Ok, I've got eibach sportlines a few months ago, and it was riding pretty crappy on stock struts, so I got some KYB AGXs, and I just put those on a few days ago, hoping it would improve the ride.
Now that I got them on, it feels the same. and I think the rear struts are bottoming out all the time.
Is there something else I need to get to help this out? or are the sportlines just too much of a drop, I'm really tempted to just put my stock springs back on, untill I can afford ground controls.
Does anybody have any suggestions?
thanks
I put them on 5 like yesterday, to see if it would maybe make it stop bottoming out, just today I set them to 6, but it still feels the same.
I went to sort of a performance shop today that deals with suspension and talked to them about my problem and all, and I was telling them how (with the strut out) I could compress the strut completely with my hands, even on the hardest setting, then the strut piston would like stay compressed, you had to pretty much pull it back out yourself. They said that you shouldnt be able to compress it like that at least when its on the hardest setting, you can, but its pretty hard.
They reccomended that I contact KYB becuase the struts might be bad.
Does anybody have any input on this?
I never tried compressing the rod on the hardest setting but even on soft settnigs they did tend to rebound ...BUT slowly.
Dampers don't exactly bounce back out like rubber bands. You gotta remember the main purpose of most dampers is to prevent the downward compression. The springs are what is supposed to take care of the return or rebound.
Far as your choice of springs go...aren't the sportlines the ones that lower by as much as 1.8 "?? That is way too much for our Sentras. You probably don't want more than 1.4" drop. Furthermore, if you are riding on extremely low profile tyres then your ride quality will suck big time.
I suggest you soften your shock settings, get lowering springs than drop no more than 1.4" and are rated at least 300lbs and get the ME rear mounts.
BTW, on even on the hardest setting you should have had to apply more than a moderate amount of force to get full compression. If it goes in rather easily at 8 (R) or 4(F) then the shock/strut is probably bad afterall...
That's the thing, I helped Greg throw them on and I don't remember being able to compress the spring/strut combo. at the setting being at 4 in front! Only the rears would do it. It's not so much of a bottoming out sound. It's more of like the upper mount likes to squirm and jump up and hit the bottom of the fender where the top nut and 2 supporting bolts come through. It's odd. Can anyone explain this?
Depends on what he's going for...high performance, rice or just moderate improvement over the stock setup. This has been already been debated ad naseum around the forums.
Look, basically if you just want some lowering with moderate increase in performance the AGXs are good but you have to use performance springs like the eibach pro-kit.
If you want rice and don't care about the ride then go for the mega drop type springs but be warned...your ride will be terrible.
If you want high performance then you have to consider high quality coilovers or shortened struts & coilovers.
In just about all 3 cases you might as well get the ME mounts.
I have the AGXs with eibach and the ME mounts...at the softest setting my ride is good...not as "smooth" or soft as stocks but it does feel tighter and I definitely experience much less roll. Far as the infamous bottoming out goes...yes but only very slightly. Depends on the kinda roads you will drive on and how hard you attempt to corner, etc...
If you raise the stiffness of the AGXs...front max 4 and back max 8 your ride will only be good for extremely flat dragging. Even a half F+R setup (2/4) is still fairly harsh if the road is not extremely flat.
Finally, 4 is the stiffest setting for the front and is v.difficult to compress easily by hand. It probably equates to 8 at the back..again the stiffest setting. If you can easily compress your rod at any setting over half then you probably have a bad strut/shock.
If the strut does not return to normal position something is wrong. I would return them, careful though, KYB specifically states in their warranty the stipulations with respect to lowering springs.
FWIW I had the Sportline AGX setup with the Moti. mounts and I was happy with the ride. Koni bumpstops will also help with this as they are softer thanthe OEM stops and will make the ride seem softer than the OEM stops.