When going over different bumps my car doesn't seem to have a bounce but the rear seems to be weak and maybe goes down too far. I've been told that most likely I just need to replace the struts and not the springs. Can anyone tell me if I can find any instructions with maybe pictures of how to remove and replace the rear struts? Will I have to remove everything before I'll know if I need to buy a mounting kit or whatever it's called? If anyone recommends a place to buy these please let me know. My car has 222,000 miles on it and the front struts were replaced a couple of years ago.

 

If the rear suspension is from factory I would definitely replace the struts. Check/replace any worn bushings with energy suspension polyurethane bushings.

http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/maxima/2000/

 

http://www.shiftice.com/strut_install.html

 

Definately go with a good rear strut regardless of whether you keep stock springs or lower. These cars have fat rears (ALL Maximas) and need all the support back there they can get.

 

When you say goes down too far, do you mean it bottoms out? That would be the struts. If you replace the struts, make sure you get new dust shields. KYB brand is a little stiffer than stock and might be a good idea.

 

Hm, instructive. A friend of mine recently fixed oem rear shocks, and they collapsed in a matter of days. It was attributed to the fact that the dust shields were torn, and the shocks were exposed thereby to sand penetration. Is this really true?

 

Ordinarily I'd just say no, it is not likely that rear (or any strut/shock) would fail within literal days due to bad or absence of dust covers. However, depending upon the quality of strut (which we don't know) and how abused they were (don't know), or how much and type of debri the exposed struts were forced to endure (don't know) I'd have to say its possible. Still, I'd imagine it would require dirt cheap struts, heavy abuse, and struts being buried in sand or course debri constantly......it's possible. Outside of that, sounds like someone/company trying to deny a warrenty claim.

Oh yeah, and what do you mean by "fixed?" Replaced or repaired?

 

Hey Dennis, They don't seem to be bottoming out but they just seem to be weak and going down further than they should. I think they need to be a little stiffer. Hopefully new struts will take care of that.

 

Thanks for the write-up with pictures. I was looking at #4 for the rear struts and it mentioned the metal shield. Do you have to remove it to get to the bolt? It sounded like you don't remove it because you can get to it underneath the shield. Is this the way you read it?

 

I don't think the shield has to be removed. From what I am reading he is saying to be careful when removing the bolts as they can fall inside of the shield and be a PITA to get out.

 

From my experiences, I am running tokico blue with stock spring and it bottoms out when I have a moderate load at my rear for example like 2 people or maybe 5 packs(24 bottles) of water in the truck, I would bottom out when I go over pump. Weird right? and my struts are only 3 months old. From what I assume is, the struts are ok but our stock is too week for our car!! I think if you change out the stock spring the rear bottom would boom gone!

Correct me if you guys don't feel the oem rear spring is weak!

 

I've said for a long time the rear suspensions on these cars are weak given they all (every generation) have fat behinds! My 3rd gen wasn't horrible given it still had independent rear suspension, but the 5-5.5 gens are just rediculous. Speaking solely to the 5/5.5, my understanding is the only real solution is coilovers. I like my Eibach/KYB setup (still way too soft in the rear), but with my intentions of keepin the car, I regret not going coilover from the start. I'm actually considering going coilover just for the rears.

 

I don't know why I'm having a problem understanding what you mean when you say going down further than they should, but I am.

Are you saying that the car is moving to much in a bouncing type motion? If so, struts would cure this.

I you mean that the car sits too low when people sit in the back seat, this is a spring issue. New springs or coil-overs like Chris Gregg suggested would be the fix.

 

Replaced. So would oem shocks fail so soon without the dust shields?

 

Not oem. Not literally within days. Not unless the car was significantly abused somehow. To be quite honest, I've always been the lazy one when doing struts/springs to NOT replace my boots as long as at least 1/2 the old boot is still good. Way I see it, when lowered and sitting on the ground/normal driving..... struts don't require two feet of boots to cover the shaft. As long as I've got 8-12", those things go back on. Is it wrong? Depends on who you ask and what normal driving conditions are like. I've never experinced failure on my struts due to using worn boots. But I don't live or drive in a particularly harsh environment. I'm still running the same Tokico blues on my '89 from 10-12 years ago. Still going strong.

Again, no oem should just fail that quickly. If a shop did the work and you are not wry familiar with them, I'd almost suspect the rear were not replaced at all. Have someone else pull them and inspect to verify these were indeed new cartridges.

 

Many thanks for the responses. It does seem as if the shocks were improperly handled/fitted by the mechanic. Negligence? Careless? Dunno.

 

What is the complete list of parts needed to replace rear struts on 2003 ??