To upgrade suspension or not to upgrade.

[BryanS14]

I recently destroyed my drivers rear suspension, axle and the sub frame.

I really only drive my car to and from work, and maybe some cruising around with friends.

It is stock power wise and will probably stay that way and if I do change that my drving will stay the same. Basically what I am saying is that the car will not see track time.

I also have zero desire to go low. The current setup of stock struts and springs is the perfect ride height for me.

My question is... Is goin with aftermarket suspension arms and coil overs worth it if I am not going to use them to their extent? I would do like KYB shocks struts and springs. I do not want to loose ride quality or have noisey suspension.

I really had no issues with how the car drove or handled before other than I could tell it was getting worn out at 160k miles.

Any input would be awesome.

[dbeiler]

No point in buying coilovers if you don't intend to drop the car more than 2". Lowering springs will be more cost effective and have better ride quality. If you drop it with lowering springs, aftermarket adjustable RUCAs are recommended as well. Stock RUCAs don't have enough adjustability, leaving a noticeable amount of negative camber on a lowered car.

[soundboy]

Lowering Springs and brand new struts.

Coilovers are very overrated. I only like them due to the camber adjustable top hats.
Aftermarket arms are designed decent for lowering cars. Nismo arms are decent replacement parts for stock arms..

Get a good diff if you don't already have one. Low is overrated. Lowered is where it's at

[S14DB]

We are talking about KYB AGX and not GR2's right?

If you are happy with the ride height and Firmness I would the most money on Struts. Then some Swaybars.

Arms all come down to price. You are going to hate life with cheap arms and cheap bearings.

[angel mkiv]

I used tokico Blues shocks and h&r lowering springs combo..it drove amazing/comfy and lowered the car like 1.75" if I remember right and handled better as well!

[Croustibat]

Any sub 1200$ coilover "upgrade" is actually a downgrade to handling and ride quality.

Most 1200-2000$ coilover upgrades are an upgrade to handling and a downgrade to ride quality. But unless you use quality bushings, adjustable arms, roll center correction knuckes, set all that correctly, it will also be a downgrade to handling.

My opinion: you already degraded your handling by lowering (yes, even 2" is enough to get bump and toe steer, and both kill handling), so stick with some standard struts.

If you even want better handling, get better tyres first. The next step involves resetting the suspension movement to what was intented, and that requires adjustable camber and traction arms to reset toe steer and get a better static camber, adjustable bump steer steering rack rod ends to limit bump steer. And knowledge about how to set them, because your avarage alignement guy does not know anything about that.

[BryanS14]

Thank you for all the replies.

That is exactly the info I was looking for.

Any suggestions on strut, spring combo.

Struts KYB GTX, Tokiko, Koni Yellow?

Springs?

Budget for a good strut/spring combo is not an issue, quality is.

Thanks again for all the help!

Bryan

[Croustibat]

Springs => if you can, get swift ones. http://nissanraceshop.com/product/swift-sport-springs-for-nissan-240sx-s13-89-94/


Dampers => koni yellows are a bit harsh to my taste , my s13 had them when i bought them, but they seem to be praised. I only have hearsay on the other dampers so cannot comment further.