suspension database

[m-licious]

i've seen several threads regarding coilovers vs springs on this board as i have seen on many other car enthusiasts sites. however, what i don't see a lot of is real data. what i'd like to encourage is a discussion from those whom have had first hand experience to contribute to the data and help those whom are interested in upgrades draw our own conclusions.

1. i think it's a given that aftermarket springs should shorten the lifespan of stock struts...but now that this newer model M has been around for awhile, I'm curious, how much did it really affect things? for people riding on stock springs, how long did they last? for people on aftermarket, how many miles did you clock prior to changing out the struts?

2. for those of you whom tout the infallible greatness of coilovers, i recognize their superiority for providing a matched strut/spring system, however, my understanding is that these strut inserts must be replaced or rebuilt at some point as well. what is that interval for the popular brands (JIC, teins) and how much did it cost?

3. for those whom have ridden in cars equipped with different types of suspension options to discuss as objectively as possible what they felt in terms of handling and ride quality. i think the drops on pictures already posted are self-explanatory as far as appearance.

[m-licious]

maybe we could get more contributions if we not only compiled suspension data but did some burnouts...

[Wheelzs3]

I have a 07 M45 and I have not had springs on it but i have had springs on other vehicles and in my opinion it's really the same in any car with springs maybe because of where I live we have sooo many potholes and not so great road surface so maybe that's one of the reasons I think springs are not that great. After like 3 months the struts bottom out and your wondering why the hell you put them on cause your car is bouncing all over the place I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had this happen or has seen it. After your struts are blow your gonna shell out your hard earned money to buy new factory struts which I'm sure nobody likes doing.

When it come to coilovers once again this is my opinion they offer a more stiff ride no bouncing until you blow them but 9 times outta 10 it will take a longer time. If you manage to blow them quickly then either the person who put them on didn't know what they were doing or you don't really care what you hit. You have the option to raise or lower ur car when ever you like you don't have to take your sport springs off and put your factory's back on. Also if your not into your car riding stiff then you can adjust the coilovers damping so that your M can ride smooth. Now there are 3 Coilover Manufacturers that people talk about when the 06-07 M is mentioned they are Tein,JIC and Megan and all of them do the job the difference between them is how you want your M to ride you can also play around with your spring rate but I urge people to not mess with the spring rate if they have no idea what there doing. Coilovers do blow and yes you do have to send them out to fix them BUT All 3 company's mentioned come with a warranty so if they do blow then pay for shipping and they will replace or fix the old ones for FREE now if you don't have a warranty then you'll have to pay a little bit of money not sure about JIC but TEIN will cost you somewhere around 200-400 and Megan will run you between 65-300 People should research springs and coilovers before they buy.

People on these forums force there opinion's on you when it isn't there car or they don't even have the car in question and I understand some people don't have the finance's to buy 2k coilovers but just know that some times cheaper is not better and you get what you pay for!!!!

IT'S UP TO YOU!!!

[FndMspot]

I asked my mechanic who has done hundreds of mods on different cars if I could get coilovers for my suspension. He shook his head and stated they are noisy. End of story!

PS: I love my M35 sport, but would like to soften the ride, suggestions?

[07sportm35]

First off (IMO), the blown strut thing has been blown out of proportion. I used the search functions and could not find a blown strut to save my life.

Secondly, most lowering springs for the M35/M45 are fairly mild drops. Case and point, I dropped my ride on Tein "HT's" which is 1.2" in the front and .5 inches in the rear. No noises whatsoever, rides just as smooth, and handles a little better. The car is level and looks a way nicer. All this for a mere $235 shipped!

If you even begin to believe that a 1.2 inch drop on the struts are going to kill them anytime soon I'm here to refute that. Furthermore, a .5 inch drop on the shocks will do absolutely nothing to significantly shorten the lifespan of the shock.

Now, lets say the strut eventually somehow blows...their only $172 a pair. You can buy 10 pairs of struts and still pay less than 1 set of coilovers.

I think coilovers are great but lets not get paranoid over springs.

Here's a link to my review, and a small piece of hopefully a eventually large database...

zer...ersvf

[07sportm35]

I asked my mechanic who has done hundreds of mods on different cars if I could get coilovers for my suspension. He shook his head and stated they are noisy. End of story!

PS: I love my M35 sport, but would like to soften the ride, suggestions?

That's just one opinion. Done correctly I'll bet most coilovers don't make noises. But then again I don't have any experience with coilovers so Can folks with coilovers chime in on this?

The best way to better ride quality with the same 19" wheels is a touring tire. Unfortunetly there are not a bunch of choices in the 19" range. If you were to run 18"s then I would say get the Michelin primacy MXV4's not to mention 18's ride better due to more sidewall on the tires. On 19"s a good bet seems to be for the money Kuhmo Ecsta LX Platinum's.

Otherwise run 31-32 PSI on your tires is about all I know of that you can do to soften it up a little. There are no aftermarket shocks or struts that I am aware of available at this time.

The aftermarket parts for the "M" are minimal at best--then again the car is almost perfect "as-is".

[Wheelzs3]

Until we get somebody with knowledge of having both springs and coilovers on a M then all we are going to do is go back and forth. But I have driven a M35 with springs and the ride wasn't bad but you could tell they weren't Coilovers the M weighs 4k and when you lower the car on factory struts your putting more weight on the struts correct? also the shaft in the strut doesn't travel as much as it would if you had your factory springs on right? And you can also feel the car bounce when you hit a bump or take a sharp turn. Now I have a M45 and have had Coilovers on it since i bought it. I actually bought 2 sets Tein & Megan reason is the Tein didn't drop as much as I wanted to so I tried the Megan and yup It sits pretty anyway I already explained the diff between the 2. How about I sum it up like this if you want the factory ride with a little bounce then get springs if you want a more stiff ride without the bounce get Coilovers!!! How about that?

[szh]

Now, lets say the strut eventually somehow blows...their only $172 a pair. You can buy 10 pairs of struts and still pay less than 1 set of coilovers.

An excellent point.

More importantly, struts do wear gradually over time. By the time 60k miles rolls around, they usually need replacement to get the original handling back. With coil-overs, that is a very expensive replacement requirement!

Z

[m-licious]

wow, people are replacing struts @ 60k on stock springs? by the way, is that price on sport struts or the standards?i'm at 35k now and so maybe i should just wait it out and change springs and struts together...still waiting to hear from the coilover camp about how many miles they're getting until rebuild...

[szh]

wow, people are replacing struts @ 60k on stock springs?

I have not yet done mine yet (am at 73k or so), and I can clearly tell that the struts are not doing their job as well as they did when new! The handling has definitely become poorer (on curves and bumps on those curves) - somewhat less noticeable on smooth straight highways though.

The fact is that all struts will degrade over time and miles and use - the effect is just so gradual that you do not notice the change till they are well past useful life! Some people don't notice till their tires start bouncing and thumping on level ground at highway speeds.

On our heavy cars, the typical number is probably around 60k to 75k miles - you can stretch it to 90k miles perhaps - if the struts are not leaking already. On my wife's Acura CL (mileage at 82.5k), we can feel it ... she tells me that the "shock absorbers" are "not working properly" and she can "feel the car bouncing more than it should" on the road. Even though she knows little about cars, this is a very clear effect to her!

So, some time back, I bought four OEM struts for her Acura (wonderful price on eBay) and need to find the time to get them done. A weekend soon ... my car will wait a bit longer till later this fall perhaps. Been meaning to do it sooner, but her car is worse right now.

Z

[07sportm35]

you lower the car on factory struts your putting more weight on the struts correct? also the shaft in the strut doesn't travel as much as it would if you had your factory springs on right? How about I sum it up like this if you want the factory ride with a little bounce then get springs if you want a more stiff ride without the bounce get Coilovers!!! How about that?

To answer you question directly, the weight remains the same on struts with lowering springs. It is true that you have less travel on your dampeners. I have no additional bounce that can be felt whatsoever. I do however have better handling, equal ride qualty, and improved looks. So much so that I drive now just for the hell of it. The car is so smooth but handles so well. The car loves bumps on turns and proves this by maintaining contact to the road on all (4) corners. We are talking supple ride quality with attitude.

Coilovers are GREAT! But, be prepared to spend $2500 before install and another two hundred more to truly take full advantage of them (should be professionally tuned). For they must be tuned properly.

This what the experts say..."even if you’re a seasoned coilover user as there exists a lot of misinformation about coilovers. This is because, more than with any other style of shock & spring, the coilover user is presented with almost limitless options regarding setup. Mounting, valving, spring rates, spring lengths, gas pressure and more are all completely in the hands of the installer and can be easily changed from one extreme to another. When those hands are expert – the result is phenomenal performance. When those hands are not so expert – the unfortunate result is that we novices really just have a huge amount of rope with which to hang ourselves. Instead of a huge number of ways we can tune, we are faced with a huge number of ways we can get it wrong, and sometimes badly wrong at that."

With springs, companies like "Eibach" have done the best they can to optimize their spring with existing OEM shocks/struts--takes the guess work out of it.

Ironically if you go to other forums in regards to coilovers, what you mostly hear is "my ride quality is bad/stiff, my car feels bouncy, but she handles great".

Again, coilovers are wonderful, but there are far too many weekend warriors severly compromising/degrading the coilovers ability to do it's job correctly. Tuned properly, you can have your cake and eat it too...but at what cost?

[Luminor]

Thanks to the link 07sportm35 provided with pics of his car, I just placed an order for the Tein H-tech. I simply wanted a very mild drop, primarily to get rid of some of the front wheel gap, and of all the springs available, these seem to be the ones to satisfy my needs. Will post pics and update when they get installed.

[07sportm35]

Thanks to the link 07sportm35 provided with pics of his car, I just placed an order for the Tein H-tech. I simply wanted a very mild drop, primarily to get rid of some of the front wheel gap, and of all the springs available, these seem to be the ones to satisfy my needs. Will post pics and update when they get installed.

You're going to LOVE them Luminor. I could not be more happy with them.

And, when I tell you the car sits perfectly level with a half tank of gas, and the suspension is whisper quiet, I mean it!

[skim35]

Hi,

I have a 2006 M35 Sport and had eibach springs put in and they road nice! like stock but about an inch lower. I wanted to get a lower stance and started looking into the VIP look. So i didnt have $4K for Air Ride suspenion so I went coilover route. Did my research and went with the JIC Magic VIP FLT coilovers and my car is slammed rear wheels are tucked under the fender my rear lip is about half inch away from my fender ( kissing the fender), the fronts are just a tad bit tucked but you can pretty much see all the tire (245/35/20) rears (255/35/20). So with that said my car is pretty slammed!!!=) and it rides almost like stock and i have the ride set on medium. You definitely have to be a little more careful driving but it look SWEEEET!!! VIP. You can see me on Cardomain with the eibachs and then changed to the JIC coils. I love the JIC's!! had them for about 2 months and so far no complaints! but they where a grip $!!! but you get what you pay for the BEST!!

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3161021sk350gthope this helpsgood luck!

[07sportm35]

One hell of a gorgeous ride man. Image #12 is my favorite. Good ride quality to boot...sounds like if you have the money that is the way to go.

Nice pics!

[m-licious]

skim,yours would be a very valuable assessment. how was the ride with the eibachs? say on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being stock and 1 being with your coilovers at their most firm setting?

Hi,

I have a 2006 M35 Sport and had eibach springs put in and they road nice! like stock but about an inch lower. I wanted to get a lower stance and started looking into the VIP look. So i didnt have $4K for Air Ride suspenion so I went coilover route. Did my research and went with the JIC Magic VIP FLT coilovers and my car is slammed rear wheels are tucked under the fender my rear lip is about half inch away from my fender ( kissing the fender), the fronts are just a tad bit tucked but you can pretty much see all the tire (245/35/20) rears (255/35/20). So with that said my car is pretty slammed!!!=) and it rides almost like stock and i have the ride set on medium. You definitely have to be a little more careful driving but it look SWEEEET!!! VIP. You can see me on Cardomain with the eibachs and then changed to the JIC coils. I love the JIC's!! had them for about 2 months and so far no complaints! but they where a grip $!!! but you get what you pay for the BEST!!

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3161021sk350gthope this helpsgood luck!

[skim35]

M-licious,

When I had the Eibachs they road very stock 10 being stock I would say about an 8- 8.5. My coilovers ride about a 7 but I live in S. Cali in the OC so the roads / streets here are very smooth not like Los Angeles!! and I sacrificed a little bit stiffer ride for the stance of my M, like i stated I wanted the VIP Japanese underground look;) So M-licious if your looking to have a good ride and not be afraid of pot holes and have your body all stiffin up when you go over them i would recommend the Eibachs but if you are a careful driver and dont mind the bit stiffer ride then the coilovers are the way to go! JIC or Tein. I would spend the extra $ and get the JIC VIP they have a better set up for the M!!

Also another thing to think about on coils is that you can always raise your M up or DOWN haha=) you have a choice but the springs you dont!

Laatesslow LOW and Wide!! VIPStyle

[m-licious]

wow, i figured the coilovers would ride smoother. or is it simply harsher because of how you set the rebound? i'm in OC too. hopefully will see your ride around. looks freakin sweet. when you got the JICs was there any info on expected shelf life until rebuild?

[skim35]

M-licious the ride is smooth but i have the coils almost all the way down and the JIC's can go down 3.5inchs. Dont get me wrong the ride is nice and smoothfor a car that has wheel tucked under the fender! the rebound of the shocks are great and JIC made them longer just for the VIP style car large wheels and lowered stance. Just gotta angle up and down drive ways!! And speed bumps you really have to be careful! Just depends on how you want to set it up? soft hard, low or slammed! haha As for the shelf life didnt come with any info on that but I'm not to worried about it because i dont drive hard and avoid any road bumps, pot holes,etc.whats you M looking like? pics?

Laatessteve

[skim35]

07sportm35 thanks for the comment! more mods to come by the wayrear lip spoiler, blue halos, change fog lights to hid ice blue, and change the parking light to blue! check out the halos i should be getting next week

http://www.automotivelightstor...ID=24

I'll update it on my cardomain page.latessteve

[m-licious]

wow, i figured the coilovers would ride smoother. or is it simply harsher because of how you set the rebound? i'm in OC too. hopefully will see your ride around. looks freakin sweet. when you got the JICs was there any info on expected shelf life until rebuild?

[FndMspot]

Skim35,You car looks awesome. I anxious to see how those Halos come out. Are you sending your light housing to the Vendor to install? Keep us posted on this Mod.

[the_sauce]

Wow a lot of people who dont mod cars buy these!!

Coilovers will NOT ride like factory... EVER. 99% of coilover shocks are rated at 200,000 miles before needing replacement or service unless they are abused(Usually during install or adjusting).

Springs on factory shocks are completely hit or miss and REALLY depend on your driving habits. Springs driven by someone who knows how to drive a lowered vehicle and care for it will last a LONG time. I had custom drop springs(3+ inch drop) on my Lexus GS on factory shocks for 50k miles and the OEM shocks had no signs of wear and tear when I took them apart to replace them.



I have run too many sets of coilovers to mention and driven cars lower than they should have. This was my 1997 q45 ride height. It was not factory but smooth as hell for a car lowered 6.5"



If you know what you are doing while driving around(missing potholes, not hitting speedbumps and driveways like you are in a lifted truck...) Basically, driving attentively looking for the smoothest path possible you will be fine for longer than you need on factory struts and springs.

If you are the type who doesnt go less than 30mph unless you are in a garage, and your attention is 100% focused on the girl your cheating on your wife with jabbering away at your bluetooth, who swears when you hit the bump you could see from a half mile away, I would recommend coilovers.... They are a lot more sturdy than your factory struts.

[skim35]

Since they are in the mid west and it will cost me about $200 for them to do it and ship it, myself and a friend are going to do it this weekend (if they come in) . I will put pics up soon as i finish! wish me luck!!

latessteve

[adambilling]

Are there any OEM or Non-OEM struts for the M35 (non-sport)??? I have searched everywhere... I can find neither on the web... do you have to buy from the dealer???

What are the good OEM parts websites for Infiniti?

Thnx in advance.

[Donkey45]

I've been thinking about pulling the trigger on the TEINs H-tech, but everywhere just lists the M35. Is it the same for the 45?

[Donkey45]

anyone? anyone? Tein H-techs only listed for M35, thats the one I should order for my M45 ..right?

[07sportm35]

anyone? anyone? Tein H-techs only listed for M35, thats the one I should order for my M45 ..right?

The M45 engine weighs 100 pounds more than the M35's. The spring rates are different between the two.

Tein knows this and that's why they specify M35 as in M35 only.

Sorry, no go.

[the_sauce]

The M45 engine weighs 100 pounds more than the M35's. The spring rates are different between the two.

Tein knows this and that's why they specify M35 as in M35 only.

Sorry, no go.

Really?? 100 lbs will not affect the ride quality of the springs. You can believe this guy if you want and find some "M45 specific" springs.

But 100lbs is the difference of a passenger.... Does your car become undrivable and so uncomfortable you cant take it when you have a passenger??

The springs will FIT the car the exact same. The front end of your m45 might sit about 1-2mm lower(look at a ruler if you need to see the difference) than an m35.

Go for it!!

[Donkey45]

So they dont make TEIN H techs for the M45? Well that sucks!