Hi y’all,

I just finally got a 2004 Enthusiast with low mileage and am super stoked. I am new to the car world and learning lots of thing very quickly. With that being said, there are still some things that I have no idea where to start, so please be patient with me..

My question is regarding fitment. Ideally, I am planning to pick up some Avid1 06 (18 inch) and lower the car with some coilovers. I was thinking about lowering springs but it seems everyone talks about how much they suck and advise against them. I want to do a staggered fitment, and my thinking was 18 in, 5x114.3:

Front: 9.5
Rear: 10.5

I have been reading up quite a bit for 350z’s and this seems to be a pretty common sizing. Wondering if this sounds like a good idea or if anybody has any input or concerns before I pull the trigger. Also, how will this work with tires? I do not have a specific tire in mind but I would really appreciate any recommendations. And for the coilovers, will I need to add some camber to the car since I am lowering it? I would like to lower it so that I can still full turn with no rub and IDEALLY would like to not have to roll the fenders.

Another random question: It seems like staggered fitment comes normally with a smaller offset in the rear wheels. Could somebody explain the reasoning of this to me?

Sorry if these are dumb questions. Appreciate any responses!

 

You don't need coilovers, springs and shocks dont suck

 

I'll start by saying.... THIS ^^

First off, who is "everyone"?

Coilovers are great.

IF you plan on track, autocross.

Sure, they're fine for the street IF you know how to set them up. Don't take this the wrong way, but if you're new to the game, you'll want to read up or watch videos on how to properly set up coilovers for your use (be it street/hills/track/). Pre-load, height adjustment, corner weighting, jounce and/or rebound settings depending on which coilovers you choose. If unfamiliar with those terms, see the previous sentences of this paragraph.

That said, coilovers are de rigeur amongst the "JDM" and "tuner" crowds and the thinking that they are the only game in town is so pervasive that it's almost become "the standard". It's not. A good shock and spring setup is always better than a poorly adjusted set of coilovers. Especially the cheap junk, you know, the sub-$300 stuff sold on Fleabay. If you want good coilovers and feel you're ready for them, don't cheap out. Consider KW, Feal, Fortune Auto, Bilstein, etc. The big names didn't get big for nothing.

If all you're doing is planning on lowering (set and forget), a good set of springs and shocks are more than fine. There are tons of good shocks (Koni, Bilstein, Tein, etc) and spring sets (Eibach, Tokico, H&R, etc.) out there. The reason they still exist despite all the hubbub about coilovers is because they work for 90% of the Zs out there. Again, so long as you define YOUR USAGE. If you're tracking and need to adjust for varying tracks and conditions, by all means, coilovers. But honestly, I know of few people who constantly change their settings on mostly street driven cars - except to get it right; then once that's done, it's forgotten.

Something else to consider, THE most important aspect of a highly functional suspension/tire/wheel combination is ALIGNMENT. Lowering WILL change all of your alignment settings but the only thing a stock Z has is toe adjustment. In order to do it right, you will need adjustability built into the suspension - adjustable Front upper control arms (FUCA), rear camber arms and toe offset bushing at minimum to adjust camber and caster. Factor that into the budget.

Side note: People love to "add camber" to clear tires. Lame. Cambering out changes all of the dynamics associated with suspension setup. Changes steering attitude (under/oversteer), changes/diminishes turn-in response, and to top all that off, it wears the inside shoulders of the tires. You might hear of people "flipping" their tires when they get worn. Again, lame. That tells you two things: the outside edge of the tire isn't doing any work so what's the point of having that much rubber on the car if only 60% of the tread is actually doing something AND how much do you want to invest in tires that are going to wear that soon and/or add the cost to flip already rendered useless tires?

On tires/wheels, yes, 9.5F/10.5R is pretty much the sweet spot on fitment so long as you mind the offsets. But consider that because you are lowering the car, too low of an offset, while looking great, will likely necessitate a roll and seal of the rear fenders. Not a big deal but again, something to factor into your mod-budget.

9.5 +15 or +22 works fine up front, lowered. 10.5 +22 rear will be close but will depend on your setup.

Just for reference, I've run over two dozen different sets of wheels/tires. Never had to roll until I ran an Enkei RPF1 *9.5* +15 on the rear. Yup, a narrower wheel than my usual 10s and 10.5s but that 7mm less offset caused rub over speed bumps and driveways..

After rolling, was able to run a lot of different lower offset wheels like this setup....

This is 10.5 wheel, 285/35-19 and that's about as wide as I'd ever need. Harder to get a big tire warmed up and sticky anyways. Oh, on Eibach springs and Koni shocks. No coilovers.

So, standard tire size recommendation on 9.5/10.5: 245/40-18 (or 255) Front, 275/40-18 Rear. (Or, if 19s, just drop the aspect ratio to 35% surprising how that works.)

Final note: mind the stagger. If you have any other trim than Base, TCS and VDC needs the 3% +/- 0.25% F-R diameter stagger to keep the wheel speed sensors happy.

 

Nice photo tho !