I had the sprint/agx setup uncut for about a week. The car handled great and the ride was not bad at all but I wasnt satisfied with the drop in the rear.

Yesterday I chopped one dead coil off the rears and installed motivational rear strut mounts. The rear feels slightly bouncier now. Not like ricey civic bouncy but u can definitely feel the bumps on the road. When the road is smooth the ride feels better than stock which I dunno why However, making sharp turns is another story. If there are no bumps on the turn then the handling is like uncut sprints BUT if you hit bumps or uneven road when making a sharp turn at high speeds the car starts to bounce and is hard to control. I knew this would happen when I chop my springs but I was hoping installing motivational strut mounts and adding an extra inch of travel would stop this. With uncut sprints I could take highway on ramps with my crappy tires at about 90 km/h. Now I tried but I hit a bump at around 80 km/h and I let off quick. I do not have any other suspension mods what so ever and I ride on stock sawblade 15's wit no name all seasons.

Looks wise, cutting one coil of the rear made the drop perfect. 2 finger gap all around (approx 1") Not too high and not too low.

Before I had my agx set to 2/4 front/rear. I think I will make the rears stiffer to see if it become less bouncy and handles better on sharp high speed turns. All the other chopped maxes what agx settings are you guys running?

Comments?
Criticism?

 

I was thinking of cutting mine too but I'm rethinking now. I also have kyb agx too and let me know whether stiffining the rear up helps.

 

anyone have an opinion of weapon-r coilovers?

 

Will adding an RSB and RSTB help keep the rear planted on the road? I will change the rear settings today and let you guys know what happens.

 

Most likely not because you're bottoming out, but increasing the shock rate could possibly help.

I've always been saying that cutting springs is bad, and if anyone every asks about them again I'll refer them to this thread. If it wasn't for bottoming out and the springs falling off the spring seats, it wouldn't be so bad.

 

Here is a stupid idea. Intrax with a coil cut in the front look like Sprints with a coil cut in the back. Is there a way to use Sprint fronts and Intrax rears? I know its a long shot, but Tokicos up front and KYB AGX in the rear ride outstanding. Usually mixing springs is a no no, but so is cutting coils. Mixing struts and shocks worked so why can't springs be mixed up?

 

If you don't mind introducing heavy oversteer or heavy understeer, mixing springs is just fine. Generally since the intrax springs are known to be soft, you'll probably understeer worse than a stock maxima, and therefore handle worse than a stock maxima.

And how do you know that replacing those rear AGXs with tokico illuminas won't make the ride even better? Have you tried it?

 

I changed the rear shock rate settings from 4 to 6. I also installed my FSTB today which has been lying around in my room for about a yr now. The rear feels more stable now. Eventhough most people on the org say that installing an FSTB does little to nothing I somehow feel the steering wheel has gotten tighter and more responsive. Maybe I'm biased. I tried a highway on ramp again tonite and hit it at 95 km/h (faster than uncut sprint) Advancing the shock rate settings and adding an FSTB made the car more stable in high speed cornering and increased cornering speed. The car still feels a little floaty over bumps but I remember feeling the same way with uncut sprints also. I will drive on my current setup for sometime to see if its really better but for now I think I am satisfied.

I do have one problem though. When I was changing the settings on the rear agx's I noticed my right rear motivational strut mount was not sitting straight on the spring. I took some pictures:





Is this normal? I bought the motivational strut mounts used locally and they did not come with the rubber seats (I'm sure thats not the technical term) that go between the spring and the mount. I reused the ones from the stock mount. The rubber seat was contoured to fit the stock mount exactly and I kinda forced them to fit the motivational mounts. The right one seems to have gotten crooked underneath the mount. Are motivational mounts supposed to come with seperate rubber seats or was I supposed to use stock ones?

The left rear seemed to be fine. I took a picture of that as well:



Can someone please tell me if the assembly in the top two pictures seems normal.

Thanks

 

Well cutting a spring makes it so you can't corner for ****. I have no idea about the strut/shock setups. I have read that swapping out the front AGXs for Tokicos (even for HP) makes for better driving. I don't know if it handles better, but someone said it was like night and day. Either way i'll stay with matched springs and matched struts. I would think Illuminas all around would be better, but maybe the AGXs work better in the rear.

Oh and i've cut springs before and its only for looks not handling, so the Intrax/Sprint setup could be a show thing, not auto cross. Also playing around with the sway bars can change the oversteering and understeering of a car. I can oversteer no problem with my suspention setup as is. Im not saying thats good, im just saying how mine handles.

Also on a 5th gen. the SE has a higher rear spring rate and a thicker (23.5 mm compared to 21.6mm) front stabilizer bar. Are 4th gen. SE's the same way?

 

turning the agx from 4 - 6. will make your car more stable at freeway speeds.. and a lil rougher on streets. sorry bout you springs not being what u expected.. i think im the only one satisfied with his cut suspension. ahah.i guess i lucked out.

 

Actually, I think I'm satisfied now too. What AGX settings are you running in the front and back and do you have motivational strut mounts? Any other suspension mods? I wanna get some info as to what other cut suspension maximas are running so I can tune my setup to handle good and not be too rough.

Thanx

 

i cut my Sprints down 1.75 coils in the rear. The car sits totally even and handles just as good as when they were uncut. My AGX are set at 2/3 for daily driving. And im on stock rear strut mounts and AGX dust boots with pre-cut bump stops.

Ant

 

I drove some more today and did some spirited driving to really check out the suspension.

Conclusion:
I am more than satisfied with my cut sprints!

With 1 dead coil cut in the rears and motivational strut mounts installed with AGX set to 2/6 front rear the car handles nice! Its a little bit harsher ride (nothing you cant handle) than the uncut sprints but looks even all around and handles like uncut sprints.

When I lowered with sprints uncut I got a 2.06" drop in the front and 1.31" drop in the rear. After chopping 1 dead coil of the rears the front drop has remained at 2.06" and the rear drop has now increased to 1.81". Technically the rear is still higher but you cant tell when looking at the car.

I think my right rear shock/spring assembly is not sitting properly I have to go back in and fix that



Thanx

 

no motivati strut mount, have front/rear strut, rsb, maxspeeds, agx on 3/6

 

I was just about to say the reason why your car felt more 'bouncy' after cutting a coil in the rear was because before your car was pretty high in the rear thus you had a lot of suspension travel and a lower spring rate... By cutting it it should increase the spring rate slightly and thus if you have your AGX on a setting which cannot handle the dampening at the new spring rate, the result would be a harsher/bouncier ride... When i first installed my AGX/Sprints, i was REALLY satisfied with it on 2/4, but that was before i played with the settings, now i run around on 3/5 (unchopped coils)... After chopping i will probably run 3/6... If you ever rode in a Max with Progress or similar with a larger drop than Sprints in the rear, you would also notice that it felt slightly more bouncier from the rear... By the way, i'd also add a RSB if i was you... I don't know why people on the org say it's not that good after you drop your car, i find it is just like the FSTB, except an even larger difference... You can adjust the RSB by changing the location of the brackets to 'fine tune' your rear end setup inducing more or reducing oversteer... BTW, i measured my drop and it was ~2.5" in the front and ~1.1" in the rear, but then again my car was weird as heck as it sat higher than 95% of the maximas i've seen stock... The gap is down to ~2-2.5 finger gap in front and 3-3.25 finger gap in the rear, mind you my fingers are tiny...

LEMAR

LEMAR

 

Sup Lemar

RSB is in the works. I'm gonna try 3/6 today. I have it 2/6 rite now and last nite I noticed the front bottoming out on a large but smooth dip in the road. Off topic I love your rims dude. I was thinking of going with the same ones but the +47 offset is holding me back. Do they rub? I'd like to see some more pics of your car with the rims. nizmo3@yahoo.com

Thanx

 

Oh yeah, forgot to add, there's no rubbing at all whatsoever...