the KYBs, my car was a sweet, soft, cruisy ride on LA freeways, even with the SE springs. Definitely the best freeway ride of any of my friends' cars (including a '02 WRX and an '96 Altima GXE).

With the KYBs, my SE rides quite stiff and bumpy, maybe even a little too stiff and bumpy, even with the same stock SE springs, even with the KYBs set on this-is-all-the-softness-you-get-bucko setting. I would be very surprised if you found that switching to the softer GXE springs affected the comfort (as opposed to performance) characteristics of your car noticably. The KYBs are going to make your car so stiff that you won't even be able to tell what springs are under there until you go into a turn and see how much the body rolls.

So my advice is, since the springs aren't going to make a ride-quality difference, don't cheat yourself out of the weight transfer control that the SE springs are going to give you. Go for the extra turn, turn, turn! With the SE springs, the KYBs keep all 4 paws on the ground under greater Gs, so my cornering speeds have gone way up, and the car feels more stable. At the autocross this weekend I was the fastest Max there by 4 seconds. Ahhhh....

The good news is that the KYBs for the Max are way better than the KYB AGX's for my friend's Del Sol. The Maxima's longer wheelbase give it a more reasonable freeway ride even on full-stiff settings. Whereas in my friend's Honda, if you drive on full-stiff on a concrete freeway, you will probably be bleeding internally at the end of the day.

 

njmaxseltd said that AGXs actually improved the ride, but you, nmxse, disagree.

Are you sure about your observations?

 

DW

 

I've driven both my car (97 GXE) and theblue's (97 SE). I really didn't notice ANY difference in the suspension, and if anything I though that the SE suspension was floatier (if that makes sense). His car did have slightly more miles though, so maybe his struts were hurting.

 

Perhaps his cars struts were a bit soft before he put the AGX's in.

And in that case you would see a major difference in the ride.

The ride on my car is definately better then the stock setup with the AGX's. I'm running the front on #1 and the rear on #3. I think the car rides totally awsome. Nice and tight, but very smooth and quiet. Soaks up bumps like it's supposed to and the rear never skips out anymore. Like a true 4 door luxury sports car!

When I turned the front up to 2 and the rear up to 4, it's tight no doubt about that.

At 1 & 3 I can do 100MPH and still feel glued to the road, no floaty feel at all. And the steering is much tighter. The past few days I find myself creaping up to 80MPH on the highway and I don't even realize I'm going that fast. Overall I am very pleased with this setup.

I'm a bit over the top when it comes to my car. Brand new it rode great but after 30K it just didn't seem to have the same nice feel anymore. I went to H&R springs - a bit to sporty for my taste. (The look was excellent!) Like I said b4 the H&R's took the luxury out of my car. Back to stock springs with the best performance strut available and WOW - I am one happy Max owner again.

 

You should note that my '99 already has 55k miles on it, which might be a little more than the average '99 SE, and I tend to put quite a bit of wear on my suspension with the racing and all. So my stock SE shocks had gotten significantly softer than they were when they were new, making the car better for freeway cruising but worse for handling and high speed (100MPH+). I could imagine that the KYBs on full-soft would feel cushier than new SE shocks, but they're definitely stiffer and bumpier than my old, worn-like-an-old-couch shocks, even at soft settings.

And, needless to say, whatever complaints my friends may have about road trip bumpiness, the KYBs more than compensate in fantastic handling when they're on hard settings. So I'd still definitely recommend them to anyone who appreciates handling improvement.