Driving today with 4 adults in the car. 2 guys in the back seat weighing about 180 lbs each. This car handles like **** with 4 people in it. Suspension bottoms out pretty easily over mild bumps or whoops in the road. I only have 15k miles on my car and I know the struts are not going. Almost makes me want to spend the $ and get aftermarket stuff or limit back seat occupants to chicks that weigh a buck ten. Man this pisses me off, Maximas suspension are **** poor.

 

never have problems with mine bottoming out and this is loaded with 5 people. mine are all on stock struts/springs. For me, with it loaded, the car communicates more.

 

communicates more... yep... like, "UGH, I'm a boat going around the corner"

 

its a nissan jedi mind trick with the boat feel. seriously, with the FSTB and RSB, the boat feeling doesn't come into play, unless i'm doing a 3-point turn that everyone knows its a K-Turn.

 

Do you have a RSB? If the shackles (U-bolts) that hold the RSB to the axle are too far towards the wheels, there is a chance that with a lot of weight in the back that the suspension will hit the shackle on the right hand side.

 

I used to ride around with some big guys. Friend riding shotty was 350+ and everyone in the back was pushing 220-260. I bottomed out maybe 2 or 3 times, but I didn't drive crazy over bumps. I was stock then and had 100k+ miles on the max. You need to be more careful.

 

What year is your Max.? My '01 had the same problem. There is a TSB on the rear suspention for this problem. The TSB shows upgraded rear springs. I installed them about a month ago and so far so good.

 

Yep - with no-one in the back seat my SE will bottom over speed bumps unless I'm crawling (note: crawling = 1 mph, normal speed = about 2...).

It doesn't bottom much loaded any more only because I'm used to watching out for bumps; agree, the rear springs are just way too soft.

 

I am a very careful driver, I always avoid bumps and potholes. I have an 03 with only 15k on it. The car doesn't completely bottom out since I slow down but if I wasn't careful the shocks would fully compress everytime. I'll check alldata for the service bulliten. Gotta drop it off at Nissan anyway, the ac whistles at level 3 and 4.

 

the best solutions are to either hide your car from your friends, make new skinnier friends, or tell your friends that they are fat@$$3$ and needs to go on a diet.

 

my car handles like shieet with just me driving. with more ppl it handles better. but i better make it clear, i have blown rear stock struts lol with front kyb gr-2 and strut tower. front end is tight, rear is wobbly. worse handle EVER

 

IIRC, the TSB was for GXE and GLE models only, and the "fix" was to replace their rear struts with SE struts. Since I'm starting at that point, I can tell you that SE struts don't solve the problem...

 

My 2K SE with 70K has not bottomed out yet with a 50 lb toolbox in trunk and 2 200-lb adults in the back... Actually feels quite stable in corners (I have RSB)...