Hey I was just wondering If The KYB AGX Adjustable shocks are good shocks. I have these installed from a previous owner, To me there alright on the road, but i havnt tracked the car yet… waiting for the summer. My friend who works at a High-End Performance shop tells me these shocks are garbage…I just want your Opinions.
I had them in my talon… mated with eibach sportlines, car handled like a dream and rode very well. i’m sure someone will disagree and say they are shit, but thats my experience
i had my KYB AGX paired with h&r springs, they were awesome but i upgraded to coils for the track…
They would do you well on the track until you start getting into very competitive drifting where consistence is needed.
The only reason for you really to upgrade is if you see some coils for a good price which you can find from time to time on here.
AGX’s area great shock / strut to use.
i had them a while back and sometimes i wish i still had them… certainly they are a better long term decision over lower end coilovers for a daily driven street car.
My dad runs KYB AGX’s on his Mustang GT, it’s a noticable difference from stock.
Maybe your mechanic had a bad experience with KYB, which is entirely possible?
why run kyb’s when u can run my tein coilovers for nearly the same price
pm for some info
Well I know if it were me… I’d rather have damping control vs height control. Then 2ndly the AGX setup would be much better for the road as Bing pointed out… did you not wonder why Jay sold them like right after buying them 
coilovers are great, but if i had a daily driven 240sx that i didnt feel like getting underneath to replace dampers and tend to other issues all the time i would get a decent spring shock combo.
but hey, that could just be because most of my experience is with D2’s and they suck balls.
I don’t know why anyone would say AGX are garbage…there is a debate as to whether or not they can handle a big 2" drop from certian springs like Sportlines…but they are a great decently priced adjustable shock. Far from garbage imo.
I currently have them installed with sportlines… should I be worried? (has anyone had a bad experience with this combo?)
BTW: great product for daily use.
AGX, like the Koni yellows and Tokico Illumina’s are a single stage load zone system so they can be lowered without worry. (However you do need a bump stop, if the valve bottoms out on the base of the stanchion tube then it’s ruined. )OEM for standard passenger cars use a dual zone system a comfort zone made for small bumps and normal road vibration… and a hard ride zone to soak up the big hits… if you go to low in a dual zone system ( which is usually 1.5-1.7" ), then yes you can pop a seal or blow the valving control system out.
With the introduction of the active dampening systems as OEM required parts, this is all going to be moot in the near future…
I have AGX’s on my S13 paired with Tein S-Techs. They are great for spirited street drivers. Nice ride that is not going to jar your spine on the streets of TO if thats where you live.
My S14 has Coils but it is a track car primarily that I drive on the streets. It rides a bit stiffer, but like Bobby said, it is more predictable in the corners.
I daily drove and tracked a shock/spring combo of KYB AGX (4-way adjustable front, 8-way adjustable rear) and Canuck Motorsports springs… throughout april of 2006, up until now…
i’ve street driven and tracked them - beat the HELL out of them (ask anyone who might know me), and they’ve treaded me like a king; you can’t go wrong with AGX.
Damn… guys thats good to hear, You all know your stuff. Now since were on the topic… This Car in the summer is going to be tracked and im pretty much doing nothing but suspension/ Handling. Now I know most of you are drift guys and I enjoy it too, but This car is ment to be gripping, and experiencing some serious G forces too. I dont know what the pervious owner combo’ed with the AGX. But there not stiff enough, I mean… there not bad for day driving, I can sit on the front near one strut or push it down as hard as i can it will hardly move down, but sometimes when im takin hard corners on these garbage tires I have on, there is noticable body roll. When I get the my “better” strut bars on" and Anti-roll, camber and slap on the Azenis RT-615s, Its going to grip better and roll much more. I need stiffer springs… Any recommendations.
well there is always RSR race springs, they are very stiff (forget the exact spring rate) compared to springs such as the sportlines. Although i have heard that AGX’s cannot handel the stiffness of of the RSR’s so you may want to look into that before hand.
Eibach Pro-kit seems to be the spring of choice for AGX. Stiffer than the Sportlines with less of a drop.
I’ve got AGX’s on my I30, and I love the adjustability. Stiff vs stiffer when needed. I’ve only had good experience with AGX, but I’ve never jumped to coils.
That is the setup I had on my S13 in 2005… AGX/Pro-Kit and I loved it. Car handled extremely well and was a huge improvement over stock. I never got a chance to track the car with them but I assumed they would have worked just fine.
Fantastic from what I’ve heard… they seem to be the standard when it comes to aftermarket shocks. Would they yeild a gain when used with stock springs?? I need to keep a decent ride height.
^^^^^
Yes.
Springs control the ride height and firmness. Shocks control the oscillation.
Better dampening is going to be noticeable with or without aftermarket springs, but the handling won’t be changed that much.
If the car is exhibiting body roll, it’s the springs, not the struts.
Typically, this is because “lowering springs” are wound to be 20% stiffer than stock, but drop the car 1.75-2.5"
What always blows my mind, is why people bother? If your stock springs are 200 lb/in, and you upgrade to 240 lb/in, how big of a difference can you expect?
Custom springs can be wound in any configuration, and any spring rate. And if you sniff around and do some leg work (Google won’t help you now) you may find the 240SX shares some spring diameters with Stock Cars. Oh yeah, custom race springs are usually about $50 a pair.
When I had a group buy of custom springs from Canuck made for the S12, we had them made in 400lb front, 325 rears, 3" drop front, 2.75" rear - for $150 cdn, delivered. And they were beautiful.
Your car weighs more than you do, so the difference between you trying to compress the spring, and 3,000 lbs of S14 trying to compress the spring along with gravity is pretty huge.
If you’re experiencing body roll, there’s a few things you should rule out first.
How’s your driving? Be honest, late, hard steering inputs, and picking a bad line puts a lot more stress on your suspension.
How are your tires? Sidewall flex can feel a lot like body roll, and only exaggerates the roll.
Is this an S14 by any chance? If you’re lucky enough to have a rear swaybar-less car, you’re going to get some interesting handling characteristics.
As for KYB, they rate their lower-line non-adjustable GR2 for up to a 2" drop.
Now, for your summer ahead …
Tein, as the word is finally coming across in North America … not such a great company. Good branding and cute logo though.
If you’re about to start “trying” tracking and drifting, stick with the springs and shocks. You’ll learn a lot more by maxing out what your car is equipped with, than jumping to coilovers.
Also, if your car is going to see 98% street duty and some track days on the weekend, you’re way better off without coilovers.
And no, not just because your tush will thank you.
Coilovers, like r-compound street tires are not designed with longevity in mind. You may get a full season of driving out of them before the dampeners will need to be serviced. If you’re buying them used, they might already be blown. I can’t tell you how many people have come to MSSC with second hand (and really good name brand - Cusco, Silk Road, KEI, etc) coilovers installed that one, two or in some cases all 4 dampers are shot.
Now that “great deal” $800 set of coilovers will cost them $2,000 to even put into service.
Race-bred parts will require much more attention and maintenance. OEM aftermarket parts are made to last, and are usually quite inexpensive to replace.