DIY coilover install
 

Be safe and put the car in gear, or park, hand brake up, use wheel chocks, etc.

Download the service manual here http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-o...-download.html and study the front and rear suspension components.

You will need 4 jack stands, floor jack, breaker bar, torque wrench that goes up to 120lbs of torque, open wrenches 17mm, 19mm, 21mm, deep socket set 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, normal 14mm, 17mm, 19mm, extensions. Some of these sockets don't have to be deep sockets but you can buy at sears 6pt deep socket set for $50.

Before you begin you may want to remove your interior plastic parts from your hatch especially if you're installing coilovers and the rear adjustment knob extends too far. The bc br coilovers do not and I didn't remove the rear interior plastic parts. I did remove the front top strut brace to make it easier to access the nuts attached to the shocks.

Roll down the drivers window, unlatch hood, place wheel chocks behind and in front of rear wheel. Take out the scissor jack from the trunk. Then raise the car and place the front on jack stands then rears. Next remove wheels.

Loosen the top 3 nuts that hold the shocks, shown in the fifth pic. Do not remove these nuts until you complete the steps listed below.
Spray penetrating oil on the nut that's on the left side and right side in the first picture, which is circled in red. Use a wrench to hold the bolt in the second picture, this bolt most likely won't move until the nut on the opposite side is completely free. But keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't move as you loosen the nut. If the breaker bar doesn't create enough leverage, remove the handle from your floor jack and slide it over the breaker bar. I only needed to extend the length of my 2 foot breaker bar by 6 inches. Once that nut is off remove the three bolts circled in green. You will need to turn the steering wheel to get better access to it. Turn your cars accessory mode on and turn the steering wheel. Next remove the nut holding the cable to the shocks, in the third pic. Also, unsnap all cables that are attached to the shocks. Next remove the nut in the fourth pic that is attached to the front sway bar. Once this nut is off you can slide out the bolt that is holding the bottom of the front shocks. But before you do this place the scissor jack to support the bottom of the front suspension to release tension on the bolt.
With the jack still supporting the bottom of the suspension remove the 3 top nuts that holds the shocks. When removing the shocks be careful not to snag any cables.

Loosen the bolt in pic six. Loosen the nut in pic seven and place the scissor jack underneath aluminum arm. Remove the two nuts in pic 8 then remove the bolts that you have loosened. The bolts in the seventh pic should come out easily but if it's really stuck loosen the nut but don't completely remove the nut off the bolt that is attached toward the middle of the car in pic 7 next to the red arrow. You will need to use the scissor jack to line up the holes when you remove and replace the bolts.

Great that this has started...
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Yup will be ordering HKS Hypermax lll's soon so this may help me thanks!

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Do you have to do any realignment after the install?

Yes you will want to do an alignment. Should wait a few days after the install for an alignment. Should cost no more than $150.

Do you need spring compressors for this?

Not for coilovers.

true, but the rear spring isnt attached to the shock. wont that spring be under compression?

No spring compressor is needed. If you need to compress the rear springs you can use a floor Jack. I think that's in the diy.

great! i have a spring install to do this weekend. the fronts i will need a spring compressor though.

Tried to do the fronts yesterday and it was an epic FAIL! Rears were no prob at all. I guess I'm taking it into Nissan to sort out!

I could not remove the 19mm bolts for nothing, even a breaker bar did not want to work. Used PB Blaster several times. I did end up stripping one of the side bolts, I sure hope they can remove that one. I hope they can sort this out for me!

It shouldn't strip if you have a 6 point socket and if you keep an eye on the socket so it sits flush. Sliding a cheat bar over the breaker bar helps too. I'm sure the dealership will fix it.

It was confusing to me, are you supposed to remove the three smaller bolts first (from the first pic) then the larger 19mm? I tried to remove the 19mm first and it was not budging at all. (I guess I need a 6 point socket!) Also are those three bolts even required to be removed at all? Seems if you just remove that 19mm and the sway bar bolt it should come out...

You can remove the larger nut first, it won't make a difference which ones you remove first. You couldn't get the other side off either?

Do you really need to remove the three green bolts at all from the first pic to do this job? Seems it is not needed. I stripped one of those bolts.

Yes you do need to remove the 3 bolts but they're not on very tight.

Yeah the 19 mm and 3 smaller bolts weren't too hard to loosen. Sorry, I have to ask to be thorough...you were torquing the nuts counterclockwise to loosen, right...and not the other way? As for the one with rounded head, go get yourself a damaged bolt removal socket or wrench (14 mm or whatever the size of that one is) at your local hardware store. Good luck.

Yeah I was torquing the correct way trust me. I was using a 12 point socket, that was my mistake. The nuts are not stripped though. It's the one 14mm that I ended up stripping, and having a hard time getting a replacement from Nissan (as its part of the whole suspention and not sold seperately) so I need to go to a store to get a replacement bolt now.

6 point sockets saved the day. All is good!

Thank you OP for this post. Printed it . Followed it. 4-5 hours later- SITTING ON COILOVERS!

This could not have been more to the point and easy to follow. I had no idea what the suspension looked like in detail prior to this and after doing the fronts the back were self explanatory per this DIY.

THANK YOU!

how the hell do i get that 19mm bolt off in the front... tried many things it is on super tight

Breaker Bar?

yeah tried, i had an 18in one.. i think that shoulda been good enough.. are u suppose to hold the nut behind that bolt to get it loosen? or can u just loosen it without having to hold behind it?

PB Blaster. Spray it on and go eat a sandwich. Then try again.

You don't need to hold the bolt but it doesn't hurt to place a wrench over it. If you have a pipe, slide it over the breaker bar. I placed my floor jack handle over my breaker bar.

going to try again later this week, and are the coilovers have the right preload from factory alredy? or do u need to do it yourself?

Got my coils in and for the life of my I could not get my front end links to come loose from the strut. Had to remove the sway bar support brackets and voila it dropped like a dead bird from the sky and the bolt slide right out from the strut.

Suggestion to remove the sway bar and you can skip the endlink nut removal and the bolt should slide right out. My cordless impact worked like a champ!

Rears took my about an hour because I was being anal about it, easy as cake!

That's nice il be doing this pretty soon =)

Need help. Squeaking
 

I installed Nismo S-Tune fronts and SPL Pro link endlinks and now I'm getting a lot of squeaking and some banging also.

Any ideas what it could be? Pre-load on the end links?

I spent all day yesterday doing this and now it sounds like butt.

Hopefully someone has some insight.


Update: YEAHHHHH! Before I left for church this morning, I sprayed some penetrating oil on one of the end links. Squeak went away. As I drove around the clunking got worse. Once I got home I put it on ramps and saw that one of the end links was badly crooked. Enough that there probably wasn't much movement possible. I also saw that the link on the other side was quite crooked against the sway bar, so I pulled that one out and extended it so it was parallel. Clunk and squeaking are now gone.

Manual download hijacks your search tool BEWARE!
 

unless you dont care I do.

how low did you go front and rear and was a camber kit needed for rear? thanks