Tein Basis coilovers on '13 G37S sedan 6spd
 

Last week I installed Tein Basis coilovers on my '13 G37S sedan and it was by far the easiest coilover installation I have done yet. That is mainly due to good engineering by Infiniti/Nissan and good diagrams with suggested ride heights by Tein. It also helps to have a lift and air tools. Compressing the rear springs on the ground would be tricky.

Overall, the ride is excellent on the street. I doubted everyone who said they ride like stock as I have never had a set of coilovers ride anything like stock. The only road I notice any difference in ride is a newer road where the seams are not quite right. It does get a little bouncy, but still much better than any other coilover I have ever had. (I will update with track performance in the spring)

Fit & Finish: This is great as it has been with every Tein product I have had in the past. Everything fits well and is of good quality. This helped make the installation easy, especially with the diagrams and suggested ride heights.

Installation Tips: Do the front first as the rear are easier. Make sure you have a spring compressor to take off the stock front top hats. You will not need to re-use the spring compressor for the coilovers. There is a small steel plate on the front A-arms you can remove so you can just slide out the front shocks instead of disassembling the entire suspension. (Thank you Nissan/Infiniti engineers)

Use a lift with air tools and a tall jack stand to compress the rear spring. Set the rear spring height before installing the spring- they are much easier to adjust off of the car. The nuts for the rear top hats are inside the wheel well instead of in the trunk or behind the rear seats like usual.

Front
https://i62.tinypic.com/2ufd6iv.jpg


Rear
https://i57.tinypic.com/fjzrlw.jpg


I put on the snow tires (painted stock '14 Evo rims) in 240/40/18 and it looks fine as it is two sizes less sidewall on the front. The stock rims and tires make it look slammed with the fat sidewalls. This is at the G37 coupe recommended settings.
https://i58.tinypic.com/2mzmm35.jpg

Thanks for the valuable resource, should be useful for those deciding lowering options. Oh, and don't forget the price, at around $600 it's easy to seal the deal!

Good review, OP. Concise and direct.

I will second your opinion on these coilovers. Brad (blnewt) made their recommendation to me in July, after I spent spring & summer d1cking around with poly spacers over my rear Swift Springs. Finally giving up, I bought these same coilovers. Here's a pic, on my dining room table:

http://www.johnclare.com/pics/cars/tein_basis.jpg

At the moment I have a hybrid combination of suspension parts: Swift Springs and OEM shocks up front, with the Tein Basis Springs/Shocks in the rear. My front Teins are sitting in the corner of my office, awaiting some 2016 install date.

Replacing the rear Swifts for these Tein coilovers in the rear is virtually an identical ride. No added harshness at all, compared to the Swifts... which themselves are only a minor change to the OEM Sport Suspension on the RWD 6MT.

Regarding ride height, my goal was to match rear height to my front, at 26 3/4" floor to fender. These coilovers let you do that, but not much else, I believe I could eek out another 1/4" to a full 27" floor to fender, but that would be it. No more. My rear top seats threads are nearly maxed out.

^^ Literally so clean you could eat off of the coilovers on the dining room table?

Great point! I was just going to get springs, but the full coilovers were not much more. Now I know the springs and dampers are also properly matched and I can fine tune the ride height as well

I am new to coil overs. If I install these does anything else need to be done to the suspension/alignment/etc. Or can I just install these and be done? Thank you!

The lower you go the more camber help you'll need. A mild drop may get by w/ just a rear camber kit, this consists of a rear camber arm & rear toe bolt, or a rear camber bolt/toe bolt combo. The arm/bolt set runs about $160 and the bolt/bolt combo about $50 if you do the install.

Definitely do an alignment too. I have not yet because I imagine I will be switching to snow tires relatively soon. It looks to me like I gained negative camber with the coilovers. Curious to see the alignment specs later...

I forgot to mention where I got these! Not sure how many sets they have left, but this price was a no brainer for me: ZSpeed Performance Nissan Infinti OEM & Performance Parts

blnewt, I think it was you that asked me a while ago to post pics of the suggested heights from Tein on these coilovers. Here you go:

http://i64.tinypic.com/seow76.jpg

http://i65.tinypic.com/208cy6w.jpg

Don't mean to nitpick your post as it is very helpful, but unless you car is different than my '10 G37X sedan there is no need to remove the top hats on the front struts at all. The top hats stay on after you unbolt the 3 mounting nuts from inside the engine bay. I didn't need a spring compressor at anytime when uninstalling the old suspension to installing the coilovers.

Really sucks they don't make these for the AWD cars as I feel like they would sell really well.

I must be reading your post wrong. You say they don't make these for the AWD cars, but you installed them anyway on your AWD sedan?

You do need the top hats for the coilovers as they do not come with top hats. I know the springs are different on the AWD, but you definitely need a spring compressor for the G37S in the front.

Don't even bother with spring compressors if you have air tools...
Wrap the front shock / spring combo tightly with a towel, and just use the impact to undo the top nut. You don't need to worry about holding the shaft or anything. It gives a slight pop when it fully unscrews, but that's it. Takes 10 seconds.

This is the technique, give or take. If you wrap it in a towel, you can put your foot down on the lower end of the strut only and not have to stand on it with both feet (which looks super awkward).

***I am not responsible for anything that happens. You'll poke your eye out, send the whole strut through the wall killing the neighbor's cat, etc etc. Consider yourself warned. :D***

That's a really bad idea! :7: We had someone try that in auto shop class in high school and the spring was under such load that it shot right through the garage door. If someone was standing there, they would have been toast! Fortunately I have access to a shop so I will always use a spring compressor.

You know ratchet straps work well too... Not as safe as a spring compressor but safer than the towel method lol