i just bought my H&R Springs and just wondering what would be the best shocks/struts with it?

 

it depends i ahve 5 way adjustable illuminas and love them .....a little expensive but worth the fact that u can change the stiffness and softness settings

-J

 

Koni's and Illuminas offer the best performance. KYB-GR2's and Tociko Blues are other popular (and less expensive) choices. After doing alot of reading I agree with 2k2whitemaxi - I'm planning on the Illuminas. The adjustability alone is well worth the add'l $ IMHO. The above options can be found cheap on Ebay.

 

I agree. I just put the Illuminas on my 2001 SE along with H&R springs. I was going to get the GR-2s but I went with the Illuminas because I wanted to be able to adjust the stiffness. I was afraid that if I bought the GR-2s and I didn't like the ride, I would be stuck with them.

 

My recommendation is for you to think about this based upon the kind of ride you want. If you are looking for the highest performance regardless of cost, then you have three options: KYB AGX by Cattman, Tokico Illumina and Koni Yellow. All three are adjustables but the Konis are harder to adjust. For less expensive options, you could consider the Tokico Blue or the KYB GR2. The OEM strut is very similar to the Tokico Blue. Each of these struts will provide a different "feel" and the car will behave differently with each.

My personal experience on the Maxima is limited to the OEM strut, the Tokico Blue strut and also the KYB GR2 strut. Based upon my experience I can draw certain reasonable conclusions. The key to the operation and feel of any strut are two things, compression damping rate and rebound damping rate. When a strut is adjustable, it may sometimes adjust both the compression and the rebound rates concurrently or only one or the other.

The Tokico OEM and Tokico Blue struts tend to have a relatively high compression rate coupled with a moderate to low rebound rate. This can give a car a "sporty feel" but it is not so good over bumps as the suspension becomes very firm over large bumps and/or potholes. When I ran Tokico Illuminas on my Honda, the same thing was true. Changing the settings only alterred the rebound damping but not the compression damping. This meant that the car always hit bumps and pot holes very hard with very little suspension compliance. Personally I did not like that too much. Even strut settings around 1 or 2 were more than enough to control the rebound.

The KYB GR2 that I am now running on my Maxima is really an OEM strut replacement component, very much like the Tokico Blues. The difference is that the GR2 is firmer than the Blue over small bumps or flat roads, but has more compression compliance over big bumps. This gives the car more road feel over all but also tends to make for a more comfortable ride when on very bumpy roads. The problem with the GR2 is that their rebound damping is really not good enough for a high spring rate, such as H&R or Eibach springs . . . My car on H&R and GR2 is great about 85% of the time, but the other 15% of the time, the suspension is at or beyond its limits because the strut is not controlling the spring movement well enough. Although I've never ridden on them, I think the KYB AGX by Cattman could be an excellent choice since it has adjustable rebound damping and the compression damping may be slightly higher than the GR2. Also, from what I can tell, the Koni struts adjust both compression and rebound at the same time. So long as Koni got the ratio right between the compression and rebound, this could really be an excellent strut as well.

In the end, if you want a cheap strut, I would recommend the GR2. If you want a very good high performance strut and you don't care about performance over large bumps and potholes, the AGX, Illumina or Koni will be fine. If you do care about performance over bumps and potholes, then I would recommend either the AGX or the Koni . . .

Whatever you decide, please post your impressions and results. Good luck!

 

Wow, excellent post! Alot of great info. Can you clarify your experience with the Illuminas? You mentioned that the Illuminas only adjusted rebound damping, However, according to Tokico's website the Illuminas adjust compression and rebound concurrently:

"Internally, the Illumina uses TOKICO’s sophisticated multi-stage variable-aperture piston and valve system combined with a 5-position bypass shutter-valve. This adjustment system makes it possible to adjust both rebound and compression damping simultaneously."

Did you have an older version, or did you just find that compression isn't really effected by adjusting the strut?

 

For a luxury/sporty feel that would team up nice with tein h. tech would the blues or gr-2's be better?

 

Not much $$$ = Tokico Blues

Enough $$$ = Tokico Illuminas

 

I think I may have made an incorrect statement in my last post. It appears that I was wrong in stating that the compression damping was not adjustable on the Illuminas. What I do remember about the Illuminas, when I ran them in my Civic was that, no matter what setting I used, the struts always seemed to be very stiff. Thinking more about it, I think they did overly firm when the setting was turned all the way up . . . For my taste they were always too stiff over big bumps and pot holes, even on the lowest setting. Somehow, I wanted the strut to communicate more road feel on smooth roads when set to the lower adjustments. It could be that these struts are valved differently on the Maxima - I haven't ridden in a Max with them, so I'm not sure. In general I don't really care for the "feel" of Tokico shocks. I didn't like the Blues when I had them and I also did not like the OEM Tokico struts that came with the car. Its probably more of a personal preference thing than anything else . . .

 

what springs were you using with the illuminas on your civic?

 

you should have included your thread http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=280224 he made a great review of his suspension setup and i bet abs's experience might have had more to do with the springs

 

I have the KYB GR-2/H&R combination..the ride quality is pretty smooth and it definetely handles better then stock, but the improvement wasn't as dramatic as I thought it would be.

 

Could you tell me the name of the company on ebay that is selling them cheap. I've been on ebay looking but havn't found the illuminas on there for maxima.

 

i got the KYB AGX, the only thing available before the illuminas were out. I had to get 4th gen springs to fit the perch. 4th gen springs are lower btw

I would recommend any adjustable strut. But the illumias weighing in at 500 dolalrs...springs are 700..youre close to JICS at about 1000-1100...

 

here you go... Tokico Illumina on EBAY

 

There is no question that springs I was using WERE stiff on that Civic. I had some Ground Control adjustable height coil-overs with Eibach non-progressive springs. On the other hand, there was a noticable change in firmness from one strut setting to the next and it was nearly impossible to get the struts to feel firm on smooth roads and they were always too firm over bumps. I had a somewhat similar experience, in terms of overall strut feel, with the OEM Maxima strut and the Blues . . . The H&R springs on my Max do ride much softer than those Eibachs did in the Civic though !