Honda Lift Kit

Hey guys, I have a 1988 Civic DX sedan and I just replaced my muffler because it had a giant hole in it caused by a speed bump. I am sure many of you have had problems with the incredibly low stock height of the Civic. True many of you want to have a lowered car and I understand that, but how many of you have considered lifting your car?

I have been told that since the car is not sitting on a frame, getting a lift kit for the civic is impossible. But I watch TV, shows like Monster Garage make me think that anything is possible with a little welding.

So my question to anyone who might have already considered this or maybe even done this, is this possible, to lift a civic?

My idea is that I buy larger struts, bigger springs, bigger tires, and a camber adjustment kit.

Here is where I think I will run into a problem, assume I wanted to lift it to Outback height, I think that is approximately 6". This will cause the bottom of the tires to move inward, so I would need to correct it with Negative camber. New question, if I do this, how many degrees would I need to adjust it approximately because the only negative camber kits I have found for my car can do -1.75 max. Do you guys think this will be enough?

Also, am I missing anything here? Would I need to do anything with the sway bar. I know I am asking a lot of questions, but I would appriciate any feedback you guys might have.

Just so I dont get any emails saying "buy a truck" or something like that, I love my civic and I would rather keep it and change it than get a new vehicle.

Thanks
Hirx

You would have to get longer struts, longer springs and new A-arms.....basically you would spend way more money than what its worth. So in other words....Sell it and get a TRUCK.

or keep it and spend 100 bucks for a new exhaust every 6 months or so

lol no doubt

You mean stock height isn't high enough for you? My car is lowered and I never scraped my muffler. Get some shorter exhaust hangers so it hangs higher up.

I honestly cannot believe this thread. My stock height muffler has almost NEVER scraped. I go to downieville every year and drive about 20 miles on unpaved logging roads and have no problems with clearence as long as I take it slow in most places.

You know that crazy part about this is that it's cheaper to raise a truck a half-foot in the air than it is to lower a car 2 inches. FUN FACT: I believe this is a first time for someone posting that they wanted to raise a Honda, theres many threads on here about lowering but only this one on rasing.

i have never scarped bottom once, not even going 50 over speed bumps. And i noticed that in my car the front sits lower then the back does.

Even sitting lowered ive never hit my muffler, scraped the pipe once going down a driveway slope...but never hit my POS turbo muffler...


gunnmen01

ill back ya up!

ive scraped my car loads of times on speed bumps. especially when full of people. and mine isnt lowered either.


what ya could do is get a honda hrv and somehow weld the suspension set up, and 4wd drive system from that into a civic. that would be awesome.

has anyone ever rallyed civics? cause they would likely had raised suspension for the offroad sections of the rallies.

unfortunately i cant answer any of your questions seriously.

get a set of coil over adjustable struts, front and rear camber kit, larger tyres. I think that might do it for you. It shoud give you at least three inches in either direction. but do your research on the coil overs, you might want to look at some rally applications. My brother in-law did this to his Subaru Impreza Sport Wagon. I don't know what brand of coil overs he has tho. Just shop around.

Here's my 2 centz:

I figure that either you were really jammin' when you hit that speed bump, or your exhaust just hangs too low...

Certain exhausts like the OBX (I think) hangs pretty damn low... has a pretty big canister, and I've heard of people banging those up pretty good. So I don't know what kind of exhaust you've got, but it may be worth getting something else, or like FourthGenHatch said, try and find some shorter rubber hangers for the exhaust.

My car is lowered a little bit (1.5 inches) and I've never had a problem scraping except for driving up my parents driveway when I go to visit them, it's just really steep and flat at the bottom.

I have...or I should say had a stock muffler on my car, and the one I have now came off of an 88 LX, and it even appears to hang a bit lower. As for how fast I was going over the speed bump... its more like how slow... my front end made it over alright just scraping the mud guards, but the back end just couldnt handle it and I heard a big pop and all of the sudden it sounded like I had a performance exhaust pipe.

I liked the idea about ralleying the civic. That would be my ultimate goal if I was able to lift it. Has anyone else considered that or know of anyone who might have tried that?

Also does anyone know what this might cost me? I am just a poor student trying to work my way through school.

Thanks for all the replys btw.

Hirx

I've experienced some scraping too. Maybe it's just the sedans and the extra foot of length they got over the hatches. My mud flaps scrap over speed bumps almost every time.
Now my cars been lowered 3/4" and I drive it hard ( too hard for the level of stock components on it)., but I still scrape the muds on tight corners and on speed bumps. Never scraped or killed my muffler though, sorry Hirx.

Shoot... My muffler scraps like a biaaaaaa. No matter how slow or how fast I go, it still scraps. Its gotten to the point where my muffler has now relocated itself and been raised up from being hit so many times. I have to pull that down now... Either its just me, or the stock muffler of an lx sedan just hangs xtremely low.

if you really need to raise your exhaust, you can go to the hard ware store and get hose clamps. Put them around the rubber hangers and tighten them. it will raise the exhaust. I had to do that with my APEXi WS cat back system. It was just too heavy for the stock rubber hangers.
They started to streach after a while. Now I have no problems at all.

GEEZE!!!:eek: What Kind of a speed bump was this? Are you sure that you didn't run over something?!:bonghitte