I want to lower my car soon. I will either go with eibach springs or Tein Basics. How difficult would the eibachs be to install? I've installed my injen CAI, How comparative is it (difficulty wise)? How difficult would it be to install the Tein coilovers? Also the big question, would i need a camber kit if i will be installing eibachs or tein basics? Please respond. THanks everyone.

 

I installed the Eibachs myself. It wasn't too terribly hard, you just need a spring compressor and a few non-reusable nuts from Nissan. Other than that, some patience and basic tools is all you need. The rears were a piece of cake, the fronts were a little tougher, but not impossible. No idea about the Tein Basics, but they should be essentially the same. Just make sure you get them balanced right or the car will feel all whacked out.

The camber kit is a maybe with Eibachs. I don't have one and I aligned (barely). For piece of mind, if you have the 4 C-notes to spend, you might just get the 350Evo kit and be done with it.

 

I installed the Tein S-tech's by myself. Its not that bad, just need a spring compressor like the above post said. *edit* with the tein s techs i did not need a camber kit, my alignment shop was able to get the car back in spec.

Also, non reusable nuts? which ones are these? All the writeups i read about a spring install, none of them mentioned replacing nuts. Should I be worried? I used all the same nuts/bolts and torqued them down to spec.


Neil

 

I think he is refering to the ones that hold the strut assembly together, the nut you have take off to get the springs off the strut. It is a nylon self locking nut and should be replaced. I've replace the springs on all the cars I have owned without replacing the nuts and I've never had a problem.

 

You apparently don't have a copy of the shop manual for the car .

The nuts that hold the upper spring retainer onto the top of the shock rod have a thread lock retainer that should not be re-used once it has been threaded. If this nut were to back off, it would allow the piston to disengage from the spring retainer that bolts to the shock tower. I wasn't prepared to replace these either once I got the car all taken apart, so I reused the old ones. I just check to make sure they're not backing off every time I was the car. At some point, I might pull the STB and put new ones on, just for piece of mind.

 

how would i buy the nuts and what are they called exactly? So everyone has been able to get alignment following install? I just want to make sure and don't want to spend extra money on something that works. Thank You. It would be nice to recieve input from anyone who has installed coilovers themselves. Thanks everyone

 

Can't speak for the coilovers, but *most* who install the Eibachs have been ok on alignment. As for the nuts, you can buy them at the dealership, or if you're nice, they might just give you a small handful. They carry them in bulk for the mechs to use, so they are very likely not individually priced.

 

I installed my S-techs last weekend and I don't know what nuts you're talking about either.

The install job only took about 3 hours...spring compressor was needed. I used lock tight stuff on all the nuts that appeared to need it...hope that takes care of that problem.

 

We're talking about two different installs in this thread. If you're replacing the stock springs with the Eibachs, the nut on the top of the stock shock piston gets replaced. This whole assembly gets replaced with the Tein kit, so it's not a concern for you guys.