My car has been lowered on H&R springs with KYB GR2 for almost 25K. The front struts seem to have held up ok, but the rears have softened significantly and I am now getting excessive and uncontrolled rebound over large bumps and dips. I would like to upgrade to an adjustable performance strut but I would like some feedback regarding the various choices out there.

I'm pretty sure that I won't like the ride of the Illuminas because, in my experience, they tend to hit pretty hard in pothols and bumps. I know that I want a strut with moderate compression damping and stronger rebound damping. I want good performance but without a dramatic decrease in ride quality over poorly maintained New York roads.

I am open to all opinions, but will most value the input of people who have first hand experience with the various struts . . .

Thanks in advance!

 

Ive been on Tokico Blues, but I just ordered Koni Yellows. Ive had them on 2 previous cars. I know they are stiff, but they handle like you wouldnt believe. It all depends on the kind of ride you want...

Im also switching to Tein springs....to go lower

 

I have also ridden on the Blues and I thought they were too soft . . . Have you ridden on the Koni's? If so, how stiff are they? If I hit a pot-hole, will I loose my fillings? Also, how did you decide on Koni instead of AGX? Thx!

 

I love my Illuminas with my H&Rs. I don't have any issues with their handling of potholes and bumps. I'm running mine on the 3 setting front and rear. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't change a thing.

 

I wonder if Alabama has pot holes like we see in New York City?

 

No, we've got very good roads. We don't get those harsh winters that destroy the roads. It was 79 here yesterday. By the way. I'm trading my car this weekend and will be selling my Tokico Illuminas and H&Rs. The struts have about 2000 miles on them and the springs have about 7,000. PM me if anyone is interested.

 

Hmmmm, what's your next car?


~limsandy

 

2001 Ford F150 Supercrew Lariat.

 

Bump!

There must be more people running AGX or Koni who could provide some feedback . . .

 

I've only been running my Illuminas/Progress combo for a few weeks and thus far have been very impressed. Very near stock on all but the largest bumps. However, I'm confident the greater shock on large bumps has much to do with my more extreme drop, moderately trimmed bumpstops, and currently softer strut settings - 2F/3R). I'm guessing a setting of 3/3 on H&R's should produce an excellent ride on nearly all conditions. All in all, I chose Illuminas after reading many positive reviews on their ride and I haven't been disappointed. And ride was my #1 concern!

The big reasons I chose to steer clear from AGX and Koni:
1. AGX are known to be very stiff in the cold
2. Koni's require gutting your factory strut - I wanted to keep mine to return my car to stock when I sell it.

 

I'm thinking about getting the Illuminas/Tein setup, is this a good combo? I think I read that it was, but I'm not sure. And if anybody knows where I could get a decent price that would be sweet

 

Bump!

Also interested in some more feedback from members running on Koni and AGX struts. Thanks!

 

Well, I know NYC roads are just as bad as Detroit roads. I had Eibachs w/ Tokico blues. I thought my car was falling appart when I hit potholes and bumps. I'm on Tein S-Techs w/ same struts and it's bad. Worse than Eibach combo. I'm getting tired of having to dodge potholes and holding onto my car before I hit bumps after bumps. I'm thinking of going stock and not having to worry so much what's ahead of me. Unless I get some feedback on other good spring/strut combo, I'll be going stock.

 

konis are the only way to go

 

based on what?

As far as I know, Konis are super stiff. Stiff strut w/ stiff springs, nasty city ride.

I would like to hear from NYC people

 

I use kyb agx's with eibachs. i've rode in GC's with agx's, and H&R's with agx's and i have nothing bad to say about them.

Them being adjustable makes it really nice, if its too stiff then just turn the dial to a lower setting.

 

i got my teins sitting in my closet. illumina's will be coming soon. gonna install as soon as the struts get here... i'll let ya know how it is.

southwest autoworks has some decent prices...
http://www.southwestautoworks.com/

 

I like my Illuminas with Maxspeeds. The 1 setting all around is great for driving around the rough areas of NY. I started off with 2 all around, not to stiff. Overall, love them.

 

Your comments are consistent with every experience I've had with Tokico shocks. OEM Nissan struts do the same thing, just not quite as bad, Blues are worse, and Illluminas (run on my Honda) were by far the worst. It was like the car literally crashed into pot holes. The Tokico struts get progessively "stiffer" based upon the change in velocity of the shaft in the strut. The KYB GR2 struts I'm running now don't have a varying resistance (which I like), but the rears are not holding up all that well. I'm guessing that the AGX or Koni would be ok, but I'm still not too sure.

 

I have eibachs and agx's...Some days especially on cold days u feel ur internals are gonna come out cause its so stiff. For the winter I have it set to 2f 6r and when its warmer i go to 3f and 6r. Not to bad at these settings.

 

Tokico Illuminas are by far the smoothest riding strut available for the Maxima. They blow away KYB products and Koni's on their ability to absorb bumps and road imperfections while keeping the car very stable and smooth. No matter what spring you couple them with, the car rides good. They do not produce that funny car bunce like ride very typical of AGX's.

 

hey guys,
How do you think ground control and illumina would go together? How do you think the ride would be? I am on tokico-blue and gc now...

 

So you like KYB better than Tokicos?

 

Yes, I like the KYB's much better than the Blues and the OEM struts (Tokico). IMHO, the KYB's give better road feel in general while absorbing large bumps much more gracefully than the either the OEM strut or the Blues did. Now that I've had the GR2 on for some time, I've found that they still give good road feel but, over large bumps and dips they don't do a good job of compression and/or rebound damping. At this point it has become somewhat of a problem. I'm thinking that the AGX "might" ride like the GR2, but I'm just not too sure. Also, from a performan ce standpoint, lots of people swear by the Koni's, but I've never ridden in them so I can't comment. I previously had the Illuminas in a '95 Civic with ground controls and I didn't like them. I found them to be too soft and even a little "floaty" on smooth highways and excessively harsh over bumps. This is exactly the inverse of what I want. The suspension of a luxury sport sedan must absorb bumps gracefully while still offering good handling. It is for these reasons, based upon my personal experience with Tokico, that I am not seriously considering the Illumina at this time. The H&R springs are on the soft side (comparatively speaking), so a somewhat firmer strut may do them justice, I'm just not too sure.

I am going to clarify my original post and get very specific here. The information I am most interested in is this:
1. How does your adjustable strut "feel" on the open highway (smooth road).
2. How does your adjustable strut "feel" when you hit a large dip in the highway (smooth road).
3. How does your adjustable strut "feel" when you hit a large pothole or a series of moderate potholes (uneven road).
4. How does your adjustable strut feel when you hit a speed bump at high speed (uneven road).

Thanks in advance to everyone who takes the time to respond.

ABS

 

don't you want soft setting if you want a smooth ride over bumps? hard struts along w/ hard springs will rattle your teeth going over bumps and potholes no?

 

That is an interesting question because the answer has a lot to do with what you mean by 'bumps". I want a strut that gives a lot when it hits a pot hole or a speed bump. I have yet to experience a Tokico strut that doesn't feel like the car is crashing full force into the pot hole or the speed bump. On the other hand, on the highway with relatively smooth roads, I'd like to get some "road feel". IIRC on my Civic, no matter how firm I set the struts I never was satisfied with the road feel on the highway and no matter how soft I set them, I always slammed hard into the pot holes and the speed bumps. I'm not sure if everyone else has had the same experience, but that was mine. If my observations are not accurate for the Illumina on the Maxima, I'd appreciate an explanation of where I'm off the mark (and then maybe I'll consider them).

The GR2 gives a lot of road feel and handles the big pot holes/speed bumps a lot better than the Illumina did, except I think the GR2 struts have worn fast and now the rebound damping is way too low and even the compression damping has softened a fair amount. The result is that the car now easily gets out of control over big dips in the road when I'm at speed.

I want a strut with a similar "feel" to the GR2, but that will provide better overall "control" of my spring (especially on rebound) and last longer while still delivering a comfortable ride. Does a performance strut like this exist? In my reading on the web I think Bilstein might have fit my parameters, but it's not available for our car.

 

Bump:

Really interested in more comments regarding KONI.

 

I have blown out 3 sets of Konis in the last 70K miles on the car. I would stay away from them. I personally won't put another Koni product on my cars ( my 93 SE-R had them too). Beef I have with Koni is the front struts RUST out inside the stock shock housings, they start to rot out and blow out. This winter my fronts blew out and the ride was insane.... I bumped around the highway like some ricer- actually took normal streets home so I didn't have to put up with my bouncy front end. I run Ground Controlls with 500lb springs front and 400 rears. I autoX and road race my car quite frequently in the summer. I had great results with KYB AGX on Ground Controlls on my SE-R. The ride when the Konis are new with Ground Controlls on my Max is not stiff- Its about as stiff as Prokits on a 5th gen. I absolutely hate my combo in my car, sure it might look good and ride ok for a normal non-car buff, but knowing what a good suspension feels like- like on my G20 or my SE-R, my Maxima feels like crap. BTW they do give ya a seal to prevent water n other crap from getting inside the OE strut housings on the front inserts- yet I still ended up with rust no matter what. I can't feel any diff in shock stiffness by adjusting it eighter- like on my AGXs.

 

Very interesting. So the front KONI inserts rust out easily and the adjustment makes no difference? Are you running AGX now? If so, how did they compare from a performance and ride stand point?

 

No, I was comparing the Konis I had on my SE-R with AGXs- very big diff. I still run Konis for like a month till I get my JIC FLTA2s. But rusting out was happening on my Maxima, and I went through 3 sets of shocks from Koni- thats 12 shocks in 70K miles they been on the car along with GCs.

 

Konis you have to remove the strut assembly to adjust them?

 

U have to remove them to adjust for compression- simply compress the shock all the way and turn the shock shaft to stiffen it up or loosen it up. For Rebound they have a little tab on top of the strut- where the big nut goes that holds the spring and shock togheter. Koni provides ya with a adjustment **** that U put on the tab and turn it to stiffen up the suspension. I think Konis are the most expensive shocks out there for the 5th gen- and from my experience they suck.

 

Mike: Please clarify this for me. It was my understanding that the front cartridges had only the **** on top and that the rear struts had only the adjustment by compressing the shaft. Are you describing that both the front and rear Koni struts have separate adjustments for each compression and rebound (one by turning the **** and the other by compressing and turning the shaft)? Thanks!

 

Yes both have the same adjustment, compression and rebound on my setup. I know cause I adjusted mine to full stiff to see if the ride would get any less bouncy, didn't work. I am in need of new rears now. I will just wait till around May and get the JICs. Trust me if U wanna do suspension right on a Maxima, U gonna have to shell out the dough for the expensive coilovers from Tein or JIC, or Cattman. By lowering a Maxima with any of the aftermarket springs, U compromisse suspension travel. What happens is the shock runs out of travel and keeps on bottoming out. Not only will the ride be all choppy, but the shocks will blow out. Anything lower than 1" in the back will destroy ANY shock in a period of time- depending on the condition of the roads ya drive on. Sentras are blessed with the same problem, and we acutally had a company make custom springs for us that don't lower the car much, but the spring rates are very high. This spring- HyperCoil, will handle awesome with KYB AGX, won't slam the car much. And will not bottom out the shocks. It lowers the car almost 1" all the way around only. If U want the looks and don't care much for peformance, buy Tein S-tech, if U wanna look good, and handle like a sports car, get JIC Magics.

 

I was recommended not to buy JICs if I lived in a place w/ bad roads. Even with the lowest setting, ride is harsh and stiff. Is it true?

 

Thats BS, JICs ride very nicely and should last pretty long time compared to Konis. My friend has JICs on his WRX for over a year now... they are perfect. I have to swap shocks in less than a year with my Konis. I guess its up to persons liking how harsh of a ride they can take. I been to Detroit maaaany times in my Maxima- can't go there for while now.... anyways roads are not really that much worse than Chicago ones.

 

I guess I need to hear more from other people w/ JICs and who live in a city w/ bad roads. I don't really know who to believe; one person telling me not to get and another person telling me to get. Not an easy decision because it costs $1500 bucks.

Hey BlackBIRDVQ, I heard from somebody in NYC and I know they got bad roads over there.

How long do JICs usually last? Can they be rebuilt if it blows or wears out?

 

i have had my ground cotnrols and tokico blues for a year and a half. I have no noises now and my shocks are still in pretty good shape. I am swapping out for some illuminas soon for a more stiffer ride. Maybe i am just a special case...lol I dont know why you had to switch shocks so often...

 

illuminas will give you stiffer ride than blues?