In the next month I plan on finally upgrading my suspension. I currently own a 2003 G35 coupe with totally stock suspension. I would prefer to stay away from the cheap coilover kits that are just for a drop and don't help with performance. My budget for the Coilover or Spring/Shock setup is right around 1500-1750. This car is my DD and I most likely be only doing a few HPDE's a year and maybe a few auto X's just for fun. I would prefer to also only use linear springs as well. I don't mind having a little rougher of a ride with higher spring rates and for a drop I was thinking somewhere around 1"(maybe a little more) while slightly more in the front compared to the rear to keep the tire gap equal. I am still using the stock 18's with stock staggered tire sizes. I may bump these widths up one size but still run the 2 size difference staggered. I will eventually purchase a set of 19" rims with slightly lower profile tires. I will install the parts myself and was planning on getting whatever setup i go with, fine tuned at a shop. I like the idea of coil overs to fine tune height adjustment but I know my budget isn't very high. Was looking at the 350z equivalents for Spring/Shock combos as they offer the larger drop and higher spring rates. More than 1" though in the swift spring case. Any recommendations for what I plan on using the car for? Sorry for the wall of text.

What I plan on purchasing:
Coilovers or Spring/Shock setup
Stillen front and rear sways
Camber kits as needed
Control Arms
Whatever else is needed for installs

Thanks Guys

 

I'm very happy with the suspension on my 2003 6mt coupe. Brought the car down evenly and the ride is firm but well damped, only like a sports car should be.



I got my Bilsteins slightly used for half $$ off and bought the springs new. Definitely within your budget though to buy new.. Koni yellow adjustable shocks would be my other choice, just for fine tuning. The Bilsteins are not adjustable.
..oh and I don't have a camber kit...perfect wear over the last 2k miles so far. I'll buy the kit if I need to.

18/9 235/40 front 18/10 275/35 rear..spacers also. On the 350z Bilstein/Eibach pro kit.

 

Real nice stance. I like that drop. People always talk about the progressive spring bounce on the street vs linear. How do you feel about those eibachs in that regard? What rims are those btw?

 

No bounce at all. Firm but we'll damped and no oscillation. The Bilsteins are suited perfectly for the pro kit.

Volk GT7 wheels. I just rolled the rear fender lip today. Tire sizes are going up. 275/40 rear and 235/45 in front. The rims are Supra mkiv fitment and are a few years old.

 

Just asking for my own curiosity, would springs be able to cause a bounce? I was under the impression that was dependent on your shocks.

 

The shocks job is to stop or control bounce. The springs would bounce nonstop if not for the shock valving to slow it down.

 

Coilovers or Spring/Shock setup: Coilovers will give you a better adjustment for dampening and height range where shock/spring will be extremely limited.

Stillen front and rear sways- Hotchkis is the way to go.

Camber kits as needed-SPC Rear Control Arms with Toe Bolts
Control Arms- SPC front control arms

Send me a PM if you are interested, I can put together some package deals for you.

 

First, start here: https://g35driver.com/forums/brakes-...w-updates.html

With springs/shocks, You want to match closely the spring drop and the shock length and spring rate to piston travel. It's a little more research, but you'll find you can come up with a great setup for much cheaper than coils. The point of CO's is adjustability, and the fact that the spring is perfectly matched to the damper. If you don't care about adjustment, you can save a lot of money by matching them yourself.

Sways you want Hotchkiss, motordyne or Eibach.

You WILL need a camber kit (I don't care what anyone says). You will also want to put urethane bushings in your comp rods and both lower control arm positions. Front kits you can do SPC, SPL, Eibach or Kinetix makes a great front kit too for half the price of the others (just make sure its the V2 if you get the kinetix). Rear arms you will want to stick with SPC, SPL or Eibach. SPC toe bolts will also be necessary.

As for my personal experience, I have a G35 coupe pro kit. Never had any bounce, even when I had completely worn and bad shocks. As epik said, the shock simply pushes the car back up when the spring comes back from being compressed. You don't even really need the shock there. For a one inch drop with a stiffened feel I would suggest my setup: Eibach pro kit and kyb excel sport model shocks. It's decently stiff, but still streetable. You could go with bilsteins or koni yellows too, but at that price you might as well go Coilovers.

Least amount of money you'll spend is if you did this:

Find some used SPC rear arms, buy kinetix front arms and and SPC toe bolts new. Try to find some Eibach springs used (as few miles as possible), get energy urethane comp rod and LCA bushings, KYB excel sport model front shocks and monroe oespectrum rear shocks from rockauto.com and used sways in our classifieds. Depending on what you can find used, you could probably get it all for just over $1k.

 

I am running ISC Suspension on mine 04 coupe with hotchkis sways front and rear and they are incredible. I drift and track my car and the handling is spot on and it is still comfortable to daily. You can also get 10% off at http://iscsuspension-na.com/ with promo code G35DRIFT.

 

Thanks guys for the recommendations. I think I am still leaning towards a spring/shock combo over coilovers as I don't see myself doing much adjusting in the future and I am really looking for higher spring rates and nice drop.

I will definitely try and do that before I order anything. I was reading about the hotchkis sways having issues with the bar moving around but I guess i missed the part about buying a set of collars for them to prevent them from shifting? Is this something that is widely recommended?


Is it true that energy has a larger rep for having noisier bushing than say whiteline or other brands? Which do you prefer?

I will take a look at those as well. Thanks for the promo code.

 

Some say energy make more noise, but that's mostly cuz people don't grease them correctly, and/or don't use the correct type of grease. You must use silicone grease and they must be swimming in it. I have never heard a single noise from mine.

 

I had a similar dilemma few years ago. My shocks were gone and I was considering coil overs or just better shocks.

My logic behind my choice was that no matter what you get your components will wear out, especially if you DD the car. So if you go for expensive coil overs, they will wear out just as fast as cheap set of shocks. Only benefit with coilovers is that you can rebuild them (not all I believe). And in that case coil over makes sense only if cost to rebuild is cheaper than cost of new shocks.
I made my choice and bought Koni Yellow. Now I'm not sure if it was the right choice. I have not talked to them yet or researched this subject enough, but I bought Koni because they are offering lifetime warranty on their shocks and they are rebuildable (you can take them apart and replace the seals making shock as good as new).
My Knoi yellow went out in 70k. Now I got to figure out if warranty going to cover the replacement or if the cost of them being rebuild going to be lower than just getting new KYB or equivalent shocks.

So if those numbers don't pan out I don't see a benefit of getting coilovers for a DD since its benefits will not be utilized on the street, but costly maintenance bill will still come.

 

You make a very good point. The koni's have been the main ones I have been looking into as well as the d spec from tokico and possibly some bilsteins. I like the idea of being rebuildable but like you said if the warranty doesn't cover it, it may or may not be worth the stretch for them. If you don't mind me asking, what springs are you running with those koni's?

That makes sense. Probably depends on driving conditions and weather as well as improper installation and greasing. Thanks

 

Tein H-Tech for 350Z (they offer slightly more drop than G35 ones).

I just browsed though some thread on Koni warranty. On one of the threads there was a response from Koni rep. He mentioned that if your adjustable shocks feel like they are worn all you have to do is turn the adjustment **** quarter of a turn and shocks should act as good as new. I kinda see how it will solve the problem since you adjust the valve and on a new settings your shocks are behaving differently, but in my case my shocks are struggling with rebound and not compression. I actually had to have them replaced as soon as I bought them because out of the box they were not rebounding at all no matter what setting I set them to. So currently my car feels very jumpy when cold, it takes bumps well, but not pot holes.

I have a thread on Koni, Tokico and OEM shocks
https://g35driver.com/forums/brakes-...ks-review.html

I'll be taking my suspension apart here in a couple of days replacing bushings to poly, changing both rear bearings, upgrading to 3.5 diff and new CV axles. So I'll take a look at my koni and see if they rebound properly, if not I'll be contacting their warranty again.

What's nice about their warranty is that you can do an express option where they send you new shocks and then you send back your old ones. In this case they charge your credit card 50% of the shocks price and if they don't find any damage on your shocks or decide that it's not a warranty covered damage, you keep new shocks for that price.
What I hear so fat that Koni is pretty good on honoring their warranty.

 

I was looking at the Koni, but for the 90% commuter driving I do, the Bilstein fit perfectly for me. I bought them very slightly used, but I have the original purchase info from the first owner so warranty if necessary should be no problem. Price was a bit of a factor, and the Bilsteins new were at the top of where I wanted to me. Some careful shopping and a quick buy sealed the deal.

Koni and Bilstein..etc are very well respected, race created companies.. not Chinese reps... so they stand behind their products very well.