Same/similar design.... but which one is actually WORTH the almost $2K?




Anybody have realworld experience with either setup on a 4th gen?

 

JIC, tried and true.

I have not owned either set personally but have from my impressions of both on here FLT-A2s and KS Kontrol, I would not be ready to throw nearly 2K on the KSports especially when compared to JIC.

 

i hear K sports are great and a great value! i had JIC A1s on my 5th gen and the reliability is horrible, noises everywhere and a blown pillow ball mount after the first good pothole (was only lowered about 1.5in). dont waste the extra grand dude

 

Hopupracing.com has the JIC's for $1728.00, with FREE shipping.


SportCompactOnly.com has the K-Sport GT Pro's for $1207.97 plus shipping.


Keep in mind... the car is driven about 1500-2000 miles a month, with at LEAST one autoX every month, sometimes 2 or 3. There will be an occasional track day thrown in there every once in a while, too. I need some coilovers that can keep up.


As tempting as it is to buy the eibachs and illuminas... I honestly think that this would be the better spending of the money. I do drive the car fairly hard, so the natural progression (in my head, at least), would be to completely bypass the eibachs and illuminas, and go straight into coilovers. Sure, I could get the K-Sport Kontrol Pro's for ~800... or the D2's for ~1000, or the Boss Chens for ~1100. However, even Larry (Larrio Motors) said that the JIC's would probably be more suited to what I need, than the others.

The only reason I am torn between the two, is because I've not heard ANY realworld experience with the GT Pro's... whereas JIC's are known as the best of the best, available to the Maxima.

 

I rebuild my FLTA2s once a year.... its not that expenssive but I've had this setup for over 2 years now, and I must have spend about 1K on servicing it by now.

When spending that kinda $$$ I would rather go with JICs, but I think you will be better off with normal springs and shocks.

 

I can always call and change my order. They said they wouldn't ship it until I gave them 100% confirmation over the phone.


What's a JIC rebuild cost? Who does it in the Chicago area?

 

if u got the $$ to constantly rebulit them then of course the handeling of COs cant be conpared to any spring/shock combo, but the headaches of hot having to worry or swao ur set up is a big negative for me.

 

Go with Boss Chens.

That's true, BC shocks are not "tuned" for performance, but they can be rebuilt, so you can revalve them any way you want.

 

No one in Chicago to my knowledge does rebuilds on JICs.

I send mine to Ziel/JIC in California. Rebuild is 120 PER shock.

JIC started using diff shocks lately so you might get the new redesigned/stronger shocks.

Before you spend all that $$$ on coilovers, make sure all your bushings, tie rods, control arms, ball joints are in great condition. No suspension will bring you to the "in control feel" like new vs worn out bushings. Ask ColdSHO or any of the guys on CMC that I did suspension work for on their Maximas, they will tell you what made the biggest diff in "tightness" of the car.

 

i guess i should consider myself lucky, ive have nothing bad to say about my jic a1's. no noises, no broken anythings, nothing, had them for over 2years, and im not that nice to them(i didnt buy coilovers so i can drive nice, i could have done that with my stock suspension). i highly reccommend. if i were to do it all over again id do the same thing, the a2s seem to be a lil stiffer and not as comfy, and the the boss chens dont seem hardcore enough. altho they really seem of great quality.

and the bushings made a huge difference. my balljoints were fubar at only 75k.but once u get one thing fixed, u find soemthing else u need. with all my bushigns in and just about everything suspesion done besides a ltb or sfc, i really need to do something about my steering, feels way too slow.

oh and es rear trailing arm bushings are friggin awesome! my favorite of all my bushings.

 

You need to ditch that gigantic OEM steering wheel and get yourself a nice small Sparco or Momo steering wheel. I have one on my car (I don't need airbags) and the difference is phenomenal, between the Semi-truck wheel and my Sparco. On top of that the leather and suede are pimptastic.



Yeah...... don't remind me, I hate doing those friggn things. I have mine in my closet sitting there (for over a year now) and I just don't feel like messn around with them. I still have original tie rods and ball joints (knock on wood) on my 170K mile Maxie. I will be putting some new tie rods on whenever those stupid tie rod/ball joint extenders become available. My JICs are going for another rebuild soon.... but I have to have the turbo parts fabricated before I can take the suspension off the car. I can't wait for winter !

 

JIC's customer support gets... mixed reviews. Some people have had great experiences, and at least an equal number have had terrible experiences. Ksport's customer service, on the other hand, gets virtually nothing but great reviews. Every once in a while you'll get one person complaining that they have a hard time getting someone on the phone, but the overwhelming opinion is that they handle their business quickly, honestly, and fairly.

FWIW.

 

My experience with JIC is mixed also. In the begining they treated me pretty poorly. Now after all the rebuilds, parts bought from them to keek my A2s in top shape, I know them pretty well and they know me.

I have about 70K miles on my JICs, and I know that using race shocks on the street will have consequences on their life expectancy. I had GCs with Konis for 100K miles on my car and went through 3 sets of front Konis and one rear- actually upgraded to AGX in the rear. I hate Koni, I had one blow out on me within 2 months.

 

So, would you buy them again? I mean... considering dropping $500/year on rebuilds isn't rational to me... that money could be better spent on autoX tires... at $750/year.

 

If TEIN made FLEX or HA dampeners for the A33 chassis I would dump JICs like nothing. Unfortunately Tein SS suspension doesn't do it for me. FLTA2 is the best you can get, but I must warn you- with stiff springs over time the body will start to take its toll. I noticed a few places where the chassis started to come apart over all the years of AutoX and road racing. I seriously need some subframe connectors, chassis is so soft that I can hear my door clicking every time I hit the gas pedal- I got worn out drivers door hinges :grino:

 

You seriously had a better time with AGXs than with Konis on your Ground Controls? And 3 sets of fronts in 100k miles... That's insane... How low did you have the GCs set?

If that can happen to Konis, Ksport's damper failure rate is looking better and better...

 

Car was lowered approx 2" in the front. Every winter they would blow out on me. I ran 500/400 springs I belive... but don't quote me on that.

I drive about 35-40K miles a year. After I repleaced the fronts for the last time and got AGX on the back I sold them to a .org member and put my JICs on.

I had AGXs on my Sentra for 3 years with ProKits and they never gave me any issues in the 100K miles I put on them. I drove my SE-R to Phoenix, LA, San Diego etc. AGX where much cheaper than GAB sports- 355 for all 4 vs 800 for GABs. Tokico Blues I had on my Q45, and I always thought they where not up to task of that heavy car which I was runing custom lowering springs on.

 

For a coilover kit, a damper life of about 30k-50k miles is par for the course. Winter is murder on them, as it is for any damper.

FWIW, I've had my Ksports for 40k miles now, and I've been driving them year-round in the Northeast. I've had three blowouts, and two of them were absolutely, completely, 100% my fault. The one that wasn't was within the warranty period and didn't cost me anything to replace; IIRC I paid around $170 a pop with overnight shipping for the out-of-warranty replacements. The front left damper, which has seen all that abuse and more, is fine. So are my pillow ball mounts, even after hitting a couple of bumps that literally left me wondering how my front end didn't come apart.

We'll see how long that front left damper lasts. That'll be the only true indicator I'll be able to offer of the life expectancy of these dampers under year-round use in the Northeast.

 

imo in pickign coilovers u kinda have to know what ur looking to get out of it. all out performance, slam ur car to the ground, just get rid of wheel gap, a combo ofany of those.

id love to have the best handling , but my max is a daily driver, which is why i wnet with the jic a1s. if my max were dedicated to weekends or the track id go with a2s. soemthign about teins made me think they were too hardcore for what i was going for. altho i do love the edfc, im still working on making one to fit on my jics.

i was under the impression that the k-sports were in the $700-800range. or are the ones ur looking at a different model? i picked up my jics brand new for about $1200.

as far as cold winter goes, ive never had any problems. but for the first 5-10 minutes i drive slow on really nice roads with no major bumps, perhaps that "warms" them up enough. i live in the middle of nowhere and have a really odd schedule so im not in anyones way when i limp my cold car around.

 

Good call.

Actually, Tein is a lot more mainstream. They have products from the low end to the high end of the mainstream, but their primary focus is down the middle. JIC is more mid-mainstream and up, starting to reach into the true high end.

The Ksport Kontrol Pro kit is in the $700-$800 range. Virtually everyone who has Ksport coilovers has that kit because until recently, it was the only kit Ksport was offering. The OP is talking about the newly released Ksport GT Pro kit, which is the same kit except with inverted monotube front dampers for better heat resistance and reduced unsprung weight. That's what accounts for the price difference.

Excellent tip. You are definitely helping your suspension's longevity.