Pirates coilovers
4 door sports sedan!!!!
It's Nissan history... Look it up "maxima 4dss" and the G35 sort of took the title away when it came out (unofficially)
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 246
Likes: 19
From: Roswell, GA
"Pirates coilover" update on the 03 "baby" sedan (44K).
Now with 2600 miles and 6 months on the 43,873 miles 03 sedan I've not had to maintain anything on them. The 25 1/2" fender height holds steady the past 2 months.
Installed mine in Mar'11. Measured my fender lip height and took pic's before and after (see pirates report OP).
It took 1 install; at fronts; and 2; in rears; the first day to land the drop where I wanted it.
That dropped height was 26" front and 26 1/2" rears with 17" standard profile sport wheels.
By June11 with 200 miles plus a change to low profile 19" wheels the settled fender height changed again to 25 1/2" at all corners. (nice, aggressive for nismo front bumper, clean, as low as I want it for DD).
For those of you learning low riding like me please take note here: That 25 1/2" fender height becomes 4 3/4" clear under the rocker panels where DD parking deck ramp fits are starting to sqeeze without any passengers in the car! Also some steep speed bumps get buffed out.
The dampening stiffness remains 75% hard F and 67% hard R. OEM rears.
I've no issues with performance. Level cornering at moderate hard leaning speed, great rebound from bumps of all speeds and during hard leaning corning. Sport handling and sport sedan looks.
The only noise I have to report is the rear shock piston rod slide (oil/gas woosh) can be heard on occasion depending on road and driving conditions. In my exprience that woosh sound is heard in many new shock installs and new cars, so I suppose it it normal for "new" shocks.
The overall suspension mods and especially the coilovers have not produced mechanical knocks, creaks or disappointing/suspicious suspension noises for me to troubleshoot. The bushings are very young on this sedan, some others on the forum reporting suspicious mechanical noises possibly could have the worn out bushings contributing the to dropped coilover mod.
I will re-torque all coilover fasteners as preventive maintainence in the next weeks.
I like these cheapies, a lot. The offer a great value for the DIY builder and low cost training in suspension mods.
Now with 2600 miles and 6 months on the 43,873 miles 03 sedan I've not had to maintain anything on them. The 25 1/2" fender height holds steady the past 2 months.
Installed mine in Mar'11. Measured my fender lip height and took pic's before and after (see pirates report OP).
It took 1 install; at fronts; and 2; in rears; the first day to land the drop where I wanted it.
That dropped height was 26" front and 26 1/2" rears with 17" standard profile sport wheels.
By June11 with 200 miles plus a change to low profile 19" wheels the settled fender height changed again to 25 1/2" at all corners. (nice, aggressive for nismo front bumper, clean, as low as I want it for DD).
For those of you learning low riding like me please take note here: That 25 1/2" fender height becomes 4 3/4" clear under the rocker panels where DD parking deck ramp fits are starting to sqeeze without any passengers in the car! Also some steep speed bumps get buffed out.
The dampening stiffness remains 75% hard F and 67% hard R. OEM rears.
I've no issues with performance. Level cornering at moderate hard leaning speed, great rebound from bumps of all speeds and during hard leaning corning. Sport handling and sport sedan looks.
The only noise I have to report is the rear shock piston rod slide (oil/gas woosh) can be heard on occasion depending on road and driving conditions. In my exprience that woosh sound is heard in many new shock installs and new cars, so I suppose it it normal for "new" shocks.
The overall suspension mods and especially the coilovers have not produced mechanical knocks, creaks or disappointing/suspicious suspension noises for me to troubleshoot. The bushings are very young on this sedan, some others on the forum reporting suspicious mechanical noises possibly could have the worn out bushings contributing the to dropped coilover mod.
I will re-torque all coilover fasteners as preventive maintainence in the next weeks.
I like these cheapies, a lot. The offer a great value for the DIY builder and low cost training in suspension mods.
Last edited by toro12; Aug 30, 2011 at 10:53 AM.
so, update:
I tried going the route of inserting some gasket material between the car body and the upper mount. Also, due to my spring sitting really close to the nut on the mount (Seems like i am the only one with that spring/nut issue) I decided to put some gasket material in between spring and nut to avoid any metal on metal grinding.
Unfortunately, that did not solve the problem. The noise is still there. It is coming from the right rear as I had a person in the back sit listening to where it is coming from...
Next step would be swap shocks from right to left and vice versa. This will help me eliminate/prove that it could be the issue with shock. Updates will follow.
Other than the noise, everything is solid. Drives great. I need to roll another 0.5 inch on my left fender because it is causing some rubbing on hard cornering.
I tried going the route of inserting some gasket material between the car body and the upper mount. Also, due to my spring sitting really close to the nut on the mount (Seems like i am the only one with that spring/nut issue) I decided to put some gasket material in between spring and nut to avoid any metal on metal grinding.
Unfortunately, that did not solve the problem. The noise is still there. It is coming from the right rear as I had a person in the back sit listening to where it is coming from...
Next step would be swap shocks from right to left and vice versa. This will help me eliminate/prove that it could be the issue with shock. Updates will follow.
Other than the noise, everything is solid. Drives great. I need to roll another 0.5 inch on my left fender because it is causing some rubbing on hard cornering.
