So I am thinking of changing the front and rear springs and struts on my 96 I30 sometime soon. I will admit, I am not a mechanic, but I have changed my own front and rear rotors and brake pads with no problem.

Can someone tell me if this is a difficult job, roughly how long it should take, and any special tools I need? Also, I want a smooth, quiet ride, that will handle nicely. I do not want to lower my car, or put expensive parts on it. Basically I would like to upgrade my ride quality and handeling a little bit from factory. Any recommendations?

Thanks for your help on this everyone. Have a nice day!

 

If you can do brakes you can do struts. They just take a little more muscle. For your first time it will probably take most of the day, having someone to help will make it much faster. Putting the strut/spring assembly back in by yourself is kinda of a pain.

If your gonna replace the springs and do not want to go lower at all then your stuck with sock springs....in that case there is no point in replacing them. You could go with maxima SE springs or ones from an I30T, but I doubt you will notice too much of a diff...and I am not 100% sure that they are even different from the base model springs. I would recomend doing H&R or Tein H-tech springs. A small drop just over an inch and they are the softest aftermarket springs available.

As far as struts go with Tokico illuminas...if you don't want to spend that much money then go with KYB Gr-2's.

Basically, if you are wanting something better than stock your gonna have to drop the car a bit and spend some money. Stock ride height with better handeling and comfort for cheap is not gonna happen.

 

It sounds like you should go with H&R Springs and Illuminas then. Beware, however, that your ride quality WILL degrade. That's a fact with ANY lowering spring.

As for the installation - if you have time and a place to work - I say do it yourself.

I've done mine about 3 times. I'd never done anything this involved before...but it's not that big of a deal. Really it's only a matter of removing nuts and bolts and raising and lowering the car.

Things you'll need:

-Decent size metric socket wrench set
-Breaker bar
-Torque wrench (if you want to torque back to factory specs)
-Jack
-Jackstands
-Spring Compressor

If you're doing it yourself for the first time...expect it to take a day or two. I say this because no matter what...there will be that nut you round off, the bolt that won't come loose, etc.

Something I highly recommend - get a buddy or 3 to help you do it. The first couple times I had 3 other guys working with me - and it didn't take too long as we had one person working on each corner of the car with their own set of tools. I provided pizza and beverages. The slowest and hardest part, IMO, would be to compressing and decompressing of the springs. That can get old and tiresome quick.

You might want to do what I did the last time I did suspension - take the spring strut assemblies off of the car and take them to a local mechanic. Then have them rebuild the assemblies with your parts in like 10 min using their wall-mounted compressor. That made the job much easier.

If you have the time and space - I say do it. You'll be very proud of yourself.

 

i did my lowering with 2 people in 45 minutes...but i have a shop, 4 jacks all the tools needed. what u may look out for, on the rear shocks, the bolt on top of mine was really rusted so we had to use a cutting wheel to get the nut off the top. that was the only real difficult part. other than that it was smooth sailing, and like i said 45 minutes to do everything.

 

Wow, thanks for all the info guys. I will have to check in the brands you all mentioned and look at prices and whatnot.

The other question I have is this:

Do we have struts on the front and back with springs correct? Basically we don't have shocks right? Don't laugh, I have no idea what I am talking about here.

Also, I have heard people talk about switching to a gas strut? Tell me more and what about keeping the stock springs and going with a strut from the local store or Sears or something. Please inform me more on this.

Thanks again everyone.

 

Yes, all four are struts. Note, that struts are simply shocks that perform slightly differently, but they are all technically "struts" on our cars.

And I believe all the struts for our cars are "gas" struts. And if you're not into lowering - just changing the struts might be the way to go for you. I know folks in the 5th gen forum who kept stock springs and changed to GR2s or Illuminas were quite pleased.

 

I'm in the same boat as you, because I'm looking to change out my struts too, but not lower my car. I'm doing it more because my struts are almost completely shot right now, squeaking and making all sorts of noise when I go over bumps (of which I can feel every single one). But, upgraded handling is always a plus too...

 

Struts are a load bearing suspension part and shocks are not. We could not drive our cars without the struts in place, as opposed to alot of trucks that use shocks. A truck without shocks could still drive, it would be bumpy as all he11 but it would still work.

The only type of strut we use are gas struts.

 

Dr., check this out.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....latest+install

I think that we should put something the FAQ about suspension, because it comes up A LOT.