The other day, I was driving up on the freeway to merge onto another section of the interstate. The on-ramp is very curvy and a mile long before merging into the junction of another interstate. The posted speed limit is 35 and I was doing a 60. What really blew me away that I steered with ease and stayed on my intended path without oversteer. Yet keep me in my seat without leaning. I'm really impressed with the SE suspension. I was going to get a different shocks but since the steering, it convinced me to keep the stock on my car.

 

The stock suspension (or a relativly soft suspension) will normally perform better on one long sweeping turn, as opposed to a very still aftermarket suspension. The body roll is actually beneficial. Quick changes in direction is where a performance suspension is usefull. Control at high speeds is also greatly improved. Btw, and maxima's will understeer from the factory, just so you know.

 

I do agree the SE is good but not great. My GLE with the current setup just kills the SE in everyway.

 

HEHE, You say no oversteer... HEHE

My ideal suspension would be at 100% cornering with some degree of countersteer and the right foot still matted. Pointing to the inside of the corner with the rear tires doing most of the work. But for some reason every car company but Honda, and Mazda consider that to be dangerious, they'd rather have you with the wheel turned full lock on your intended path going straight Into what ever you turned the wheel to avoid. Doesn't make sence to me.

 

With a good set of tires (don't know what you have) and lower CG you could probably take the turn at 90. Sweepers aren't bad, but if you need to do high speed lane changes or something, aftermarket suspension is much better. When I bought my 99, I tried to follow my friend home in my old 97 with suspension mods. He basically kicked my @ss. Just the feel alone of how the car handles with upgraded suspension is a big plus. Springs can be had for cheap and I think make a big difference in handling. My H&R's on stock shocks felt nearly the same as stock springs.

 

there is a big diff. night and day between stock and aftermarket i have sprint and kyb agx i couldn't believe how the car handled i can make very sharp turns on high speeds as long as i don't see any bumps where i turn cuz u loose traction pretty easy then still better than a roll over , f u think stock susp is good go on an open road about 90+ mph and u'll be forced to slow down cuz the wind gonna play with your car like a kite,,,, peace

 

I got this e-mail from Stillen the other day, does anyone have experience with this set-up? Check out their website for details. It sounds like a good deal to me.

From Stillen:
Check out this incredible special pricing on Maxima Combos. What is the catch? Purchase a set of Eibach Springs and Premium Tokiko Shocks for your Maxima and you receive a Super Special Promotional Price of $449 for the combo. This offer is only good through the holidays and lasts while we have them in stock. So, don't wait around and let your friends beat you to the punch.

Offer ends 12/01/03

 

Sounds like a good deal. Just want to note that the Tokiko's Premium Performance are not adjustable.

 

how often do you adjust and how do u kno what settings to use?
Jae

 

I wouldn't waste my money with that setup. The Eibach springs are more performance orienated then most other lowering springs. They will quickly wear our the Tokiko Shocks {alot of people believe these are just the stock SE struts}. When I first started auto-xing I had H&R with Tokikos Permium shocks. It was an ok setup but the car performed better with sprints springs with stock shocks. The best not coil-over solution is KYB AGX and sprint springs. You could probably find Sprint/AGX combo for ~500.00. The extra $50.00 is well worth it. In other words don't waste your money on the Tokikos.

Blade

 

Generally, you end up with two settings -- street & track. Books have been written on how to adjust shocks, but in my ahem-cough-cough other vehicle, I ended up running full soft on the street and full hard at the track.
Mike R

 

i agree

 

I just wanted to add something here. At first I thought the same about firm and soft settings. The harder you drive the firmer the settings right? Wrong.

The rebound (and compression if you got it) settings are supposed to match your spring rates and will vary only a little between street and track setups. Lots of other terms like balance, tire loading, frequencies, motion ratios, and the like come into play here but that's a whole other world.

Just starting to really understand this stuff

 

That might be true for some people. Like I said though, books have been written about this stuff.

Street Setting -- Start at full soft. Stiffen them up until the bouncy/floaty feeling goes away. Then, stiffen them until your gf/wife complains that the ride hurts her tush. Go back to previous setting.

Track Setting -- Stiffen them up until the car just skips over the bumps. Back off a bit. Then, determine whether backing off some more at one end or the other will improve turn-in. E.g. Try a run with the front set softer and see if the car feels more neutral (better) on corner entry.

Your choice in shocks will affect the Street/Track difference too. Konis at full stiff aren't nearly as harsh as Tokicos at full stiff -- because the Konis adjust rebound only while the Tokicos adjust bump and rebound.

Mike R