Hey guys after reading a lot about spring/strut combos I have been thinkin that I may go for something like that, but if I did it I would do it for performance rather than looks. To be honest I would rather not be slammed. On the roads right around my house there are about 3 or 4 potholes that would easily destroy some of these lowered Maxs. I am lookin for the most performance I can get while keeping my car riding close to stock. If I had absolutly no drop I would be ok with it, but I do like the way the H-techs look.
I am Getting SFCs as well so I hope that will improve the ride.

I am also considering one of those coilover setups where you can determine your own spring rate. Even if I had coilovers though I wouldent drop my car more than an inch to an inch and a half.

Let me know what you think

It seems like all the other posts about spring/stut combos on here are asking what combo gives the most drop with the best ride, so I couldent find much good info regarding what I'm lookin for.

Thanks guys

 

There's a million of them...just use the search function...I started 2 of my own a while back and it was actually about H&R and H-Tech and I know there are infinite others which is why nobody is responding to this post most likely...ur donating member so search should be easy. good luck.

 

h-techs with the illuminas set to 3f/4r....soooo nice! the car takes bumps just as well as the stock suspension does, but on the big bumps, you don't get that floaty feeling at all...i just went across the causeway (a 22 mile long bridge here in SE LA) and the entire car felt so much more controlled all the way across; normally, since the bridge is split into ~25 ft. sections, your car would hit that crevice, then bounce the whole time until you hit the next crevice...all i felt in my car was the little crevice, and all the other cars around me were bouncing like crazy...the handling is excellent, as well....i'm not really vigorous on my car, but i can definitely tell it's muuuuch better than stock by taking a few sharp turns; there is no body lean, and the car feels so much more controlled than it used to.....

well that's my take on the h-techs; i've heard H&Rs are good as well, but you will sort of get the saggy rear look....good luck either way, and do a search! there are TONS of threads out there with people's takes on how their cars ride...and if need be, just post in your regional forum, and maybe you can find some people with a couple different set-ups so you can ride in their cars and see for yourself...

 

alright so than the setup I was thinkin about H-techs w/illuminas is the best spring/strut combo. So how bout the Coilover setups. Does anyone have a coil over setup with a custom spring rate?

 

H-Techs and Illuminas here also. Best setup I have had to date. 4 in the font and rear seems to be the best setting. I had the shocks set to three for a while and it was nice except for the fact that the car bobbed a little more than I liked over dips in the road. With the settings at four, the ride is nice and firm, but compliant and very similar to a german feel.

 

H&R + Illuminas get my vote

 

Although I'm running progress/illumina, I would also vote for H&R/illumina for a nice comfortable ride.

 

the h techs and illuminas are great, even better for performance may be the eibach and illuminas, only a 1-1.2 inch drop. but if u are considering coilovers then u really want performance. i was the same way and only wanted a .5 drop, i got the jic coilovers, first droped .5 then 1, now its dropped about 1.2 f, 1 r and i love it, its like u always want to drop just a little more, looks so sweet. and the heandeling is insane (for a big 3300 car anyway) feels like its on rails! if u want insane handeling and can spend a little more the coilovers are well worth it, i hear the k sports are very good as well and only $800, id defenatly get those, but love my jic's, good luck.

 

there are a few things keepin me away from coilover so far.
1. they seem harsher than spring/strut combo
2. People seem to have reliability issues with them
3. The good ones are twice the price of spring/strut combo
4. I dont know how much more handling (over a spring/strut combo) I would be gettin with coilovers at twice the price

To be honest I really need to ride in some cars to get an idea for myself what these setups are like

 

I'm also planning to change the whole suspension closer to the summer so I'm slowly doing my reseach and here's what I found out sofar:

Best handling springs are Eibach, h-tech, H&R and Maxspeed. But all of them have drawbacks:

Eibach - stiffer than other springs I have listed.

h-tech - have the lowest drop (among the springs that I have listed) and suspension travel might not be quite enough (not sure, but very likely) for those who plan to use wide tires and r-compound tires.

H&R - sag in the back which might cause instability at high speeds.

Maxspeed - drop becomes significantly lower with time in the front.

For myself, I've narrowed the search down to Eiback and h-tech. I am not considering coilovers because none of them seem to handle street pavement. Blown struts are common to even the best coilovers if they are used on public roads.

Talking about shocks, I will most likely get Koni Yellows because they seem to be the highest quality shocks available for our cars. They also have higher range of adjustment than illuminas.
The only drawback is that you have to use your stock shock housing, but that isn't such a big deal because koni gives detailed instructions on how exactly to install the stock housing.

 

H-techs have the lowest drop?? I dont think thats correct the H-techs have a very mild drop. 1.6in in the front and 1in in the back. I think you meen S-techs which deff have the lowest drop.

 

H-techs have the lowest drop among the group of springs that I have listed.

S-tech is just some crap for those who want to look very low and don't care about anything else. IMO

 

just clarified that in my original post, sorry

 

Gotcha! And yes S-techs are crap!

I always thought the Eibachs dropped the car more than the H-techs, the stats are on here but do you know off the top of your head how much the eibachs drop the car?

 

I believe eibacks drop the car a bit lower than H&R and slightly higher than h-techs.

 

i believe out of all springs eibach drop the car the least but are the stiffest, they are also the best quality and will probibly never sag
more info: http://www.innerbean.com/housecor/sp..._decision.html

 

Yep, I stand correct according to this:
http://www.innerbean.com/housecor/sp..._decision.html

and another website which I can no longer find.

Note: at the top of that page he lists the official drop (manufactures specs) But the actual drop is different and is given under the pics.

 

Well also remember the measurements are going to be off a little because everyone didn't measure and take the picture at the same place, angle, etc. There are going to be some discrepancies and what not. I personally just order h-techs/Illuminas after 3 months of not being able what to chose. I was going to go with H&R's at first and then I thought that the h-techs were a nicer stance, good ride, and good performance. I was going through all of the pro’s and cons for like 3 months, it was H&R’s then K-sport coilovers, h-techs, etc. Then I finally ordered h-techs yesterday from SCO.

 

I need to get some H-Techs to replace these annoying S-techs

 

Based on what criteria and evidence?

 

I love my progress.....rides good and handles....looks like im in the minority on that one tho

 

for Progress for now, but I can't say more until I install my H-techs and then I will have another basis for comparison.

 

According to their spring rate, drop, and what other people say. Unfortunately, I lost the link to the website which states the rates of every spring available for Maximas.

Also:

Eibachs are on the list because I know for a fact that the main goal of the designers was performance. ( http://eibach.com/cgi-bin/htmlos.exe...21146200003015 ) Plus I know at least one person who uses Eibach Pro on road courses.

H-techs are on the list because of multiple positive responses of other orgers who describe them as very good handling springs.

H&R are included because they are designed for occasional track use (www.hrsprings.com) Plus, I read alot of positive responses on maxima.org about their handling.

Maxpeed - because someone who we all know successfully uses them for auto-x

 

I did not include Progress mainly because of a common belief that lowering by more than 1.5" will not result in the best possible handling. (not considering coilovers.)

 

I have the illumina and h tech setup and I love it. Not a harsh ride but very firm. When I bought the h techs the person told me that they have a progressive spring rate, not sure if this is true but they definately firm up a lot around the turns.

 

I have Progress front and back with AGX5 adj. shocks and struts plus 18X8 w/235/40/18 meats. The ride is pretty choppy and it hits the sharp bumps pretty hard. The up side is the handling-superb!

 

I would like to see that information, because I was in the process of putting a table like that together, but shelved my plans for it.

Btw, as you may have noticed, I tend to discount the opinions of others until I know how educated/supported their opinion is.

Fair enough, but many manufacturers claim the same of their springs as well. One indication that these are good handling springs is that many of the auto-xers on the .Org use em (or have used em in the past).

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=171690

Possibly, but I've yet to see any serious racers pick these up for whatever reason.

Agreed.

There are others too, but not many.

 

Bejay1 used some sort of Progress springs in 2004, but that was based on spring rate and not the drop. The "effectiveness" of the drop depends on the amount of suspension travel the struts have, and we don't have much room for suspension travel at all, so we would need really stiff springs and I would tend to agree with this, although my opinion is not entirely educated.

Btw, MaximaSE96 auto-xes with S-techs, I might ask him to see what he thinks of his set-up.

 

I believe that I saw the spring rate information on the website with white background and no graphics dedicated to Maxima mods. By the way, I’d appreciate if you could post a link to it, if you know what I’m talking about.

That’s interesting, do you know what kind of shocks he uses? I wonder if the use of different shocks results in different suspension travel… After all, the shocks are the ones that run out of travel.

 

http://maxmods.dyndns.org/index.php?MaximaSprings

It has spring rates for some 4th Gen springs and I'm not sure if it will be the same for the 5th Gen springs. Spring rates and drops are slightly different for the same springs across different applications. For example, the spring rates for both Tein springs posted on the Evo and Sentra forums are different from the 4th Gen spring rates. However, I don't think the differences in rates would be large enough to be a real concern.

AGXs.