I am looking to get some springs and I want a very small drop. The H&R site says these drop only .75 inches. Does anyone have these on their car? And if so, is that an accurate measurment for drop or is it more or less than .75 inches?

thanks

 

Yes it's pretty much 3/4 of an inch, although it depends on the car.

 

It'll probably not be a noticable drop. Get some sport springs like the H&R Sport, Neuspeed Sport, Eibach Pro-kit, or Tein S-Tech.

 

I have OE Sports on my 97 Civic and I like them very much. I also have Koni yellows, and a rear swaybar (part of a Suspension Techniques swaybar set). I have the Konis' height set for about a 1" drop from stock, slightly more in front. I also have increased-caster Superpro poly bushings in front, and I swapped the front upper arms, also to increase caster.

Ride is surprisingly good given how stiff the springs are - they must be at least 50% stiffer than Si springs, which I had before.

Don't even think about using factory shocks with any aftermarket spring. Of all the mods I've done, the shocks and the rear swaybar had the most impact. The springs are behind.

I get the feeling that anything stiffer (and they have to be stiffer to go lower), will rapidly degrade ride, with little improvement in handling. I also think that if I wanted to reduce body roll more, bigger swaybars would help with a smaller degradation in ride quality.

 

I have the sports (not OE), that give the 1.5 or 1.8 drop or whatever. I was thinking of going up to the OE sports for a more stock like ride. All the clunking and rattling inside the car from going over bumps gets annoying in a daily driver, so does the stiff ride (maybe i'm just getting old).

Your "50% stiffer than stock" comment is making me reconsider. I'm on koni yellows too, in my civic. Maybe the konis add to the stiffer than stock "bump" feeling (ie. only the rebound is adjustable). But i thought the OE's gave a stock like ride, with the small drop...

d

 

Since these springs are such a small drop, will Tokico HP blue struts be OK. A lot of people are sayin that they cant handle Ground Control springs and such, but I figure they should be just fine for the small drop of the H&R OE sports.

 

96-00 EX - 165F/80R (P/P)
99-00 Si (EM1) - 201F/99.8R (P/P)

H&R OE - 280F/190R (P/P)

Not too bad.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by daver &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have the sports (not OE), that give the 1.5 or 1.8 drop or whatever. I was thinking of going up to the OE sports for a more stock like ride. All the clunking and rattling inside the car from going over bumps gets annoying in a daily driver, so does the stiff ride (maybe i'm just getting old).

Your "50% stiffer than stock" comment is making me reconsider. I'm on koni yellows too, in my civic. Maybe the konis add to the stiffer than stock "bump" feeling (ie. only the rebound is adjustable). But i thought the OE's gave a stock like ride, with the small drop...

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Part of your poor ride is probably your low ride height making you hit the bumpstops. (The other part is the much higher spring rates)

No, Konis do not have stiff bump damping. When I changed from stock HX springs to Si springs + Konis (at 85k miles), the ride quality improved tremendously. When I went from the Si springs to OE Sport springs (kept the Konis), the ride degraded to a bit worse than stock (whose wallowiness was what made it bad)

Konis fairly soft bump damping and have very very good ride/handling balance. My Civic rides a LOT better than a friend's VW with Neuspeed SofSport springs (about same as OE sport) and Bilstein Sports.

The ride character of my Civic is a bit "busy" at low speeds, but smooths out on the freeway. It is very good at absorbing smaller bumps, but has a bit of chop on large bumps (from the spring rates). If I could do things differently, I would have liked slightly lower spring rates, and larger swaybars (I have ST) to control body roll. The Konis do make it have a surprisingly good ride given the spring rates and the resulting handling sharpness. And no, KYB AGX's are nowhere near as good as Koni in ride quality. Having said that, the Konis when turned up to match the OE Sports so there is zero wallow, the ride is a bit too stiff. So I turned it down and get a wee bit of wallow, and the ride is better. I think the Koni yellows' adjustment range is optimal at around the spring rates of the Si springs - damping was just beautiful. However I like how the higher spring rates of the OE Sports makes the car take a set quickly.

The much higher increase in rear spring rate of the OE Sports makes the ride quality a bit stiff for rear passengers, but ask me if I care. It does reduce understeer, but not as much as installing a rear sway bar when there wasn't one before.

BTW I have a set of slightly used Neuspeed SofSports for a 96-00 Civic for sale. I tried them on and found them to be slightly stiffer than the OE Sports so I put the OE Sports back on. I'm that picky.

The car understeers a bit at the limit, but I can pitch the car sideways at a left turn or an offramp if I feel like it :D With ES100 tires it's very controllable. When I had the ST rear swaybar and the stock front swaybar, it oversteered a bit which was fun, but I thought it might get my wife in trouble.

 

IMO Tokicos I've ridden were not as nice as Konis either.

BTW in my turbo miata I have Tein HA coilovers. They seem to be a bit better than Koni yellows, probably because they are valved for high spring rates (2x stock). They better be, given they cost 2x as much as Konis+springs.

My suggestion is: DON'T SKIMP on the shocks. If you're on a budget, get Koni yellows and a rear swaybar. Or if you already have one, get an alignment kit and get a performance alignment (0.5 degrees more negative camber in front than rear).

Disclaimer: I'm assuming you actually want HANDLING, and not just the SLAMMED LOOK

 

Well, its definately not bumpstop bumpy bad. The ride in my car is not bad at all, i just prefer a softer ride for daily driving. Roads here suck

I had asperations of getting into autocrossing with this civic. But i've got my eyes on toyota mr2's now . It makes more sense to me to start with a car that's MADE to handle well, while retaining ride quality. Rather than taking a car with less than optimal handling dynamics, and make it a daily driver comfort nightmare in order to make it handle well.

I don't need it to ride as soft as stock, but i'd like it to be close. Like you, i didn't feel that the springs made the difference in handling, it was my<U> gsr sway bar </U>that made the <U>night and day </U>difference back there. I was actually quite dissapointed how it handled with just the shocks and springs (and no bars). With the bar it can take tight tight corners, but add some throttle and enjoy some plowing understeer (bloody fwd )

I'd have to be careful of putting too big of a sway bar on with too soft springs, because it can cause subframe tearout from too much sway bar twist. I dunno about your setup. ST bars mount differently right?

One other peice of advice for koni yellow buyers. I opted for the neuspeed/sp3 version with the 5 rings for spring perch adjustment. My car would look like a nose heavy dragster if it wasn't for the adjustment (heavier gsr engine).

d

 

Good point on the 5 position Konis. I would've gotten those but I found a used set of regular 3-position ones really cheap. I was able to get my ride height to pretty much where I wanted.

Yup I was careful to watch the rear subframe where the swaybar attaches; I fabbed my own reinforcement out of some bar stock.

If you're looking at the latest gen MR-S's, cool, they handle extremely well, but also consider the 2004 Mazdaspeed miatas (turbocharged) - dealers are letting them go for &lt;$20k, and $300 of exhaust work adds 20 ft-lbs and 20 hp. They are a very very sweet package. If you're looking at an earlier gen MR2 and are on a budget, consider a '94 miata with a Torsen - motor, tranny, and Torsen will all take 12 psi / 220-250 whp all day long with 91 octane. A Tein coilover kit or a retrofit of the rear shock tophats from a '99 will do wonders for the handling on bumpy corners (read: Touge). If you wanna investigate go to http://www.miataforum.com

 

Yep, later gen mr2's. I like the idea of getting a '91 non turbo and dropping in a 3rd gen jdm 3gste turbo engine. Under rated a 245ps, they put down 220-230whp stock. bolt-ons up to 250whp or so, stock reliable. I like the idea of paying the insurance on non-power cars, and adding the power later the '90-92's also had better handling than '93+ ones. I'm sure the miata's handle well too, but mr2's have weight on those back wheels and launch really well. 1.7-1.8 60's.

d