Jump to content

DaGuNit

Regular Member
  • Posts

    36
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by DaGuNit

  1. I, personally, like my 18's very much. I have also lowered my car with Eibachs and upgraded to Bilstein shocks so that affects my ride quality. I am used to owning mustangs though, so the ride is still excellent to me! I think 20's would be a little stiffer than I would like but they look great. Here's a look at my 18's... Hope this helps... Let us know what you decide to do. ~Da G
  2. When I say I could push in on the piston or shock rod, I mean I could compress it all the way. I don't see how the shock absorber could possibly be of any use with this being the case. I am no expert but common sense tells me that if I can fully compress the shock absorber with the weight of my two arms (no more than probably 40lbs of pressure and probably less) then, even taking into consideration the springs provide dampening, I don't see how the shock absorbers could be effective hardly at all. I mean were talking about aprox. 3700lbs. Anyone who wants to chime in here, feel free. I would love to hear any other thoughts as well. ~Da G
  3. This is related to those of you who are thinking of modding your suspension but are wondering if you should wait to do it right. Now, first and foremost, many people would say that the "RIGHT" way to do it is to go with the coil over system. This is probably the number one way to modify your suspension correctly. I highly recommend this set up! However, if you don't have the money to go all out and you just want better handling and response in your steering, there is a cheaper alternative. Many people seem to have decided to go with the L-tuned set up or a Bilstein/Eibach combo. I, personally, have the Bilstein/Eibach combo. Not until this evening did I have this set up and I would like to share a little information I acquired while installing this. I bought my car almost a year ago with aftermarket wheels and exhaust and eibach lowering springs. Now, you might have read that and went, "only lowering springs?????". The answer is yes, only lowering springs. The car was sitting on its original shocks. Please, take my advice and DO NOT do this to your car. There are a number of reasons as to why you shouldn't. In no certain order: 1. The OEM shocks are not designed to ride/perform with lowering springs. 2. In my experience, it eventually caused a "cupping" effect on my tires and a slight vibration. (this becomes a very expensive problem later on down the road.) 3. When you do decide to upgrade your shocks, you will have performed/paid for the labor twice. 4. Eventually, your shocks will make a very embarassing sqeaking sound. (this may or may not happen but it did to mine and it was what caused me to investigate my suspension set up in the first place.) The following pictures is what my original set up (note: org. set up was lowering springs only with stock shocks) did to my spring bumpers. Also, it is clear to me that my shocks eventually became useless. After uninstalling the org. set up, I could litterally put the weight of both of my arms on the piston and it would compress into the shock absorber. THIS SHOULD NOT BE THE CASE with a good shock. Basically, I was riding on my Eibachs and my spring bumpers were acting as my shock absorber. NOT GOOD, as you can imagine. To sum it all up, when modding your beautiful LEXUS, do it the right way. Don't cut corners cuz it will come back to bite you in the eventually!
  4. depends on the color of the car and what other mods have been made for most colors, I also like the yellow
  5. Let me first say thanks to everyone on the site that has been leaving informative feedback. It has really helped me with my own decision making and it has been a great tool for getting advice from the veterans that have been around these cars for some time. With that said, I again need some advice on a Do It Yourself Shock Replacement on the GS400. I know that there is a lot of advice under the search function and I have read everything I can find. GuyTelefunken left some helpful feedback on a previous post about shock replacement but I would like just a little bit more detail, if possible, so I know exactly what I am getting myself into. He did mention a spring compressor would be needed, which I do not currently have, and other than that it sounded fairly easy. I guess I should say I am fairly experienced with working on cars. I have done mainly bolt-on-type work: A/C, Alternators, Water Pumps, Thermostats, Smog Pumps, Header Gaskets, Intakes, Exhaust, even a heater core on a 90 Mustang, which really sucked, but never any suspension work. Where she stands: Lowered with Eibach Springs, stock shocks, 18 X 9.0 (245/40) Front and 18 X 9.5 (275/35) Rear, with a Blitz Nur Spec Exhaust and the SRT inake (very soon). I am not looking to build the best road performance machine out there. I am looking for a little tighter handling and a nice slightly lowered look, which I already have. Since my shocks are squeaking and getting increasingly louder and more embarrasing, I have all but decided to order some new KYB GR2 Shocks for the front only. The rears seem fine and there is only 55k on the car. It is, however, a 1999 and has been sitting on those stock shocks and lowered springs for some time. I know I should check all the other suspension components I can while I have the shock off of there and that I will need a spring compressor and torque wrench and to get an alignment done after. Is that about all there is to it? For anybody who did it on your own, about how long did it take you and if you don't mind posting your total overall cost, that would be helpful too. Any and all info is greatly appreciated and thanks in advance. Also, any comments/suggestions about my set up or your own set up and how you like it or what you would have done different is most definately welcomed.
  6. Push the front on the car up and down. If the car bounce back up 1-2 times, it still good. If more than that then you should change the struts. My gs400 is 00 and I just recently changed the struts to kyb. Oh yeah I have 40k miles on the car. Did you do the install yourself and if so, was it a hard job to do at all? What was your overall cost? I was thinking of going with KYB also, do you like/dislike? Thanks in advance for any info!
  7. Power braking=Hold the brake down with your left foot (apply more pressure than normal) as you pound the gas with your right. The tires will begin to spin while you are holding still (or pretty still). I guess you don't have to use your left foot for the brake and right foot for the gas but I bet it would be very hard to do otherwise not to mention unsafe or maybe even down right stupid. Never heard of Engine Braking. Unless you're talking about downshifting???? This is non-applicable at a dead stop though.
  8. Good to hear DaGunit I am putting them on my ES300 come spring and putting the ziex on my daughters toyota this month. So i was a bit concerned about how they will look also but glad you like them. ← No worries.... they look pretty good! I just went out and had a little more fun with them. They really do handle well too. I need to stop "playing" with them so much but they are still new so hopefully that will fade. I find myself offering to go out for things I would normally put off until later just to be on the road again. PS. I said I would mention cost too so here goes but don't let it scare you. Keep in mind I have 9" wide wheels on the front and 9.5" wide in the back. 18's that is. But, total final cost with road hazard protection was $670 from discouttiredirect.com and it cost me about $100 to have em' installed.
  9. OK. Now I can say that I also recommend Falken's. I just had a set of the Azenis ST115's mounted and balanced. So far, I have no complaints whatsoever and my vibration b/w 60 and 70 is gone. Very quiet tire that still sticks to the road quite well. I must say I am (so far) impressed with the quality of tire for the price. I am taking about a 1400 mile round trip in a couple weeks so that should give me a better feel for them. Also, they look a lot better mounted than they do in some pictures I saw. I was worried but everything turned out great. If you are looking for a tire that comes in a variety of sizes, is quiet but still performs, and doesn't kill your pocket book, I recommend the Falken Azenis ST115.
  10. The video isn't great quality at all so I thought I would post a pic to do my baby justice. I def. reccomend that anyone thinking about stripping the paint from your grill to go ahead and do it. Very simple mod and takes no time at all for a huge improvement in the look of the front of the car.
  11. I had the most fun I have had to date in my GS400 today! As some of you may or may not know, I am waiting on my tires to be delivered. I was rather bored today so I went to a open lot that I knew about and finished off the remaining rubber on the old tires with a friend of mine. And, yes, we had a camera with us! On film, we captured a couple burnouts and a nice doughnut. All I ask is that you aren't critical of my camera man, as he is a rookie. For the most part, the video turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. I will be receiving the video either tonight or tom. I would love to share this video with everyone but I have not a clue how to post a video. Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. TIA
  12. yes... thanks a lot for the information. I plan on finishing my looking and making a decision by the weekend. I will post what I go with and the price and my initial reaction to the performance of the tire. Thanks to everyone for sharing your experience with tires! :D Greatly appreciated.
  13. Already have the wheels.... need tires only.....
  14. Well I can get a pretty good discount from a friend of mine which I think is 10% over cost. So, I would like to stay under a $1,000 installed.
  15. I have to get a new set of tires put on my GS4 very, very quickly! I will be ordering within the next couple/few days but before I do, I would like to hear what some people have to say that have experience with tires esp. for aftermarket wheels. I have 235's on front and 275's on rear. (18's) Any experience with what NOT to get is also appreciated as I am not one for throwing away my money! Thanks in advance.
  16. Put them on. They will be fine. That second number refers to profile (dist. from the outer edge of the wheel to the top of the tire) and it is just a little taller tire. There should be no reason you couldn't put those on. Was that a tow truck driver or a tire salesman that said you SHOULDN'T put them on?
  17. Thanks for the info. That sounds more appropriate for struts. I will prob get at least one or two more opinions. I have been looking at tires online a little and he seems off about the $1200 for tires too. If I wanted top of the line tires, then maybe I could see 1200 but I've spotted some Nitto NT 555 Extreme Performance tires. Does anyone have and comments about these tires or have any experience with them? Also, any suggestions on tires are welcomed and appreciated!
  18. Alright, so, I took it to the shop and the tech. tells me that the squeaking is a bad strut and a common prob. at around 50-60k. He says that it will still be good for a while but it will squeak when I hit bumps. Then I asked about the vibration and he said it was a bad tire. We put it on a rack and sure enough the tires were worn pretty uneven since I can't rotate them and esp. worn on the inside. So bad, in fact, that one is almost worn to the steel belt. He says struts will run me about $800 installed and tires $1200 intalled. I would love to hear from anyone that knows a good place to find some rubber for a god price, of course. I have 245/40/18's on front and 275/35/18's on rear.
  19. I am beginning to wonder if the ball joint is really the problem. I mean, the more I pay attention to the noise, the more it reminds me of the sound a pogo stick makes which makes that sound because of the spring????? I know the car was lowered with Eibachs not too long ago tho so I don't see how a spring could be going out already. From the reading I have done, it sounds like a ball joint makes more of a clunking/popping noise rather than a squeak but I don't know. I hate trying to pinpoint a suspension problem. :cries:
  20. I think you mean $240=total... but yea, that's cool... I am trying to keep it uder $300 cuz I am getting ready to move and budget is tight. I was curious to know if you noticed any vibration on the highway that might have been due to the ball joint. And if so, did it deminish after you replaced it? Thanks
  21. 120 to replace each ball joint? So, $440=total??? Also, do you think that the bad ball joint(s) could be causing my vibration between 60 and 70 mph or more of an alignment/balancing issue?
  22. thanks for the info. greatly appreciated. If anyone out there has had a similar problem and found a fix, I would love to hear from you too. For now, I will probably start with trying the suggestions listed above. Thanks again.
  23. I have done a ton of searchs and I am pretty sure that I need to replace at least my lower ball joints (I hope that is all) to get this squeaking to stop. I just wanted to check and see what some other people thought as well. I drive a 99 lexus GS400 with 53k on it. I have only owned it since March of this year and I have a feeling the guy that owned it before me drove it harder than your normal grandpa as it was lowered and given bigger/wider rims and an exhaust package was added. Not to mention, I don't drive it like a grandpa by any means. I especially notice the squeaking at low speeds in parking lots even when hitting the smallest of bumps and cracks. It is much more noticeable in colder weather I have noticed as well. A loud squeaking bed is the best I can describe the sound and I only hear it when actaully hitting a cracck or bump in the road. If I am just cruising on a nice smooth road, no noise. Again, I am pretty sure it is ball joints and like I said, I hope just the lower joints. Any coments/confirmation or suggestions are welcomed and greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
  24. Hey, I am glad this topic came up cuz I was thinking of doing this but I didn't have a clue what color to go since my ride is silver. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I am gonna sit down here soon on my vacation and do the grill and the calipers. Again, I would really appreciate some suggestions on color. TIA here is my ride
×
×
  • Create New...

Forums


News


Membership