B18C5-EH2

I apologize for mirroring a thread I originally posted in the Suspension/Brakes forum, but I'm not getting the type of traction on the issue as I'd hoped. I know auto-Xers have tried a million different set-ups in a ton of different bodies, so I'll run it out here and see what you guys think.

I own a 1990 civic wagon lowered quite a bit from it's stock skyjacker status:



EIGHT years ago I lowered it on Eibach coilovers, and had more than -3.5 degrees of rear camber. This was my daily driver, and I wanted something more reasonable in the range of -1.0 or at worst -1.5 degrees of rear camber. At the time I worked at a shop, and we had a laser alignment rack, and I was doing all of the alignment settings myself. I'd successfully aligned countless lowered civics that needed to wear tires evenly above all else, so I had experience doing this stuff.

So I used longer grade eight bolts and alignment shims to space the upper arms (this was eight years ago, before everyone and their mom offered adjustable upper camber arms, and it was free) away from the body to achieve the -1.0 degrees of rear camber I was after. Then a new problem popped up:

I could not get my toe even REMOTELY in spec because I ran out of adjustment slot with the stock toe links.

... so I swapped those out for SPC adjustable toe links. So now I was able to get the desired .08 rear toe, -1.0 rear camber, but a NEW problem arose:

My RTA stock RTA bushings were stressed hard, and tore. I ordered hard rubber fixed-ear mount RTA bushings, but now due to the RTAs being brought "in" by the SPC toe links I could not even get close to getting the RTA bushing ear holes to line up to bolt them on. So I needed a solution, and fast.

I ended up installing poly RTA bushings (I know!) with floating mounting ear piece, and this is where the entire sus issues got strange. Keep in mind I never got to drive this thing once I corrected the camber, so I'm not entirely sure what the forthcoming issue is...I'm only guessing it's the RTA bushings i ended up with eventually.

After getting the front end sorted via Skunk2 upper arms, etc. the alignment was all good. Took the car for a test drive, and nothing major popped up. Upon driving the car home at higher speeds, and taking corners I noticed that the back of the car just felt scary loose, and as if when turning it was always trying to "catch up" to the front of the car. Admittedly the Eibachs are shitty soft for the car to begin with, but with such a lowered ride height (195-50-15s and sitting almost flush with fender arches at top of tire) it handled pretty wishy washy out back. I only drove surface streets to/from work, and never really got on the interstate because my wife's car was designated for that.

So I just lived with it for a long time, and my wagon got parked for about three years due to a minor rear collision caused by a trucker. Long story, but I finally got my car back this year after fighting with insurance, etc.

I got an alignment done the first week of having my car back, and the toe settings are dead on, and the camber is still the desired -1.5 front, -1.0 rear. I've been driving it for a few months and the brand new tires are wearing perfectly.

NOW my commute changed to mostly highway miles I have decided this MUST be fixed. It's damn scary trying to change lanes at 85mph with the *** end feeling like it's am compass/floaty/not on the same page as the front of the car. I knew the soft-*** rates had to go, so I decided to remedy that first.

So the first thing I've done is swap out the coilovers for AMRs with much stiffer springs. They are now 650F/750R and it has made a HUGE difference in handling, and the *** end issue doesn't seem to be as extreme. It's not handling as sure-footed, and predictable as my 1992 hatch did on 425F/550R though, and I can't help but wonder if it's solely the poly trailing arm bushings causing bump steer, or if the rear geometry has been fucked up with the toe links, camber correction, etc.

So my thoughts were to try and either get a GOOD flaoting mounting ear style RTA bushing set, or possibly the MPC drop arms, and hopefully be able to raise shock body/extend to regain those two inches back, and hence be able to remove the camber shims, then adjust the toe with a more factory-like end length for toe arms, and then be able to go back to fixed-ear RTA bushings.

I can tell you guys that the car didn't drive so shitty in the *** end until the whole camber/toe/RTA bushing floating poly swaps. I'm not trying to just remove camber shims, run -3.5 rear camber, and destroy tires on my 90 mile a DAY commutes. I currently wear tires absolutely perfectly even.

So what are your thoughts, suspension gurus? It's a lot to process.

90civichbsi

iTrader: (1)

Are you running .08 toe out in the rear? Are you on stock sway bars?

I run even toe in the rear, but my spring rates are higher in the front than rear. Have you tried setting slight toe in to see how that changes things?

I used the Poly RTA bushings for years and recently went back to hardrace rubber. Where your old rubber bushings clocked for your ride height? That's another reason they wear so much quicker.