The Mista Mike

I'm getting ready to make a big purchase at once and that makes me nervous since I don't have the room to screw up with money. So, I need your all's help in deciding what I need for my car.

Setup: EJ7 - 98 Civic HX daily driver built for street already slammed
Weather: Can be snowy, so I need a good all-season performance tire

What I've got to go on so far:
I think I'm going with H&R Sport springs. 1.75" drop in the front, 1.5" in the rear. They seem to be good quality and I've heard good things so far.
OE shocks, for now, if they aren't shot. Don't have the money to replace them yet.
Um... camber kit. Do I even need it? Right now the car is slammed hard and the tires have some major neg. camber, which has led to some uneven tire wear and bad traction. This will correct when I raise it back up, right? Or is this permanent damage? You can see that the drop is under 2 inches, so if the damage isn't permanent, will it even need a camber kit? If so, I'm liking the Omni kits.
Tires... this is where I have no idea. I live in Lexington, Kentucky where we've been known to have 2 feet of snow one winter and nothing the next. I wanna play it safe here as I will be doing a lot of driving this winter but I don't want to go with a dedicated winter tire. I've looked at Sumitomo's but they don't seem to have the snow traction that I'm looking for. I wanna go at least H rated for speed, though.

Now, I realize I'm picky, but I need some advice on this stuff. Help me out here and keep in mind that I'm on a budget of around $600 for all of this. Thanks a bunch.

The Mista Mike

OK... did some more looking around and I'm really liking the Falken Ziex ZE-512's in a 195/60/R14. I can get them for $212 shipped from discounttiredirect.com

EDIT: Found them at vulcan for like $172 shipped for 4 but they only have 3...


Modified by Mistamike17 at 5:17 PM 10/16/2004

JDMallTHEway

Camber will fix itself when you raise the car back up. The Falken Ziexs are good tires, also check out bfgoodrich traction t/as.

If you are going to have your car lowered at all, I suggest getting the camber kit. If you're gonna do something, do it right.

MikeD718

i had the Falken Ziex's and i lowered my EK 1.8 in. all around w/o a camber kit blew them around 3k mi. later. got skunk 2 camber kit and kumho ecsta ASX. i like them there, good all weather too. i live in cincy so i know how the snow situation is. hope that helps.

The Mista Mike

That's where I'm originally from... well NoKY, anyway. So everyone says with a 1.75" drop I should go with a camber kit?

JDMallTHEway

yes.

hey, I'm powered by financial aid too!

The Mista Mike

Financial aid is such a wonderful thing...

Back to topic...
Camber kit is a go... need brands
Tires are now set... Falken ZE Ziex-512 195/60/R14
Springs I'm still wondering about... what do people thing about H&R Sport springs? What about other cheap brands? Megan Racing? Or even Tein's.

Targa250R

Have you ever had your car on an alignment rack? Just curious . . . I'm going to assume "no."

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mistamike17 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">all-season performance tire</TD></TR></TABLE>
Isn't that an oxymoron?

JDMallTHEway

H&r is good, I prefer ground control or eibach personally.

On camber kits, I wouldn't be worried to much about brand. Honestly, for that little of a drop, most places taht do alignments (i.e. ears, tire kingdom etc.) can install an adjustable ball joint and rear shim kits to correct the camber, this will be a hell of alot cheaper (even with the labor) than buying whatever brand camber kit. be sure you get an alignment after you have this stuff installed.

The Mista Mike

I can buy the adjustable ball joint camber. What's going to be the major difference in the A-arm and the ball joint kits besides the obvious physical differences?

Oh, I haven't had it on a rack. I just got the car not too long ago back in June, so I haven't played with it too awfully much.


Modified by Mistamike17 at 10:55 PM 10/16/2004

The Mista Mike

Tires are ordered... Falken Ziex ZE-512's 195/60/14. I got vulcan's last two and the other two from edgeracing.com, which actually had a cheaper price... dammit. Camber kit is still up in the air. I need suggestions, what are you running? And springs are ready to be ordered... H&R Sport.

JDMallTHEway

Othere thatn the physical differences not too much, I think with the A-arm you need one on left and one on right, withe the ball joint, you just need it one one side to correct camber for the both, at least thats the case with my car. And also, theres price. the balljoint is bout $110 installed, while the A-arm camber kits are around $110 for just the kit.

The Mista Mike

What kind of ball joint kit do you have and how would it work if it's just on one side?

JDMallTHEway

Ihave no clue. It's just what they installed at sears when I got my alignment.

The Mista Mike

Interesting, what'd they do for the back?

JDMallTHEway

shim kits

The Mista Mike

Alright, I'm confused. I've got people saying to get the camber kit but when I search the topic and look at the results, I find something different. Other people say that anything below 1.8" needs a camber kit and I'm not going anything below that. They said that camber +/- 1.5 degrees is within stock specs on a Civic and to just go get a 4 wheel alignment and have the toe set to 0. So, someone give me a second opinion on this stuff. I wanna hear both sides, please...

Targa250R

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mistamike17 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Alright, I'm confused. I've got people saying to get the camber kit but when I search the topic and look at the results, I find something different. Other people say that anything below 1.8" needs a camber kit and I'm not going anything below that. They said that camber +/- 1.5 degrees is within stock specs on a Civic and to just go get a 4 wheel alignment and have the toe set to 0. So, someone give me a second opinion on this stuff. I wanna hear both sides, please...</TD></TR></TABLE>
This is what I was going to tell you, but I was hoping you'd search and find it for yourself instead because I am sick of repeating myself in every thread.

Have the toe set to the center of factory specs and you will not experience significant (if any) tire wear due to the negative camber.

I never understood why people lowered their cars, then bought camber kits to set it back to zero. Negative camber is good for handling, and one of the main purposes of lowering a double wishbone Honda is to gain more negative camber. And no, camber does not wear tires NEARLY as much as toe. You get toe-out when you lower a double wishbone Honda, and this is what causes tires to destroy themselves quickly from the inside edge out. I suppose people do it for drag racing, so that the tire contacts the ground equally all the way across . . . but how many people here drive all-out single-purpose drag cars every day on the street? I figure most people want a well-rounded car for a daily-driver, not a drag car . . .

Sorry, I don't mean to rant. What you do with your car is up to you.

MikeD718

I put eibach sportlines on mine w/ skunk 2 a-arms in the front and adjustable upper control arms in the rear. i havent seen ANY uneven wear on my tires.

JDMallTHEway

You need the camber kit (or adjustable balljoint/shim lit) for any car that is lowered below .5-1". WIthout it, you cannot get a proper alignment. bad alignment = poor tire wear.

The Mista Mike

STOP THE MADNESS!!! Someone that is not either JDMallTHEway or Targa250R help me out on this one. I've searched and found one thing, but other people are saying different things. Someone help me make up my mind. I want even tire wear and I want my tires to last at least 20000 miles. Money is tight, so I don't want to shell out anything more than i need to.

Let's hear experience here.

JDMallTHEway

by the way I'm a former sears tire tech, so i know what I'm talking about. Why don't you go to an alignment place and ask the tech what he thinks.

Targa250R

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDMallTHEway &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">by the way I'm a former sears tire tech, so i know what I'm talking about. Why don't you go to an alignment place and ask the tech what he thinks.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Because the majority of alignment techs also don't know what they're talking about. B18C5-EH2 could probably elaborate on that . . .

FF lotus

Neuspeed race springs made by eibach and a big o tire laser alignment 3 weeks later

JDMallTHEway

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Targa250R &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Because the majority of alignment techs also don't know what they're talking about. B18C5-EH2 could probably elaborate on that . . .</TD></TR></TABLE>

Ok, I will give you that much.