Hey Guys....so at first I was thinking about an Illumina/Progress set up but now I'm thinking that that may not provide a low-enough drop for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to slam the car. I just want a good majority of the wheel gap to be gone. And of course have some civility to the ride. Now I do have enough sense from all the threads I've read that a coilover system will provide a stiffer ride, but with reference to the Tein Basics, how much stiffer are we talking about? Especially when compared to the Illumina/Progress combo? With the Teins, is suspension travel sacrificed when the ride height is decreased, i.e. is it pretty much the same effect as with a strut/spring combo? If that is the case, why the heck would some really go for the Tein Basics? Any particular reason why there doesn't seem to be many Maximas with this set-up? I've done my share of research on the web but of course and coming to you guys for help.

From what I understand, KSports are stiffer than Tein Basics...and given that, in addition to some of the anecdotes I've read, I do not consider them an option at all. So please guys, chime in with your expereince and knowledge because I def lack both to make a truly informed decision.

 

get the TEIN SS....at least you can adjust the dampening with that. Tein Basics are set at one dampening setting...you can only adjust the height. Save up for the extra adjustabiliy. If I have my Tein SS's on 1f/1r it rides like a boat.

 

The SS isn't available for the 4th gen.

 

To the OP, Tein Basics would definitely let you go lower than Progress springs, but not by much (safely). They do lose travel the lower you go (and so do the SSs, incidentally), so it's best to stay within a 2.5" drop -- that will give you about a 1-finger gap in front and no gap in the rear. Some people have gone down to 3" but that's a gamble.

They're still okay because they have springs that are WAY stiffer than almost any regular springs you can get. That helps make sure your car stays off the bumpstops, even with limited travel. At the same time, because the dampers and springs are matched, the ride is still comfortable despite the high spring rates. You don't see a lot of Maximas with Basics because they either think coilovers are too high-end or want something with more adjustability.

Don't be discouraged by the anecdotes of Ksports failing. Their defect rate is something like 1-2% per year, which is right there with the rest of the industry (including Tein). You hear more stories about them breaking because they're WAY more popular, and there's a thread dedicated to the Ksports in this forum where for a while the only people posting were the ones who had problems.

Ksports have a bunch of advantages over the Teins: They have adjustable damping and camber plates, they can have the same suspension travel no matter what your drop is, and they let you adjust preload so you can have more fine control over your ride and handling. Plus, you can get them with softer springs to bring the ride quality closer to what you get with the Teins. Tein, meanwhile, has only two advantages over Ksport: the Tein name, and a slightly smoother ride out of the box.

 

hey d00df00d...thanks for the response, I was hoping that you'd chime in since you seem to have a lot of expereince with diff set-ups, whether firsthand or word of mouth. Thanks a bunch for your advice. Some of the links you provided in your KSport Coilover Talk thread regarding choosing suspension set-ups helped a lot, too. I think I'm going with the Tein Basics afterall since I'm not so into the adjustibility thing (bye bye Ksports) and I do want height adjustment (bye bye strut/spring combo)...I just wish they were that nice orange like the Ksports!

 

Happy to help. I'm sure the Teins will work well for you.

Just remember, you may want to pick up some camber bolts if your camber ends up being off after your drop.

 

Anyone know if camber bolts are really necessary? If I set Basics to the minimum drop (1.7" front) I shouldn't need camber adjustment, correct?

What are the recommended camber bolts and how easy are they to set? Do they stay where you put them or do you have to periodically adjust them?

 

Necessary with only a 1.7" drop? Maybe not. But still a good idea.

Your suspension is supposed to gain negative camber as it compresses. But that won't happen the same way with a drop as it would with the stock suspension -- in fact, it might not happen at all, depending on your setup. So, even if your camber ends up within spec after your drop, you would at least want to dial in -1 deg of negative camber to make sure you're not always rolling onto your tires' edges in corners. Besides, you WILL be cornering harder on your new suspension, and negative camber helps both grip and tire wear with hard cornering anyway.

As for which camber bolts to get, that's a tough one. You can choose from Eibach, Ingalls, Progress, SPL, and IIRC at least one or two more manufacutrers. My gut says to go with Progress or Eibach, but I have no experience whatsoever to back up that opinion. I just know that those two companies are among the most reliably thorough in the industry -- whatever they do, they always do it right.

 

Being that the Basics use the stock upper mounts on both the front and the rear, is it possible (and is there any advantage) to using Ben's mounts on the rear coilovers?

 

Good thinking. It should work, and yes, the extra suspension travel would be good.

 

Now wait, I thought coilovers were designed to have the proper amount of travel to begin with. Surely more travel is not always better. More travel would not be better if the travel can exceed the maximum extension that the strut was designed for. How would one know? Also, the more travel on a lowered car, the more likely the car itself is to scrape on bumps.

 

Travel is defined by the maximum extension/compression of the damper -- and trust me, with any kind of serious drop, there WILL be enough in the Tein Basics that adding Ben's mounts won't exceed the maximum extension. The reason they lose travel as you lower them is that they only permit you to set height by the position of the spring, which means that the "neutral" position of the damper piston is lower, thus leaving less downward travel before it hits the bottom of the damper body (which is a really quick way to a blowout).

Yes, more travel means you're more likely to scrape, but the spring rates on the Basics will be high enough that scraping in the rear would take some serious force. And however much you don't want to scrape, you really don't want to blow a damper by bottoming out the piston.

 

i've got the ss's on my 4th gen and you really don't want to go too low. i've got my suspension set fairly low now and my front right axle protests on slow speed left handers. as far as handling goes, i've been told by numerous people with coilovers that you don't want to lower your ride past your a-arms being parrallel to the ground. if you not concerned with hanlind or noise, i'd say go with the Jic's as those have the ability to lengthen or shorten the body of the coilover so you don't comprimise suspension travel!

 

wait, I thought Tein didn't make the SS's for the 4th gen???

 

correct, they never went into full production. a single set was made by Tein USA out here in CA but Tein decided not to follow through with the project.

 

Really? Interesting. Hadn't heard that. Was this about 3 years ago or much longer?

 

it was in 03 or 04. i didn't own the car at the time, but my car was the test mule for the ss coilovers as well as the strut tower brace and lower tie bar from gt fabrications. all three projects were scrapped. but one prototype of each was made. there's a thread on this somewhere in the org. when i find it i'll post it.

anyone with a search function look up gt fabrications and it should come up.