Hello everybody,
I have a set of questions about my 2011 Maxima, which I bought 3 weeks ago. I love the car, but one thing is really bugging me.... It's that I am scraping the bottom of the car when going through the bumps on the road, or even through the driveway to my building (which has kind of an incline on it). It's happening more so when there is at least one passenger on the rear seats, or sometimes when I am driving alone too.
Going through the bumpers using some angle (e.g. 45 degrees) helps a bit, but sometimes you just don't have a chance for doing so. I am not even sure if my Max was lowered by the previous owner or not.
I am afraid I can damage the bottom of the car, and also it is very unpleasant. Because of this could you please let me know:

1) Is it quite common for the 7 gen Maxima to scrape the surface when going through the bumpers? Do you also experience this?
2) Is a NOT lowered car doing this, or is this happening to the lowered Maximas only?
3) From the picture of my car, are you able to tell if it has been lowered?
4) Can anything be done to fix this issue?

Thank you so much for your attention and answers in advance.
-Eugene-

ON1.jpg?t=1373001214

 

You need new shocks and struts then if your bottoming out

 

Looks lowered to me. I would just slow it down more in those situations.

 

Yeah, it does look a bit lowered. You check this for sure by measuring from the ground to the highest point on the wheel well. It should be approximately 28.3 to 28.6 inches ( front and rear, respectively) for stock ride height.

Even before lowering mine 1.4" (Eibach pro kit) and adding the stillen front lip, I found myself scrapping on higher speed bumps and driveways. Go slower on these and ease off them. The shocks should hold up and you'll minimize chances of scraping. If the do not hold up, shocks might be shot.

 

The only way to find out if your lowered is to get the car on the lift and see if it's on Eibach springs. The word Eibach is painted on the springs. In this picture, your Max looks lowered to me. If your bottoming out, you should take inclines slowly not fast. I've seen stock height Maximas bottom out and it's usually because the owner took the incline too fast.

BTW congrats on your purchase. Thats a nice color you got there.

 

Thank you so much guys, for your responses, and congratulations! Sorry for a silly perhaps question, but at least theoretically, is there a way to "un-lowering" the Max (e.g. making it a stock height, no matter how weird it might sound)?
Doesn't mean I will do it - I just wanna know my options.
Thank you.
P.S. Yes, Jbling700, a nice colour indeed. I agree I love the way your Max looks, including the rims!

 

yeah it does look lowered. you might be able to find someone selling their stock springs and you can pay a shop to swap them out.

 

As added info, the ground clearance (4.5 inches at closest point) on the 7th gen Maxima is the lowest on any generation Maxima ever.

my 7th gen has not been lowered, yet scrapes on most speed bumps and many driveway entrances. When we are going to my wife's doctor (which we will be doing tomorrow morning), we won't even take my Maxima, which actually HANGS UP on the lip of the driveway to her parking lot. Even putting my wife out of the car and approaching that drive at an angle doesn't do the trick.

There are several things that may help.

If your car has been lowered, then unlowering it will help.

If you have the sport version, switching from 240/40/19 to 240/45/19 tires might help. If you have the non-sport, then switching from 240/45/18 to 240/50/18 or even 240/55/18 might help.

I helped my situation by running 37 psi in my tires. That makes them stand slightly taller, yet I find tire wear is still very even (still running my OEM tires at 40K miles).

This dragging bothered me for years, but I have finally decided it is worth the price to run the neatest car in my neighborhood.

 

All great advice, lightonthehill. I also took into account a while back that you run your tires at a slightly higher psi and gave it a shot myself. I noticed my handling was a little better and keep them all at a conservative 35psi all around now.

This guy here on the forums is selling his stock springs from his 2009. Might be worth looking into.
http://forums.maxima.org/7th-generat...v-springs.html

 

This wouldn't dictate at all why he's scrapping! OP as others had said it does look a little lowered like an Eibach drop!!

 

Thanks a lot for all your responses - much appreciated. All great suggestions indeed. The easiest starting point for me would be to try running 37 psi in my tires...
Then I will have to confirm for sure whether it was lowered (it appears so judging by your responses). I haven't had a chance to measure the wheel well height yet, because of all the flooding situation in Toronto yesterday (my Maxima was OK thankfully). If I decide to unlower it, I will probably have to find a local seller for the stock springs, or see what the dealership would charge for those...
If everything fails to help, I will have to do what lightonthehill did - just to enjoy running a very cool car that I love

 

I have an 09 and it is not lowered, but I do have the Stillen body kit on it, plus I still have stock struts and shocks, I don't rub at all on speed bumps etc etc. I plan on getting coil over in the next little while, I'm sure I will rub after that, for the time being I'm holding off, as I have other priorities..
Hope you solve your situation.

P.S. Nice to see a fellow GTA person on here..

 

Likewise, 09max_sv. Sorry, did you get the Stillen body kit shipped from the US, or did you buy it locally from somewhere? Thanks for the info.
By the way, I have measured the wheel well height, as Shipwreck suggested, and got 26.7 to 26.6 inches (front and rear, respectively). So, as everyone in this post concluded, it does appear lowered by the previous owner.

Thanks guys!

 

I had the the Lip and side skirts shipped to a Niagara falls location and I picked it up afterwards. I will be doing the rear corners shortly.

Let me know if you are going to swap out those springs, as i my be interested in them if they are good. Not sure if I want to go to coil overs or Eibach's

 

Sorry for the late reply 09max_sv. I will definitely let you know if I decide to swap the springs. For now I would like to try adjusting my driving habits a bit (never experienced this issue with my previous two Maxima's) and see if it is still bothering me. Thanks.

 

Just wanted to confirm that all of you guys were right - the previous owner, indeed, lowered the Max with the eibach drop. I finally took the car to the dealership (non-Nissan) today and they have confirmed. They also did the estimate for "unlowering" the car. $3,175 (Canadian) including labor and parts. Definitely I am not doing it and will be sticking with the nicer looks and the occasional scraping. I am actually getting better already going through the bumps slowly, with some angle.
Thanks a lot for your input guys...

 

I actually just dropped my car and took off my stock springs if you want to purchase them and have a shop install them for you for cheaper

 

Thank you very much for the offer, Genewahh. I will, however, stay dropped for now (and I suspect for the remainder of me driving this car). I like the way it looks lowered more, and I am getting better at avoiding bottoming out on bumps and driveways... so it's not as bad as it seemed when I originally discovered this "issue".

Also, I am still having a dream of upgrading to 20 inch wheels one day perhaps, and if I do, having a dropped car would be a must.

Thanks.

 

That is too high for what they are charging ( That price is absurb) , if it is eibach's all you have to do is replace the springs with OEM's , then get an alignment.

 

I know. I almost choked when they showed me the estimates reports. It had all the detailed steps and corresponding prices printed out... No way I would pay even close to that for this job. Yeah, it's eibach's they confirmed...
Thanks.

 

learn how to drive a sportier than normal car......

 

It is insane, I bet they are slow shop and they wanted the business and feeding you BS, and you have to replace a lot of unnecessary parts. I can see if you shocks/struts was shot and they are quoting new ones. I was in Buffalo last weekend and I got a quote for rear shocks at a nissan dealer for $160.00 a piece. I looked at the guy and shook my head, I think the price went up because I had to give him my VIN number to search the parts and what I gave him was my ownership which had my vin number.
The rears are easy to change but the fronts will be a pain, and after that is done, you will need an alignment.

If you are going to stick with the eibach's you will have to replace your shock and struts at some point, as it being reported from other members that they had to after 40,000 - 50,000km's . I'm also looking at going to coils but man those are pricey and then get them back to Ontario and have them installed.. Ouch!

 

The price for the parts alone (Front and Rear Strurs and Springs) was $2282 + labour...

Thanks for the tip about the shocks/struts replacement at some point. I will verify the condition of those during my closest Nissan dealership visit (wherever it might be).

 

09max_sv, I have sent you an e-mail with more details earlier today via this forum (not sure if it's gonna work).... Anyways, I have "unlowered" my Max during this weekend, and the Eibach springs are available, in case you are interested.
Thanks.

 

Yes, I received the message, but you you seem to have checked off not to receive messages in your user settings for the site.

 

Sorry about that. I have changed the setting to allow receiving PMs and emails via this site. I registered over here many years ago and did not use these features much. Thanks.