I just had my car lowered with H&R springs. I want it to be about an inch lower. It is on a 01 max se. I have stock struts and shocks. I am looking for it to be adjustable. I see people using a combination of shocks and struts. I just need to know what compnaies make what. If you reply to this please don't use abreviations for the parts, I am a newbie and don't know what it means.

 

How long have you had it installed? Wait for a week for it to settle before deciding on anything.

As for using struts/shocks that won't help lower it. That's what springs are for. Struts/shocks are to dampen the bumps, compression and what nots.

KYB (AGX, they're adjustable), KONI and Tokico's seems to be the most common manufacturers for Max struts.

 

well if you want adjustable, you might wanna go with Ground Controlz...they're about 400 or so, but i think people consider them as "1/2" coilovers cuz they just adjust height, they dont come with shocks or anything. Eibach springs lower more than h&r but are not adjustable, and Progress goes even lower. I know Progress springs are 1.7" front and 1.5" rear...im not sure about eibach though....no matter what springs you go with, its recommended to change to aftermartket shocks
atw

 

can someone explain in more detail...the difference between coilovers and ground controls? Everything I may need to know..

 

One and the same. Ground Control is the brand

 

Cattman now makes really nice coilovers but cost a grip at over $1500.

Dixit

 

I have a 2001 SE with stock struts. Anyways, the front still seems high, but the back is nice. Its been almost 2 weeks for me, so I havnt seen drastic differnce sinc ethe day it was installed. It has dropped a bit more and the ride has soften a bit. Regardless, to the untrained eye, they will not know your car is lower.

 

man, to hell with suspension, take everything out and drop it on the damn floor. See any gaps now?

guys you're scaring me to death. One guy here put Eibachs on and has more wind noise. Ppl have alignment problems. Mods are scary.

 

Ground Controls are just springs with adjustable perches(mounts) that you can turn up/down to change ride heights, but require additional shocks/struts.

TRUE coilovers, like Cattmans' $1600+ Gen-II coilovers, include KYB AGX struts and are height adjustable. They also come with camber/caster adjustable over-tower mounts. The over tower mounts allow you to drop ~3/4"-1" more without losing ANY wheel travel, plus look DAMN sweet in RAW unpainted billet. They also use "pillow *****" to keep the turning radius and "helper springs" to prevent noises while going over bumps.

The Cattman coilovers are worth EVERY penny they cost. However, not too many of us can throw down that kind of cash.

 

comes out, if I cant flash with 1500 cash, I better not mess with my stock suspension....since springs mess up the alignment, and cause harsher ride, other potential problems...

 

My 2c.

Not a fair assessment. For 1/3 that price you can get a shock/spring combo which will ride the same as an SE (if not just slightly stiffer), offer a totally better overall driving experience, safer on hard turns, lower center of gravity and less rocking F-R-F during hard acceleration and braking. Not to mention the fun factor you gain that's just priceless.

Even w/o doing the mods your stock suspension will give you problems now or down the line - and mis-alignments can happen in either case. That's the nature of anything material.

 

c'mon now

Wind noise = It's a common thing, i don't see any relevance as to why lowering would cause it.

Alignment problems = A common thing anywhere you go. Hit a big pothole doing 70mph and you're sure to get one - whether it be on stock or aftermarket suspensions. You'll probably mess up your wheel while at it as well.

Mods are scary = Seriously? What's scary is when you take a 50mph on-ramp and your car feels like it's going to fly off. I'm a firm believer of what a good suspension can do to your car and how it rides.

Speaking of scary mods, get rid of your entire sound system. Play it loud enough and you'll lose your hearing far earlier in life

 

Ground Control comes with a spring, and spring perch. You need shocks, new mounts, camber adjustment maybe some other things depending where you want to go with it...then you have to put it all together and make it work.

Real coilovers, come as an asembly already put together fit for your car. Cattmans are very nice, one small prob that will prob be fixed in the next gen and i'm guessing will be able to be added to the existing. All in all nice. 1600-1800 is normal for real coilovers. These are very nice because the shock (agx) is adjustable for firmness/softness, so you can adjust it as you need it for different situations. Plus they have no bump stops to give you hard bumps. They have raised mounts instead that give more shock travel.

Also you may want to look into air bags.

 

Would Cattman's coilovers reduce the harshness otherwise experienced by having coilovers in the first place? (Given it has AGX's)

 

What specific harsness' are you refering too? I can tell you that even on full firm(which you don't need) they still ride real nice, stiff but good. Overall they are very smooth, take bumps well, corner and handling ability is night and day.

 

Had a little chat with Y2kev a while back and he recommended against getting the Coilovers in my case primarily because i live in Houston where we have a smorgasboard of potholes and uneven roads.

He mentioned something about the ride getting too harsh as opposed to just a plain shock/spring combo like H&R/AGX.

 

Ok I see what he's saying. In the case of the cattman coilovers, there is only metel to metel contact. No rubber or poly mounts anywhere to soak up bumps. This is good for handling, bad on horrible roads. This gives you a real feel for the road, but if the roads are tooo bad it could work on you. Ive never been to Houston so I don't really know what to tell you. They arn't too bad here on route 30 and thats one of the worst roads ive seen. But if you have huge pot holes, dropping it to much with anything could cause some *** pain .

 

Why do you have to get aftermarket shocks if you get aftermarket springs? What are the consequences if you don't? Are there any other adjustments or changes you should make when installing H&R springs? I was under the impression that you could just switch out the stock springs with the H&R's and keep right on drivin'...

 

You don't have to....but by changing out the springs you changing the travel of the shock/strut. The car will be lower resulting in the shock/spring having to travel further down because of the much smaller spring and it will bottom out. You can run stock shock/struts with springs, I did it with my civic, but don't complain about the ride, or your stock shock/strut going bad.

 

OH, MY GOD!!! NOT YOU TOO???


ADMAN

 

Alignment isn't a big thing, just get it realigned and your set to go. After I installed my coilovers and shocks, I took my ride to Nissan to get the wheels re-aligned and it was worth it. (of course I hit a FAT pot hole the other day so who knows if it's still good )

- Trunksu

 

You don't have too, but, the stock shocks/struts will only last so long. They where built to go with the stock springs, the shorter aftermarket springs are shorter and have a different rate. So the stock shock will have the rod shoved down in the shock body much more all the time then it is ment too. An aftermarket shock is about an inch shorter plus a smaller bump stop this gives you more travel. You can run springs on stock shockers if you want but they will die sooner. Plus your not getting as good as an effect.