I am just wondering if anyone has done this, if the balance isn't ridiculously off, the case for coilovers goes down a little.
But if just normal springs leave the car way out of wack, coilovers are the way to go.

Howver, my current issue with coilovers is:

When I talked to JiC when I was looking into buying some used coilovers, they told me I might have to change the dampers every two years or so, is that right? Or are they (just like the motor oil business) suggesting to change more often than necessary just to drum up business?

 

Depends on how you drive.

higher spring rates require more damping force.. which creates more heat inside the shock body. the harder you drive and the stiffer you run them, the faster you're goign to wear out the oil and orifices inside the shock body.

For constant racing use, I'm going to have to replace my KTS coilovers on my 240 about once a year. fortunately the shock section is 'only' $500 for a full set.. but still not a cheap undertaking considering it has to be done every season.

 

say it ain't so - you're finally going to jump out of G-stock? Did the Minis get to you?

 

The cornerweight is a loaded question as every car has slightly different mods and different weight drivers. Stock the leftside is about ~3% heavier than the right due to the driver and battery IIRC.

I thought somebody found an inexpensive JIC rebuild for only like $100-$200 per set recently?

 

I just don't know if I really want to HAVE to do that much maintenance every few years. Because that would be like taking everything off, putting stock back on, then getting it rebuilt and then put stock back on.....I dunno

~3%? I am assuming you've actually tested this? I am ~200lb, you think this figure still applies?
Because if ~3% is all the difference is I may forget the coilovers, put the battery in the trunk and away I go....I just know I'm gonna mess with the coilovers for different things.

 

Did the Mini's get to me? Hell no, they got to everyone in GS, and also routinely top out on overall PAX (in philly anyway).
My logic is that for my 157k car that's not worth half of a slightly used Mini, an upgraded suspension is a deal compared to buying one of those roller skates. If I can beat one (on raw time in actualy competition) with minimal mods, I'll be more than happy.

I almost went with some used JiC street coilovers a while back before I lost my job in NJ, but upon calling JiC they told me they were discontinued and parts may become difficult to find when the need would arise. So now, I'm scratching again at the idea.

 

That was years ago and I never wrote down stock figures as it really didn't matter. We were playing with the idea of cornerweighting when I just had Eibachs before the coilovers. 3% = 50lbs per side and that's significant where balance is concerned.

 

2 years sounds about right, depending on how/where you drive as Matt said. At this rate that will probably be my rebuild interval, since I do about 26k miles a year and make regular trips into Philly and NYC...

If you're concerned about rebuilds, don't get JIC. They make great products (some of the best), but their customer service in the US has a terrible reputation.

Ksport is the other way around: excellent customer service and MUCH better quality control than other manufacturers, while their Kontrol Pro coilovers (which is what everyone talks about when they say "Ksports") don't perform as well as JIC's high-end stuff. But their rebuilder in the USA is a shop that does a lot of NASCAR work, so they're no joke, and their turnaround time is the best in the business. Plus, Ksport does have some VERY interesting things coming out... like double-adjustable inverted monotube dampers.

Also, one thing to keep in mind with coilovers: YOU WILL NEED CHASSIS STIFFENING. The Maxima chassis is soft enough that even on stock suspension, subframe connectors make it significantly more composed and smooth-riding. Coilovers typically have springs that are many times stiffer than stock and will bend your frame like a straw, which will really hurt your stability. It won't be enough to offset the handling gains, but it will be pretty bad.

FWIW.

 

Interesting notion. I have noticed considerable flexing of the chassis and tub when jack raising. I haven't done measurements but eyballing it looks like over 1/2" of flex around the door area.

 

I have a 5th gen and if I jack the car up on 3 corners and let the 4th corner lift on its own, its about .5" - 1" below the other heights of the corners being jacked up and the 5th gen is supposedly more stiff than the old 300ZXs. That being said now with the Eibachs, Illuminas set to full stiff and some stickier tires, I can pull higher cornering forces in the corners and my interior now "creaks progressivly" as corning forces increase and the chassis flexes.

 

If I jack the car up with the front doors open, I can hardly close them at all.....

it's total BS that even Stage 1 SFC's bump you up to SM, and Stage 2+ IIRC put you in prepared for autocross.....that's why I'm holding off.....

 

hmm...interesting.. I never have problems closing the doors when the car is jacked up. I meen my doors close as if the car was on the ground..no difference at all

 

Weren't there some minor structural revisions from the 5th gen to the 5.5gen? I think I heard that somewhere but I could be wrong...

 

I have a 4th gen and I have gotten the tripod thing going quite easily too. But that doesn't mean the chassis is all that stiff because my chassis is like an overcooked noodle. My doors open and close normally when the car is jacked up, but my chassis is like an overcooked noodle. My car looks nice and handles pretty well, but its chassis is like an overcooked noodle. Can't wait to finally get SFCs.

 

Is your chassis like an overcooked noodle?

 

JIC still makes parts for A32s, they have plenty of repleacement parts on the shelfs. Who did you talk to over there ? I've been talking to JIC almost every day about my coilovers, as I am runing some custom spring rates that I find to be almost perfect to my liking- but the chassis needs BIG time help as its flexed so much over the miles my front doors don't close as good as new cars anymore and its NOT the hinges on the pass side door.

JIC charges 130 dollars per shock to overhaul them. If you have inverted front struts like I do, they don't do those yet- but they are working on something. I bought my suspension used here approx 2 years ago I think, and I have had to repleace both front shocks which where 400 bux totall, and overhaul my rear ones this winter for 260 dollars. I also upgraded to stiffer springs at 70 bux each. JIC now includes DUST boots on their rear shocks to prevent any damage to the piston from debris on it. Also the new front struts are redesigned now and seem to have alot more compression and rebound to cope with very stiff springs. I'm runing 9kg fronts and 10kg rears- which is like 500lbs/620lbs. Car feels like a BIG SE-R Spec V and was quite tail happy till I stepped up to some staggered wheels and made it pretty much a neutral handling ride.

I am currently awaiting some new front pillow ball mounts for my FLTA2s to make them 100% like new. My mounts clunk and cause poping noises over expanssion joints, also you get this loose feeling in the steering wheel from it.

If you need help, call PAUL at JIC/Ziel motorsports. Tell him Mike Jez send ya, he knows me as I talk to him ALOT. It took some time to get my shocks overhauled, but overall I am happy with JIC as if I need a part that they don't have in stock- they where willing to take apart a new on the shelf kit and send me parts from it.

If you have any JIC questions, let me know and if I dont know I will call Paul and ask about it.

Little advice to everyone here, do not buy USED coilovers- and I have nothing against people selling theirs.... but its a big headache when something goes bad as their warranty applies to the original owner only.

 

what kind of springs did you run before your currant setup? Also, at what point did you notice that the chassis flex has increased?

 

It seems more apparent to me that the stiffer the spings the more jello-y the chassis gets. Over the last year I've noticed that the doors don't close properly, and I won't even moention the squeaks and rattles from the interior over rough pavement. I am chasing them all over the place. I have a place whos going to fabricate me some SFCs, if that doesn't help..... its getting a cage.

EDIT- my car currently has 155K miles on it. Since approx 5-10K miles when it was new I was runing coil overs with 400lbs front and 300lbs rear springs on Koni yellows. I have swapped them out for JICs when the car had like 95K miles on it. I then ran 500ish lbs front and 370ish lbs rear springs that the FLTA2 come with. I have had the 620ish rear springs in for approx a week and the ride is super nice actually, it doesn't feel like the rear is moving around at all and it feels like I got IRS as its REALLY hard to detect the beam suspension now. My car is very tired after all these miles, so chassis needs some help in some kinda reinforcement way.

 

interesting... so, how many miles did your car have when the chassis flex has gotten real bad? As soon as you switched to JICs?

 

Generally it's not something you notice immiedately. It's a slow progression as the metal in the body fatigues over thousands of bumps in the road and miles on the car. (Just think that if you hit one bump every mile you are driving and add that up.. that's a LOT of impacts that chassis is absorbing!)

 

yeah, but there must be some abstract point in time when you start realizing that your car chassis is no longer as rigid as it used to be.

The reason I'm asking is because I should receive Boss Chen coilovers with 9k front and 7k rear springs withing the next two weeks and I want to figure out how long I will be able to drive without SFC and not "destroy" the chassis.

 

I've been on my Ksport coilovers (9/6 springs) for about 26k miles now, and all I can report for sure are a few rattles and a couple of creaks here and there. I do think I've felt a little extra sloppiness recently, but it's hard to be objective about that since my perspective has changed a lot in that time.

 

So you no longer have those problems where you have to tighten things up?

Or should you have been using lock-tite the whole time?

 

Loc-Tite would either not work at all or bind everything badly enough to defeat the purpose of having adjustable coilovers, depending on how much you use.

But no, no problems requiring re-tightening any more. A hammer on the collar wrenches does wonders....

 

I have been running my Eibachs and Illuminas at 5/5 front/back and now around corners (after only having them on about a month) the interior creaks pretty consistently, where as before the springs/shocks the car never made a peep in 15k miles

 

I would say I noticed more and more flex from the chassis when I upgraded to stiffer and then stiffer springs. Its deff a stiffer ride and I like it, it masks the flexible unibody pretty good, but doesn't have that vault feeling I would like in the car. I will be getting some SFCs soon, provided a certain seller doesn't sell me his turbo kit from his I30t....... then SFC will come. If I buy the turbo kit, those will probably have to wait. Right now I feel a little underpowered sometimes

 

Oh man you've been walking my shoes haven't you... lol. I'm the same way.

Just a couple comments reading through this thread:

My K-Sports, I'm having to tighten the collars about every 2-3 weeks right now. That includes maybe 100-150 city miles on average condition roads, and maybe 1000 miles on highways (again average condition), and each weekend racing at the dragstrip. They are pretty quiet until they start to loosen and then I get clicks and creaks so it's pretty easy to tell when I need to tighten them.

Earlier this year I had all the interior out removing sound deadening and what not and I was thinking to myself it would be a good idea at some point to get the car seam welded. Has anyone done this? Any thoughts on what level of stiffening it would provide vs SFC's? I think I'll start a new topic on this...