we'll start with the fronts, the camber overtower peice doesnt clear the Stillen strut bar, Instructions claimed it would but it doesnt so i ended up shaving part of it to clear. After the modifications, i test fitted the strut bar on and the bolt/nut that holds the bracket to the bar doesnt clear either...man, that kinda sucks...i guess the Courtesy or Cattman bar does fit? Lastly, there is no place to mount the ABS line and the lil bracket supplied in the kit doesnt seem to be made right.
Onto the rears
well, we all the top hats didnt fit at first, we got the right pieces and they do fit, we put it in and the strut top itself hits that black bracket around the rear strut towers. Ill see tomorrow if i have to shave that off to clear or see whats going on.

Overall, seems nice but i was NOT impressed by its fitment probs, for $1500 or whatever the price it is, it should have been tested first, This is basically a prototype and i feel wmax2k should have paid a prototype price. Will post impressions on ride quality/handling tomorrow when i finish it all up.

 

how about the KYBs? Any thoughts on those?

 

How to the handle? Whats the ride like? What are you comparing it against?

 

I'm assuming he hasn't finished the installation yet because of clearance issues (and lazyness ), but he'll probably be comparing them to the GC setup (w/Konis).

 

yeah man, keep us posted!

 

I heard about the new Cattman Coilovers causing problems! I am very interested in this mod and I want to get it in a couple of months. Brian Catts is cool so...if you e-mail him or let hime know the trouble you're having, he usually gets back to you right away. Let him know all the trouble you're having so he can fix them for the future. I actually thought that he was re-working them because people had complained that they didn't fit properly. Anyway, good luck with getting them done properly...after you finish, since you're one of the first to get this mod, maybe you'll want to add a thread on the How-To's in case Cattman dosn't improve the design...this way the rest of us will know how to get them installed properly. Just a thought!

Deac :vampire:

 

That sucks...Mine are suposed to go on at the end of the week let me know what you end up doing i'll email Brain and give him the link so he can respond.

 

Well I was really hoping they would be a direct bolt on, but it seems there are a few fitment problems, hopefully cattman can resolve any issues due to he prototye 5th gen phase.

Keep us posted thanks again Turbo.

 

Geez..just like the Y-Pipe..i wonder when Cattman will wake up and actaully design products that are actually worth of the price.!!

Other japanese made coil-over costs no more than $1400...JIC..

 

Heard more bad news from Cattman Gen 2 coilovers... but I'll let Turbo95Max explain. Doh!

 

Share it cuz I need to hear it.

 

I'm positive he'll post about it tonight... it's too big of a problem to not share. I rather let him explain it because I wasn't there for the install.

 

Just give me the jist of it cuz it's 1 oclock here on the east coast. I gotta gget some sleep and I can't wait to here how great this is. What is it with companys not doing R&D on parts for the max? Stillen dint check the s/c for autos...Cattman must have never even put the coilovers on the car...Nissan built the worst paint ever..yet the best engine and the worst tranny to put the power down...the max is just working on me

 

That's basically the jist of it.

 

Are you gonna join me to "say bye bye to Nissan"..I am fed up with both manufactuer and aftermarket supporters for Nissan. I mean at least Honda ppl get hella good aftermarket to support their cars from letter A to Z, you will find some companies that are willing to do it right the first time.

I am thinking getting another car to mod and return my Max to stock for daily driven only.

 

If I could do it over again I prob would not have bought the max. But I have so much money into it at this point I can't get rid of it, I just have to ride it out. I should have kept my other car and continued to mod that.

 

well...i can tell you for a fact that he didn't put the coilovers on the car...he measured everything on my car (well not him, his shop maxrev)...basically the first time i went in there for measurements, they measured my front passenger side rotor/caliper/spring/strut etc....they also tested fitment on the bracket thing that goes on the top of the strut towers (the billet aluminum things that go on top of the fstb)...the 4th gen was a different design as they told me and they had to change a few things...so then i hear about turbo95's problems w/ the rears and i get an email from brian saying how badly he needs my car...so after work one day, i go in and they measure the rear strut towers (from inside the trunk)

if brian was willing to give me a decent discount i would have gone for his coilovers as a test subject, but unfortunately, he offered me them for 1400 which is a very slight discount and still way more then i want to spend (especially now that i'm selling the car)

so thats the story

 

Obviously I'd prefer to be able to respond directly to problems like this directly rather than having it discussed in front of the world. Especially since there are only two gen5 coilover sets out there -- so this isn't exactly a crime against humanity -- and its easy enough to solve those issues and get a fresh start. But customer feedback is important, and I'd say that this is real important. For the customer's sake, I wish he'd loaded the parts back in the box and let us deal with these issues for him, but I do appreciate his efforts and will work with him to deal with anything he can't resolve.

My developer had led me to believe that everything was good on this, to say I'm ****ed would be an understatement, but that's my issue. These problems certainly don't exist on the better-researched gen4 version.

Lets review what seems to be involved. Sounds like a minor interference issue with the Stillen FSTB (see below). Also something about no attachment tab for the ABS line, but I'll note that aftermarket struts seldom come with ABS line brackets, we can do something about this, but in most cases that's what zip ties are for. Finally, it mentions that the rear top mounts had some kind of interference at the top. I don;t know how serious it is, but frankly, that's what I'm most disturbed about; its easily solvable, but my designer should have caught that.

As far as fitting around the Stillen bar goes, we can probably make design adjustments to the CNC program, but I won't take a lot of grief for not designing around that incredibly clunky, overbuilt part; it would be impossible to check the fit against every aftermarket FSTB made. Apparently the problem was solved, though I sure would have trimmed the FSTB rather than the billet overtower mount -- hard to know how much adjustment was required. To my memory, the instructions don't say it will fit around that bar.

So, back to the drawing board for some changes. We had the gen4 done, but I was persuaded that the only difference between the gen4 and gen5 coilovers was the front mounts. Then the issue with the rear mounts came up and we addressed that. Now we'll deal with these other issues. Very sorry for the inconvenience to the TWO customers involved, but we'll get these changes made and I absolutely expect that a very satisfactory, top quality setup will emerge.

And remember, when it comes to prices, if these coilovers were the stripped versions sold by most, that include only the struts, springs, and some cheaply machined sleeves and perches, without the camber plates, Teflon monoball overtower mounts, thrust-bearing based front suspension and other features that make this kit operate as smoothly as it does and give it unsurpassed adjustability, it would sell for less than the equally basic $1400 phantom set that someone keeps telling us about. And they would squeak, pop and rattle just like the GC, the early Cattman design, and other simple sets do, too!

I'll hear the routine sniping about rushing things to market, but hey, I'm as small a company as exists in the world, and I've done more for this car than any one firm out there in terms of bringing actual performance parts to market. At least I'm doing something other than reselling other people's parts.

These coilovers make the Maxima handle better than most owners can even imagine the car is capable of. We'll get this product back on track next week.

Brian C. Catts
Cattman Performance

 

Group Deal next week?

 

In other words Stillen.......

Keep up the work Brian. I like having other options besides Stillen. If you need someone for the AGXs, I'm willing to help.

 

I agree that's a lot more money than I'm willing to spend also. Especially since I don't AUTOCROSS and would never really benefit from their design.

However, the reason he wouldn't give a DEEP discount is because he has at least $1000 in parts in these things, not to mention how much he pays the guy who machines his parts. Basically, I see why Brian has to charge so much money for these things. They are an expensive design that requires multiple expensive components with VERY expensive machining, thus resulting in an expensive price compared to a simpler design such as the GCs.

For those of us who don't AUTOCROSS, I just hope he comes out with a SIMPLER and CHEAPER design(Gen II perches/springs with AGXs!!!) that more of us can afford. Especially, since most of us just want the height adjustability AND a moderate ride.

 

im sorry Brian

you are probably right in saying i should have discussed these probs in private with you. People would have eventually asked me and i figured i would save myself alot of time and trouble if i had juss posted it. The biggest thing i consider would be the rears. Everything else to me is easily fixed to me. The black bracket that Nissan added to the 2k gets in the way of the top of the strut. Therefore i had to cut the black bracket and bend it to get clearance for it. I think a few washers might solve this prob, but there is still the prob of getting in there with a wrench or ratchet.
On the fronts, i made the decision of of shaving the overtower because its a small amount at the corner. I didnt feel it would cause any probs, if i had chose to shave the strut bar bracket, i would have to shave right at the welds and i felt this would weaken or possibly cause probs. I belive i made the right decision in which piece to shave.