I just purchased a 2006 enthusiast. Love the way it looks but hate the stiff ,bumpy ride. I feel like every pebble in the road comes through the cabin. Also the seats are incredibly hard. How can I soften the ride without spending a fortune?

Other than that LOVE the car. Super fast.

 

ConGratZ!

Look into changing the springs...

not sure who makes a softer spring thou

 

Consider trading in for a Lexus ---Ud be defeating the Zs purpose and to be honest, with the design of the car as a whole, softening may make it a little squirrly

 

It was made like that. Built for performance not comfort. You could see if there are other springs out there that would soften it a little...but they do cost money.

I personally have no problem with the ride. If a soft ride was on my priorities, I wouldn't have bought a Z.

 

Did you not test drive it before you purchased?

R350z

 

Very good pint

 

Welcome. You just bought a performance sports car. It rides like a sports car. Members often mod to stiffen the suspension. I suppose that you could go with different springs, but that defeats the purpose of the 350Z.

Tire pressure is 35 PSI right?

Tires effect ride, and there are more comfortable tires available. But I doubt if you want to spend $800 now.

 

Yeah stock Bridgestones are POS... I didn't know how bad they were until I changed them out.

 

I feel ya! I have an 06 as well (GT). The rear end is super-bouncy. I am not convinced the springs are the problem. I think there's too much compression damping in the rear shocks and not enough rebound damping.

Feels good cornering on a smooth corners, but on a bumpy corner, it is squirrely as he11. Since the rear springs/shock don't compress easily, a bump throws the back end of the car up and unweights the rear tires, thus losing traction. I am not talking about little high-speed bumps but larger low-speed bumps.

I really don't like that feeling. AT ALL. An EVO IX handed my a$$ to me the other day on a familiar corner because there's a gentle rise in the pavement mid-corner and I have to slow down in the z or the back-end looses traction from bouncing off the bump (more like launching upwards). If I was in the M3, I could have hung with him until the corner ended. The z just has to be driven more slowly on that corner.

The M3 has H&R OE Sport springs and Koni SA shocks (and PS2 tires).

A lot of shock makers dial in a lot of compression damping to control movements and give a sporty "feel". Koni likes to use more rebound damping and less compression damping to control chassis movements and still give an acceptable ride. That way, If a single wheel hits a bump, the shock can suck up the force of the bump instead of not compressing and upsetting the whole chassis.

I was thinking about going with hotchkis springs which are more firm in front than the stock 06 and softer in the rear than the 06, but I think the change is too drastic. The 06 z has 314lb/in front springs and 427lb/in rear springs. The hotchkis kit is 340 front and 330 rear, which people tend to think is better balanced, but most people overlook leverage ratios that the suspension has on the springs.. The rear being softer than front does not make sense to me because the way the suspension is designed, the rear wheels have more leverage on the spring since the spring is near the middle of the axle between the wheel and the suspension pivot point. It should be a higher spring rate than the front. The front has more close to a 1:1 action ratio (1" wheel travel = .95" spring compression. The rears are more like 1" wheel travel to .65" spring compression. My guess is that with the hotchkis, the rear end would dip pretty low during hard cornering which might increase understeer.

Hotchkis states that this softer rear spring takes some of the bounce out of the rear suspension, but so would a shock valved with less compression damping and more rebound damping. I have not heard of anyone trying stock 06 springs with different shocks. Maybe I'll just have to try it.

I am chicken to change out any suspension at this point because (1) I have only 4k miles on the car and Nissan techs too eagar to attribute any warranty issues to mods done to your car. And (2) The track/GT models are set up pretty well for smooth track handling and I'd hate to compromise that. But real-world handling (where bumps exist in the corners) is not all that great. Could also be partly due to the 265/35-19 rear tires stretched across the 10" wide rays OEM wheels) Those tires have ZERO carcass flex or slip angle variations, which is not always a good thing.

Also, I usually wait to see what everyone else does. Let others experiment with their money and then I'll make my purchase based on feedback from them. Hey, I'm cheap like that I may have to go out on a limb this time though. I HATE having to slow down for bumps in the corners.

I do love the GT seats though... So not following you on that one... they are as well-bostered as I would go for a daily driver.

 

Too soft? I'd be willing to trade in some ride comfort for better handling.

 

Welcome to the z community. I'm sure you'll get used to it, if not happy modding.

 

You have a couple of options. Tein H-Techs will give you a more comfortable ride. You could also change to a tire with a less stiff sidewall.

Just remember that most methods to increase ride comfort result in reduced handling.
NzZ

 

I have some stock springs and shocks off of my G35 coupe. It's a softer ride than the Z (I bought some stock 350Z shocks and springs to replace mine). You want them? It's an easy DIY replacement and is just like OEM in terms of fitment.

 

To both the OP and Hiz-n-Herz, the stock tires suck. The RE040s have no give in the sidewall and both the RE040s and RE050s are narrow for the wheels they mount them on. Sure that might be "the look" these days and might work ok on a smooth track but as far as handling on rougher roads, they give up gripping at the slightest upset because they are not able to flex.

Not to mention the fact that they suck in the slightest rain and get noisy over time. Since tires are a wear part anyway and yours probably wont last 20k miles, that is where I would recommend you start. I know it made all the difference on my Z as well as others who have switched them out.

Chris

 

Here, here!!! Stocks really are hopeless. OP are you on stock tyres or not?