I have all the ES bushings up front, stage 2 SFCs, stage 2 LTB, Superpro rear trailing arm bushings, Koni/Eibach, FSTB and probably some other things I'm forgetting.

Oh, and I'm getting the new delrin LCA bushings too:
LINK

 

What was the toe before you had the install redone?

If it toed out before you had it redone it would definitely make the car oversteer easily.

 

Joe was asking about measurements for the offset rear trailing arms in an earlier post. Now that he had some hands on time with your car did he get what he needed to be able to produce them for our cars?

 

Is he still selling these? I tried to PM him but his box is full and from the looks of that thread he had some manufacturing reliability problems... They look awesome though, Im with you and want some.

 

My car is at 2j-racing this weekend getting the panhard, front splitter, lowered engine mounts, brake ducting, and we might install that bolt in bars bumpsteer kit. Joe is also going to check that delrin rear offset bushings on my car and make a maxima specific part eventiially.

 

front splitter, lowered engine mounts, brake ducting? those are some pretty hardcore mods man! are we gonna be seeing a Time Attack Maxima soon?

 

Yeah I run with track clubs that do Solo time attack events.

Panhard is done and I got to drive it around. I need a track test session because the limit of grip was higher than I felt safe with on the street before the panhard. Now its even more assinine. Plus I have some lap times from previous track events, so there is some data to go by.

 

3 panhard Maxima's. i never thought i'd see the day.

 

Everything is almost done except the splitter, we might skip the brake ducting. I can do that at home on my own once the splitter is done.

 

Ok, time for pics!

Here's what my passenger side ES LCA bushing looked like after a year of use...pretty normal:


And the not so fortunate driver side:


2JR installed a fresh new set before I learned that I could buy a set of the delrin bushings, so they will be going in shortly!

Stock tie rod


2JR 1st gen tie rod/bumpsteer kit


And for the panhard rod pics










And two pics to show the movement of the rod which causes the noise. I'm really considering trying some nylon washers on either side of the ball to quiet things down, but I'm not sure how much the rod needs to move.





And here's a video of the panhard rod making noise. Granted, it's a little exaggerated, but you get the idea.


And here's the noise one of my bumpsteer kits is making. I tried tightening everything up and it didn't make a difference. This has me a little worried.

 

Does it only make noise on that one attachment or does it knock on both sides of the panhard rod? They make a special washer for spherical bearings that allows the movement without restricting the bearing from moving. If the welded on tabs were slightly widened to incorporate this special washer it may cut down on the noise. Ill locate a pic of what I am talking about and edit this post.

Edit:

Spherical Bearing Washer

https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/pr...p?Product=3068

Second Edit:

It looks like the bumpster kit has this same washer installed on the top. They are called safety spherical bearing washers and are meant to provide some safety should the bearing fail. For example in the bumpster kit if the bearing should fail the washer would keep the tie rod from coming completely lose and losing complete control of the car. What makes them "special" is the raised portion allows the natural movement of the bearing without restricting its movement.

 

I'm planning on doing all of this stuff one day, just has to wait till my next trip to the ATLLLLL SHAWWWDDDAYYYY

 

Just to let everyone know im back home and the car is good. Been up pretty much since 9 am Sunday, so I'm going on 39 hours at this point. Pics and detailed reviews can wait.

Big thanks to Joe and Justin for making this happen and going out of their way to get my car done on Sunday night. The splitter project took alot longer and was more intense than previously thought so that was what took the longest.

Have to say the panhard is still worth the trouble even if it makes a little noise. There might be fixes I have in mind worth trying in the future.

My car was ok on the bumpsteer but they installed the kit I had and I will take measurements with my bumpsteer gauge to get some before and after data.

The engine and trans being lowered feels great as its like having lowering springs without the messed up geometery.

Best of all the splitter is just epic, even if I only have a 4 finger gap to the ground. Looks like we stole it off some NASCAR car of tomorrow and made it fit on my Maxima. Night and day difference on the highway with the way the car feels and handles above 50 ~ 60 MPH and works even better at faster speeds. As a side bonus there was a gain of about 2~3 MPG highway mileage but I need to confirm it with more controlled conditions.

 

Without pics of this splitter it does not exist. :P

 

What the hell are you talking about? What is this "splitter" you speak of?

 

He sent me a pic sunday. I'll upload it soon if he doesnt.

 

Joe, what did the splitter and lowered engine mounts cost you? That sounds like a fantastic idea (correcting the axle geometry by lowering the engine).

 

 

Jeez guys give me a day or so to catch up on some sleep...

Not the best pic Kevlo. This was a rough fitment, I have finished pics that I need to edit and upload.

 

wow that is serious! (insert bad Nascar joke here) That is some seriously nice fabrication! I cant wait to hear the difference it makes in your times!!

 

OK here are some pics.



Bumpsteer kit from Bolt on Bars. This is a bolt in kit available but they are hard to get cause they are made in small batches, 2J Racing is thinking of making an improved verison sometime in the future. Anyways You can put the rod end on either side of the spindle to adjust bumpsteer and mess around with the Ackerman of the steering.



Panhard rod!!!





It clears the Cattman 3" no problem.



Lowered engine and trans mounts. Spacers are on the center crossmember and under the transmission bracket with longer bolts. They redrilled the passenger side mount so it bolts in lower.

 

Now its time for the splitter show.



Before.











Fabrication pics.



Over 250 rivets were used to hold this thing together. All of them drilled and riveted by hand.



Its low!!! You can't even fit your shoe underneath this splitter. It has a four finger gap to the ground.







Installed after a long night.



Daytime pic at a rest stop in Virgina. This thing draws a crowd wherever I go.

To fab this up took over 8 hours. They had to make custom brackets to hold the splitter to the chassis and make brackets that bolt into the aluminum front bumper guard for the stanchions. It came out so nice it is hard to believe its my crappy car anymore.

 

Dang race car now.

 

wow! that looks intense. well done Joe.

 

I always know what I am talking about...

I had mentioned the splitter project in this thread a couple of times before hand.

Probally heard that 3~4 times on the ride back home.

Thanks! But the guys at 2J Racing are the ones who deserve the credit. Justin had to fabricate custom brackets that bolt to where the front tow hooks and they hold the alumalite sheet perfectly flat on both sides. Joe free hand drilled hundreds of those holes for the pop rivets and they came out very even and regularly spaced. The splitter came out looking very good, not even close to what I was thinking of doing on my own.

 

My reviews on the Panhard are similar to what Nick and Jack were saying. But I didn't push the car very hard when we tested it; so at first I wasn't impressed with it as much as I thought I would be. I think this mainly due to my car being the only Maxima with coilovers and camber plates to get this panhard swap done. However when we got done Sunday night Joe took me for a ride in my car and it was a different beast. On the ride home I had some fun to break up the long drive by taking highway curves very fast and getting throttle lift oversteer.

With my setup the car will now get a little oversteer whenever I want it to as opposed to getting oversteer randomly. It is nice to have that ability in case I get understeer in a corner and can lift off the throttle to rotate the car, then get back on the throttle to get on out of the corner.

I don't even have to use a rear sway bar to attain this, which is nice because I do not want the extra weight and harsher ride quality. But If I do Auto-x I have the option of putting on my old Progress rear sway bay and get the car to be more tail happy. I could also run the other set of rear springs that I have which are about 100 pounds more stiff than the current springs I am using now.

I managed to meet up with Nick on the ride home and we drove each other's car to get a review. His car has much better heavier steering with the smaller diameter steering wheel & aluminum steering shaft bushing but the chassis has a softer intial turn in with the Eibach springs/Koni Yellows and stock upper mounts but the car handles very flat with the panhard swap. I think the panhard is more effective for those who have stock or lowering springs and want coilover like handling but without the harshness of coilovers. I like the fact that I would run over bumps in his car and not have to deal with all the banging from the solid front/rear strut mounts that my car has. So his car could hang with my car at the speeds we were driving in much better comfort. Sometime in the future I would like to get a better steering wheel and get rid of that squishy rubber bushing in the steering shaft. I am also considering going back to rubber upper strut mounts.

Now the drawbacks of the panhard, again there is noise at low speeds and over sharp bumps but with the loud exhaust and my bad hearing it doesn't bother me much. I have some fixes in mind but I will experiment before I post anything up. The other issue is the twitchiness of my car as it is now more oversteer prone, I have to use the throttle properly and smoothly especially in the rain. So if your not experienced with how to deal with oversteer use caution when you get the panhard rod swapped in and have alot of other suspension mods.

The splitter/undertray will get its own thread as I don't want to clutter up this one. Suffice to say the splitter and panhard compliment each other, as the car is twitchy and easy to turn at lower speeds. At highway speeds the splitter hunkers the car down and makes it feel like a heavier car along with the reduction of the twitchiness giving my car the best of both worlds. I had to remove the splitter in NJ as the car was overheating due to air stagnation, without the splitter the car sucks driving at highway speeds and is a handful when you hit a lot of bumps in the road at high speeds.

 

Thanks for the honest review and feedback on our parts. We build everything by hand, from scratch based on our designs that have been tested on the race track.

I do want to point out that these components are built and sold as race car parts. While we do have a concern for NVH, its not the primary focus. Its hard to have it both ways. Once you try the panhard, splitter and our other parts you'll be amazed at how your car performs.

Here are few pictures from the splitter build

 

Kevlo, if you can please remove the picture posted on 8/16 5am - that shows the splitter with the side gap while it was in production. It gives the appearance our splitter doesnt fit well. Thx

 

Good to hear from you Joe. The car made it home OK but I have to fix that exhaust leak from the headers and the cracked windshield before I can do another track day to test these parts. My car is so different from years ago I don't think track comparisions will be even close.

I like the picture with the 20 dollar bill, this thing will not clear a US bill.

Oh can you edit out my front plate on those pics? the front plate looks stupid and I don't want people to know my registration.

... Hahaha 0 RWHP ...

I might have to get that as my new plates, that or L8APEX or L8BRKR.

 

Finally got a chance to get this car on a road course!

To get the car ready was a chore as I had to fix all the nasty exhaust leaks and only had a few days before the event to get the car fixed and dialed in. The car was loose mostly due to being toed out about a 1/4" so that is what made the car a little tail happy after 2J Racing adjusted the bumpsteer. I had the shop set the car up for -2.0 camber and 0 toe as the forcast was for rain and I needed the car to be neutral.

It rained for half the day and I haven't been to Limerock in a couple of years but the car felt pretty good. The car was cornering pretty flat and there was no understeer. I could push the car much harder and will do so next time around, as the car feels much more confident in the turns. The brakes were the only limiting factor as I was on street tires and was braking much earlier than usual. This got them hotter as I was using them more often. With R compounds I could just use the brakes at the last second and make it fine through the turns.

 

nice pic man!

 

Curious as to if this has been mocked for the 5.5 yet?

 

unless someone is keeping quite about it, i believe it's only been done to 4th gens.

 

holy crap, nice. and great review. Interesting to see the heating issue occur with the splitter. I wonder what improvisations could be made to help the air flow.

 

Issues with the splitter have been resolved. I cut out some more material on the driver side to reduce the air stagnation and made both sides of the under tray symetrical. No issues on the track with over heating, however it was a cold and rainy day. Will track it next year on a summer day with my data logger to see how things are in high ambient temps.

 

It seems like heim joint/rod end dust boots might help with the noise a little. You just need to know the size of your hiem joint. With 6 per pack it give you plenty of spares when the tear, which I'm sure they will over time. Here are some links:
http://www.sealsit.com/rodendboots.asp
http://www.kartek.com/Product/Fabrication/Heims.html

 

Just cut some thin slices of heater hose and when you bolt up the rod end, slip the slices over the ball to keep the rod end housing from hitting the inside of the flange where it mounts.

 

Bumping the thread to see if any more 4th genners have had this done, and to see if it's been done for the 5th gen yet.

 

Hey man....I told you....road trip to GA and im down

You could be the first

 

sup bro? Yeah. Been eying this since you pointed it out. Contemplating this or the cf trunk :/

All the deadening from my stereo days has my baby with a fat ***....big part of the draw is the weight reduction...big part...im semi happy with mine now
...semi