I have a 92 civic cx with stock type-r struts and ground control springs. Right now the the front spring rates are 500lbs and the rear is 950lbs. The car is pretty oversteer happy, I want to balance the car out better and was wondering what you guys think would be the best spring rates? For a little more information the car weighs 2130lbs w/out driver.

 

Are you serious? Your honestly running 500 and almost 1000lb springs on stock shocks? car must handle like ****. Get some race valved koni's for those ground controls. You must be bouncing everywhere on those under dampened shocks, they are probably blown and you dont even know it.

 

actually it's weird cause the car handles pretty well. I don't think the shocks are blown, i've taken a look at them myself and they seem alright but the car is bouncy when i'm on track and has alot of lift off oversteer.

 

oh and btw this is how I got the car so don't flame me.

 

I can vouch for the suspension. Its stiff as fawk for the street and handles great. The car doesn't bounce much. My K-sports where a lot worse than his set-up.

 

stiff as fawk does not equal good.

You're running double the spring in the rear with no damper control at all!

Get some better shocks and lower your rear rates down to 450-550 for now...good lawdy

 

Yep, without replacing those shocks you're not gonna go anywhere as an improvement. Drive someone's car that has something proven (and better) and you'll see. And K-sports don't count

Beyond that, having a 450lb difference front to rear is pretty friggin' significant. You'll want to decrease the F/R difference by quite a bit. I think the most I've seen that was ok was like 250lb, with 150-200lb being more common.

Edit: I'm speaking in generalizations here. Swaybars, ride height, alignment, blah blah blah will all have an effect on things. You need to address the current craptacular situation before worrying about all that though.

 

You might want to either go up to 700 or so on the front (which I would advise) or go down to 700 on the back....depending on what you want the car to feel like, and remember, the shocks are there to control the spring and the unsprung weight..... the sping is the there to control the sprung weight so if you don't have control of the sping...you don't have control of anything. Go out and buy the best shocks you can afford....the race konis are a good choice and are adjustable. If you are rich mf (which I assume you aren't) go with something that triple adjustable such as moton, penske, jrz. They will offer you the best spring and thus car control you can buy.

 

ok, well here is how my car is setup right now: Stock Type-R shocks w/ ground control springs F:500lbs R:950lbs, No sway bars, front traction bar, and front and rear Type-R control arms.

I have a type-r rear sway bar sitting in my garage, never put it in though cause the car is already tail happy.

 

Get some Koni race valved shocks for those spring rates. Slap on that rear sway bar with a subframe brace.

 

you don't think the car would be even more oversteer happy by adding the sway bar? Cause when on track or autox I actually use lift off oversteer to my advantage since it's so easy to induce it.

 

Raising the front spring rate will bring the car back towards neutral. The swaybar will help keep the whole thing flat. FWIW, I'm using 975lb rear springs (and 850lb front springs) and a stock ITR rear sway. It's a little tail-happy, but not nearly as much as some other cars I've ridden in.

 

I have to shadow Made in OC comments.
Stock shocks aren't meant to take those progressive spring rates.
Race valved Koni's and some ground controls are a sure bet.

BTW I know he wasn't flaming you.. It was more of a disbelief that you are running high spring rates and stock shocks.

Best advice is to add on to the car slowly.. Not every gadget makes the car better.
There is a lot of trial and error. Seat time (lots of it) is the only way to know what works for you.


Modified by dirty19 at 8:06 PM 10/23/2008

 

thanks for all the great info guys, much appreciated. One other question, if i wanted to stick with the type-r shocks cause i'm broke and can't afford koni yellows at the moment, what spring rates would you guys recommend?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by champwhiteEG6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">thanks for all the great info guys, much appreciated. One other question, if i wanted to stick with the type-r shocks cause i'm broke and can't afford koni yellows at the moment, what spring rates would you guys recommend?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Stock spring rates. Assuming the shocks haven't already failed.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by solo-x &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> X-2

Stock spring rates. Assuming the shocks haven't already failed.</TD></TR></TABLE>