Hey members, I’ve been a lurker for a long time now on these forums using them for tips, tricks and information for my girlfriend’s 07 G35 RWD coupe. I’ve been a mechanic for over 12 years and consider myself specialized in Nissans, having owned multiple Maximas with the 3.0 and modded them quite significantly but this is my first foray into the G platform. So far, I’ve replaced the valve body and TCM with a brand new Nissan unit (with programming), Nissan Matic-S ATF and radiator after the transmission cooler failed and a backyard mechanic incorrectly diagnosed it as a throttle body issue due to the vehicle being stuck in limp mode (I pulled the valve body and immediately saw glycol contamination after this clown supposedly pulled the valve body twice), new window and sunroof motors, new MAF, new front hub bearings, new Nissan DS fuel level sensor to get CEL off for emissions (even though gas gauge still doesn’t work correctly) and now it will spin tires down the block with VDC disabled. With 126xxx miles on the car it’s time for a suspension refresh since it is literally all stock aside from the parts I mentioned and a Kenwood touch screen radio. My question to the OGs on this forum is this: What is the best cost effective suspension setup to retain stock ride quality nowadays? The stock shocks and compression arm bushings are shot and it feels like this car is hitting a sinkhole over a literal piece of gravel. I’m skeptical on using quickstruts (even as a technician I always recommend a solid shock with new mounts, boots and retaining stock springs) because the quality control nowadays just isn’t a reality. I used to have good success with the KYB Exel-G shocks but I’ve been having trouble finding them for a coupe, only sedan or AWD. Is there another alternative for this coupe that will last a decent time? Also, I’ve been fighting with myself as to whether I should replace the whole compression arm or just the bushings. I have a press at the shop but I’ve seen horror stories of the arms bending in a press due to the weaker metal they’re made with and I don’t want that happening. The Energy Suspension bushing kit seems like it will be satisfactory (I’ve used them on many vehicles in the past) but I’d like to have some input on whether it would be cost effective to replace the bushings themselves or just buy new units. I’ve searched these forums and gathered a lot of information but just need some reassurance as to how I should spend my very limited budget. These G’s are a new animal to me in the sense of that parts are expensive and even though the 3.5 Nissan motor is pretty much bulletproof, there’s so many random little things that seem to mess up on this platform. Any input from the pros will be much appreciated!

 

Kyb excel g is plenty fine. You can’t replace the ball joint in the compression arm, so it may be worth just replacing the whole thing.

energy bushings are great. My old G has over 100k with them on and they are still performing as intended without egging.

 

I second the KYB Excel-G's. I put them on my coupe last year looking for an OEM-type ride and have no regrets. Where did you try looking for them? The usual places show them in stock for both versions ("coupe w/ sport suspension" or "sedan+coupe w/o sport susp.").

Welcome to the forum.

 

Thanks for the input y’all, MikeG35Coupe (my name is Mike and I tried to use that name and now I see why it was taken lol) I looked on both rockauto and eBay, I got my old KYB shocks for the Maxima off rockauto but when I checked just the other day most of the vendors are either closing them out and there aren’t many options left aside from sedan or AWD coupe. However, rockauto does have the strut mounts and bellows which is better than nothing. I personally use eBay for many things but the KYBs I find there say they fit both a coupe and a sedan, and I’m more than a little skeptical. Unless someone experienced can chime in and confirm, I don’t want to pull the trigger on the wrong parts. My parts vendors I use through the shop also don’t seem to carry KYB shocks for this body style either, so I’m kind of at a standstill. I was considering the GodSpeed Coilover kit, but then there’s conversions and other aftermarket parts necessary for the proper ride quality and my gf isn’t too keen on spending extra money for something that isn’t necessary seeing as she doesn’t drive the car like speed racer (I’m the one who tends to do that) so the stock ride height will suffice for now. Maybe someone can chime in on whether I’m just looking in the wrong place for the shocks, or are the sedan/AWD shocks able to fit the coupe?

 

Thanks for the input y’all, MikeG35Coupe (my name is Mike and I tried to use that name and now I see why it was taken lol) I looked on both rockauto and eBay, I got my old KYB shocks for the Maxima off rockauto but when I checked just the other day most of the vendors are either closing them out and there aren’t many options left aside from sedan or AWD coupe. However, rockauto does have the strut mounts and bellows which is better than nothing. I personally use eBay for many things but the KYBs I find there say they fit both a coupe and a sedan, and I’m more than a little skeptical. Unless someone experienced can chime in and confirm, I don’t want to pull the trigger on the wrong parts. My parts vendors I use through the shop also don’t seem to carry KYB shocks for this body style either, so I’m kind of at a standstill. I was considering the GodSpeed Coilover kit, but then there’s conversions and other aftermarket parts necessary for the proper ride quality and my gf isn’t too keen on spending extra money for something that isn’t necessary seeing as she doesn’t drive the car like speed racer (I’m the one who tends to do that) so the stock ride height will suffice for now. Maybe someone can chime in on whether I’m just looking in the wrong place for the shocks, or are the sedan/AWD shocks able to fit the coupe? Also, is the couple sport suspension really that much different from the base? This G doesn’t have sport suspension as far as I know since it’s a 5AT, but it does have the convenience package, Bose system, and sunroof. I can find shocks for the coupe with sport suspension but not the base one.

 

5ATs were available with sport suspension option. Does the steering wheel have orange stitching? If so, you have sport suspension. Front bumper is different with a slightly more pronounced "splitter" treatment. Side skirts are also different and have a "swoop" treatment. Can't tell from your photo on that. You have mud guards, and for the front, they would be different from the non-sport guards. You also have the horrible OEM Sirius XM puck antenna, so you probably have a receiver in the trunk floor on the left side if you don't already have a subscription. Unfortunately, that early era receiver had no buffering, so when you are not in a city with a terrestrial signal, bridges, tall buildings, next to a tall tree line, you lose the satellite signal and the music drops out....

 

This model doesn’t have orange stitching on the steering wheel, only leather wrapped, and the shocks are black, so I would say not a sport package. That would mean no VLSD unless it was ordered specifically from the factory? This G is strangely optioned, with the convenience package, sunroof, Bose, but no spoiler. The factory radio had no NAV but the pedals have aluminum covers, I know that was a sport package option also. The rims with low profile tires in the first picture came on the car from the dealer, and the second picture has the second set of rims with the meatier winter tires. I wonder what rims it had from the factory. There is a Kenwood touchscreen radio in it now with the Bose adapter so no need for Sirius. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction fellas, I just want to make sure I’m ordering the right stuff for this! I will say this, the low profile tires exaggerate the suspension issues 1000x more than the winter tires do, when I switched them over for this season it was much more apparent. Would the compression arm bushings cause the steering wheel to be slightly tipped when it wasn’t before, is that just from the worn shocks or a combination of both? As I mentioned in my first post, the car will hit one small rock in the road and it bounces like a fat lady on a trampoline. The tie rods are tight with no end play, the end links are solid, so are the ball joints but the bushings in the compression arm where the shocks mount are absolutely trashed. I don’t drive the car very much so I got in it the other day and felt a noticeable “thunk” when braking at the end of a normal stop coming up to a red light and also when letting off the brake from a complete stop. I just worry about my gf’s safety especially on the sh**ty roads where we live. This was her ex husband’s car and he didn’t really drive it much so she got it when the separated, however he didn’t maintain a thing on it so now we are trying to keep it going on a limited budget. My only vehicle now is a 95 Ford Explorer with 320xxx miles on it, because owning a home comes before modding cars at this point in my life but I love being a mechanic and want to keep her G going strong because I know these Nissan motors are solid. It’s the other things that will nickel and dime me to death here. I’m seeing here that sport suspension shocks will fit a non sport suspension as long as they’re for a coupe, so I guess I’ll pull the trigger on the KYBs from Rockauto and hope for the best. One more question: will the stock springs end up damaging the sport shocks more quickly than normal due to the different spring rate? Thanks again y’all.

 

Yeah that’s the non-sport bumper. Dealer might’ve also installed the aluminum pedals if they were swapping out other things. What’s missing is an aluminum cap for your parking brake. I was able to retrofit the aluminum cap for the clutch pedal to the parking brake when I got this car (I had the cap from the pedal mod I did on my previous 5AT non-sport sedan…bought a 6MT pedal set from a forum member).

 

Are you looking for just the struts/shocks or the entire strut/shock with spring and mount assembly? Here's the struts/shocks on Rockauto:



Z1 and CZP have them also.

 

Nissan has color coded dots on their coil springs to identify which ones they are. Use some brake cleaner to clean up the springs and see what dots are painted on them.

You can't miss the dots, they're HUGE. You can then google search something like "infiniti g35 350z spring dot color code g35driver.com".

I would STRONGLY recommend keeping the existing springs if you're happy with the height and stiffness, and don't want to install a front end camber kit. If you wanted the car 1/2" lower you could go with the "350Z revised springs", just look up the color code dots for those and pick up a pair on eBay. If you lower the car at all you will need a camber kit though, it's basically just an adjustable front upper control arm for the front end, rear you get adjustable transverse link (the traction bar looking one that faces forward), adjustable camber bar, and people will typically put SPL / SPC toe bolts and trim the subframe to allow for the extra +/- 1 degree adjustment of those eccentric bolts.

To lower the rear to match the front the easiest way is to trim off extra material from the top of the spring perch, it's this giant rubber cone at the top of the spring on the rear suspension. Plenty of material to remove without compromising anything.

The nice thing about the camber kit is it also replaces nearly all the bushings on the rear suspension with poly, the front you would also want to get new compression rod arms IF THEY'RE WORN OUT. Usually you can just visually inspect the bushing for cracks, and use a short prybar to push it a couple directions to see if that giant rubber bushing is shot.

As for shocks, there are differences between the coupe and sedan due to the coupe being 1/2" lower than the sedan, also differences in the 350Z since the Z is 1/2" lower than the coupe... TECHNICALLY you'll be fine with 350Z shocks on a coupe so that's an option. If you're getting 350Z revised springs then get the 350Z shocks as well. Personally I wouldn't put the sedan shocks on a coupe though because your chances of hitting a big bump and bottoming out the shocks is a lot more likely then hitting the upper travel limit which doesn't really hurt shocks. That would be one hell of a bump though and you would likely be looking at a bent wheel too...