Comments Tech and Installation
Notes
Q: My 4th Generation Maxima seems to have come with crap for tires. What's with these Toyo A05s/Goodyear Eagle RSAs? What do folks recommend?
A: The OEM tires offered by Nissan are very low performance tires. Even on the SE, which is unforgivable.
Many alternative tires have been recommended. I won't attempt to say what is best, because that is such a subjective thing. But I will say this:
I always try to by high performance tires.I'll sacrifice mileage for safety/performance.
I am currently using Bridgestone Potenza RE-71s on my Maxima
I am using Pirelli P4000 SuperTourings on my Mercury Villager
Q: What about tire and wheel sizes?
A: The common wheel sizes are 15", 16" and 17"
In 15", the stock tire sizes are 205/65-15 and 215/60-15. I recommend the 215s to get higher performance.
In 16", the stock size is 215/55-16. There are not a lot of choices in this size, however. Many folks have used 225/50-16 instead. These are a 0.45" smaller in diameter, so will result in a speedometer error of 2 percent high. These all work well on the stock 6.5" aluminum wheels
In 17", the stock size (begining with the 5th generation Maxima) is 225/50VR17 . With aftermarket wheels, folks tend to go with 8" width and a +0 tire size of 235/45ZR17.
As far as offsets with the 17x8s? Andi had 17x8 with 35mm on his Maxima. The rear wheels were tucked, front wheels were flush with the fender on top and stuck out near the bottom (body tapers inwards at the bottom...) He suggested the best look would probably be with a 40mm offset in front and 35mm offset in back. How? 40mm offset wheels, and some 5mm H&R hubcentric wheel spacers in back.
For 18" wheels? Stay with the 8" wheel width and 235 tire width to fit under the fenders and just "plus1" the 17's section: 18x8 with 235/40ZR-18 tires.
Q: OK, so even with my new and improved tires, my Maxima handles like the big heavy sedan that it is. Are there any products out there to improve the handling of this car?
A: YES!! There are quite a few handling upgrades out there available for the Maximas. I will describe the setup in stages.
STAGE I: The first hardware to add to your Maxima is a Strut-tower brace (STB). Get it. Period. There is no better "bang-for-the-buck" upgrade than this. Essentially, this is a transverse beam that connects the two strut-towers and stops the front-end from flexing during cornering or sharp turns. Yes, all of us were skeptical first. But EVERY person that has installed one has had the same exact response -- "WOW!". Who would think that simply triangularizing the front suspensoin would cause this big an improvement in handling? I wouldn't have believed it, but it really works. Stability during cornering is greatly improved. Steering response above 50mph is greatly improved -- no more yaw, only body roll (which Stage IV eliminates too).
Where to buy the STB? I suggest the Courtesy Nissan STB. It costs about $65 plus shipping. Their toll-free phone number is 1-800 527-1909. Ask for Steve Richardson (the Parts manager there) and tell him Andi Baritchi sent you. They also sell other stuff (like the Redline MT-90 synthetic transmission oil) and Steve will give you a good deal.
Another alternative is the Stillen STB. It's about $150 and fancier looking, but no better functionally than the Courtesy STB. Also, the Stillen one *LOOKS* aftermarket, whereas the Courtesy bar has an OEM look that won't make people think you're some hotrodder when you open your hood. IMHO the Courtesy STB *should* be OEM, but alas, it's not.
One tidbit of trivia: The $50,000 Infiniti Q45 comes standard with a STB, straight from the Nissan factory in Japan. Seems that Nissan knows that STB's are good, but they just decided to save the money and not put one on the Max.
The next item in Stage I is the rear strut-tower brace (RSTB). It goes through the trunk about two inches from the back seat, and adds directional stability. As with the FSTB, the RSTB is available from Courtesy and Stillen. Prices are about the same as for the FSTB's.
STAGE II: Stage II is the Stillen Rear Sway Bar (RSB). Note: the Stage II setup described here only applies to 95+ Maximas. There may be stabilizer bars available for the 3rd generation Maximas but I have no concrete information to include here. Please email me if you know more about 3rd generation stabilizer bars.
The Stillen RSB significantly reduces body roll and also improves the under/oversteer balance a bit by reducing understeer. Note: Andi reports that at the limit, the car will still safely understeer unless you abruptly lift throttle or [gasp!] brake mid-corner.
The Stillen RSB costs about $220 from Stillen. Andi reports this as the 2nd best bang-for-the-buck modification, bested only by the STB.
Since the 95+ Maxima doesn't have a conventional rear suspension, our RSB isn't a conventional one either. It has four mounting points, which consist of two clamps on each trailing arm. Andi recommends you install it so that the RSB hangs one inch behind the rear axle, using the inner bolt holes for the trailing arm clamps. You can see pictures of Andi's RSB here.
There is also an Addco RSB available. It costs about $160 (??). It is comparable to the Stillen unit functionally, but designwise there are a few differences. It actually bolts under the beam and at the end points. You can get one from Cattman Performance. Check the link or email Brian Catts for more info.
STAGE III: At this stage, add Tokico performance shocks. These are gas-charged shocks with a lifetime warranty. And for peace of mind, consider that Tokico makes the OEM shocks and springs for the Maxima and sells them to Nissan. The Tokico performance shocks are definitely stiffer than shock but will still work with the stock springs. Think of it like one of those electronically adjustable suspensions set on "FIRM". If you decide to also get performance springs (Stage IV), get both installed at the same time, thus only paying the labor charges once.
STAGE IV: Next add Eibach ProKIT springs. These are a LOT firmer than stock and they lower the car about 1.25 inches. Considering that the Maxima already has 5" of ground clerance stock, this shouldn't be a problem. (The Corvette has less than 3" ground clerance stock). These certainly make the Maxima look a lot better because the make the wheelwell arches concentric with the wheels, and they do NOT make the car look dropped to the weeds.
However, if you like dropping your car to the weeds, there are other springs available -- I think Intrax are the lowest, with almost a 2" drop. H&R are supposed to give you a 1.5" drop, but a softer ride than the Eibachs.
You can get all of these springs and shocks (and other performance parts for the Maxima) from Adam Hume at Stillen. Mention MaxFAQs and tell him Andi Baritchi sent you and he will give you a good deal.
Here are comments from me about my experiences with the STB and springs.
I promised the folks on the Maxima mailing list a report after I installed the strut tower brace and Eibach springs I ordered from Steve Millen's outfit last week. The salesguy at Stillen, Jared, told me 7-10 days shipping. Well, I ordered on Wednesday and the stuff got here yesterday (Monday). Quick! I won't be able to install the springs until Saturday, but the strut brace is a snap and I couldn't wait, so I installed it last night. About a 15-20 minute job, garage doors up to garage doors down.Stock, the '96 Maxima SE is quite a bit softer than I wanted. Or rather it wanders around when loaded in corners more than I'd like. Hence my interest in the suspension upgrade... There was quite a discussion a while back here on r.a.d concerning the performance compromises built into the SE compared to pre-'95 models. What particularly bothers me is a kind of combination roll and yaw action that occurs when you hit rollers or bumps while loaded in a high speed corner. Really unsettling at first, but I came to realize that the car would hang tight anyway, and any breakaway would be gradual (in the dry) so I just lived with it. Dive in, and hang on. I think some of the good grip is also due to the Pirelli P600s that I installed right off the lot, trading in the Toyo A05s.
I really wasn't expecting much difference from just the strut brace. Well, I was wrong. Drove it this morning and noticed a BIG difference on the first high speed sweeper. A rather bumpy swoop from one freeway to another here in Houston. The car still moves about its roll axis as you'd expect on the soft springs, but the yaw action is literally gone. Zip, Nada... Gone. The turn in at high speed (80 mph) is much crisper and the car just takes a line and stays there! Wow! I am really amazed. I'm guessing that there must be a pretty significant change taking place to the camber in the stock setup while under significant cornering loads. The brace would stop this.
Even in low speed corners I noticed a big difference, primarily better turn in and similarly, a perception that understeer was reduced on through the corner. Heel and toe into the corner, point the nose and squirt the throttle! What a blast! I didn't get a chance to take it through my favorite ess turns yet, but I'm really looking forward to it.
It may be that just a strut brace is a good upgrade for folks that want to tighten up the car a bit in corners without doing anything to ride height or ride harshness. I'm looking forward to the spring upgrade as well! With the sweet engine and snick-snick 5 speed, I think this will move my SE from 9/10 to 10/10! I'm happy as a clam!
I previously issued a glowing report on the strut tower brace that I installed on my '96 Maxima SE.I then issued a lukewarm initial report on the Eibach Pro-Kit springs that I installed last weekend. I said that the ride was definately harsher, and that this was a concern.
I bought the brace and springs from Steve Millen Sports Cars, located in Costa Mesa, CA... They advertise in the back of several car mags including Car and Driver and Automobile. 714-540-5566 and http://www.stillen.com/
The list prices for the brace and springs is $199.99 and $329.99. I got them for $179 and $259. My sales guy was Jared S.
This is the followup report I promised.
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I'm going to keep the Eibachs. The control and corning improvements, above and beyond the improvement made by the strut tower brace seems worth it to me.
Before the upgrades, the car really moved a lot in corners. It was especially noticable in high speed sweepers in that there was a lot of roll and pitch over bumps. But what was worse was the yaw motion. Really unsettling, putting me a kind of white-knucked driving mode. The car would corner, but you had to trust it and hang on... it didn't appear to like it very much, and you as the driver felt disconnected from what the tires were doing. Not really what I expected from the SE version of a Maxima.
The strut brace was a major improvement, eliminating the yaw. The car still rolled a lot, but I felt much more confident that I could tell where the car was going. I was really surprised at the noticable improvement.
Now with the Pro-kit springs, the car is really glued down. I can easily change line in mid turn of high speed sweepers and know exactly what's happening. The cornering and control have improved to the point that now it is obvious that the weak link is my Pirelli P600 tires (don't tell my wife...).
The ride height changed as follows (measuring to the top of the wheel arches)
Front from 27 5/8 to 26 3/4
Rear from 27 7/8 to 26 1/2The initial impressions with the new springs, as reported before, was a significant increase in ride harshenss. Now after commuting with them for a week, I can report that the car only seems harsh on high impact bumps; pot holes and major pavement misalignments. The ride on normal freeway and street pavement is fine. No one that has ridden in the car has commented on the difference. No one has said "What the hell happened to you car?!?" I think it was especially noticable to me because I spend so much time in the car and because I was especially atuned to look for a difference. And the original springs were way soft... a pillowy ride...
So my final recommendations? I think every '95+ Maxima owner, GXE, SE, GLE, should invest in the strut tower brace. It is obvious to me from the improvement I felt that the top of the Maxima strut towers deflect a lot with respect to each other under cornering loads. This brace is an all gain, no pain deal. Easy to install and not very expensive. I think folks that want to really maximize their street handling should consider the Eibach pro-kit springs. The combination puts the Maxima on par with the best of its compitition. And with the Maxima lead in powertrain... :-) But recognize that this is a trade off between ride and handling. I also think that an alternae spring setup, such as recommended by Yeun could also be considered as a middle ground.
Technical and Installation Notes for the Strut Tower Brace
A curious person asked:>Hi, Steve: > >I'm considering getting myself a Stillen strut-tower brace for my '95 >Maxima SE. I've been following the discussions about this in the >Maxima mailing list. > >After reading the posts and looking at the tight space underhood, I >have two questions for you: > >A) You indicated the brace sits "right on top of some of the wiring >harnesses." Since the brace sits still and the motor and harnesses >rock/shift under acceleration and deceleration, it seems to me the >wires would rub against the brace, and eventually wear through the >insulation and short out. I sure don't want to trade reliability for >performance! What can you tell me about this? > >B) Does the brace touch or compress the underhood liner? When I look >at where the brace has to go, there seems to be about *zero* room for >it to fit without either smashing the wiring harness (too low) or >hitting the hood liner (too high)! > >Thanks!I've had the brace on and off a couple of times as I installed and then corrected my installation of my Eibach springs. I don't believe there is any clearance problem at all. It touches parts of the wiring just because some of it sticks up a bit, like a bad hair day. But it doesn't put any pressure on the wiring. I certainly don't believe it would cause it to chafe. It doesn't seem to touch the underhood liner at all.
I also noticed that you should have both sides of the car even when installing or removing the brace. I had one side only jacked up to remove a strut (while playing with the springs), and this torquing of the chassis caused the strut towers to bow out a bit with respect to each other, making it difficult to remove the brace. Car on the ground or both sides jacked up the same, and no problem at all. (This twisting of the chassis is not surprising to me... When I had only one side of my old Tracer LTS jacked up, I had a hard time closing a front door!)
The torque spec for the three strut top mount nuts on each side is 29-40 ft-lbs
Here's another view of the installation process provided by Chris Lehr and Peter Ling. Included are pictures of the Stillen STB and the Courtesy STB
Technical and Installation Notes for the Springs
Here are the pages from the shop manual for installation of springs on the 4th generation Maxima.
The Eibach springs are clocked differently than the stock springs. In other words, if you set the spring so that the bottom of the coil starts at 12 o'clock, the top end of the wire ends at a different point. It wasn't clear whether I should set the top strut mount based on the spring ending point, or based on its relative position in the car. I now know it should be based on the car position, regardless of how the spring is clocked. The strut tower is not flat on top, and the strut mount needs to be set relative to this tilt so that it will clear all around. There is a mark on the spring mount labeled "out", and this needs to be aligned with the lower mount "ears" at the bottom of the strut. You have to set this while the spring is compressed. Once you release the spring, it holds the top spring mount too tightly to rotate to position. (though you can still rotate the top _strut_ mount to align it properly with the three bolt holes in the top of the strut tower.)
Also, I had to have my toe-in adjusted. The toe increased from about .05" to about .14". I could definately feel this difference... the car seemed a lot dartier or touchy. It is much more stable on center steering straight ahead with the toe readjusted to spec.
Technical and Installation Notes for the Rear Anti-Roll Bar
These notes are from Andi, with the indented additional comments from me.
First off, you MUST remove the rear wheels. No chance in hell you're gonna get it installed without doing this.Using a heavy-duty floor jack, lift up the rear end of the car by the beam axle, right in the middle. Yes, that's correct, lift the beam.
Once the car is few feet off the ground <g>, put jack stands on the car's frame under the rear doors. Find the place where the body weld has an "m" shape, and put the jack stands on the gray frame right inside of the body weld, around where those holes are... (you'll know what I'm talking about when you get under there). The rule of thumb is, just put the jackstands on a part of the frame that's real strong and can support the weight of the car.
Remove the bracket holding the handbrake cable to the trailing arm (just that one 10mm bolt in the middle of the trailing arm) and put the blue mounting brackets for the RSB right around it, between the bolts holding the ABS lines to the trailing arms. (I didn't remove the ABS lines; they fit inside the blue brackets holding the RSB but the RSB brackets do *NOT* fit inside the ABS line brackets).
Both Andi and I have the brackets set so that one (I think the rear one) is right up against one of the ABS 10mm bolt heads. This places the anti-roll bar just behind the beam axle.The RSB itself is dual-drilled. I used the innermost pair of holes. Seems like this would be the strongest setting for the RSB. As it is, it's about half an inch behind the beam itself. So to those of you that have already installed yours... Please verify your installation with mine.
Also, after the brackets are in place it is tough to get the parking brake cable back down to its mounting hole on the trailing link. I scavenged a couple of longer metric bolts from my "bolt collection" and used 3/8" nuts as "fat washers" to allow the cable to stand off from the trailing link a bit. The nuts slip over the bolt between the training link and the mounting ear on the cable.
I eventually sold my Eibach ProKIT springs to Andi, making my final setup a Stage III suspension.
I had Tokicos/Eibachs and sold my Eibachs to Andi. Maybe the result of my 42 year old butt? :-) Actually I wanted to ease the ride AND I was tired of hitting the front end of the car on parking curbs and my driveway (which is pretty steep). I feel like the limits of my car are still beyond any legal limits for public roads. I've taken cloverleaf entrances at 80. Similar Freeway to Freeway sweepers like you described cannot be taken so fast that they feel unstable... the car's limits are higher than traffic and my better sense will allow exploring. And there is a right/left near where I work that is a real test. It is where a two lane goes to four lane wide divided. Maybe 35-40 yards of median. Its marked at 15. I heel and toe into the right-hander in 2nd gear at 40, hitting a late apex to line me up for the left hander, lift lightly in the transition to rotate the rear a bit (wish it would rotate a bit more...) hit the lefthander on the button and accelerate hard out of the second corner in the left lane, grabbing for 3rd a bit on the high side of 60... giving myself the entire right lane as a bail out. The car is completely stable.I think what the Eibachs give you (on top of the strut braces and Tokicos) is a lowered look, less compression when hitting a bump (harshness, though) and a faster stop on rebound from a bump. But I'm not convinced that any difference in cornering limits can be explored safely.
Remember that the Tokicos will also make a change in ride softness. The strut braces are basically ride neutral, but you will notice the struts. I've described it as like going from soft to firm on an adjustable shock suspension.
My recommendation? Well I'm living it. If you are not interested in reducing the fender gap, do the struts with stock springs. If you have aftermarket 17" or 18" wheels, the gap can look pretty odd... consider the Eibachs, too.
And now for some words from Jeffrey Ketch about his experiences with H&R Springs.
I just installed H&R springs last week(4/3)and they are great. The ride is slightly stiffer and more controlled. The car dropped 1.4 in front and 1.3 in the rear.The springs came from Tire Rack for my 95 SE. My friend and I installed them ourselves and it took about 4 hours.
If you are looking to keep the same ride. To get ride of the bounce and give the car a great look H&R in my opinion is a good choice.
Pot holes and other imperfections feel a little more through the wheel. I run a taller tire on my car(205/65/VR15) so that may also be a big factor on the ride quality. I bought them for $55 from Tire Rack(pretty cheap).
Anyway, the ride is awesome the rebound of the car when racing down a curvy road is slower and more controlled.
And now for some words from Jambo (Fairfax, VA) about his experiences with the STB.
Okay, for those of you wondering about the Courtesy STB and its effects, I am here to tell you that its absolutely amazing what a difference it makes in handling.Here are my thoughts on the Courtesy STB:
INSTALL:
Relatively easy - 3 nuts on each strut tower and a couple on the ends of the bar. Take the 3 nuts off of the strut tower area. Now, place the black crescent-shaped pieces on each end onto the strut tower.NOTE 1: You make have to adjust the nuts on the bar itself to make it longer or shorter so that the black plates line up on the holes correctly.
NOTE 2: Make sure that you have the bar "arched" the right way. Its bent a little to make room for the ignition wires.
Now, tighten down the nuts on the strut tower. Use a torque wrench to torque them to 40 ft./lbs.
Tighten the centering nuts on the bar and you're done!
PERFORMANCE:
I can't even begin to describe the difference this piece makes. While you won't notice it much on straight stretches, cornering will DEFINITELY be a better experience. The body of the car will not dive to one corner or the other much at all. You will be able to feel the difference in the bracing of the front and rear sections of the car -- the front will stay horizontal in turns, and the rear will try to give and roll. You will be able to corner at higher speeds, and you'll feel your body leaning with the turn, but not your Maxima.Bottom Line:
Sweet deal for $75 plus shipping.
Q: My Maxima pulls to one side even though I've had it aligned. It's not tires. My alignment shop says all that is adjustable is the toe. Can I cure my pull?
A: Here's Andi's comments on the pull he had in his '97 Maxima
I used to think that a car pulling to one side of the other was caused by only one of two things... caster angle and/or tire pull.
The caster angle isn't adjustable on the Maxima, and there's ZERO bolt play that can change caster angle. If you have less caster angle on one side than the other, the car will pull to the side with less caster and there's pretty much nothing you can do about it except replacing the control arm or having a frame alignment shop bend it back to where it should be.
However, if the caster angles are fine (mine are +2.7 degrees on both sides) and you're still getting a pull, it still might not be tire pull. Toe won't cause a pull, but it will cause the car to be darty (too much toe-in) or the steering to be loose on-center (too little toe-in or maybe even toe-out).
Camber is the other factor that will cause a pull. I didn't realize this at first but it can make a difference.
A few months ago my car tracked perfectly straight and I was happy. Then one rainy night I had an unexpected run-in with a curb, and since then my car pulled to the right. The alignment was within spec so I didn't know what to do. (My front camber settings were -0.6 on the left and -0.1 on the right. These are within spec but notice they're quite different.) Numerous alignments were no help. Maybe they would have adjusted the camber if it was explicitly adjustable, but it's not so they didn't.
Then Steve installed my new springs & shocks. No more pull to the right. In fact, I had a tiny bit of pull to the left since then. The only significant thing that changed was camber.
What were my new camber readings that fixed the pull and actually countered it a little, now drifting to the left? -0.7 degrees on the front left wheel and -1.2 degrees on the front right wheel. From -0.1 to -1.2 and the pull changed directions.. a definite pattern, eh?
By this time the drift to the left was annoying me. I went back to NTB... the guy said it's close enough to the spec window that it should be fine, and it's not adjustable anyways. I asked him to use the play in the lower strut bolts to adjust the camber, so he did. This is the trick... to make the camber more positive, raise the front end and loosen the lower strut bolts a bit, then retighten. The weight of the wheel & suspension pulls it down a bit and gives you more positive camber. To get more negative camber, do the same with the car on the ground -- the car's weight pushing on the suspension gives you more negative camber.
Now I'm at -0.7 degrees camber on both front wheels, 2.7 degrees caster on both front wheels, and the car has no definite drift whatsoever. It drifts ever so slightly to the right in the right lane of really crowned roads, but that's it. Oh, and it pulls left on the left two lanes of I-20 like it always did and like every other car does. (don't ask me why). So if your car has a pull, it's most likely a difference in the camber angles in the two front wheels. Even if they're both in spec, they could be way different causing a pull. I'd try to get them within 0.2-0.3 degrees of each other.
