independent rear suspension?? is it possible

[shpaintball]

how can you get indep. rear suspension for the sentra and y didnt it come with it....

[Gigs]

I myself have put some time into this and asking around the simple answer as to why we don't have it is cost, it would cost nissan too much to put it in. Now on the good news, the newly introduced Rogue is built on the same platform, shares same engine ect. So if you one were dedicated enough and had enough money you could find the rear end out of a 2WD Rogue do some measurements some drilling and put it in the back of your spec, it sounds difficult but look at honda and its integra/crv i have seen AWD integra's because they used to share a platform with the crv and someone just chopped and swapped. so yes you can but it will be a bit custom.

[Soravia]

If you're going to chop and swap. Take some out of the older Maxima or the latest Altima. You'll probably need to weld in some steel plates to drill holes to mount the sub frame but it is not impossible. Just make sure you can mount the stock shocks on the new sub frame.

[gotak]

The rear suspension thing is cost. Also it's not that bad from what people says online it's judged to be better then McPherson struts. You get a free sway bar.

A lot of people seems to think that the suspension is really bad cause it's not the fab multi-link suspension. However, I don't know how true that is since if you look at WRC cars: Subaru: McPherson, Citroen: McPherson, Ford: Trailing arm. None of them seems to use the multi link stuff. If multi-link is really that great in all application I am sure we would have seen it in rally cars but we don't.

[shpaintball]

rally cars run on a different platform ...gravel , dirt, snow ...it works against you then however if you race auto cross their is more need to hug the road ...thats where you need independent susp. its simple different needs for different types of roads thats for the help guys

[gotak]

You are forgetting that tarmac roads are a significant part of WRC and that Sebastien Loeb gets a lot of his points from winning on tarmac events. Surely the suspension they use gets the job done no problems.

V8 supercars uses live rear axles (are they pickup trucks? LOL). World Touring Cars are regulated to McPherson struts front and rear. So really why no fancy multi-link stuff. After all that's what put the zoom zoom in Mazda's 3 right? So much so that VW was forced to go to multi-link (apparently poaching the whole suspension team from Ford/Mazda to do so). Why is it that real racing cars don't seem to use them?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APiApBXkzJc

See that video? Rally car has no problem putting down the power.

So really people will go on and on about suspension. And I agree that the torsion bar feel doesn't inspire confidence especially how it'll hip wiggle when you hit bumps going around a corner. However, I don't think most of us have really push their limits. For example the new b16s beats the new Civic Si on the skid pad and the Si has the fancy independent rear suspension.

The thing is a lot of what we think about the torsion bar rear has to do with what auto journalist writes. And you'll always see them complain about it. What they are complaining about is more how it feels then how it actually handles. Again though if you feel more confident in your car you'd be able to go faster in theory but how fast the car can be push is a different question.

But back to the point of whether you can put independent suspension in. You should be able to since in the B16s they use torsion bar but in the Rogue which uses the same chassis they use independent rear. Maybe see if the rogue's can be swap into the older cars?

However, all that being said. If you are going to actually push the limit of your car it might not be a good idea to hack a completely new suspension setup into your car. The result could be unpredictable with things like snap over steer.

Modified by gotak at 4:34 PM 4/9/2008
Modified by gotak at 4:55 PM 4/9/2008

[nametakennow]

The current Civic (including the Si and Type R) has a live rear axle due to cost cuts. The old one did not.

I doubt putting together an independent rear suspension would cause snap oversteer, but it would take a lot of work to make it handle right, which is why there are teams of engineers that specialize in it. It's tuning that Lotus basically sells as a consulting firm over and above their production.

Regardless, the B13-15 did without just fine. The B13 was regarded as being one of the best-handling FWD cars of all time. Even the B15 SE and SE-R could get it's inside tire cocked up even on a stock suspension.

Certainly an independent rear is optimal, but for an econobox the torsion beam is no surprise.

[gotak]

The rear suspension on the new Si is double wishbone. There's no live axle technically ever on FWD cars as well. Since live points to it being a drive component.

[Soravia]

It's the Euro Spec Type R that has crappy suspension. Even between US spec SI, the 4 door handles better than coupe. Weight distribution matters a lot.

[nametakennow]

Whoops, I thought the whole Civic line got it.

Odd that Europe got jipped.