Right, I got these fitted on my N16 yesterday and they are the mutts nuts but it cost me a fortune to get them installed; mainly because I didn't give my garage enough information so it took them ages - though £360 for one-and-a-half days is probably not that bad for 12 hours work and some nuts and bolts and exhaust pipe.
Sooo, having hunted the Intertubes for information I thought I'd stick the useful stuff I found out (after the fact) here in the hope it saves someone some time and money.
Most of this comes from reading this epic Maxima forum thread so kudos to doodfood and the crew over there. For more info on the points raised here go there!
Note: I've forgotten the proper names for things; correct me and I will edit his first post. Likewise if I missed something or am talking bollocks somewhere let me know and I'll edit - I'm well into my second bottle of wine and doing this from memory so.. meh..
Coilovers are not for the faint-hearted, skint or those with delicate bottoms or spines.
This is serious kit. They are not cheap, they require proper setting up and they demand regular checking and maintenance.
Ride quality will be harsher than with stock suspension. Ride height will be lower by at least 1.5 inches. Handling will be improved (roughly) 100%. Even with a softer spring option you will be able to tell if the 10p you ran over is heads or tails. If you just want to lower a bit and get a little handling increase without spending a lot of £££ or time getting things set up then just get lowering springs (I'd go for Eibach) and sports dampers if you need them for the drop (Koni FTW I hear). That said, these things shit all over spring kits and (according to my mechanic) most of the other coilover kits in the same price range.
You get exactly what you pay for.
Make no mistake - the K-Sport coilovers are shit-hot value for money. However; kit designed to be set-up and run by pros on race tracks (especially economy kit designed to be set-up and run by pros on racetracks) will have variable reliability and lifespan when set up and run by amateurs on public roads of varying quality. That said, K-Sport and Apex (our group-buy supplier) seem to give outstanding customer service if they are not all off drifting round eastern europe or swanning around trade shows. Expect 2-3 weeks to get something sorted if it breaks but DO expect to get it sorted.
You can (almost) DIY
Four bolts at the front and three at the back is all it really takes to install these coilovers. Of course-those bolts will be rusty, seized, prone to shearing and generally annoying and you will have to fiddle with brake-line brackets and so on. The real time goes on the adjustment. It may be worth getting a garage to loosen all the bolts, stuff on the coilovers, make sure the brake line brackets are adequately fabricated and fixed and then set them up yourself. A professional alignment job once you have set them up, though, is pretty much mandatory. You will need two jacks at least; one to lift the car and one to raise the running gear to the coilover, a load of liquid wrench to free up the bolts and probably a breakers bar and/or impact wrench and a torque wrench. Be patient. Do not shear bolts. Apply beer as required.
These things are very adjustable
You set the ride height by spinning the bottom brackets up the thread of the coilover body and locking them with a ring (between about 1.5 and 5 inches drop). You set the spring strength by compressing it with a ring and locking that (very tightly!) with another ring. You can tweak the camber from the bottom or top of the unit and can set 36 damping levels. This makes it a devil to set up properly but an angel when you do. Set them up with the ride height you want, factory-standard geometry (camber etc), the springs just a tiny bit preloaded and the softest dampening setting then run them in and get used to them for a few days before you start tweaking.
You do not have to strip your boot interior to install these
The fronts are a piece of piss (seized stuff notwithstanding). The rears can be done from underneath, three bolts is all it takes to whip them off, adjust them and refit them. Don't fanny about going in from the top just to adjust the dampening unless you want to invest the time making access holes in the boot.
Ride Height
You adjust the ride height by screwing the big orange base sections up and down the coilover body. You lock them with the lower locking ring. Dropping to the point where your front suspension arms are pointing UP towards the wheels is probably BAD. You can slam these things to the point where your wheels will no longer fit in the arches but see the previous warning. Other than that slam your bitch as low a your roads and wheels allow! Make sure you get the front and rear pairs of coilovers set to exactly the same ride height when you fit them. For reference - a 2-inch drop with 205/45/17 et45 has no rubbing on my N16.
If you are scared of speed bumps and want an excuse to make more noise swap out the mid-section silencers for a straight pipe; though TBH the increase in noise is barely noticable if you have a decent back box. With a 1.5-2 inch drop I've no problem with speed bumps in my N16 but I am taking them at 5mph.
Spring Compression
Best bet initially is to set the springs so they are just starting to be compressed a tiny bit by the rings. This keeps them in place to reduce movement and noise but keeps the full travel of the unit available (less chance of bottoming out the shocks) and does not make things madly bouncy. The more you compress (preload) them the harsher and bouncier the ride will be and the more dampening you will need to compensate. Even with the softer springs it is a hard ride to start with, even at full stretch. Bear in mind your arse-end is lighter and so will be bouncier unless you have a lot of weight back there. When locking the spring bed rings use both of the supplied wrenches in opposite directions. Use a hammer (gently) to make sure they are tight.
Damping / Dampening.. whatever.. making it less bouncy..
Set from the top of the units with the provided alan-key things. For a smoothest ride set to one-half turn from the softest (full anti-clockwise) setting. For uber-handling hit-up the hardest setting (full clockwise). Fiddle to taste but the consensus I have seen seems to be go for one extreme or the other. The trade-off is between go-kart handling and a broken spine or (a bit) more civilised ride and WRX handling.
Camber, caster toe-in, alignment and so on
Your garage (or Nissan service manual) will be able to tell you what the stock settings are. Use them to start with and if you want to play with them find (or become) an expert suspension tuner.
Aftercare
Keep them clean. Especially in winter - the Japs don't use salt on their roads so eastern import equipment is not as corrosion resistant as UK stuff. Use silicon grease on exposed metal. thread etc. Check for oil leaking from shocks and loosening of locking rings. If your tyres wear quickly or unevenly get your suspension geometry/alignment sorted by an expert (and no, kwik-fit do not count) pronto.
If they are noisy
Avoid potholes. If that does not work and you still get clicking noises when turning try greasing everything, make sure the springs are under at least a little preload (if you can shake them then tighten it) and check all locking rings are very clean and very tight. These things are stiff - you will likely get bodywork and trim noises when rattling along on them and some things may shake loose - mine seem to have killed the left-hand lamp of the backlight of my trip-computer LED, for example, but as I don't really care what time or temperature it is so, well, meh.
I can't emphasise enough how much of a difference these things have made to the handling and feel of my car and that's before, tweaking, bedding-in, an expert setup or anything like that and I've only been driving on dark, wet, greasy public roads at (more or less) the speed limit so far.
£450 to buy and £360 to fit (£360 less if I'd grown the balls to do it myself which I would now, knowing what I do) - is it worth it? Well, if they last 2 years I would say definitely.
I get into the car and go - "hmmm, that's different".
I drive the car and think "jesus, that's awesome".
I get out the car and think "fuck me this is low!"
Sooo, having hunted the Intertubes for information I thought I'd stick the useful stuff I found out (after the fact) here in the hope it saves someone some time and money.
Most of this comes from reading this epic Maxima forum thread so kudos to doodfood and the crew over there. For more info on the points raised here go there!
Note: I've forgotten the proper names for things; correct me and I will edit his first post. Likewise if I missed something or am talking bollocks somewhere let me know and I'll edit - I'm well into my second bottle of wine and doing this from memory so.. meh..
Coilovers are not for the faint-hearted, skint or those with delicate bottoms or spines.
This is serious kit. They are not cheap, they require proper setting up and they demand regular checking and maintenance.
Ride quality will be harsher than with stock suspension. Ride height will be lower by at least 1.5 inches. Handling will be improved (roughly) 100%. Even with a softer spring option you will be able to tell if the 10p you ran over is heads or tails. If you just want to lower a bit and get a little handling increase without spending a lot of £££ or time getting things set up then just get lowering springs (I'd go for Eibach) and sports dampers if you need them for the drop (Koni FTW I hear). That said, these things shit all over spring kits and (according to my mechanic) most of the other coilover kits in the same price range.
You get exactly what you pay for.
Make no mistake - the K-Sport coilovers are shit-hot value for money. However; kit designed to be set-up and run by pros on race tracks (especially economy kit designed to be set-up and run by pros on racetracks) will have variable reliability and lifespan when set up and run by amateurs on public roads of varying quality. That said, K-Sport and Apex (our group-buy supplier) seem to give outstanding customer service if they are not all off drifting round eastern europe or swanning around trade shows. Expect 2-3 weeks to get something sorted if it breaks but DO expect to get it sorted.
You can (almost) DIY
Four bolts at the front and three at the back is all it really takes to install these coilovers. Of course-those bolts will be rusty, seized, prone to shearing and generally annoying and you will have to fiddle with brake-line brackets and so on. The real time goes on the adjustment. It may be worth getting a garage to loosen all the bolts, stuff on the coilovers, make sure the brake line brackets are adequately fabricated and fixed and then set them up yourself. A professional alignment job once you have set them up, though, is pretty much mandatory. You will need two jacks at least; one to lift the car and one to raise the running gear to the coilover, a load of liquid wrench to free up the bolts and probably a breakers bar and/or impact wrench and a torque wrench. Be patient. Do not shear bolts. Apply beer as required.
These things are very adjustable
You set the ride height by spinning the bottom brackets up the thread of the coilover body and locking them with a ring (between about 1.5 and 5 inches drop). You set the spring strength by compressing it with a ring and locking that (very tightly!) with another ring. You can tweak the camber from the bottom or top of the unit and can set 36 damping levels. This makes it a devil to set up properly but an angel when you do. Set them up with the ride height you want, factory-standard geometry (camber etc), the springs just a tiny bit preloaded and the softest dampening setting then run them in and get used to them for a few days before you start tweaking.
You do not have to strip your boot interior to install these
The fronts are a piece of piss (seized stuff notwithstanding). The rears can be done from underneath, three bolts is all it takes to whip them off, adjust them and refit them. Don't fanny about going in from the top just to adjust the dampening unless you want to invest the time making access holes in the boot.
Ride Height
You adjust the ride height by screwing the big orange base sections up and down the coilover body. You lock them with the lower locking ring. Dropping to the point where your front suspension arms are pointing UP towards the wheels is probably BAD. You can slam these things to the point where your wheels will no longer fit in the arches but see the previous warning. Other than that slam your bitch as low a your roads and wheels allow! Make sure you get the front and rear pairs of coilovers set to exactly the same ride height when you fit them. For reference - a 2-inch drop with 205/45/17 et45 has no rubbing on my N16.
If you are scared of speed bumps and want an excuse to make more noise swap out the mid-section silencers for a straight pipe; though TBH the increase in noise is barely noticable if you have a decent back box. With a 1.5-2 inch drop I've no problem with speed bumps in my N16 but I am taking them at 5mph.
Spring Compression
Best bet initially is to set the springs so they are just starting to be compressed a tiny bit by the rings. This keeps them in place to reduce movement and noise but keeps the full travel of the unit available (less chance of bottoming out the shocks) and does not make things madly bouncy. The more you compress (preload) them the harsher and bouncier the ride will be and the more dampening you will need to compensate. Even with the softer springs it is a hard ride to start with, even at full stretch. Bear in mind your arse-end is lighter and so will be bouncier unless you have a lot of weight back there. When locking the spring bed rings use both of the supplied wrenches in opposite directions. Use a hammer (gently) to make sure they are tight.
Damping / Dampening.. whatever.. making it less bouncy..
Set from the top of the units with the provided alan-key things. For a smoothest ride set to one-half turn from the softest (full anti-clockwise) setting. For uber-handling hit-up the hardest setting (full clockwise). Fiddle to taste but the consensus I have seen seems to be go for one extreme or the other. The trade-off is between go-kart handling and a broken spine or (a bit) more civilised ride and WRX handling.
Camber, caster toe-in, alignment and so on
Your garage (or Nissan service manual) will be able to tell you what the stock settings are. Use them to start with and if you want to play with them find (or become) an expert suspension tuner.
Aftercare
Keep them clean. Especially in winter - the Japs don't use salt on their roads so eastern import equipment is not as corrosion resistant as UK stuff. Use silicon grease on exposed metal. thread etc. Check for oil leaking from shocks and loosening of locking rings. If your tyres wear quickly or unevenly get your suspension geometry/alignment sorted by an expert (and no, kwik-fit do not count) pronto.
If they are noisy
Avoid potholes. If that does not work and you still get clicking noises when turning try greasing everything, make sure the springs are under at least a little preload (if you can shake them then tighten it) and check all locking rings are very clean and very tight. These things are stiff - you will likely get bodywork and trim noises when rattling along on them and some things may shake loose - mine seem to have killed the left-hand lamp of the backlight of my trip-computer LED, for example, but as I don't really care what time or temperature it is so, well, meh.
I can't emphasise enough how much of a difference these things have made to the handling and feel of my car and that's before, tweaking, bedding-in, an expert setup or anything like that and I've only been driving on dark, wet, greasy public roads at (more or less) the speed limit so far.
£450 to buy and £360 to fit (£360 less if I'd grown the balls to do it myself which I would now, knowing what I do) - is it worth it? Well, if they last 2 years I would say definitely.
I get into the car and go - "hmmm, that's different".
I drive the car and think "jesus, that's awesome".
I get out the car and think "fuck me this is low!"
