Suspension FAQ

[snowman2005]

When buying suspension
- You need to figure out is what are you going to do with the car. Daily driver, autox car, race car only, etc.
-how much are you willing to spend.
-what exactly can you or your mechanic do. (You can’t compress a spring without a spring compressor, and most shops will charge you more than you want pay)

So first
You want to lower your car for daily driving
Lowering springs
For daily driving most people will recommend lowering springs. Why? Because if u don’t drop more than 1.75 inches with a moderate spring rate(ex. Eibach pro kit, tein s-tech) you usually don’t need to change your shocks unless they are really old. Altough i would recommend changing them while you have everything off the car. Most lowering springs I have seen are progressive. Meaning they don’t just have 1 spring rate. The top will usually be more compressed than the bottom. This give you a good comfy ride at low speeds but once you start pushing the car, the car handles better.

Slip on coilovers
What about slip on coilovers? Why do you need coilovers? Do you plan on lowering and raising your car every weekend or day? If you do there’s something wrong. If your scared the springs won’t be the drop you want, just do some research and find pictures of cars with lowering springs and see what you like. Coilovers for daily driving usually aren’t the best choice and most slip on coilovers sold, have a higher spring rate than lowering springs which can get uncomfortable. All slip on coilovers ive seen are linear, meaning they have a constant spring rate no matter what, which can make for a harsh ride on uneven roads depending on your spring rate. You will need to upgrade your shocks with slip on coilovers. The spring rates are just too high for your stock shocks and most low end shocks (tokico blues, etc). But I still don’t recommended coilovers for your daily driver.

Full coilover
These are the ones with the coilover and shock all as 1. These are more expensive and over kill for daily driving imo.

Sway bars
These are a good upgrade. You keep your comfy ride and also have better handling while cornering. watch out tough. most stock frames cant handle big swaybars without reinforcement.


Daily driver/autox
Lowering springs
Lowering springs are still an option since they offer both comfort and performance. If you’re going to autox, upgrade your shocks. You could look into a higher spring rate at this point and maybe even upgrade your sway bar/s. Dont go over kill on this since this is still your daily driver.

Slip on Coilovers
At this point you autox but I still think you should stay away from coilovers. If you really want coilovers don’t go cheap. The only coilovers I will ever buy are ground control. Lifetime warrantee I believe and the springs are made by Eibach (awesome quality). They also offer custom spring rates for a really good price. YOU NEED TO UPGRADE YOUR SHOCKS. No matter what. Spring rates from coilovers are just too high for cheap shocks to handle. Ur best bet would probably be ground control/koni yellows. Ground control makes a sleeve made for this shock and this combo is probably the best setup you will ever buy and also the last.

Full coilover.
This is probably the best suspension you’ll buy. Tough I would say gc/koni yellow setup is close to most of these. The shocks were designed to work with the spring rate and you just can’t go wrong. Tough expensive, once again you’ll probably never have to worry about replacing these. You might need to rebuild them after a while but that isn’t too much of a problem. Watch out tough, since your car is still a daily driver don’t go crazy on the spring rates.

Sway bars
Also a good thing to upgrade. Ive seen a lot of people just get rid of the front swaybar and just run a rear one for less understeer.

Race/track cars only.

Lowering springs
At this point you should know what you’re doing. Lowering springs aren’t much of an option anymore since the variety of springs rates isnt very good.

Slip on coilovers.
Plenty of racers have won with the gc/koni suspension and im sure with other setups too. At this point your getting custom spring rates because you know how your car feels with diff setups and you know a lot about suspension geometry. Ride comfort isn’t an issue anymore and all that matters is getting your tires to stick and shave seconds off your lap time.

Full coilover
Same as slip on coilovers. You know what you’re doing.

Side notes:

Higher spring rate does not necessarily mean better handling. A tire gets its most traction when a certain amount of weight is loaded on it.

Sway bars only transfer weight to the wheels when a car sways. That’s why it doesn’t affect ride quality when there’s no body roll.

Ebay coilovers are junk. The spring sags, the sleeves rust and jam and they split sometimes.

Do not go cheap on suspension. It is your life and others your going to be putting in danger when your 20$ coilovers break and u loose control just because u wanted to slam your ride.

Alignment
Every time you lower or raise your car you need to get an alignment. If their so out of specs that it cant be fixed get a camber kit. If you can’t afford one raise your car. Usually a drop less than 1.5 inches should be good but get your toe in specs.

Shocks
Mild drop(0”-1”) and mild spring rate
Tokico blues
Kyb gr-2

Medium drop(0"-2" and/or medium spring rate(aprox.200-400lbs/in)
Kyb agx
Tokico illumina

Low drop(0"-?) and/or high spring rate.
Koni yellows. Do not lowwer past what is recommended

For 96-00 Civics (EJ6-8 and EM1 chassis codes)
96-00 EX - 165F/80R (P/P)
99-00 Si (EM1) - 201F/99.8R (P/P)
97, 00-01 ITR - 250F/250R (L/P)
GS-R - 200F/95R (P/P)

H&R OE - 280F/190R (P/P)
Eibach ProKit - 290F/190R (P/P
H&R Sport - 330F/280R (P/P)
Eibach Sportline - 310F/275R (P/P)
Neuspeed SofSports - 260F/150R (P/P)
Neuspeed Sport - 280F/180R (P/P)
Neuspeed Race - 485F/395R
Skunk Coilovers -old - 400F/300R (L/L), 500F/400R for integra
Skunk2 Coilovers - new - 500F/400r (L/L)
Progress Coilovers - 350F/250R (L/L)
Progress Lowering Springs - 320F/200R (L/L)
Ground Control Coilover - 380F/280R (P/P) (this is the standard kit and the springs are mildly progressive).
Tein RA/RE/RS - 783F/559R (L/L)
Tein HT - 1119F/448R (L/L)
Tein HG - 365F/129-196R (L/P)
Tein SS - 448F/224R
Tein Flex - 504F/280R
Tein S. Tech - 235F/140R
APEX'i WS - 447f/178r
JIC FLT-A2s - USDM - 504F/336R (L/L)
Pm me if u have more or corrections

if you see any mistakes or just want to add anything just post it or pm me and ill add it.daily driving

[SilverY2KCivic]

Looks/sounds good so far, worthy of being a sticky icky!

[BullShifter]

I would add corner weighting in the sleeve & full coilovers sections. Struts are just as important as springs yet hardly mentioned. Not running a sway bar with a larger rear sway on the street is just plain stupid, at least the stock front should be used with poly bushings & shorter end links.

Though, is not tough.

[snowman2005]

what about like a stock del sol rear sway bar?if you dont drive like a maniac u should be ok?i mentined struts and how u need to change them i guess just not y their important(ill add a bit more of that).usualy struts are based on what ur setup is,budget etc. what would u like me to mention about struts tough?
ill add coner weight tonight.

[SilverY2KCivic]

I had less problems with my ITR rear swaybar, than I had when I had the 13mm Si one long ago, snap oversteer wise. I've never had a front swaybar though, but it's now balanced with an H-brace up front. I run a 15mm Del Sol VTEC rear swaybar now after the ITR one ripped out my subframe.

[BullShifter]

The first thing people may want to consider for street use is a matched spring/strut setup, something like a H&R Cup Kit. A comfortable ride is important in a street car and matched kits do just that without the overkill of full coilovers and hassle of adjustments.
I always recommend the best strut you can afford, those are what make the ride. There is no fun in driving a car that you spent money on and now it beats the hell out of you with every bump.

[pimpmcdaddies]

Picking up my 3rd Civic 1.5GTi 1986 tomorrow,old lady owner last 15 years and low miles so expect dampers to be good.Going to use lowering springs.So...Spax or PI?On potn.co.uk the spax springs are cheaper although quality not cost is most inportant.Some low speed comfort would be nice as it will be my daily round the houses smoke.
Also I've got a 91 vtec crx donor car though I understand the suspension is different to my 86 civic.Is there any good bits I should be nicking from the crx apart from the lump (obviously)Thanks for any help...

[eurobeaner]

wow..... umm..... no clue... lump, smoke,?? keep the crx

[evroc52]

[quote=snowman2005] Hello snowman2005, I'm evroc52, I,ve got a 92 honda civic sedan 5spd. with H&R springs & Bilstein HD shocks and it has Neuspeed sway bars (which I thought are for VW only). The ride is garbage! Too rough on bumps at low speed and I tend to bump to the left or right @ low to med. speeds a little. I was thinking of changing to Tokico lowering springs and Tokico Illumina shocks and stock sway bars. I'd love to go 205/40/17 on the rims but on these Beirut-like bumps and potholes in NYC I've already dented my 205/40/16's rims. This is a daily driver, I'm looking for comfort, handling and a decent stance of maybe 1" lower than stock. Maybe I should go with either 195/50/15's or 205/50/15's so I don't dent the rims. Any suggestions?

[BullShifter]

Sway bars don't have ANY affect on the car handling in a straight line. They only affect cornering. So changing those back to stock is a waste. You want handling and comfort? That's hard to get, you have to take the good with the bad. I dont know how much you car is lowered now, but don't lower it more that 1.5" and get some GR2 or HP struts. It's not going to be the best at handling but it will be comfortable.