That'll help with squeaking but not clicking.

I'm actually getting some clicking too. I'll be resetting my coilovers this weekend when I try installing the helper springs, so I'll check for possible causes.

 

well i got the fronts on with ALMOST no problem. for some reason,there was still some load on the factory springs even when completely in the air. almost ripped the axle boot.

can someone shoot a picture depicting the brake line brackets? thats the only thing that i want to make sure, so that nothing is rubbing

thanks, will update with pictures soon

 

yo where did you get those at? for how much? Or are you swapping springs from diff coilovers alltogether?

 

well ive been messing with the preload and stuff and have come to the conclusion that I wasnt anywhere near using the right amount of preload. Originally i was tightening as much as I could by hand and then going maybe 1 more thread after that like the website said but I was getting alot of noise and when i grabbed the spring and shook it I could tell there was slight movement. Since then i have moved the spring perch up quite a bit and actually notice a point where i can visibily see the spring compress and then I stop at that point. When I do the grab and shake test the spring is now firmly in place. Noise has been reduced alot altho I still get occasional clicks but it could be because I need to give the springs time to settle in. Now looking at the spring perch, I can only go maybe an inch and a half more before i reach the top of the thread. Is this way too much? How much are you guys using?

Also when I moved the spring perch up my height went up which isnt what I would expect. I would think with shorter springs you would drop even more. Am I missing something?

 

just thoroughly examined the performance, etc. results:

were VERy bouncy at first for a couple miles, since then have settled. will attempt to add more preload when fine tuning. i had even less preload than blazingchimp, where the spring was just held in place by the perch, nothing more.

have begun to develop some sort of metallic clunk/pop. could also be considered a click. happens when turning and when braking. numerous times per turn, but only once when stopping. anyone got any ideas?

lean in, cornering is all good. my back end is all over the sloppy place because theyre still factory. will be doing those this weekend.

very concerned about the clunk/pop/click, and also, how exactly to take care of the brake lines. pics would be helpful. thanks all.

btw air tools and liquid wrench = no problem

 

The spring is sitting between two pieces of rubber. It won't make clicking or clunking noises.

I have a feeling that at least some of the clicking/clunking noises that people are getting are due to the collars moving against each other. If adding a lot of preload helped your problem, it might have been because the pressure of the preload is helping to keep the collars in place.

Yes, shorter springs will lower your ride height. But, when you move your spring perch up, the spring is being pushed upward, which will raise your car.

 

Just installed the helper springs and raised the car a bit. I think I reduced the clicking but it's still there a little... it's exactly as djfrestyl described it. The springs are firmly in place and everything's torqued to spec... if anyone has any other ideas for getting rid of the noise, I'd like to hear them.

I noticed that when I adjust the camber plate, toe-in seems to change more than camber. Does this mean I got the right and left coilovers reversed?

EDIT: It's all good.

 

INSTALLED!

Stoked.

Made the suspension about as tall as possible w/o potential issues and wound up about .5-1 in lower than the eibachs (NOTE: this is approximate, probably should take that estimate with a grain of salt. However, Its safe to say that these COs are not made to keep the car at stock height! (Thank gawd!)

Went for a test drive and its really really sweet- The car is born again, even after Eibach/Koni.
Something amazing happened: In a u-turn, I hit kinda hard and actually got oversteer around the turn [at super low speed!?!].
That is SO not like my old maxima it is almost scary. Especially when you consider that my street setup has stickyer tires in the rear.

So this is scary enough that I am going to take it really easy at HPDEs until I know what I am dealing with. Like I said, the car is TOTALLY different... And awesome! I feel super planted. Being low and on linear springs not suprising but still the difference between the performance/comfort suspension (e.g. eibach/koni) and the K-sports is really ridiculous. A bigger difference than Stock SE suspension to Eibach/Koni.

I had more problems with speed bumps on the OLD setup than this one... No longer scraping the LTB-2, probably because the front isnt bobbing at all anymore.

Ok, things are great, but there is a problem:
I am getting some popping noises big time when turning hard right. It seems to just that side more than the other.

What have the vets/experts done to reduce/elimiate popping noises? Please let me know what the suggestions are. I have already tried tightening down the setup on the side with the noise and it aint helped that much. (Of course, I could tighten it more, just turned it as much as was doable with normal effort)

Suggestions?

Other facts:
Koni / Eiback struts/springs all around : 74 lbs (+/- 1lb)
K-sports: 44 lbs- unsprung weight reduction of 30 lbs

 

For the clicking/popping noise, try putting some grease on the spring gaskets. The noise went away after I did that (at least it did on my D2's)

 

Yeah Spaniard! Now we have an actual racer with the coilovers! Looking forward to some solid, indepth reviews!

Some things to address now...

After raising the car by an inch or so, so that the control arms are almost straight (still slightly deflected upward but nothing major), there's a huge difference in the handling. I'll have a better idea once I get an alignment -- I have hideous positive camber now -- but initial impressions are that the lower center of gravity that I had will not be missed. Turn-in is definitely sharper and the car is much more alive. With the straightened control arms, my front track is now wider. That means slightly better front grip and response, but also more tramlining and torque steer, and it's a bit twitchier now. More on that after my alignment.

New great shock setting: full-soft in front, one turn from full-soft in back. Much, much more civilized than full-stiff... it's a less involving driving experience, but it's downright comfy.

About the noises, I've been getting them for a while and just tonight I went to check the top bolts in the strut towers. On the side with the most clicking (by far), none of the bolts was tightened to spec (50 lb-ft, from what I've heard). This was the most likely cause. I'll give a more definitive report after I've had a chance to drive it... right now I'm way too tired.

But for now, my advice is to get in and just tighten the crap out of everything, especially if you used penetrating lubricant to free the bolts. There's always a way to free an overtightened bolt, but there isn't always a way to compensate if something comes loose while you're on the road.

 

your riding with full soft? arnt you bouncy as ****? i mean, when i go closer to the half way point, and i come to a stop at a light, it feels like my car is on air, it just bounces for a bit.. quite annoying. Also 50lb-ft, isnt that a lil high for the strut bolts?

 

You'd think it'd be really bouncy, but it's not. Give it a shot yourself... the middle-to-high settings are the bounciest.

I read the Tokico Illumina installation instructions in the Shop Talk secion of Maxima.org, and it listed 40-50 lb-ft for the top bolts and 110 for the bottom ones.

 

ive got my tops torqued at 40, ill go ahead an tighten em up

lowers ive got tightened as much as my impact gun will go, will also tighten those up (i need a new torque wrench). will also be raising my lower spring perch by about a half to one inch and greasing the **** outta the rubber inserts. this clunk MUST stop.

what kind of lubricant are you guys using - and someone, PLEASE send me a picture of what you did with the brake lines.

 

Check the link on the previous page. $115 shipped altogether.

 

I just tried full soft myself, and it was nice.. No bouncing, just a bit more tame. And the clicks are better (still around on hard,slow turn radiuses) but am 99% sure its from the metal/plastic intersection at the base of the spring. A little oil on there also might have been a help (in addition to the strut bolts torqued to 50)

 

Anyone have illuminas + H&Rs prior to installing this? Could you comment on the ride difference?

 

I didnt have illuminas + H&Rs but I can still absoultely guarantee that the car will be totally different. Totally. I went from Eibach/Koni (supposedly a bit firmer than H&Rs) and the difference in night and day. You will feel the road like never before. The car will not sway, bob, or lean, it will sooner slide..

People should not expect the ride to be anything like struts and springs... Even "performance" struts and springs...

 

SOURCES OF CLICKS/CLUNKS, AND HOW TO FIX THEM:

Yeah, that's "sources" plural. I personally noticed I was getting more than one kind of click/clunk/snap/crackle/pop, which makes sense because I found more than one problem.


1. Bottom strut bolts permitting movement in the bottom mount. On stock struts, the bottom mounts have two circular holes, just big enough for the bolts to fit through. This prevents the bolts from moving inside the holes. On the Ksports, the bottom mounts have one circular hole and one elongated hole, which may permit some movement. If the bolts aren't gripping as they should, the struts and the spindle may move relative to each other in hard, tight corners -- as you turn the wheel, the strut's position will shift, and you'll hear a "CLUNK" when the top bolt in the bottom mount shifts to the other side of the hole.

Solution: You may have tiny layers of grease/buildup on the nuts, bolts, and strut mounts that will preventing proper contact. You also may not have tightened them properly. Remove them, de-grease them thoroughly, and torque them down to at least 110 lbs, which is factory spec -- you may want to go a little higher than that since the bolts may be subjected to greater-than-normal stress from the suspension's higher stiffness and new geometry.


2. Collars above and below the strut mounts not gripping enough. This is, in my opinion, a design flaw on Ksport's part. The collars you tighten to keep the spindle mount in place may come loose in everyday driving, occasionally permitting the spindle mounts to move on the shock body.

You can get two types of noise from this. One is a click from the bottom mount twisting against the partially-but-not-entirely-loose collars. This will usually happen while turning. The more you tighten the collars, the less frequent the clicks will be but the louder they will be when they do happen. During normal driving, the spindle mount is subjected to ungodly amounts of torque just from steering, so it's not really surprising that there'd be a problem here and there.

The other type of noise you can get from loose collars is a softer click/clunk from the bottom mount shifting around. That's fairly self-explanatory.

Solution: Clean the contact surfaces between the collars and the bottom mount. This will make sure you get proper contact. Then, tighten the collars down in two steps: First, put one collar wrench on the top collar and the other collar wrench on the bottom collar, and tighten them both at the same time with all your force. Then, use a hammer (or suitable substitute) and pound the collar wrenches to tighten them as far as they will go. Don't wail on them with full force, but give them some good whacks.

If this still doesn't do it, you might consider sanding off the zinc coating on the mating surfaces on the collars and the spindle mounts so that they grip better. No one has had to resort to this so far, so it's untested.... let alone that Ksport most certainly has NOT and will NOT recommend anything of the sort. Try it absolutely at your own risk.


3. Rubber spring isolators rubbing against the metal. This will give you squeaking noises as you turn the steering wheel, and in some cases might give you dull clicks if the springs start binding.

Solution: Add some lithium grease or CV joint grease where the rubber washers make contact with the metal.


If anyone finds more info, feel free to contribute and I will edit this post to make it The Definitive Click-Killing Guide Post or something.

 

i used to have illuminas and stech, and the ride is noisier with the ksport but wellll worth the improve handling and..well it's just better!

 

try threadlock for the collars if they are indeed the cause of clicking

 

By the way, in the process of fixing the clicks as I described above, I somehow killed my positive camber and almost completely corrected my alignment problem. Don't ask me how, but it drives pretty straight so I'm not asking any questions. And my GOD is it a better car than it was.

Riding on full-soft in front, half-turn-from-full-soft in back almost feels as smooth as stock, but oh boy does it grip better. It's not as exciting and alive-feeling as full-stiff (think slow and smooth sex instead of rough and wild sex), but on rough suburban Philly roads it's probably more capable due to the extra compliance -- the car absorbs bumps and finds grip right away instead of skipping off them and hoping to grab the pavement once it comes down. At this ride height (I have about 7" ground clearance front, 7.5" rear), turn-in and handling are great almost all the way to the edge, even with these 205/65/15 tires (Bridgestone Potenza G 009s in front and half-worn Continental ContiExtremeContacts in rear... understeered like hell on the old SE springs and GR-2s).

I'm gonna try one round-trip daily commute with this setting, and then see what it's like with full-stiff at this ride height.

 

Glad that everyone is in love with their ksport. I guess i have done my job here! lol

 

well i added a bunch of preload and it helped quite a bit but still had a few clicks. The ride was too harsh tho so I went back to minimum preload and now there is more clicking even though I tightned the crap out of everything. I agree with d00df00d that most of the sound is comming from the lower perch collars, just not sure on the best way to get rid of it. Is anyone getting a click free ride with these?

 

So all you guys are getting same sounds as the D2 coilovers? And they said that these weren't the same coilovers.

 

yea but if you talk to some distributers, they say that majority of the coilovers they sell have some type of problem, and if you compare the D2's to the ksports visually they are not too similiar. the designs are different.

 

The Ksports are very good coilovers, but let's be honest: we didn't exactly pay thousands of dollars for them. Besides, coilovers aren't something you buy when you want your car to be a soft, quiet spaceship of a thing anyway. All told, if we pay under $800 for such a big improvement and a little clicking is the worst of our problems, we're in pretty good shape. It's not exactly a problem that should be really hard to solve.

I had to remove the bottom collar to set my coilovers to the height I wanted while still keeping the spring near the top of the shock travel. That's probably allowing my spindle mount to move more than it should. I have a feeling I'll change that at some point... maybe then I'll try sanding away the zinc coating on the mating surfaces between the collars and the spindle mount, tighten the hell out of them, and see if that helps.

EDIT 8 MONTHS LATER: I later discovered that removing that bottom collar was a bad idea and entirely unnecessary anyway, so don't do it.

 

bad day for laly today.

i was planning on doing my coilovers this week. this morning my wheel fell off my 3rd gen when i was driving and did some damage. it sucked, but i looked at this as a chance to do my coilovers tonight.

during the process of doing my drivers side. i accidently popped the axle out of the tranny and started leaking fluid all over the place. i was planning on doing changing the tranny fluid anyways. i got the passenger side front on before i called it a day. i got a question for you guys though. how did you measure the height. i turned the bottom piece all the down and started from the beginning all the way up. i turned it 60 times and it still looks like it could go much more.

another question for you guys, any body know how to tell when the axle is in all the way. i feel like im going to have a problem with the axle issue tomorrow. and where do i fill the tranny fluid?

thanks
joshua

 

measuring the coilovers before putting them is worthless(i learned the hardway, and i believe doodfood did too ) its all install, and than adjust from there, adjusting is not that bad. measuring after installing them works ok.. but still not perfect

 

i'm gonna try and lube everything up with energy suspension's grease, it cures the sounds on everything else.

 

anyone figure out the best way to tighten the lower perches yet? seems like the more I tighten the louder the clicking gets. And I doubt I can ever get enough torque on those adjusting wrenches to counter all the tourqe that is placed on it when steering. I am seriously considering just keeping the perch loose and not locked in. Anyone know if this is ok to do? I think it would since the entire bottom mount moves with the spindle anyways. When locked it the entire shock will rotate to compensate and w/o the locks it would just move the lower mount instead. Just wanna make sure this is okay before I do this because the the clicking really bothers me.

 

There shouldn't be any real harm to just leaving the collars slightly loose for now. Mine are a little loose and they've been fine for the past few days, and I haven't exactly been driving like a granny.

This weekend I'm gonna try to make time to do the sanding thing I talked about above and post the results.

 

UPDATE ON THE NOISE ISSUE

Just spoke with Ksport support, who recommended that we tighten the lower mount collars by putting one wrench on one collar and one on the other, and then tightening them both at the same time. I was even told that a hammer could be used to tighten them down as far as possible.

Remember to make sure the mating surfaces are free of dust, dirt, or grease before doing this, since that stuff would prevent even contact and kinda defeat the purpose.

 

ive tried the hammer thing and I always tighten both collars at the same time. I havent tried cleaning the surface but I have a feeling it still wont be enough. The amount of torque applied when steering is just too much. I have seriously tried to tighten these things like 15 times since Ive gotten them. Keep us updated d00df00d.

 

Okay then. I'm going to write an email to Ksport support so they can forward it to their engineers for consideration. I hope I have time to tinker with my coilovers this weekend. I will definitely let you guys know what's up.

 

I dont have any noises - so far. Aside from 'normal' chassis 'stretching' over steep driveways and regular noises (clunk) over hard bumps. Coilovers are never 100% quiet. Most noises come from moving metal on metal contact. Might want to check to see if any parts that turn are touching metal - if so add grease. My old cattmans had this loud creaking/clicking when turning - since the spring would spin around the hat as the wheel turns.

I also did measure before install but I measured my old JICs first - from bottom of top hat down to the top mounting bolt. Got the fronts where I wanted which is about the same as JICs were in first shot. The rears were off after measuring only cuz I forgot I wanted to raise it up anyway but it did come out same as old JIC rears.

Also full soft does not bounce. It just doesnt feel stiff enough over bumpy roads depending on how low ur ride height is. But its very nice over smooth roads.

Cattman did add helper springs and raised strut mounts to the Gen2s to keep the strut travel the same and get a lower ride height. It also helped with those spring noises during turning but wasnt perfect. I still had to grease it up from time to time.

 

i know exactly where the noise is coming from and I dont think grease is the way to go. the noise is cause from the lower perch locks moving against the perch. Adding grease might get rid of the noise but would make it so the locks slide easier. I talked to ksport and they do not reccomend not locking the lower perch because this would put all the pressure on the spring perch and could cause long term problems. There needs to be a way to tighten the locks on the lower perch so that any torque from steering will not cause the perch to move but rather the entire shock as McPherson struts are designed to do this. Adding grease would just make the locks more slippery and allow more movement. I talked to ksport and one idea was to loosen the top mounting screws a little because if they are too tight the shock might not be able to rotate. I will try that out later today and see if that helps. I will also clean the contact points as much as I can to see if that helps.

edit: just clarified with ksport and I need to try loosening the middle bolt not the 3 mounting bolts

 

so much for KSports claim that they "dont have a noise issue like D2".....


That really sucks that they have this problem. Especially sice the D2 noise issue is easily fixable, it is usually because people did not tighten the bottom alan bolts enough.

hope this gets resolved for you guys. I would get on their case about this since one of the selling points for them was that they were supposed to be noise free.

 

A little bit of pre-load, tightening everything, a little lube between spring and plastic doo-hickey and I have no clicking... At least for now, maybe will have to re-tighten every so often- Which isnt a problem since I tend to change wheels pretty often.

 

won't it be a problem for those who don't? which will be 99%?

 

Not if we find a permanant fix, which we will.