Seriously, I didn't think 2010s Nissan was this pathetic. It's only got 17" wheels on 50-profile tires, so that can't be it. What's the underlying design fault here and what can improve this?
Seriously, I didn't think 2010s Nissan was this pathetic. It's only got 17" wheels on 50-profile tires, so that can't be it. What's the underlying design fault here and what can improve this?
Is it really stiff or is it poorly damped? If you try to push on the body above a shock tower, does it feel stiff?
In theory, you could make a car with stiff suspension and high body roll by giving it a very long roll couple, and a high CoG would help too...if that's the cause, the only solutions are modifying the suspension geometry, or throwing even more stiffness at it (or lowering the CoG, good luck with that though!). Some serious race cars actually have suspension designed along these lines, usually high-downforce setups without heave springs, where stiff suspension is needed to stay off the bump stops at high speed and the longer roll couple combined with that improves grip.
Stiff shock/spring and no sway bar?
So, you're driving an 8 year old car and wondering why it rides poorly? Stiff and with a lot of body roll?
How many miles on the car? Could springs be broken and riding low? Low giving it the hard ride and the body roll coming from the ruined struts not counteracting the "boing" of the springs?
Nissans have always had very poor bump travel, and have required fairly aggressive damping to prevent crashing all the time.
17" wheels with 50 series tires will also contribute to horrible ride quality.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
Still stiff
In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :
Front has sway bar, rear doesn't
In reply to John Welsh :
It's only got 55k miles and still at the high stock suspension height at all corners
I recall getting a rental Sentra a few years ago that had 200-ish miles on it. It was so twitchy on the highway that I took it back and they gave me a Maxima. It was pretty much the same. It reminded me of when I test drove a Sentra SE-R back in 1991 and hating it so much that I bought a Beretta GT instead.
Is Nissan just bad at suspension geometry?
Nissan knows these are mostly rental cars and people are going to jump them over curbs, so the bumpstops are old school solid rubber instead of urethane foam. I'd bet replacing them with ones similar to what a Civic or Mazda 3 use would improve the ride and handling considerably.
The more I learn about this car, the more I hate it. Suggestions on where to get that replacement foam? Can't seem find any parts linked to the car
Also found out that since there's no hydraulic lifters, valve adjustments are needed every 60k. Just great.
John Welsh said:So, you're driving an 8 year old car and wondering why it rides poorly? Stiff and with a lot of body roll?
Are you trying to imply that an EIGHT YEAR OLD car is "OLD?"
How dare you! 
Dootz said:The more I learn about this car, the more I hate it. Suggestions on where to get that replacement foam? Can't seem find any parts linked to the car
Also found out that since there's no hydraulic lifters, valve adjustments are needed every 60k. Just great.
No big deal, usually valve adjustments are just a check on OHC engines.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
That surprises me. I loved my 91 SE-R and thought it rode really well. I did buy it with 200,000 well maintained miles so maybe whatever had been replaced on it over the years was an improvement over stock.
In reply to clutchsmoke :
Darting is usually an alignment issue. New cars need to be aligned before delivery, most of the time they don't get that.
And with a rental, all bets are off.
Stiff and lots of body roll sounds like a geometry issue with too large a roll couple. Also, as newer cars get taller, they will naturally roll more than a comperable car from the 90's that was many inches shorter.
A lot of newer cars are also "stiff", but not actually stiff an effort to make them feel "sporty" without the ride being too jarring over large bumps. So they're under-sprung and have way too much bump damping. End result is slopping handling, body roll, but a rough, stiff feeling ride over small road imperfections.
In this case, the lack of rear swaybar isn't helping either. Pretty much any FWD car can benefit from more rear sway bar.
Crappy stock shocks and jounce bumpers as stated above.
Also make sure that you CAN jounce the car some... and that the struts up front full extend when jacked up. I've seen a handful of them with bent struts. Probably because they get driven like the POS rental cars they are.
I've seen some bent where it was obvious (bit of added camber on one or both sides), and some less obvious (bent below/inside the strut body, so it didn't really change anything geometry-wise, but when jacked up on a lift, the wheels stayed put as ride height vs drooping the 4+in it should have.
You'll need to log in to post.
