i've been reading about the '06 civic and how honda retained the front struts, but they altered the control arm pickup where the tie rod end connects to the strut. supposedly, the new design is supposed to greatly reduce the bumpsteer and complications of the em and ep models. i also understand they altered the castor for better straight line/braking stability. i'm wondering if it's going to be possible to update the em and particularly the ep front suspensions with this new design. i have seen long '06 civic si threads on other boards (i believe the page count is upto 28 pages here on h-t.com), but haven't had the time to read them.

now, i realize some of the aftermarket threaded body coilovers lower the arm to account fot the extreme angles the tierods sit when the car is lowered. i know those help with bumpsteer. i also know some people have bored out the taper in the control arm on the ep/em struts and mounted the tierods inverted. i would LOVE to get my hands on a pair of the '06 civic si struts and try to retrofit these to my '03 si. i suspect i might need the upper mounts/entire assembly.

has anyone already tried this?

 

I don't see how it will work.

http://www.hondanews.com/CatID...e=asc

You'd have to change everything over, and this is assuming the new chassis and the old chassis has the same mounting points, especially on the top.

 

yes that would answer the question, thanks for the link.

that's the sort of macphereson design i've been more accustomed to working with in previous cars, like mazdas and such. far fewer issues.

 

Yeah, makes you wonder why Honda would not do that in the first place since almost every other Japanese OEM is doing so. What they engineered was a huge screwup IMO.