My old Setup

- Stock G Shocks (Sport Suspension)

- Revised 350z Springs

- Oem linear springs
G35 coupes 2005/2006 with oem 19’s only
350Z 2004.5 to 2006 (revised suspension)
Front:314 Rear:427

- Stillen Sways (Set Hard Front, Medium Rear)

My New Setup

Shocks:

-Tokico D-spec shock DSP-9
16 way dampening adjustable

Springs:

- Tein H-tech G35 (fronts are progressive, rears are linear) coupe drop
.6"/.3" sedan drop 1.4"/.7"
Spring rates in lbs 324/260 (final rates only, softer initial front progressive
rate unknown)

- Stillen Sways (Set Hard Front, Medium Rear)

The good

Let me start out by saying that I wanted a slightly more comfortable ride while still maintaining the sportiness of my sport package G coupe. I wasn't looking for a Buick ride just one like how the BMW 5 series has.
I did my research and discovered the Dspecs can do help me achieve this goal. I just needed the right springs to go along with the shocks. I found an ad in the marketplace where someone was selling the Tein Htech combined with the Dspecs and decided to give it a try.

I discovered that the ride is very comfortable and sporty set at 4 clicks from firm. I'm really enjoying how nimble and smooth my car's ride has become! On streets, highway, it just feels better. Gone are those nasty jolts that would hurt my back after about 30 min-1 hour of driving.

Now its just smooth well dampened driving. I don't know how else to describe it other than the car feels about 20% softer & 30% smoother with NO lean or squat action.

The bad:

Wed 1-13-10

It was a tough road getting to this point I must say. The night I picked these up, the seller agreed to install the shocks. Together, we persisted several hours in the cold installing these. Everything did not go smooth thanks to Chicago rust but we managed to finish the job LATE/early in the morning!
The problems started when I pulled out of his garage and immediately head squeaks/clunks galore from my driver side front and rear struts.
After going back and fourth with the seller about the issues getting fixed etc, I got frustrated & decided to get the car checked out elsewhere.

Mon 1-18-10

A shop near my home discovered the rear bolt holding the strut was stripped and the nut was not holding the shock 100% tight. Replaced that and the rear scratching/squeaking was gone but the front problem persisted.
The shop also discovered the front hat / spacer was not installed. After putting it on the noise reduced to 50%. Stumped, they ended up not being able to fix the problem with the front strut entirely and sent me on my way.
That's when I hit up the forums.

Thanks to this thread

https://g35driver.com/forums/brakes-...-rattle-2.html
& process/elimination, I was able to narrow it down to one last thing that wasn't checked (which honestly should have)

1-20-10

I head back to the shop and proceed to ask the service tech if he can have one of his guys tighten the main shock top bolt with an impact gun just to rule it out as a possibility. Of course he thought his guy did this the other day and looked at me foolish for asking but w/e.

I persisted and got them to do this since it would take like 5 seconds....

Little did we know that the dspecs I bought had two different strut nuts at the top (at least the way I got em)....
The driver side one had a nut which wasn't tightened all the way down (of course) AND as a result, stripped the bolt was stripped since it was moving around freely causing the noise. BINGO....

The shop ended up replacing the nut and installing a new one on the shock bolt to correct the problem.

FINALLY I have a noise free, drive the way its supposed to G35 with dspecs and htech suspension. I JUST got in from the drive and I must say its very impressive. Hopefully none of you will have to go through what I did to get to this point. The shocks are worth the money for sure.

 

nice i wanted to do this setup as well post pics!

 

I'm running D-specs, 350Z unrevised springs, and Hotchkis swaybars (set just like yours). I keep my shocks set like yours and I couldn't be happier. I may give your spings a try, mine is just a bit harsh, but damn, it goes like stink.

 

Will do! We just got some freezing rain tonight so I had to cut my spirited run short. I'll try to snap a pic in the garage tomorrow or outdoors once the weather warms up.

It looks very good.

Here's some before pics with my stock suspension/350z springs (.5" drop)






Definitely give them a shot. Are you using aftermarket sway bars too? I'd try to combine the shocks with Htechs and then use Stillens or Hotchkis sways set on medium/soft or medium/medium.

Then dial in the dspecs around 4.5 to 5 clicks from stiff to see how it rides. I'm actually going to adjust them over the weekend to 5 clicks from stiff to see how they feel at that point.

 

Did you read my post?

 

Oops....that's what I get for multi tasking....typing while talking to someone in the background w/o hitting the edit button d'oh!! Honestly, the htechs are supposed to be a good spring upgrade from stock.

I haven't heard any bad things about them on the forums other than some folks complaining they don't drop the car as much as other springs out there.

I love the ride I have now and I'm very picky

 

Yeah, I like the idea of progressive springs. Kinda the "best of both worlds"

 

Yup. Texas, do your shocks produce the high frequency vibration some people say the Tokico blues have?

I know our stock shocks have a ripple control feature from factory. Just wondering if you were feeling this vibration.

My dspecs don't exhibit this behavior at all. I drove over some pretty rough roads today. Normally I'd zig zag with the stock suspension but not today. The car took those bumps with confidence and good dampening.

I'm definitely not going to make it a regular occurance to go hunting for bumps etc but for the first time I didn't have to cringe driving through the Lower Wacker bridge area near Navy Pier. When you see that stretch of street you'll know what I mean

 

Having owned 2 BMWs, an E36 M3 and an E39 528i, I have read that their OEM springs are progressives. Initial spring rates on the start near 200 lbs/in and end at about 350 (except at the rear springs of the M which go up to 700 lb/ in).


Driving my g35 coupe (non sport) for the first time I noticed that, despite riding on taller sidewalls the M3, in casual driving was really not much more forgiving in the area of ride compliance.

That being said when I discovered that the OEM springs on the G35 were linear I then realized why BMWs cost more. And why they offer that combination of good ride compliance in casual driving and good handling at the limits.

Two years ago having read the link:

https://g35driver.com/forums/brakes-...w-updates.html

The specs on the Tein H-Techs piqued my interest. However when I called around most sellers claimed that most G and Z owners were selecting the S-techs over the H.

The H-tech would really be the only spring I would remotely consider because it drops the car only by .6 inch. I simply could not accept any greater of a drop.

What also surprises me is that Tein does not publish the initial spring rates for the front springs since those are the only ones that are progressive in the set.

Could they be in the very low 200 lb/ in range?

If so that could explain the "BMW" ride compliance that you claim to have found.

My question is whether the Tokico HPs would give a similar result with the Tein H-techs or even the OEM shocks?

 

Athens, thanks for the breakdown and comparison to your experince. Personally, I think the Tokico HP blues could give a similar ride the only question would be which spring brings out the best ride quality from them?

The other question would be, what dspec dampening setting compares to the HP blues? Since the blues aren't adjustable, you have a static dampening setting to work with.

My guess would be a progressive spring setup with a soft initial rate combined with a stiffer end rate similar to the Bimmer's numbers.

Does someone have the blues + htecs? What about blues + Tanabe DF210/NF210 springs?? I'd like to hear how these owners compare their ride quality as well

 

Haven't noticed it. the only time it gets a bit squirrely is at the limit around 140 ish.

 

Want to give a hint where that lower photo of your G was taken? It looks so familiar.

North side, right?

 

Yup! More like North Ave at a store for Home Stuff heh heh

 

Snapped a couple iphone shots real quick tonight after the rain






I'll take some better pics as the weather clears and post em up

 

UPDATE:

This week was interesting...

1 had a shop adjust my front sways from full hard down to medium but after one year of driving the car with them set to hard front/medium rear driving the car on medium/medium felt weird & actually had my car leaning in turns a lil bit (something I'm NOT used to).

I ended up having them readjusted back to the old configuation and all is well there. The service manager actually argued with me & said the guys at Project X didn't know what they were doing since the car should be set to hard rear and soft front o.o (umm yeah w/e).

2. I decided to bite the bullet and drop the rear shocks myself today to readjust the dampening to a softer setting. I figured since I may have to drive out to Rockford to pick up sone computer parts later today, I may as well play with my settings and see how the softer settings of my D'specs ride.

Got the rear shocks out and set em to 6.5 turns from full stiff and set the fronts to the same setting. Finally bolted everything back together and torqued it all down properly then took the car out for a lil spirited run along Lake Shore Drive.

Lemme tell you... you REALLY fell the difference between the setting. Wow the car is much softer now. Almost Lexus like ( I've owned two before the G) and the ride is very comparable to only with a sporty edge due to my Stillen sways!

I'm gonna run them like this for a few days until the rear extensions I ordered from Stillen arrive later next week. Once again I'm very impressed with these D'specs!!!