I dont have all that money for the H&R/Koni setup that I want but I wanna know how long with H&R's last with the stock se struts ??? There is almost 100K on the car now so they are almost done with?? is it worth it or jsut wait till I have all the money ??

 

you mean the struct or H&R? I heard something about the struct that will last 30K????? don't listern to me.

 

If you've got 100K on original struts, putting the H&Rs in isn't a good idea at all. Those struts are not going to be able to control the force those springs put out. Your going to do little bunny hops over dips and large bumbs. Save your $$$$ and do the whole thing at once or your not going to be happy with the ride at all. I just did H&Rs on original struts, my car only has 35K on it. I can tell you I will be replacing the struts this coming spring for sure. Probably going with the KYB GR2 strut. This combo is probably the best match for ride comfort and performance.

 

your question didn't really make sense...

In other words, the springs themselves will last basically forever - at least for whatever life is left in your car.

It is the struts that wear out.
If you already have 100K on em they won't last too much longer, new springs or not.

I just put in H&Rs with the stock struts.
I have about 44K on my Maxima.
So far, so good.
But I'll be putting on the new KYBs soon.
They just [finally] came out and will probably be around $380 for the set.
Check out the thread in the group buy forum.

If you are really short on funds, I'd go with the KYBs before the springs.
But if you can swing it, go for the springs and struts at the same time.
You can save about 2 to 3 hundred dollars if you do the install yourself.

And njmaxseltd knows what he's talking about.
He's done a lot of research and helped me out quite a bit when I did my install.

 

oh yeah - "is it worth it?"

Yes, most definitely.

I got em mostly to close the gap in the wheel well.
The improved handling was just a side benefit.

Insatlling them myself
[well, Nick Stam came by and was a big help too]
was a more of a pain than I thought it would be, but it was still fun and good to learn a little more about how the car works.
Plus the satisfaction of saying I did it myself.
[not to mention the money I saved]

 

I bought my 96SE with 100K miles, with original shocks. I immediately installed H&R. It's been about 10K miles and the shocks are fine. My brother bought his brand new SE back in 97. He immediately installed H&R. Now with 60K+ miles his stock shocks are still good. I think it's worth the investment to have the H&R installed first. Plus when you are ready to upgrade the shocks the job will be much easier with shorter springs.

 

thanks...any pics of how the H&R's look with the stock se struts ?? I might get the H&R's for christmas...anything have to be cut during the install ??

What kind of struts will you get when they start to go ?
How do you know ??


thanks

 

I have the Eibach's which has the same drop as the H&R's. I'm on stock struts. did it at about 45,000 miles and now I'm at like 51,000 miles. Not too bad. You can see the drop in the pic below. I'm looking forward to putting the KYB's on though at some point.

Only thing that needs to be cut is the bump stop.

One thing I notice is a little bit of squeeking that seems odd. It's not real noticeable and I'm not sure if it's the springs or what at this point.

 

Wait and do both at the same time. The old shocks are already underdampened for the springs so you'll just make it worse

 

But if you have an SE, don't the shocks/struts have better dampening? That's what I understood is that the shocks are a bit more beefed up on the SE editions.

 

see, i'm a big help sometimes

 

Yes, but an aftermarket spring (H&R or Eibach) will have up to twice the spring rate once fully compressed as a stock spring. The valving on the SE versions are still not "performance" spec.

 

I do not think you need to cut the bump stop for H&R springs.
I didn't and they ride fine so far.
I think you only need to cut the bump stop if the drop is more than an inch and a half.

As for the squeeking, NJmax [something like that] posted a thread about squeeks and solutions a week or two ago. Do a search, it was a good/useful post.

I was going to get the KYBs right away, but I have many ways to spend my money and my stock struts are still holding out, so I'm going to wait a while.

 

Nah, my stock SE shocks didn't last too long after I installed Eibachs despite being more beefier. After 3 weeks I got spooked when I was going down the freeway and the rear end felt very floaty and reverberated in some stretches...I upgraded to Konis since. They're a little more firmer than the stock SE struts but tolerable.

 

I guess there is no correct answer to this one. I drove my brother's 97SE last night. He installed H&R right after he bought the car brank new. He's been riding on the stock shocks for over 70K miles and the car still rides nicely. And my 96SE has been riding on H&R for close 10K miles now, with 110K miles old stock shocks.

 

My '95 SE only has 56k miles on it. I'll get the springs, as the spring/shock setup is way outta my pricerange right now. I think all maxima's with sport-tuned suspension will be ok for a while at least on springs with a drop of 1.5-.4 or lower. And if the shocks do start to go, those bunny hops will be your reminder.

Springs before shocks, that's the way to go for all us poor-@ss people.

 

but if you go that route, you better save up and have the $$$ for new struts, cuz they can go bad reaaal fast and when they do you're ****ed. Also it saves on time and $$$ for the install if you get it done at the same time.

 

i put H&R's on my car about 3 months ago and still have my stock struts/springs on and the ride feels the same=)

 

I got Eibachs. It says right in the directions that the bump stops have to be cut for installation on a '97 Maxima.

I'm still running stock struts but I'm looking at getting the KYB's from Cattman. I think my stock struts are ok still but I swear they feel sloppier already or just react differently. They're stiff but at certain points they seem to lose the stiffness. The Eibachs were put on at about 45,000 miles on the stock struts.