After looking at some other threads related to coilovers, including this. It seems like there are no coilovers available for our cars which are actually reliable an can be used for a while in non-perfect conditions. What do you guys think…. is that true?

 

yea, there are none. the best setup has always been konis and ground control coilovers. although they are sleeves, they are tried and true. sure they arent as adjustable but you will get better performance and a longer life no matter what "full" coilover you put them against.

 

Konis are nice but a little bit more expensive then illumina struts but very nice setup highly recommanded for both with eibach though.

TopSpeed

 

I believe BlackbirdVQ had this setup for a while but he did not like it and sold both the struts and the ground controls coilovers. Hopefully he will see this thread and put some light on it.

 

Last I heard from him, the GC's were a PIA...

The word Coilover = PIA

 

I bought the GC setup off of blackbirdvq...initially I had the front lowered all the way (front was around 25"), and the back almost all the way lowered (about 25.5"). The car looked great, but the ride was pretty rough on bumpy roads. On decent pavement, the car was just slightly bumpier than the stock suspension. I recently raised the front to 26" all around; the car rides much better and I haven't bottomed out since. Its a decent pseudo-coilover setup that's pretty reliable for all year driving with some flexibility.

 

You can't compare GC and true coilovers. GCs are garbage

 

true there is no reliable coil-over for the street because they were'nt meant for the street. coil-overs were mean't for off road use. I can guarantee you that just about everyone that has bought coil-overs has never corner weighed there car.

 

ok, this this thread is making me regret my expensive **** jic's, 2 months and no big problems, i really hope theyll be reliable otherwise im goin to Htechs or eibach/illuminas or agx...

anyway dude im in staten island, and ye the roads are terrible!!! but my jic a1s pretty stiff, but on the softest settings its not that bad. the handeling is just awesome, only problem ive had was that one of the rear springs seems to be defective and sags on the lowest coil, causing it to rub and make noise, im just to lazy and too anoyed to take it all apart and have them send me a new spring (hopefully will not cause long term damage). other wise no problems so far

 

a properly set up maxima with gc and konis will out perform any "full" coilover set up out there. slamming gc will result in no travel, thats not ground controls fault, its the strut. its bottoming out. lower the car just a bit and you will have a better ride than any "full" c/o set up.

 

[QUOTE=JSutter]a properly set up maxima with gc and konis will out perform any "full" coilover set up out there.

You have proof to back that up?

 

yea go to koni and look at their shock dyno. ksport and d2 have no evidence of a reliable strut, or a customer service even remotely as good as koni. every other forum swears by koni and g/c, namely sr20 forums. the b14 (95-99 200sx) chassis has almost the same suspension as 4th and 5th gens. they are all about a mild drop and (relitively) high spring rates. they also have something that maxima.org has very little of, people that know suspensions and dont just go for looks. hell they got a huge company to make a set of high rate mild drop typical springs. they are hyperco. they are limited poduction and as of now descontinued. a 1" drop with 300f/200r lbf/in rates.

the only thing the full coilovers are good for is slamming the ride over 3"..... which does nothing for performance, and is all looks.

 

yes, the gc's can be a very good setup when used properly. People that slam with gc's do it for the look, and not for the performance. Slamming with gc's will cause the struts to bottom out resulting in poor handling. True coilovers allow for slightly better strut travel when slammed, that is why they feel better than the gc setup.

Sport compact car did a very good article on suspension setups in their July or August issue (i don't remember which one exactly). They used a b13 sentra for example and said that a mild drop ~1 in with a gc setup provided best handling characteristics. This is due to the stock suspension geometry. Any greater drop would cause the suspension to hit the bumpstops, resulting in essentially infinite return spring rates. For handling purposes, this is not desirable.

So I guess the moral of this story is: go with the gc setup for a good all-around setup if you aren't planning on slamming your car and want a decent ride. For those that want more adjustability and the looks of a very low ride height, go with true coilover setups.

Those that complain about the gc koni setup probably had their cars slammed pretty low (~25 inches from ground to fender). And yes I was one of those people until I raised it a couple weeks ago. The ride is much better now.

 

I havent heard anything about the GCs but I am guessing even with SFCs they would be too stiff for what I want on my daily driver. If they arent too bad though...hell I would probably pay good money to get some great handling.

 

they have different spring rates available in 25 lbf/in increments.

 

BTW the JIC FLTA2s seem to be the best coilovers out there. I have heard nothin but good things about them. I would get them myself if they werent so damn expensive

 

check out post # 6 here: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=442798

Sorry for disappointing you.

 

what do you mean in terms of reliability?

I haven't heard much complaints from Tein or JIC owners. The brand of coilovers that I will have in production soon will be the same. This is in terms of:

1. performance
2. adjustability
3. no defects or component failure
4. absolutely no noises

 

It's typical to only hear about problems.

 

Reliability for those people that go through all four seasons. When it gets cold outside, the viscosity of the fluid in the damper increases quite a bit. When first driving around in them, the viscosity starts out high, but decreases once you drive them around for a while. At high viscosity, the damper tends to blow out when going over bumpy roads. This problem is often compounded with a very low ride height. Usually, this isn't a problem for those folks in areas where it doesnt get very cold.

 

I'm not sure if this would matter, but most lower end coilover setups use cheap gas pressurized dampeners. However more higher end ones utilize oil filled dampeners. I'm sure both may be subject to temperature changes (that can't be helped) but reliability may be different

 

Get them ebay sleeve coilovers

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Titan...spagenameZWDVW

 

25 bucks??

 

$50 shipped

 

......

 

Yep. Even Koni's get cold & harsh. I loved my Yellow sports in summer but hated em in winter.

Oh, and there are a dozen Koni models that will equal or outperform full coilovers like JIC, D2, Tein, Progress, etc. But not at that pricepoint.
http://www.koniracing.com/roadraceitems.html
http://www.koniracing.com/autocrossitems.html

 

They may out perform but once you put on lowering springs, you are sacrificing suspension travel for ride height. At least with coilovers you can have full suspension travel and your own choice of ride height

 

buy a shorter insert, im looking into. 8610-1436 looks like a good choice.

 

Are you saying that shorter shocks will allow more travel?

BTW: I thought Koni makes only one type of shocks for us.

 

well application specific sure, but other inserts will fit. the 3rd gen (red) insert is 2.25" shorter and is what motivational engineering used for their shortened struts. only problem is they are not externally adjustable. i have been researching all of konis products and they have a few externally adjustable stuts that should work. the 8610-1436 is a single external adjustable thats much shorter. as of yet i dont know if its a direct fit, the dimeter may be off, or the threaded part may not fit out upper mount. give me some more time to look over their parts and take some measurements. the 8611-1256 is a double adjustable in a similar size, which will blow any other strut out of the water.

 

Can Somebody Please Tell Me Where The Parking Brake Wire Is In The 02 Maxima.......i Need To Hook My Dvd Player Up To It So It Can Play....please Let Me Knoe Asap.....

 

Wrong section. Just ground that wire.