okay i have this setup. and when i lower the car to have no gap..my ride is crappy and i have to set the stiffness to 4. i love the apperance and handling but the ride is crappy and bouncey..so is there any suspension setup out there for a reasonable price that would get me that drop i wanted and also that comfort and handling

 

ground control=

 

i have the same set up.. when you go low on it handling is crappy.. maybe due to camber being off..

i used to have koni yellow with neuspeed springs.. lot better ride!! they blew (bad road here) and i got my ill/gc setup for $200 with 1000 miles on them.. when these go i would not go back

 

You all thought they sucked because you're illumina's are a poor combination for the high spring rate of the Ground control coils.

You needed a lower spring rate (i think tokico's compression rate is just about 300, where as the ground controls spring rates are up around 500, which would require a revalved Koni Yellow to match them.)

I am grabbing the limited edition low spring rate ground controls that they have available for my KYB AGX shocks. ground control > *

 

Off the shelf Koni Yellows are valved for up to 550 lb/in. If you want to run higher you need to have them revalved.

Honestly, you guys know that when you lower a car you're also taking away suspension travel right? At some point you'll get low enough that you're riding on the bump stops in the shocks. When that happens, you're basically bottomed out. If you have weakish springs, you'll be pounding the crap out of your shocks until they break. GC sells new top hats that'll give you up to a 1.5" of additional suspension travel by moving the top of the shock shaft up 1.5".

Stock GC spring rates at in the mid 300 lbs/in range. That's not particularly stiff though it's about 100 lbs stiffer then stock. I run 550F/350R and while the ride is stiff, it's not punishing. I don't have any problems with bottoming out. I do have the GC top hats in the back, up front they won't clear my strut bar.

 

sorry to thread jack.. but i have a question. i have neuspeed springs running on stock shocks (bought the car like this) and i wanna get new shocks. what's one with a good spring rate to match neuspeed (yellow springs)?

 

I'd think any decent shock would work. Lowering springs tend to be only marginally stiffer than stock.

 

i currently have ground controls also but i dont know what the spring rate on them is or what shocks would be a good combo for them. was thinking about using a set of kyb agx's.

 

Well, you want shocks that match the coilovers. They aren't all the same. GC has several different styles depending on the shock design.

 

i have the set for 92-00 civic. i figured just get a shock for the same year range and i should be fine. i wanted to go with the kyb agx because of the dampening adjustment option on it.

 

I have ground control/Illuminas on my EF Si and the Tokico RAK kit on my EG and both ride very comfortable except of course when you hit a pothole (there's no getting around that). The EF is lowered about 1.75 inches and the EG is lowered 1.5 inches with extended shock hats. If you lower the car too much, it's going to ride like **** no matter what you have on there. But you don't care cuz you're just doing it for the look. If you had shorter shock bodies valved to match the springs, and the springs were appropriate for the amount of drop to reduce bottoming out, that would be ideal. But the difference in ride quality is going to be very small and I have yet to see an affordably priced street brand with shorter shock bodies or extended hats. Don't even mention Omni or the Omni knock offs cuz those have proven to be pure ****.

 

Are you ridding on your bump stops...
if so... no matter what springs and shocks you run, your car will ride like crap

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by USDMej1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ground control= </TD></TR></TABLE>

you fail

 

Ground controls are great coil-over sleeves, tokico illuminas are great shocks...
It's not advised to use high rate springs (ie: &gt;500lbs/in) on illuminas
nor is it advised to have your car SLAMMED to the ground.

Both will cause your car to ride like chit


Personally I used to have illuminas on nuespeed sports and I love them
'
Great street setup.

Now I run on GC/Koni,

 

i got the illumnia/gc setup off the shelf rates its really nice at some times i really enjoy driving it cuz of the way it handles but then some days its just effin annoying go figure you get what you pay for.

 

where can i get extended top hats for my tokico illuminas? Will I have to get a realignment??

Mike

 

Top hat's won't affect alignment. The coilover just hold the car up, unlike real struts, they don't affect alignment (well not if you keep stock ride height).

 

you can get the top hats from ground control.

http://www.ground-control-store.com/index.php

anytime you remove any part of the suspension and reinstall it you should check the alignment.