max929, are you going to be getting softer springs? If you're keeping your coilovers, that might be a good idea (better compliance on rough roads and longer shock life).

 

I accually already installed Maxspeeds with stockers for my suspension and sold the Ksports to another orger. Love the handling but it just wasn't for me....too many issues and not enough time. I needed something that was a little lower maintance.

 

Hey guys im trying to figure out what spring rate i have...im on D2s..do you guys think thats supposed to be a F-9 & R-7 in the picture?

 

yes thats 9/7 FR spring rates....D2s come stock with those spring rates

 

Front Spring Rate: "P" kg/mm

That's a really funny-looking "9". But it's gotta be 9.

 

hey got my rears...just wondering how do you know which rear shock goes on the left side and the right side? or does it matter? Thanks!

 

Doesn't matter

 

i've been riding on these for about 2 weeks now, i got the ride to where it's pretty close to stock, but i still don't like worrying about stuff happening, for instance the collars coming loose, just too much work for a daily driver. I'd like to sell mine and just get the eibach pro-kit, i've had great past experiences with them and i don't have to worry at all...

-Russ

 

Yeah, that's the single biggest factor that worries me, the loosening problem. Even if you think you've tightened them enough with a solid whack of a hammer or three, how can you be sure? There are so many coilovers made for so many cars, there must be a better design that truly locks.

 

Of course there is (according to the marketing materials, anyway). In fact, there are two.

The first is from TEIN (the Basic), and it doesn't have the adjustability and handling (but might ride better).

The other is from Progress, who hasn't been mentioned in this thread. Those should be another excellent option, but they're almost as expensive as the JICs.

 

after tightening them and them coming loose i decided to man handle these *****. and they haven't come loose for over a month now. maybe even longer. i only get the slightest click when its cold and i'm pulling out of the driveway.
waht is the danger in the collars coming loose? i drove with mine absolutely free and didnt notice what the problem was. i thought maybe they were just for that extra security.

 

Man, I'm still no closer to deciding between K-Sports and TEINs...which is fine since I have no money. I figure the K-Sports are finicky but once you get to know them they perform beautifully with no real worry, but that's still a risk I'd be taking if I bought them.

I would have decided on the Basics long ago, even with their lack of adjustability, if they didn't require the reuse of the stock mounts.

Thanks again to d00df00d and everyone else for making this a very informative thread.

 

Full Coilover system in general requires more maintainance than spring/shock come because of more moving parts. You just have to keep your eye on things and make sure you hammer the locks in. One major disadvantage in Tein basic Coilovers is the fact that you loose travel as you lower your car. (tein basic's height adjustment is done by pre-load hence compression the springs)

 

I've heard about that disadvantage to the TEINs, but I personally wouldn't drop my car more than 2.5" with coilovers, and probably more like 2" in front. With a moderate drop like that, can anyone answer how much travel would be lost with the Basics? I'm never going to drop my car 4", that's ridiculous. My concern is with real-world handing and ride at a reasonable drop. Everything I've read says the TEINs have the most comfortable ride of all the 4th gen coilovers so I bet you don't lose much travel.

EDIT: Tein Basic Damper Kit
Description: Full integrated coilover system. Spring rate is 391 lbs/in front and 335 lbs/in rear. Ride Height adjustability range is: Front -1.7 to -3.6" and Rear 0.1 to -2.9".

So the minimum front drop is 1.7", so with a 2" drop you're not losing much travel at all.

 

Keep in mind that travel only affects ride comfort if hitting the bumpstops is an issue. Tein Basics have really stiff springs, so they're not likely to hit the bumpstops even with very little travel.

Also, another problem with reducing travel in this case is that it may cause the shocks to wear out faster.

But your reasoning is correct in that dropping the Tein Basics 0.3" past the minimum won't cut down your suspension travel very much, so it's not that big a deal.

I should add something I just thought about though. I can't say for sure, but I think that getting the Ksport kit with softer springs might actually end up requiring less maintenance because you would be putting a little less stress on the parts. You could get the same spring rates as the Teins (7/5), have equally good (if not better) ride quality, and not have to worry about the problems with reducing suspension travel. Something to think about.

 

Ok, well I just had my OTHER rear shock blow on me. This after having my car on the road for a week and a half after getting the first shock back from Ksport for replacement.

I love the way these things make the car handle. I HATE how unforgiving they are on these awful roads in NJ. The fact that I now have two blown shocks within a year of use make me wonder how screwed I'll be once the warranty period is up. I'm seriously considering just switching these out for a set of H&R/Illuminas.

Do I have any other options to extend the life of these coilovers and make the ride more forgiving? I'm just about fed up with this issue.

 

SFCs will make a ton of difference in terms of ride quality, and even more so the stiffer the suspension is.

But man, that does not bode well that you've had two blow in under two weeks of driving....

 

Please contact ksportusa as soon as you can so they can look into this issue. It's very unusual to have gone through shocks so quickly. Go over your setup and installation with them and see if there is any mix up or error. Ksportusa will definatly help you out on this i am sure.

 

I'm sorry, these things may make your car handle well and are cheap, but the quality is terrible. We should not be hearing about this many problems. The D2s dont even experience this many major issues. Are there any coilovers for any car that are as reliable as a spring/strut combo. Jesh if not develop one and charge 30% more for it, but at least make it reliable.

 

You've gotta be kidding me. Are you really that narrow-sighted, or do you just not read before you post?

First, when you saw dukelubas say "my shocks blew" and "I drive on really bad roads in NJ" in the same post, how did you not put two and two together? His second blown shock brings the grand total of blown shocks on Maxima kits to 4, of which 3 have been in New Jersey on roads that the owners have said are really terrible.

Neato. 75% of all blown shocks have been on bad roads in New Jersey. Sounds like a trend. Let me repeat it though, just to make sure it comes across clearly:

Bad roads.
Blown shocks.

Bad roads.
Blown shocks.

Bad roads.
Blown shocks.

Now let me break it down for you. "Bad roads" means there are lots of bumps, which means the shock absorbers take more impacts and move up and down a LOT more. Get the picture? Complaining that coilovers are bad quality because they break on rough roads is like complaining that a laptop is bad quality because it breaks if you handle it roughly.



Second, didja ever figure that maybe the reason you hear about Ksport problems is that - <GASP> - you're in a Ksport thread??

D2 doesn't have a thread like this, which pretty much invalidates comparisons based on "what we hear about".

Would you happen to have any real stats for the D2s anyway? Didn't think so.



And third, while we're on the topic of stats, here's one for you:

4 shocks out of a few hundred kits sold, each of which includes 4 shocks. That leaves the failure rate as a fraction of one percent. Even if we count other issues and assumed that twice as many people had other issues as had blown shocks (which is an extremely pessimistic estimate), the total failure rate would still be <1%.

If you get that bent out of shape about 6 or 7 (extremely well handled) problems out of hundreds of kits sold, save yourself (and us) the ulcer and leave the thread. Best of luck finding a more reliable solution.

 

Nicely said. I was one of those blown shocks. Don't know if I'm included in the total of 4. I'll just add though that my driving was primarily suburban areas, but I did go through the hell of philly streets with them.
And yes, although it took a bit of time to get in touch with them, the situation was handled perfectly. They replaced both fronts even though only 1 was blown.

 

Oh, okay. I hadn't counted you. Your one blown one makes 5 total AFAIK, so 60% of blown shocks were on rough Jersey roads and 20% were partially in the Philly 'burbs and partially in the dirty city. That leaves MrDuck; I don't know how the roads are where he lives, although I can't imagine that they're exactly perfect.

Replacing both fronts when only one was blown is clearly above and beyond the call of duty. It's one thing to fix what the customer complains about, which is what most companies do because they see customer service as a necessary evil. It's something else entirely to try to make sure the problem is completely solved -- in this case, they did that by averting a situation where each of the fronts were in different conditions. That's a sign that Ksport sees customer service as an asset.

 

I am making no comments towards their customer service as it seems to be stellar. Deff as good as it gets, but their product is . To me if you cant drive it on roads in New England than it really should be labled as a "Track use only" product.

 

Well, actually, it is labeled as such. Interesting that they still don't break on any but the harshest roads.

But thanks for your time and all your intelligent, well thought-out contributions. Have a nice day now.

 

Let's take a look at this from a probability standpoint...basically either dukelubas had some crazy installation errors OR K-Sport has some production issues. The fact that he has blown two shocks within weeks of each other, and within one year of driving is a big deal. I wouldn't attribute that to bad luck. Both struts seemed to have the identical problem.

Maybe he can fill us in with important details such as how many miles he has put on them, what size rims he has, how inclined to slow down over bumps he is, what settings he has his K-Sports on, etc.

 

But both shocks were used at the same speeds on the same roads on the same car, weren't they? There isn't enough evidence to indicate installation error or shoddy quality. The only thing we can say for sure is that the conditions were bad.

One guy having a freak double failure like that isn't remotely enough to infer that the company is having "production issues".

Let me say this again, just to be clear: The shock absorber failure rate in Maxima kits, by latest count, is 5 blown shocks out of well over a thousand sold. Doesn't take much math to realize that that is NOT a big number. Even if it DOUBLED, it'd still be tiny. If you think that is a poor track record, you probably shouldn't be in the business of modifying critical parts on your car.

 

The coilovers were installed in May 2005. I had actually heard a knocking sound from going over significant bumps coming from the right rear shock ever since about June 2005. I had first thought I didn't have enough preload set so I cranked it up a bit. The noise continued and I thought it might have been my rusting exhaust so I lived with it. That particular shock failed on me in January as you all know. Now, the left rear shock failed without any warning what-so-ever. It has actually failed in a different manner as well. The right shock spewed all its oil at one time and subsequently the shock was completely useless over bumps. The left unit has not spewed all its oil (it IS leaking though) but is still working to some extent except for major bumps in the road.

I'm driving on stock SE rims and always have been. The height settings are set so the wheels fit the wheel wells perfectly. I actually raised the car up as much as possible because I had a brand new CV joint start making noise on me shortly after the coilover installation. There is no "tuck" of the wheels into the wheel wells when looking at them from the side. Its a very nice stance in my opinion, similar to that of a BMW where the suspension seems to be at the perfect height to make the car look complete.

My front settings are currently set at one-half of a turn from max hard. The rear shocks have ALWAYS been set at max SOFT. I have found that even at this setting, the rear of the car has been unusually harsh. I found this setup to work well for me after considerable experimenting.

Overall, the coilovers have about 8,000 miles on them in the 8 months that I've had them. I hope that clears things up for anybody who kept reading my long post.

 

I don't understand why you really care what others think so passionately... it almost seems as though you have an agenda to prove everybody wrong that has a negative opinion on this product. Either that, or you work for Ksport...

 

I agree with him. If some people are so thick-headed that they can't see that the failure rate is minimal then they need to leave this thread alone and move on.

 

Taking the same stance, d00df00d could just as easily ignore the negative posts. Its just not clear as to why he's so passionate to drive the point home.

 

Bad roads and cold weather = blown struts... Period!

D2, JIC, Tein and KSport all suffer from this.

I am lucky I dont have to drive my car this winter because the few times I have when it was cold (20ish deg) they were HARSH till they warmed up; that is aweful wear and tear.

To call KSport Coilovers because of a few blown struts is dumb. Any product, no matter how much it cost has some defective parts. For god sakes the rear struts in my $40,000 03 Saab 9-3 Vector had to be replaced after four months while the factory Nissan struts in my Maxima lasted for 80,000 miles.

 

Then let me make it clear: Ultimately, all I care about is that the product is represented properly.

I would just as soon endorse conclusive evidence that the product is shoddy. I own a set, so it stands to reason that I should know as much as I can.

But as of now, Ksport just seems like a bunch of straight-up guys who are just trying to make an honest living selling a good product for a good price. It's rare to find that in any sector of the market. But to find it in the Maxima performance aftermarket, which lives and dies on the willingness of manufacturers, it's a gem. I'd hate to see it ruined just because one or two people spouting BS. Because, you know... I like performance parts.

If they really make a bad product, then I fully agree that we need to know. But if they don't, as seems to be the case right now, we need to allow them their due. Simple as that.

 

I agree about the cold weather, that's a factor contributing to strut wear that I hadn't considered. But I do know from experience that Illuminas are stiff as h3ll in cold weather, even on a setting of 1.

 

Okay, From reading what you said that you cranked up the preload when you starting to hear the click. I am guessing there is part of cause of your blown shock as you are NOT suppose to crank up the preload as it stiffs up your springs and drasticly increase your shock wear. (ksport is not designed to work with alot of preload like the tein basic whose height adjustment is done purely by preloading the springs). Instead, you should of tried to lube up the lock nuts and springs with lots of grease. You should only have just enough preload that the springs are kept in place, not compressing it.

 

I'm weighing the pros/cons of coilovers vs spring/strut combos and i think that if imma take the plunge and go for coilovers itll prolly be k-sports and to be on the safe side ill swap em out w/ stock every winter. Has anyone actually thought of that let alone do it? Just my $0.02

 

Many people swap them out in the winter...

 

and im guessing they are the ones who's coilovers last the longest
Anyway...time to start saving up

 

yea seems like everyone up north in the cold have problems. I havent heard issues with individuals down south.

 

Errrmmmmmm, maybe all the problems have been reported from up North, but not everyone up North is having problems

I actually made a review of how these were in cold weather a few pages back, and that comment still holds. The k-sport warm up quick, REAL quick! We did have some -20 Degree celcius and colder weather here in Toronto, and even on those cold mornings, these things felt normal within 2-3 minutes if that

So far, knock on wood, I have been extremely satisfied with the way these have handled the cold weather thus far, and was actually expecting it to be a lot worse.

 

I might have a blown right, rear strut???

I get a loud thump/click when I hit a pot hole with the right side of my car. If I do the same with the left side of my car I hear no noises. It goes over smoothly. It is defineatly noticeable comming from the rear. And I get a similar noise in front because my front hub assembly is shot. And the car kind of jumps over a little when hitting a pot hole during slight turns.

I don't know what it could be. Is there any way to test the shock? Anyone else have this problem?