I got my Tanabe coilovers from Lou@Amplified Motorsports on MyG37.com. I believe he recently became an official vendor here on Driver so PM him to get your set of coilovers!



Now onto the review

Construction

All the aluminum adjuster parts are nicely finished in a red anodize with very well machined threads and *****. Same goes for the rear silver adjusters. The aluminum rear upper mount is very sturdy and thick.



The shocks themselves are pretty light. I have a feeling all the parts replaced are lighter than the stock pieces but I have yet to find out. The Tanabe kit came out at exactly 24kg for everything included. I will weight the stock items and figure out the difference.



Now onto the springs, these are heavy pieces of steel that are finished with a very nice coating. the rears are dual rate springs while the fronts appear to be single rate. The fronts however also include small helper springs. I assume these would help when driving over rough surfaces by absorbing vibrations and such.



Installation

The install was pretty straight forward. The instructions do not include an actual step by step how to, so you should check out the Infiniti service manual as well as familiarize yourself with the stock setup before you start. Everything however, fit like a glove with no issues whatsoever. Some of the parts you will reuse from your old suspension such as the front upper plate, shock boots, bump stops and F/R spring seats. I recommend getting new F/R spring seats from the dealer as the stock ones are probably grooved from the stock springs (You'll know what I mean when you look at it)

Daily Driving

These coilovers are very smooth when driving normally. They are in fact better IMO than the stock ones. After driving over 2000 miles or so, I can definitely tell that the stock setup was under damped. There was a bit too much bounce when compared with these Tanabe's. Long journey's (1hr+) shouldn't be an issue as these feel very much like stock under normal driving conditions.

Spirited Driving

Although they are smooth and comfortable, they are also much stiffer than stock. You will notice as soon as you take the first corner. Body roll is reduced a lot (almost none). To induce any noticeable body roll, you would have to steer hard at speeds over 100mph. you can enter and exit corners at much higher speed without worrying about losing control. I've been taking corners much more aggressively on my way to college and I must say I'm VERY pleased with the way the car handles and reacts to driver input. The car drives like it's on tracks when exiting a corner on throttle. Understeer normally experienced with the stock setup is simply non existent. Turn the steering wheel, press on the throttle and the car will go exactly where you want it to. Awesome! For even better handling characteristics, i HIGHLY recommend buying a set of Hotchkis sway bars. I currently have mine set to medium setting and they perform great. Get ready to buy new rubber though as stiffer suspension will eat up rubber faster under spirited driving

 

Great write up bro, Thanks alot for the review.

 

Thanks for the review. Looking into getting a set of these.

 

No problem

 

Do you have a camber kit too or are you not low enough to need it yet?

 

i dont have one but I need one, sort of. I'm very close to factory spec but not within it. I'm within spec for toe angle though.

 

how much did you end up dropping? i have this kit sittin in the shop waiting for some available time but my intentions are to keep the amount of drop as minimum as possible mainly due to the nasty roads where I'm at.

 

I dont really know actually. Probably a hair more than 1" F/R. Minimum drop (Maximum height) is I think 6mm's F/R, which is what's written in the manual.

 

hey, Q8y, can you tell me how many threads or how many inches you are down on the threads? 6mm is not much at all...

you don't have any pictures of them installed on the car? still happy with the ride? I'll be trying hard to get mine on this week.

 

sredish, I forgot what I set them but I'm quite a bit lower than 6mm. When set at highest setting, the drop is only 6mm. I'm somewhere between high and middle setting (according to the manual) but I'll get the exact number as soon as I can.

EDIT: Also I'll take pics while I check the setting

 

no huge hurry, whenever your there. thanks man.

 

im sorry idk if you mentioned this but how low can you lower it?

 

First of all, great write up, probably going to pick up these coilovers once the weather clears up a little bit. Have you had any chances to take any pics? I am curious to see how your car sits with these installed.

 

+1 I am interested also.

 

I'll have pics taken tomorrow