Every once and while I like to turn my front Koni's down to their lowest setting in order to get rid of the jolts from potholes and such. I never really noticed much of a difference when I turned them down from 1 turn down to 0 turns. Today, I figured I'd bring my Koni's up to 1.5 turns (2 max) just to see how bad the ride would be. Since the weather has gotten into the mid 80s this week vs the low 40s we had last week (gotta love Kansas weather), the ride is better all around. With the struts on 1.5, my car was actually much smoother over bumps not to mention steering feel improved. I brought the struts up to a full 2 and the bumps were more pronouced. I back the struts down to 1.5 and hte ride got better. I then backed the struts down to 1 and then 1/2 and the ride got harsher. It's my impression that 1.5 on Koni's matches the spring rate of my Intrax spring perfectly. Anymore or anyless results in a deteriorated ride. I figure when the weather gets cold again, I will have to re-adjust the struts to a slightly lower setting to compensate for the increased stiffness in spring rates and fluid thickening of the struts.

Anyone else notice a better ride with stiffer strut settings?


Dave

 

Dave, I got a question for you.

I am still riding on stock SE struts w/a B&G drop (1.6")

They were checked, and arent leaking so the guys @ Nissan said they could still be fine or close to leaking (which is a symptom of a dying strut).

When I first dropped the car, I noticed a VAST improvement in handling...my '95 SE w/B&G and a FSTB handles 10x better than my sisters '95 GXE stock with RSB and FSTB.

I have heard that it's the struts and not the springs that improve handling, which is obviously not so. If I get new struts (koni or KYG ABX), will it improve handling "that" much more?

 

Once I start turning up my rears, I start getting that notorious bounce action in my car. I've left the rear's of my AGX's on 1 for now...my fronts are on 2 or 3 I think and I am fine with that. To answer your question, not really...but I haven't played around with them that much to get a good feel for them yet.

 

How many miles do you have on your stock struts? A 1.6" drop will kill the rear struts fairly quickly (within 10K miles of putting them on), but the front struts should last a bit longer. The stock struts are probably good for 60K while the rears are only good for about 40K. When your rears start to get old, the car will be bouncy especially with lowering spring. If you can easily bounce the rear up and down, then the stock struts are gone. When my GR-2s failed, it was a bit different. Instead of a bounce, the rear of the car rode REALLY harsh. In a nutshell, the springs were doing all the dampening while the shocks were just along for the ride. This is why the ride became harsh.

Struts/shocks are dampeners. Dampeners do not support the car, springs do. Dampeners isolate the compression and rebound of the springs. The handling of the car is both affected by the springs and dampeners. The car will handle much better with dampeners that are matched to the spring rate. Under/over dampened dampeners will get over/under worked the springs. Simply put, YES, you will notice a difference in aftermarket dampeners with your car

Dave

 

There definitely is a sweet spot with regards to adjusting shocks with springs. As I turn up the KONI's with my H&R's, the ride becomes exceptionally jolting/harsh with moderate bumps and potholes. Recently backed down from 1.5 turns (which I tried for a couple of weeks) to 3/4 turns and the ride is so nice! There is definitely more float but the ride is definitely more behaved and in city driving, much more pleasurable. Even with the float it is still superior to the stock SE ride.

 

Dave,

I have a total of 63k miles on my car, and about 5-8k miles since my lowering springs.

The guy at Nissan told me a long time ago that my struts would last 2 months given how low my car is. They have lasted 4 months and are still not leaking.

The thing is, I was going to finish off my body kit after I convert to 5-speed. I won't have enough for both struts AND the side and rear skirts, so I am in a dilemma.

I live in Florida and the roads are always smooth with the acception of construction now at my neighborhood which makes them some bumpy ****'s.

After I convert, sell the auto tranny, parts, and some parts here at the house I will have about $700 to spare.

Given my situation, if you had the choice between finishing off your body kit or getting new struts, which one would you choose?

I should have just done the struts/springs at once...taking everything apart again and compressing with a cheap discount auto parts compressor is going to be a b*tch!

 

They may not be leaking, but that doesn't mean they're still any good.

I would go for the struts, they only run about $350 shipped for the full set, so you would still have some cash left over for the body kit pieces.

 

will my front struts explode if i put agx's on the rears, cuz thats all i can afford and feel that the rears are the only ones that need to be changed, best thing would be to do all 4, but is 2 better then none? i plan on having the rears in for a month or two, then i could afford the fronts, thanks