Today I had 2 guys come to me for suspension installs. One braught a set of used Cattman coilovers and the second braught me Eibach springs which we discovered were cut. Here's how it went.

The coilovers looks ok. They were already assembled so it was just a matter of installing them in the car. Installation is pretty straight forward. The setup was said to have around 16,000 miles on it. I didn't bother to take everything apart, it appeared to be all setup and tight as far as I could see. The ball joint on top of the rear shock was a bit lose but I figured thats how they were supposed to be. The collars also seemed fitted correctly onto the shocks. So the rear install was cut and dry, just bolt them in. There were no helper springs so the spring isn't seated while the car is in the air. There are no rubber bushings in this setup to isolate the shock from the body of the car. Everything is hard connected. The fronts are the same way. There is no upper strut mount per say. It's an adjustable camber plate that first gets bolted to the car and then the strut piston which has an adaptor on it gets bolted right to the camber plate. Again, nothing is isolating the assembly from the body of the car, everything is bolted hard onto the body. The front assemblies do not have the correct mounts for the ABS wire or the brake line. You have to "think" of a way to mount everything onto a plate thats provided on the strut. Zip ties were used to make sure the brake and ABS lines were kept away from all moving parts. Everything seemed tight up front after the install, there were helper springs to keep the main spring seated while the car was up in the air.

We braught the car down and made sure the rear springs seated correctly in the upper seat and then went for a ride. These things are noisey as all he11. They clank around quite a bit and transmit every single bump and crack you hit into the body of the car. Asside from the noise, the ride didn't seem to bad. I think they really needed to be taken completely apart and checked for ware items such as the ball joints up in the top of the rear mounts. The rear was really bad and sounded as if the assembly was ready to fall apart. I think there are to many moving parts to ware out on this setup and nothing is isolated from your car which makes them extreamly noisey. I suggest that anybody who may be looking at purchasing used coilovers think it over really hard. Your probably better off buying them new. Cattmans workmanship could be polished a bit more as well. He uses plastic screws to hold the collars in place and the overall design, especially in the rear could be made with less joints. Why does he use a ball joint on the top of the shock to join the piston to the mount? A simple bushing would be much quieter and less prone to play which makes the setup noisey.

Next was the cut Eibach spring install. I'll make this short and simple. Cut springs are dangerous. They do not sit correctly in the seats, especially up front. You barely have a full coil seated on the strut do to the harder angle the chopped coil has which makes it very possible for the spring to unseat itself which could cause loss of control of your vehicle. We had to self seat the spring onto the strut by hand as the car was slowly lowered. A large bump or dip can very easily unseat the spring. Aside for that, much to my suprise the car rode ok, the ride wasn't drastically changed as some say happens with cut coil springs. If they would have been trimmed differently, such as slightly on the top and the bottom, perhaps the springs would seat a bit better in their seats. If you absolutely must cut springs, trim a little from both ends, do not take a whole coil off one side, do 1/2 and 1/2. The rear springs had at least one coil if not more cut from the top closer spaced coils. This doesn't create that much of an issue except when the car is jacked up and the springs falls from the upper seat.

Something tells me I'm going to have repeat business from both of todays customers. I will never install cut springs again. Used components such as struts or coilover assemblies, I'll want a week in advance for inspection prior to an installation. That way I can make sure you've got components that are in good working order. I really didn't like either of the jobs I did today. It bothers me that work like that went out my door. Not that any of the issues were caused by my workmanship, I sincerely hope I'll be able to take care of them correctly next time around.

 

Nice write up. You seem to be a very cool and honest guy. Not someone out to make a buck. We can use more guys like you.

 

if i lived in the NE i would come to you for all my car probs(fixed hte 4 hit and runs i got htem ixed but not up to as what i would like tham to be and the most recent hit and run needs to be fixed too ) and i am lowering soon too, i would have came to you for htat too.

 

definitely a good point, although you are robbing business from alot of the people trying to sell their stuff, its still a very good point. hopefully they dont bother you too much in the future

 

cattman gen 1 and gen 2 coilovers were modified AGX struts and shocks for an eclipse .. they were the only option for coilovers on a maxima and thats why they are semi-shoddy on the workmanship...

the new ones are made by progress technologies

 

That would explain why the adjustment dials in the rear were completely disoriented from the norm.

 

njmaxseltd:

Just curious, would you mind if I quoted your:
"Next was the cut Eibach spring install. I'll make this short and simple. Cut springs are dangerous. They do not sit correctly in the seats, especially up front. You barely have a full coil seated on the strut do to the harder angle the chopped coil has which makes it very possible for the spring to unseat itself which could cause loss of control of your vehicle. We had to self seat the spring onto the strut by hand as the car was slowly lowered. A large bump or dip can very easily unseat the spring."

for my http://maxmods.dyndns.org/index.php?CuttingSprings page? That is one of the best real world examples I've heard.

 

got english?

 

Please go right ahead.