I did a friend a favor and lowered his 98 Max. With 3 guys working on the car it took about 1 hour and 20 minutes to do all 4 sides with Eibach springs. He is pretty happy. I must say the Eibachs sit more evenly then the Sprints I got, which I wound up hacking a coil off in the rear. Damn cheap sprint springs.

The second car was a disaster. A subaru 2.5 RS. What should have been a 2 hour job turned into a 5 hour job. First the rear strut bolts are next to impossible to get to, it takes 30 minutes just to pull it off or put it back on cause you must tweak each nut very slowly. So the kicker was, we had put the rear in and the interior all together when we realized we put the front springs in the back. We had to dissassmele it all again. The front and rear springs look almost identical. If that wasnt bad enough, we then reversed the assemblys left and right and had to do it a 3rd time, they are not interchangable. Ontop of that the subaru's have the ridiculous design that you must break the brake lines in order to pull the struts. So this means we had to bleed the brakes as well.

The max was about 100x easier to lower and idiot proof. The springs front and rear are totally different sizes but they are interchangable left and right, and the brake line brackets have slots in them. The max also didnt need compressors for the rear at all, and only to dissassmeble the front. However, the dust boots were very deteriorated on such a young car. Damn nissan quality. Since my friend did not want to buy new dust boots I duct taped the F outta his old dust boot and hopefully it will stay.

One thing I noticed, the 98 max had more isolation sleeves for the coils from the factory then my 97 did. I wonder why they did this. I have never wrapped my springs in "more" then what came from the factory and of all the cars I've lowered I've never had a problem with spring noise.

So on the 4th gen, is the back just as easy or easier than the front?

back is easier..... u just have sum1 hold the upper mount in place, then use a vise grip oon top, and slide on the upper bolt... tada!


Basically same idea for the front, except no vise grip needed.
































4th gens 0wn j00 p4ul

You can't be serious!?!?! A dust boot is a wear & tear item. The boots have been on that car for almost 5 years. How long do you expect the boots to last? If he lives where the roads are bad, the boots will wear out faster.


Dave

That's so unfair. The back on my car took forever to do!! If I ever swap this to another car, I'll let you do them

I expect them to last longer then that, the subaru's were caked in mud cause of off roading but in fine shape. granted that car was 2 years younger, but I lowered my 1990 Toyota Camry about 3 years ago that at the time had about 120k miles on it. And even its dust boots were in reusable shape. Every time I've heard somebody lowering the max their dust boots have been shot.

after 55k, mine were all sh!tted up

2 Cars in one day?? And I thought I was good.

The Max is a very simple suspension setup to work on. With the right tools and some common sense, the job is a snap!

Nice...good to know.
I've been putting off my install for a long time.
I'm using Eibach's too.
Did you re-use most of the parts?

Don't worry man, us 3rd gen owners know your pain. Some worse than others.