Hi guys, I recently purchased a used 2002 SE. The previous owner put in Htech springs front and rear along with Illumina shocks. I have two question reguarding this setup.

1) Do I need to worry about my CV joints. I've seen comments on the forum implying that dropped Maximas will have problems with the CV joints. If this is going to cause me issues I may put the stock springs back in.

2) How do the spring rates on the HTech compare to the stock Maxima SE? I've only driven stock SEs for a short period of time while I was test driving other cars, but from my recollection it seems that the stock SE has stiffer spring rate than the Tein Htechs. I always thought the SE ride was about perfect. Can anyone tell me how the stock ride compares to the Tein Htech? As I said before the springs were on the car when I purchased it so I have not real reference. Thanks.

 

Your ride is going to be a little bouncier then the stiffer se springs but not too much considering you are riding with the illuminas too. Nice set up in my opinion unless you went with the eibachs springs and illuminas. Nice too...

As far as worries about your cv joints going bad due to your drop, you shouldn't. CV joints are known to go bad with extreme drops such as me... or a couple of other people that I know. With your set up you are not going to have to worry about them... 99% of the time...

 

Thanks for the response. I'm relieved that the drop shouldn't cause any cv joint problems.

Any idea why someone would swap out the stiffer SE springs for the softer Htech? Is it usually done just for the dropped look or would there be some other advantage that the Htec offers over the stock SE springs?

The Illuminas on the other hand I really like. I can see why people would replace the stock strut with those.

 

They were most likely swapped out just for the lowered look.

I felt my H-Techs were too soft in the front springs, but just right in the rear springs.

 

Thats kind of how I'm feeling but I don't have many miles on the car yet. What do you have on it now and how do you like them?

 

H&R springs in the front, sport (SE) springs in the rear, with Illuminas all around.

Pretty satisfied in terms of comfort, appearance, and handling.