reallly?is this possible with D2s also?

 

thanks for the help everyone but i figured it out myself.

 

I'm about a set . I just wanted to know what you guys thought about the ride quality. I'm gonna probably drop my car 3inches all around. I'm mainly concerned about the ride quality and of course handling. Any input
welcome...Thanks

 

Ride Quality

Well, the ride isn't exactly smooth. You pay for what you get, and what you get is a massive increase in handling. With the Ksports, the tradeoff is some bouncing on rough highway sections, having to take speed bumps slower than ever before (unless you like bubbling your tires and knocking your teeth out), and nearly hitting the roof on the occasional big bump. That said, unless you use the full-stiff setting on the shocks, it's very very comfy for how well it handles. The 5th gen guys are saying that the ride is better than the Tein SS coilovers, which have softer spring rates than the Ksports and the same spring rates as the Tein Basics. We also have some 4th genners saying that the ride is the same as with Eibach springs and Koni or Tokico Illumina shocks (generally considered to be really really comfy); maybe slightly stiffer but not as wallowy and bouncy. And of course the handling will be better than what you'd get with any of those setups, so you get used to the bumps quickly. I came to the Ksports from stock springs and GR-2 shocks, so I found the ride fairly jarring at first. Now, it can sometimes put me to sleep if I'm not careful.


Handling

Just remember, no suspension on the Maxima will turn your car into a Miata killer in slaloms or twisties. The Ksports obviously give you huge improvements in your handling and response in those situations, but ultimately the Maxima is just too wide, long, and heavy, and doesn't have the right suspension design for tight maneuvers. What the Ksports will do is give you a ton of *****-out sustained lateral grip in more gradual turns and high-speed corners. Friends of mine who've ridden at good speeds in Integras, STIs, S4s, and M3s have definitely gotten scared by what I can do on highway ramps and interchanges. I also have a friend who has a brand-new Volvo S40, which has really good AWD and a really really nice chassis and suspension -- he took me on some twisty roads that I had never seen but that he knew like the back of his hand, and he just could not get away from me. All that, and I still have stock-width tires and an open differential.


Note:

One potential area of concern is tracking over rough pavement. With linear-rate springs this stiff, the suspension often doesn't have a lot of compliance to it and a car can tend to skip off bumps when going over them at speed. This will compromise braking and handling -- very dangerous in some situations. That's why most aftermarket springs are progressive-rate: they have some give to them initially, so they can absorb the bumps and keep the car from skipping off them. The shocks in these coilovers are so well valved that they have enough initial compliance to handle the rough stuff fairly well, even in the middle of a turn, and allow your suspension to absorb the bumps and keep your wheel in contact with the road. Add in a set of lightweight wheels and tires and you're home free. On the flip side, if your wheels and tires are heavier than stock, prepare for some serious skittishness.


Hope that helps.

 

I've been on the Ksports for about 2-3 weeks now and I've got a couple questions.

I have my fronts dialed in at a good height and stiffness (1/2 turn away from full soft) They take bumps rather well and corner very well. I still have a few extraneous clunks that will be taken care of once my rims go on.

My rears are another story. Both front and rear when fully extended (car jacked up) have about 1/2 inch of thread worth of preload. This seems to have helped with the clunk and bouncyness in the front, however my rears are VERY harsh and bouncy over bumps and dips.

This past weekend I was helping a friend move into her new apartment and had a 100lb desk in my trunk (new, unassembled). That extra weight helped to calm the rear a lot, in fact on bumps and dips the ride was very comparable to stock. Therefore I know that something can be done to make the rear of my car more comforting.

My question is: should i increase or decrease the preload?

With that being asked, I just wanted to offer this other piece of information.
Last night I was driving about 45mph on a local road when I noticed a deer about 50 feet in front of me. I quickly swerved into the other oncoming traffic lane (no cars) to nearly miss it. Had I been on stock suspension, there is no doubt in my mind that I would have lost control with such a sharp maneuver. I was able to quickly avoid it and the only side effect was the SLIGHTEST chirp from my tires. It was very easy to stabilize the car again. Not once did I feel that the car was not in my control, and to be honest, I owe saving a few thousand dollars of body repair to these coilovers.

Thanks again to all for thoughts and opinions, and especially d00df00d for his detailed help. If anyone has any answers on how to stabilize my rear suspension, I'm open to suggestions.

-Nilesh

 

i wish i could experience how well the ksports handle. too bad 19's are going on at the same time as ksports are

 

well
in a sense you will get better handling with the 19's

SPEED u will lose
but as far as grip, im sure you're getting a wider tire than your stockers
so...why so glum? suspension is about handling....

 

Happy to be of assistance!

If your ride is too stiff, decrease the preload. Preload simulates a stiffer spring because it makes it so that the spring is slightly compressed, even at rest.

What you felt with the extra 100 lbs in the back is an increase in the sprung-to-unsprung weight ratio. That leads to a smoother ride because when you hit a bump, the suspension is forced to absorb a greater percentage of the impact. The body of the car (sprung weight) has so much more inertia than the suspension, wheels, and tires (unsprung weight) that it literally just does not want to move, so it makes the suspension do more of the work.

The only way to achieve that effect without cramming junk in your trunk is to get lightweight wheels/tires. Grab yourself a set of 15" Rota Slipstream or Kosei K-1 Racing rims with Toyo Proxes T1-S (summer) or Falken Ziex ZE-512 (all-season) tires. It'll run you about $800 to $1k, and it might cut a good 8 to 12 lbs off your unsprung weight (depending on what you're running now) -- not that much, but when you consider that that's 10 to 20 percent off the stock wheel/tire combo, it has the same effect on the sprung-to-unsprung weight ratio as adding dozens of times that weight to the body of your car. It'll also help EVERYTHING about the way your car drives and handles a lot.

That's where you get the saying "If weight is king, then unsprung weight is God." (and if anyone can remember where that's from, PLEASE tell me!)

 

Because unless he's paying well over $1k a pop for each rim, his 19s won't be lightweight, which means they'll be super heavy. You're right, he will have slightly better sustained lateral grip if he goes to a wider tire. That means that in high-speed corners with gradual entrances and exits, he will have an edge. However, the massive increase in unsprung weight will really hurt transient response, which will make quick maneuvering harder. Acceleration, braking, roadholding on imperfect ground, and ride quality will also all be worse.

Not to knock his choice, of course... 19s can look fantastic, and if that's what he's after, more power to him. Just explaining the downside.

 

I shall be decreasing the rear preload once I swap my rims.

Unfortunately I'm going the opposite route from lightweight wheels. I've got a set of 18 inch OEM rims that I'm waiting on tires for, and those will be replacing my 15 inch steel stockers. I will compare weights of stock vs 18" OEM's once my tires arrive.

Will post back with results.

I've been asking this for a while, but does anyone have a picture of how they set up their brackets for the brake lines? I'm at a loss on how to tackle them the right way.

Thanks,
Nilesh

 

Put one of the strut bolts through the hole in the bracket and then through the spindle mount holes, tighten everything most of the way, and then bend it as you see fit and tighten it the rest of the way.

Or, just ditch the brackets and tie your brake lines out of the way yourself with zip ties or something.

 

I said f-the brakets and just zip tied the brake lines my self. Becarful though, leave a little slack.

 

Can I move the alan camber skrews to the next hole for a perfect camber???
How (as in do I need to jack to car up to do it)

 

^uh yea..jacking it up is a must if u want to adjust the camber..

 

Turn the steering all the way to each side to make sure you have full travel without stressing the lines.

 

ill zip tie them up also when i reduce my preload and install new rims

 

Can anyone help me out, I just realized that the 00-03 Ksport kits don't come with rear top hats/mounting brakets. How do I reuse the stock rear mounts???? I don't know if this has already been discussed, but the thread is pretty big and I'm running out of time.

 

You just need to dis-assemble the rear strut assy, and re-use the stocks. Make sure you have a spring compressor to secure the strut, and unbolt the top bolt from the assy. Remove the top mount and transfer to the Ksports. Reassemble Ksport unit, and bolt up.

 

I recently installed just the fronts but I feel the car is bouncing around badly on unvenven pavement. I didn't put any preload on the springs and I tried various stiffness settings from hard to soft. What did you guy's do to minimize the bouncy feeling? Other than that the coilovers are great!

 

theyre VERY bouncy in the beginning. give them a day or two to settle down

 

I'd say you should put the rears on before making adjustments. You won't know exactly how to set it unless it's all installed the way you want it.

The best settings I've found are:

1. Full-stiff all around
2. One half-turn away from full soft all around

 

I put a little preload on the springs when the car was off the ground. Half turn from soft and WOW, great ride and minimum bounce. Also, adjust the camber and u will be shocked with the ride quality, not to mention the handling. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks for the input. I'll try playing with them more this upcoming weekend!

 

Okay, so I finally got a chance to mess around with my Ksports this past Saturday. Earlier in the week, I spoke to Nick at Ksport and we went over some possible sources of noise. I explained to him some of the symptoms, and he told me to try and re-torque the upper nut on top of the strut assy to 45 lbs. So, yesterday, I made some height adjustments, re-tightened everything, and re-torqued that upper nut. Guess what..............no more noise. 100% silence. Now, I just need to dial in the exact height, play with the camber just a bit, then get a wheel alignment. I'll worry about the dampening last. Thanks Nick!

 

how exactly do you adjust camber??? i got my car aligned at NTB, but i dont think they touched the camber plates. can anyone give me some info on this. what is the correct camber for our maximas. thanks

 

Between -0.25 and -1 degrees.

But remember, adjusting camber with the camber plates will also affect caster and toe.

 

I have heavy 18's, and I i'm very happy with the handeling, however ride quality is bad, especially here in NYC, I'm thinking about getting some softer springs, maybe 5/3, I know the struts arent valved for them, but im sure it has to be a little better, maybe if I add a little more preload with a softer rate, it will be good.

 

How would I set the coilovers to this camber looking at the top plate? Sorry but I am new to all this and am goign to get an alignment at a racing shop this weekend. Do I need to tell them to adjust it or just let them do what they do?

 

5/3 would be pretty close to stock. It'd also probably make you understeer like crazy. Nonetheless, the handling still might be better than stock, and you could always switch the front and rear springs if it understeers too much. Of course then your rear end wouldn't be much smoother than it is now.

Your call.

 

Just show them the plates, tell them what specs you want -- i.e. however much camber as you see fit, and all the rest of the measurements as close to stock as possible -- and let them do their thing. If you feel a burning need to adjust it beyond that, you can do it with the plates.

They'll get under the car and do what they need to do. The measurements on the camber plates are for relative adjustments -- i.e., moving them will have a different effect depending on how far the car is dropped. The best thing to do would be to let them use their equipment to find the correct adjustments.

 

I recently installed my front KSports. This was my first attempt at installing any suspension component myself, and because it took me so freaking long to install the fronts, I didn't have time to do the rears. With that said when I was done I had a lot of noise (clicking when turning the wheel etc). Turned out I was way too much of a wimp when tightening the collars and setting preload. After reading these posts I re-tightened everything. The pre-load was set by turning the perch as tight as I could using two hands. I then used the perch tool and gave it another half turn. I used a hammer to lock the collars into place, and they now seem to be super tight. I also put a thin layer of wheel bearing grease on each side of each plastic perch spacer. After doing all this the noises are 99% gone. The only time I experience noise now is when I reverse and turn the wheel at the same time, I get one click on each side, thats it. I can accept the one click here and there, no biggy, but if anyone has any further suggestions to rid the noise in reverse please let me know.

 

^^

Holy CRAP, that's a lot of preload. Prepare for crazy handling and a newfound hatred of any pavement that isn't silky smooth -- you're in for a rough ride! You don't need anywhere near that much. Just tighten the spring perches just enough that the spring stays in place when the suspension is fully extended, and leave it at that.

The noise is most likely coming from the lower mount collars. Those are the ones you have to tighten with a hammer. If you still get noise after that, then loosen the top nut (the hex nut that pokes up in the middle of the camber plate) and re-torque it to 45 lb-ft.

If you still get noise after that, then you should check to make sure your strut bolts and nuts don't have grease on them where they make contact with the lower mounts.

If you check and correct all that stuff and you still get noise.... you have bad CV joints.

 

The way I set the preload was a turned the actual spring with my hands until i couldn't move it easily and them turned the upper perch with the tool about 1/2-1 turn and then locked the lower perch down. Basically the spring doesn't turn between the perches easily now. I wonder if this is too much preload?

 

Oh. I thought you meant you turned the collar.

Still, I think that's probably more preload than you need.

Get your rears on and go for a ride. If it's to harsh, dial out some of that preload.

 

I thought more preload = more comfortable because you get more travel no?

 

Nope.

Preload means the spring is always compressed, even when the suspension is fully extended. That means it's going to be more resistant than normal to compression, and it's going to rebound more afterward. It's like having a stiffer spring.

 

Hey doodfood thanks for all your helpfull tips. Everything seems to be good so far. The ride does seem a little stiffer than my previous setup (progress springs) but nothing unbearable. The beauty of this setup now is no more banging (hitting the bumpstops) over large bumps. Essentially the ride is more firm but not nearly as harsh as before ( theres a difference if you know what I mean). I do have a little more bounce than I would like, but maybe that will dissipate when I put in the rears. If it still exists I will try taking out some preload but for now it seem all good. Thanks again!!!

 

^^

Glad you like 'em. Remember, set the shocks either one half-turn or less from full soft for best comfort, or full-stiff for *****-out handling and response.

 

Pics of mine taken with just the fronts installed.

 

Damn, kid... nice pics! The Max looks great, and you bring it out well.