Since I know some of you just can't leave well enough alone, anyone do this?

I know some of you just swap your whole freaking suspension, but there is no way I'm doing that.

I was thinking of softening the AGX's up for winter, making the analogy that with more give in the suspension, there will be potentially less the tires have to do to keep from slipping.

 

When I had Illuminas (with Progress springs) I left them at 3 F 4 R. With the Tein SS that I have now (temporarily), I dialed down the fronts to 12 (out of 16, 16 stiffest) and left the rears at 14. I usually have it on 14 all round. Springs are soft though, 7kg F and 6kg R. If I were to find the money to buy my own set of coilovers, I'd get spring rates of at least 8/7 or even 9/7.

 

yeah, soften them up a bit and you should be fine.
also I've noticed the shocks firm up on their own in cold weather- the oil inside gets thicker due to the temps.

 

I dialed my illuminas back one for the winter.

 

Is there any chance of the rear AGX adjustable shocks going "bad" if they are left on the stiffest setting while the car sits in the garage for most of the winter?

 

none at all

 

I forgot about that point, sad being in my position

 

How do you guys adjust the rears? I mean, the **** for the Illuminas is under the carpet thing in the trunk, you guys remove the carpet everytime?

 

It's good to have a little less roll stiffness (to a point) in the rain or snow because the extra load transfer helps your outside tires cut through to the pavement.

That said, my Maxima had a ton more roll stiffness than yours probably does, and I was always fine in the winter, so...

 

no adjustment needed here in Bay area, CA!

 

I remove mine everytime. My buddy made a hole for the adjustment which is so much easier but looks butt.

 

all my clips are fubar'd so its super easy to remove. even if the clips were good, i wouldnt pop them back in. plus my rstb needs a cutout.

me neither. good ol cali weather.

 

Last time I went there it was friggin freezing sometimes.

Guess I'm used to Socal...

 

I take out the shocks in the winter and run the springs by themselves.

 

Why run springs... I would just throw in some old pillows.

 

My carpet is barely attached now... I just pull it back and adjust it.

 

I adjust my AGX's to stock equivalent setting when I put my snows on. The softer setting allows the wheels to react faster to the irregularities in the ice/snow covered roads here in CT.

 

So what settings do you think "stock" settings are?

 

yeah? how's that working out for you?

 

i just leave my at one setting all year. once your car gets moving the oil will heat up to its normal operating temp from it being moved around so much.

 

Illuminas

Summer 4F 4R (18s with lowpros)
Winter 2F 3R (Stock 17"s)

And I was thinking the same thing
Does a stiffer suspension change the physics of your car in ice enough to notice?

 

It can. Depends on what "stiffer" entails (springs? dampers? sway bars?), how much stiffer you're talking about, what kind of ice you're talking about (rough vs. sheet), and what the rest of your setup is.

 

lets just say your typical lowering spring/performance strut, and some stiffening bars....
are you more suspectible to sliding?

 

That doesn't really say anything. "Typical lowering spring/performance strut" could range from S-Techs to H&Rs, and from GR-2s to Koni yellows. "Stiffening bars" could mean chassis stiffening or a sway bar. Any combination thereof could have a variety of effects.

Specifics, dude. Specifics.

 

...

Susceptible.

And in general I've noticed that the stiffer a chassis and suspension is, the easier it is to get the tires to break away. The suspension and chassis geometry is just too damn pliable stock to get the tires to easily break away on dry pavement, even in moments where you jerk the wheel the car just sort of convulses and mushes to a shape that will keep the tires from breaking traction, like the chassis is some sort of epileptic retard and you asking anything serious of it is a 30hz strobe light going off in its face, causing it to go limp and take the shape that yields the least resistance. One of the things I noticed when I got my LTB2 was that the front end felt more solid and the front wheels would break away cleanly when I cranked the wheel over more than I should have.

$.02.

 

This is probably the funniest and yet most accurate description of a stock maxima chassis I have ever heard.

 

my only comment on this is........you're not going fast enough.......

you can trail brake a maxima

 

I see you quoted Morph, but I'm not seeing anything relevant to what he said.


Anyway, it's commonly accepted that stiffer = easier to loose traction, at least when you're talking about relative differences between the front and rear. For example: A rear sway bar stiffens the rear end, thereby increasing the tendency of the rear to loose traction relative to the front (i.e. oversteer).

A more interesting question would be what the differences are in traction when your entire car is stiffened, but the front-rear balance stays exactly the same? I don't autox, but I would imagine it would depend on how the weight distribution and contact patches of the tires have been altered. Any autox guys care to chime in here?

 

whent he temp drops low enogh, usually around 30-40f i switch to my winter beater saturn(awesome winter car, even without abs or traction control, its astonishing in the snow/sleet)regardless of whats on the ground. too worried that my jic's will blow, ive heard of that happening with coilovers

 

Basically.

I sometimes like to explain it this way: stiffening one end takes away a significant amount of grip and adds a little bit of it to the other end. That's a horribly simplistic way to think about it, but it works roughly. Understeer is caused by lack of grip at the front; stiffening the rear end with a bigger sway bar will add some front grip by taking a fair bit away from the rear.

The good news about a rear sway bar on a Maxima is that the rear end generally has SO MUCH more grip than the front, and needs so much less because it's so much lighter, that you can afford to take away a lot of rear grip before the handling balance shifts too far toward oversteer.

Of course, bumpy roads change everything: a suspension that's too stiff can make you run out of grip real fast if it prevents the tires from following the road properly...


AFAIK:

- On a really dry, smooth road, you'd have more grip because your inside tires wouldn't unload.

- Your car would be quicker to react on turn-in and in transitions because its weight wouldn't be flopping around as much.

- On a bumpy road, the car would be more likely to skitter off because of the lack of compliance in the suspension.

- On a really wet road, the car might be more likely to hydroplane in a high speed corner if it can't lean on its outside tires hard enough to press through the water and gain traction with the asphalt.

 

so....now you see?

 

Thanks... i cant wait to install that... and by saying cleany could you also mean more....predictable..

 

How specific do you want? (check my sig for an example if you need to) I was just wondering in general all this suspension stiffening how different it would handle out there in the winter conditions.

Thank you everyone this info couldnt be any more benefitial.

 

Unfortunately, it's hard to say in general because there are too many variables. One component could make one person's setup awesome, but make someone else's totally suck.

The best modded setup for most people is going to be stiff springs and a low center of gravity for grip, very good dampers to keep your tires on the ground, and no RSB so the rear end doesn't get skittish. Eibach/Koni would be a great example. Chassis stiffening isn't as essential because you'll (hopefully) be driving pretty slowly when conditions suck, but it will help keep things linear and predictable.

Are you really asking whether your H&Rs and Illuminas will be safe mods? If so, the answer is yes. As long as you have tires that have decent snow traction, you should be fine.

 

I've got Eibach/Koni and I only adjust the fronts when it's really slippery. My Koni's set to 50% stiffness all around but I adjust the fronts to 0 when the going gets tough. That way {in theory} front tires get more traction under hard cornering and braking in winter conditions. Personally I think it only makes a slight difference that is barely noticable. For me tires far more important. Moreover, front tires will lock up first anyway under hard braking if you don't have ABS. That is why I use hand brake when there is too much understeer and when I want to use all the traction from the rears (to stop faster, for example). And it is fun doing a handbrake U turn on slippery roads.
Btw, I think I might need chassis stiffening next year cause with 186k on the clock and Eibach/Koni installed in Aug 07, I feel that chasis becoming weaker and weaker each and every mile. Oh well, maybe I get another car and make the maxima as a track day car.

 

Keep in mind, softer dampers doesn't necessarily mean more traction. If you turn them down so much that they can't keep the wheel from bouncing, you'll have less traction.

 

I have Eibach/Konis and H&R/Konis doenst make a difference how U adjust them, Id give the edge to the H&Rs thou they do a better job of absorbing bumps and stuff that would pull the car to one side if U have eibachs, things ive noticed is that U dont want an LSD in the rain open diffs reason why if U start to lose traction with the LSD its going to transfer power to the other wheel and it will also start to spin causing the car to plow foward, with open diff just on tire spins and U continue to turn as U have directed the car(just in DDing situations nothing extreme), and the obvious tires no explanation need there

 

What the...




Huh???

 

Er... if you're in the rain and your wheels start to spin you should back off or clutch in, unless it's intentional. It will probably produce wheel hop anyway and should be avoided in the first place.

Bottom line, if you get into an accident because you have an LSD, you should not be driving the car in the first place.

 

Could I interpret cleany as....more predictable..? TIA