Guys,

About the axle issue.... I've been saying that lowering won't actually eat your axles, only reveal imperfections more readily... it looks like I have to take that back.

I just spoke with Marty at Raxles to place my order for my next set, and he gave me some tips. He said that lowering can in fact eat axles because of two factors:

1. At stock ride height, the axles are supposed to be horizontal. This is their most compressed state. As the suspension moves up or down, the axles extend. That's all well and good, but it becomes a problem when you turn the car while lowered. The axles are already deflecting because they're angled slightly upward, and when you steer, you're asking them to deflect further (in another direction). CV joints can only take a certain amount of total deflection safely, and the lower you are, the more likely you are to exceed that amount, which will cause a lot of stress.

2. Deflection from center can also cause the folds in the boots to rub together as the front wheels turn. That will cause a lot of friction, especially at highway speeds, and can easily cause the boots to crack (or break more easily if a rock hits them or something). When a boot breaks, the grease inside starts to get spun out, leaving the CV joint unprotected. If you don't catch a torn boot immediately, you can kiss your CV joint goodbye.

When my new axles come in and I get a chance to stare at them for a while, I'm going to see if I can figure out a way around the friction thing (maybe some tough grease or something).

 

yeah its a dark green, i primed the front lip myself, and i'll about paint the front bumper to match my car color, but i dun kno yet. So the 37mm offset is good? i'll raise the back up tomorrow so i can get the side skirts on, its kinda too low. Thanks for the comment guys!!

 

Marty is a great guy.

d00d, Did say anything about their axles being able to handle more than OEM axles? I know they are built better so I'd assume they can handle a little more than stock.

 

Ah, good call on the green.

I guess i meant spacers in the front because i noticed the gap more because of the pics. i know stock wheel offset is a bit high in back but didn't know what these wheels were.

I don't have spacers, just 37mm offset all around, which i think looks perfect. At 25" in the fronts and 235's i don't have any rubbing at all.

 

Aweome Dood, i'm thinking about getting some soon too. It would be awesome if there would be a way to combat some of the lowering problems. Let us know what you find out!

 

Well, he couldn't really say anything to that effect because then he could be held to it (my words, not his, but based on my interpretation of his response). But they don't use regrinding processes that compromise strength, and they use high-quality Amsoil synthetic grease that costs $1k a barrel instead of the $44-a-barrel non-synthetic crap that everyone else uses (no joke). So, really, I don't see how they wouldn't last longer.

 

Well the rear track on 4th and 5th gen Maximas is over an inch narrower than the front track. Take a close look at your rear wheels and you'll see this. It really bothered me so I put on 15mm spacers on the rear with my +40mm 17x8s and I'm very happy with the look now.

 

Looks good! Now give that pretty black max a bath

 

Wow, thanks VQuick yu sure are QUICK, you answer my question for the day, i've been wondering what size spacer i should get, yu my hero man.
Should lower yur car a bit, then it would look wack

 

+1
thats sums up all my problems. i have been on 2-3 torn boots for the last month. all the greese inside is gone. my oil filter was actually COVERED in grease due to the inner passenger boot having a hole in it.

 

So is there a solutions to this axles problems for those lowered car? As you can see from my pic for my, wondering is it likely i will have this problem?

 

There aren't any axles available with a better design to accomodate the lower height. The problem is not in the manufacturing, but in the way any CV joint works; no matter how you make it, it's going to take a lot of stress when it's overextended. All you can do is buy the best quality axles you can find to minimize the chances that they will break.

Mind you, a lot of people who use Raxles axles with lowered cars are saying that their axles are holding up just fine.

 

I never mess with axles cuz its a pain in the azz to put it back on when the ball fell out, it had happen to me before when i first install my KYB suspension, it was just an accident.
Right now my axle is oke and hopefully it'll stay oke for a long time. How you know that the axle about to worn out or what kind of sound does it make?

 

If you're easy on your car and you check the axles periodically for rips in the boots, you should be fine. If you're hard on your car, you're more likely to wear your axles out faster.

As for warning signs, check this out:

http://www.raxles.com/troubleshooting.aspx

 

So have any front shocks been reported broken yet? Or just rears?

 

Right now my front coilovers is look like this (pics below), the bottom of the coilovers left a lil piece haning so could lowered my car a lil with no preload. I just wondering if it would make noises when i turn my wheel.

 

That will depend on how much you tighten the collars.

 

but its oke to leave that part hanging like that right?

 

Thanks, it was filthy that day. I would love to lower a bit more, would probably go with TEIN Basics or Boss Chen, but I don't have the money and am still not sure I want to deal with coilovers.

15mm to 20mm spacers are perfect for the rears, depending on what the offset and width of your rims are. Get H&R Trak spacers, they're the best. www.optauto.com

Guys, I hate to say it, but most cars are not designed to be dropped 3 inches. Your are going to mess up your suspension geometry, axles, and possibly other things when you lower that much, unless you do some serious replacing of suspension components. You are all trying to get a car that looks nice and low, which is simply a function of the wheel gap. New BMWs, SAABs, any new sporty sedan comes stock with a fairly small wheel gap and the suspension geometry is designed for it. Our wheel wells are just so tall because the car was a 4x4 stock, so to make our car look "right" we have to lower 2 or 3 inches. To make a IS300 or 330 look "right" you only need to lower by 0.5 to 1 inch. So what I'm saying is you just can't drop that much and expect anything but problems IMO. The ideal solution would be to put in a totally new suspension including new control arms and the works, but that's a big investment. The other way would be to redesign the body of the car so the wheel arches weren't so high. Neither is really practical.

See this thread for possibilities: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=413359

 

The key to keeping your ksports noise free, is to keep them clean and lubricated (at the spring isolators). Over the past winter my Ksports started to get a little noisier. At the beginning of the winter I sprayed my coilovers with rustproofing (I live in Canada) for some added rust protection. Not too long after that my coilovers started to make creaking noises going over bumps. Sometimes when I would make a sharp left turn and hit a minor bump there would be an awful grinding noise from the suspension (not tire rubbing noise). Since the weather warmed up here, i decided to take everything apart, clean it good, and re-lubricate the spring isolators (using wheelbearing grease). I also took off the nut at the top of the shock, directly in the centre. That exposes a little metal cylinder type spacer which slides out straight up. I also lubed that up a tad with wheels bearing grease, and re-tightened the nut. I put everything back together and ensured all collars are super tight (I use a hammer with the perch tool to ensure this). After all this, I took her for a spin and NO MORE NOISE!!! No more noise whatsoever. Just like the day I originally installed them! If you are getting wierd noises, i would do the same thing I did. After that if you are still experiencing noises there is probably something wrong with either your car or coilovers.

 

I've been having weird noise on the drive side, every time i step on the gas i keep hearing CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK continuously. That hoe is annoy as fawk! I thought was my nut bolt because one of 'em is mess up, so i went and change it. Tested my car, at first it was pretty silence but then that thing start to happen again, went in and check again. Its because of my right control arm, its got messed up, gawwwwwlY, THATS ANOTHER $$$$200SOMETHING FROM THE DEALER,

ASKing ani of you guys kno ani good after market control arm, so i can fix the noise

 

I've actually heard very good things about the Maxima control arms sold on eBay...much cheaper and they're brand new parts, including bushings.

 

How is your control arm causing that noise? From your description, I would have thought it was an axle.

 

Same here, i thought it would be the axle at first too, but the dude at the shop said its because of the control arm, am not really sure, i kno that guy so i trust him, i'll see if is it the control arm or the axle.
The reason i think it was the axle, because when i intalled my front coilovers, on the right side, which is the side thats making the sound, I accident pull out my old strut too hard and the axle was misplace. I have to take the whole axle out and replace those ***** inside (pain in the ******)But the funny thing is, just last week i intalled Tokico HP on my friend EG, the axle on his left i got misplace too, same mistake as i did. But then his car didnt make ani sound like my car. So that 1 reason why i think its not because of the axle but the control arm.

Does TEINS make control arm for Maxima????

 

I'm so pissed. I'm cleaning my ksports and I am loosening the collars(only on the rears did this happen) and notice the whole threaded portion is spinning. Then I notice the whole bottom mount piece is spinning too. Isn't that supposed to stay put??????!!
The bottom piece mount is like, 2 pieces now. It sits together but the **** part that the screw goes through isn't staying connected to the cylindrical piece., its like spinning and I think that oil leaked out of both at one point
Can anyone tell me wtf that's about.

 

azn_s3nsation87, your mechanic might be misunderstanding the problem. If something were wrong with the control arm, you might get one click at a time. It might click here and there if you go over a bump or turn the wheel, but if you're getting a steady series of clicks when you accelerate or brake then it wouldn't be the control arm. It would have to be the axle or the transmission.

No, TEIN does not make lower control arms for our cars.

chillin014, those lower mounts look like one piece the way they come but they are indeed actually two pieces (the cylindrical piece and the piece that the bolt goes through). It looks like you just have everything on really, really tight. Try to grab the cylindrical piece and get it to move. As always, Liquid Wrench is your friend...

 

That's good news but I can't freakin tighten the collars any more cause the thing keep spinnin.

 

Allright, so how hard is to get warrenty repair done on the k-sport? Both my rear coilover had cute little puddles of oil at the base of my rear wheels after bottoming out over every little bump Friday night.

What is the best way to get a hold of Jinsu/K-Sport??

 

Wow noz, nice maxima.
I don't have any info for you about how to get ahold of him. But how much did you pay for those wheels?
How big was the puddle? You know for sure their blown?
I'm all skeptical about mine.

 

You don't need to tighten the rears nearly as much as the fronts because they're not subject to steering force. If you've tightened them that much, you're fine.

 

Lets just say the puddles are not something you can miss. But I learnt that the puddles are just a final confirmation that there is a problem....lol You'll know long before that if your coilover or struts in general are dead. You will bottom out all over the place. The half hour drive home Friday night was painfully un-barable. I honestly thought my rear coilover assembly was going to rip right into my trunk

d00df00d, what did you find was the best way to get a hold of Jinsu/K-Sport? Aim? Phone?

Please let me know, as always, your help is much appreciated

 

AIM, definitely. His screenname is HeroESP.

 

Thanks d00df00d!

Is that Jinsu, or k-sport?

 

That's Wei, the guy who runs Jinsu Trading.

Ksport can also be reached on AIM at ksportsupport.

 

No more creaks now that I tightened everything up yayyy

 

Havn't heard back from any of them yet?

 

Allright so got a hold of'em. So from the time you sent it to them, to the time you got it back, how long was the process d00df00d?

And how much do they want for a pair of 6kg springs in the back instead of the current 7?? And how badly will that offset the handling of the car? Don't the D2 come with 9/6? I have now realized how stiff the rear was after switching back to stock and wouldn't mind something softer for these horrible Toronto roads?

 

From reading what others have said, you'll probably have your coilovers back in 2 weeks or less after you send yours out to them. You'll have to ask them what their turnaround is like, though.

My Ksports came with 9/6 springs, which is the default as I understand. Are you sure you have 9/7?

Softer rear springs generally push the handling balance away from oversteer/toward understeer. That may mean slightly softer turn-in, less tendency for the rear to kick out, etc.

If you're gonna get softer springs, go for 7 front, 5 rear. Going from 7 to 6 in the rear won't make that much of a difference.

 

Thanks.

Do you know how much it would cost for just a rear set of springs?

I thought by default, the k-sport were 9/7, not 9/6? And 9/5 would be way too off I guess.

 

Most people seem to have gotten 9/6, but I've seen some with 9/7....

Ask Wei about the price for springs... I think it's somewhere around $100-$150 USD per pair. Hell, you might even be able to get it cheaper if you have them switch the springs out for you when they service your coilovers. They have to take 'em apart anyway...