I have an 08 xb with 70k miles, trd lowering springs since day1, and a set of 225,45,17 tires. I have been noticing my ride quality is not that great. People always complain when riding in my can. I especially notice it now that we bought my wife a new 2012 altima. It is a night and day difference between her ride quality and mine. What can I do to improve and keep it lower than stock? I will upload my biggest pet peeve about driving my car to YouTube and share the link in about an hour or so.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTXZ3EWh-1o" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTXZ3EWh-1o

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cye7TfoUb54" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cye7TfoUb54

 

are your top hat bolts properly tightened? also with 70k on lowering springs your struts might just be blown?

 

are they just supposed to be as tight as i can get them or torqued to a certain ft lb

 

Wow, I hope that higher pitched rattling was just a stack of coins, was it? As for the bolts, the TRD lowering springs instructions say to torque them to 37 ft/lbs.

 

maybe upgrade your struts / shocks.

 

To my knowledge, the TRD springs are fairly stiff. Get NF210's or DF210's, depending on your choice.

 

i rode in my friend's xb who has trd springs with trd struts and shocks. feels good.

 

my ride DRASTICALLY improved from my TRD's when i swapped to the DF's.

 

Whoa, yeah, your car definitely is not supposed to sound like that.

Go get a suspension check up. It's never supposed to shake violently like that.

Once you get it addressed, your car will ride like it used to.

 

The high pitched rattle was a bunch of coins lol. But the rest was my car. I will try tightening the tophat bolts tonight an if that doesn't work it's going to a trip to the shop to see what they have to say.

 

so everything is tight. My dad is a mechanic and will be in town in two weeks for christmas and he said he will change my struts out for me. What strut/spring combo has the best ride quality? I just want a smooth quiet ride not a high performance cornering machine. Also where should i buy them? Thanks for the help.

 

OEM.

 

Lol! OEM is okay. I've heard people liking the ride better with the NF210's.

I'd go with the NF210's and the Tokico struts and shocks. Struts and shocks may be okay. But if you're replacing, may as well run Tokico.

 

If you want to lower, then the NF210 are probably the best option if you don't mind a little added stiffness over OE. The lower you go, the more stiffness you can expect. NF210 will corner better than OE so although it's a little stiffer there is a handling gain in addition to lowering.

Important to have good shocks. Try bouncing the corners of the car and see it it actually bounces or just returns to stable with maybe just a little overshoot. If it bounces at all, the shock is gone.

Depends on how you define "ride". Most people want a nice relaxed smooth ride and the OE deliver that.

 

Is $329 a good price for all 4 tokico shocks/struts?

 

That's the best price I know of... www.shox.com

 

tokicos are generally stiffer than stock. jussayin.